Module 6 - Chapter 12 - Study Three Artists

Jae Maries

Jae is a free-lance artist and tutor, and a member of the 62 Group. She has a BA Hons in Fine Art, and a Diploma in Creative Embroidery. She exhibits internationally, and has work in several public collections.

Her work explores the relationship between people and their environment, and more recently interprets her own personal environment, through paint and stitch.

Her preliminary work is mostly done in visual diaries, through symbolic and abstracted mark making, which is then translated into larger series of art works. She enjoys the challenge of combining oil paint with stitched textiles and relishes the contrast between the hands-on, sensual quality of working with fabrics and threads, and the thrill and spontaneity of brush marks.

Barbara Lee Smith

Barbara in an American Mixed Media artist, living in the Pacific North West where she is surrounded by grand and subtle beauty, which has encouraged her to work with the landscape. She 'works from within', reflecting the way she sees nature, and makes visible her emotional response to what she sees, feels and remembers.

Barbara uses a sketchbook as a journal. Along with her sketches, it includes lists of 'what if's?' , ideas, quotes, photo's and things to try. She also uses her sketchbook to record samples of paints, pigments and different technical experiments.

Barbara uses Lutrador as a base for painting and spraying acrylics and silk paints. She layers the Lutrador to form a heavy base where she continues her process by collaging small elements of the same painted material, which are heat fused together to bind and further stiffen the material. She describes her work process as cut, melt, burn, tear, sew, mend and colour.

Once the composition is complete, she then uses an industrial sewing machine to stitch lines to represent a topographic or navigational map that literally and visually ties the various layers of paint and collage together. She stitches from the back to introduce an element of surprise to her work, and also because she uses a rayon thread in the bobbin that introduces a sheen to the surface of the work. This thread would not be strong enough to use in the top of the machine.

Barbara is an honorary member of the Embroiderers Guild.

Sandra Meech

Sandra is originally from Canada, but now lives and works in the UK.

Her work is inspired by nature and a 'sense of place'. Global warming and the effects of Climate Change on forests and trees as well as in the polar regions, has been seen in many series of works over the years.

Sketchbooks, and collage composition of photographs and painted papers are a great influence on how her work evolves, and photography and transferring images onto cloth are a feature of most of her textile work.

Her recent work is based on 20 years of Arctic and Antarctic inspiration, using her passion for ice, icebergs, and glaciers as a creative theme. Her 'Polar Melts' stitch studies use orange thread to reflect the melting ice caused by Climate Change.