’Honouring the past; Creating the future’

“An exhibition of contemporary art and art textiles by the group ‘Viewpoints’, inspired by the heritage textiles in the Quilt Associations collection.

The group were lucky enough to be granted access to a selection of the heritage textiles, in the Welsh Quilt Associations collection, based at the Minerva Arts Centre in Llanidloes. These proved a rich source of inspiration, which seemed infused with the creativity and innovation of our Welsh stitching ancestors. The resulting exhibition is a vibrant and diverse collection of textile art, which beautifully illustrates the link between old and new, and pays homage to those who came before”

The founder and mentor of this group is Hilary Beattie, she teaches online from her home in Newport Wales, and has done so for many years with success. I have been a student of hers for many years now, and I attribute her for most of the skills I possess today as a textile artist. One of Hilary’s popular courses is called ‘Make it personal’, MIP, and that is key for what you can expect to learn from Hilary, finding your own style and doing it in your own way.

With my chosen quilt from the collection I now have created 10 works of art, and they will all take part in the exhibition. + One more, three of us have created a quilt with our national flower and in Denmark it’s the Marguerite, so I have made a quilt called the Marguerite Route, which also will be on show in the exhibition.

It’s been an exciting and interesting experience for me working this way with my art, and very satisfying to discover my artistic style showing through in the process. I don’t usually use flower images in my work, but it just seemed very natural to have them in here in this series, and the process has definitely widened my creative horizon.

The practical part of the process was to find elements in your chosen quilt and work with those, through the various techniques we’ve been taught throughout the class, and making materials for our art work. This experience is something I will cherish and carry with me in my future artistic growth.