14 September 2024
When we welcomed Anne Kelly to our meeting on 14 September, I don’t think any of us were prepared for her prolific output!
Where does Anne Kelly get her energy? She finds time not only for her distinctive stitched work, but she also writes books, gives talks, runs workshops and exhibits her work extensively as well as undertaking commissions. And we are not just talking about the UK – Anne travels around the world with the same enthusiasm.
Growing up in Canada, Anne was influenced by her grandmother’s love of stitching. She trained in fine art, print and photography in Canada and moved to the UK in the early 1980s, attending Goldsmiths College.
She became interested in combining stitch with paper, maps, photographs (even sweet wrappers and tickets) as well as textiles, later developing her fascinating ‘netting’ style that sets her apart from other textile and mixed media artists. This involves a network of machine stitches (she favours overlocking thread) over much of her work, then also often adding more appliqué and hand-stitching on top.
When she started out, Anne took much of her inspiration from nature, leading to a collaboration with Cas Holmes and the publication of Connected Cloth in 2013. Her first solo book, Textile Nature, was published three years later, an obvious progression, developing her work with nature in the forefront of her mind.
As her designs developed, she found herself drawn to folk art which, as she says, is a simplified look at the world, though often with the same themes of plants, animals and birds. Textile Folk Art was published in 2018, taking inspiration from around the world. As Anne says, everyone has their own version of folk art.
Just two years later Textile Travels was published, and then Textile Portraits in 2023, which was shortlisted for the Creative Book Awards’ Best Selling Book 2024. She told us yet another book is in the pipeline, Abstract Textiles, which will be ready for 2025.
With work in galleries around the world, in private and public collections, and even in churches and hospitals, we were still amazed by the amazing body of work Anne brought with her and we were delighted to see some of her 3D works – suitcases, boxes, a doll, a bird. As she told us, she loves to cover things – even covering a doll’s house, which sadly she couldn’t bring, but the pictures were lovely!
Anne was generous with her hints and tips, and more are promised at her workshop for the group at the beginning of October. For those who struggle with ‘where to start’, perhaps one of her most helpful hints was to ‘narrow it down’. She suggested taking an object – a glove, an apron, a luggage tag, for example – and developing small pieces. Some of these might later find themselves incorporated into larger works of art.
Thank you Anne, you’ve inspired us all!
written by Nancy Shafee
In the afternoon we did an appliqué workshop led by Sue Barrow and Yvonne.
It was a most enjoyable afternoon. We started by showing examples of appliqué we had previously done.
Some of the work was outstanding.
The three appliqué techniques we looked at were: Reverse, Needle Turn and Shadow.
We all happily spent the afternoon hand sewing with the help from Yvonne and Sue.
