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Carol Naylor

~ Contemporary textiles, making, exploring and communicating ideas

Carol Naylor

Tag Archives: textiles

New works exhibited in 2021

29 Wednesday Sep 2021

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Commissions, Drawings, Embroiderers Guild UK, Exhibitions, galleries, Inspirations, Processes, stitched textiles, teaching, Textile Art, UK textile artists

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drawing, embroidery, exhibitions, landscape, south downs, textiles, thread

Having a theme to work to is always a challenge I enjoy. With an exhibition called Alchemy postponed from last year, I was able to make more embroideries on the ideas I started in 2020. I found old threads and embedded fragments of gold leather and fibres, often catching them down over a layer of machine embroidery, to add to the depth. The first 3 pieces shown were made for “Alchemy” with local contemporary art group Artel, and the second exhibition called Excellence was with the Society of Designer Craftsmen. I’ve chosen to show two of 6 works exhibited there. All these works took on their own characteristics and are now for sale, so do please message me if interested.

All are mounted on canvas boxes in whitewood frames to 43cm square. Both exhibitions were at the Oxmarket Gallery in Chichester, UK

1 ) All that Glitters – ideas adapted from the landscape of the South Downs “Alchemy“

2) and 3) on the left Nightfall and on the right The Promise of Spring, inspired by observing the sky and landscape at different times of the day

The Second exhibition Excellence with the Society of Designer Craftsmen , 2 of 6 pieces shown again using the landscape of the Downs

Twilight

Silver Light

Spanish Studies

02 Friday Sep 2016

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Drawings, Inspirations, Spain, stitched textiles, Textile Art

≈ 7 Comments

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Art, Cantabria, Castilla, Cepeda, Covarrubias, drawing, Isla, landscape, Sepulveda, Spain, stitch, sunshine, textiles, thread

Four weeks away from home in our favourite Spanish haunts gives plenty of time for drawing, absorbing and thinking about art. Each area we visit has its own charms, from the sierra south of Salamanca, to Sepulveda and Covarrubias, both stunning  little medieval towns, and finally to Isla in Cantabria in the north. Here are a few drawings that might simply act as my visual diary, or could lead to further work on stitching on my sewing machine. I have 35 years of sketch books in my studio. Maybe in my next post I will revisit some of those.

Las Batuecas, parque nacional de la Sierra de Francia

Las Batuecas002

Sepulveda

Sepulveda001

The road from Santo Domingo de Silos to Covarrubias

Road from Santo Domingo001

and our favourite beach in Isla in Cantabria

Isla beach001

Art in Action 2016

07 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Exhibitions, Inspirations, Spain, stitched textiles, Textile Art

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Art in Action, embroidery, exhibitions, landscape, Oxfordshire, south downs, Spain, stitch, textiles, thread, Waterperry House

I am really lucky to be demonstrating and exhibiting at what is going to be the very last Art in Action at Waterperry, in Oxfordshire from July 13th-17th. This extraordinary event was started 40 years ago and has gone from strength to strength. It is surely the best of its kind in the UK and will be sorely missed. Where else can you see hundreds of artists working in every media imaginable, showing you how they create their work, alongside concerts, performances and lectures all held in the stunning grounds at Waterperry. So if you havent got a ticket and can make it come along and see it, its your last chance! You can even watch a flamenco performance this year! So if you come along you will find me in the textiles Demonstrators Marquee working on my sewing machine!

I’ve been busy making new pieces all year, from small portfolio ones to a range of stitched and framed canvases. Here are two of the smaller pieces.

“An Abundance of Poppies” 12cm x 15cm aprox (South Downs UK)

An Abundance of Poppies small

“Amber Glow” 11cm x  14 cm approx (Spanish memories)

Amber Glow

News Update June 2016

18 Saturday Jun 2016

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Drawings, magazine articles, Spain, Textile Art

≈ 4 Comments

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Art, drawing, embroidery, exhibitions, landscape, lavender fields, Spain, stitch, Textile Fibre Forum magazine, textiles

It’s been a busy few weeks for me with some great promotion. Firstly my first spread in an Australian magazine, TFF (Textile Fibre Forum) #122 June 16, which shows the way in which my work has changed and progressed over 40 years of making and exhibiting, and then a piece from the wonderful Diana Springall collection of contemporary embroidery was featured and discussed on “MAKE! Craft Britain”, an hour long programme presented by Martha Kearney, on mainstream UK TV BBC4 June 9th 2016. This foray into the world of stitching set about de-bunking the theory that embroidery is craft  rather than art, and Diana eloquently explained why  Britain is still at the fore of embroidery. From the mid 1950s art schools taught  embroidery students alongside the painters and sculptors. Students had to draw, and had to acquire the same skills as well as heir own technical expertise, and I was lucky enough to study at Goldsmiths Art School in the mid-late 60s in this way. Drawing has been fundamental to my own personal progress in textile art, and I have all my sketchbooks since 1980 in my studio, a permanent  reference library, as well as a visual diary.

Here is Spanish Lavender, the piece featured on the TV progamme, 43cm x53cm approx.Spanish Lavender DS collection

and here one of my many drawings Drawing Castille 2

and another

Cepeda drawing001

www.textileartist.org

19 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Inspirations, Processes, stitched textiles, Textile Art

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Art, drawing with threads, embroidery, landscape, poppies, south downs, stitch, textiles

The owners of this terrific website have started producing ebooks for sale. This is such a good idea, bringing the world of contemporary textiles to a wide audience at very affordable prices. I am delighted to say that I have a chapter in their most recent book, A Response to Landscape. This includes some fabulous work by other artists so well worth taking a look. I’ve now created a new PAGE here on my blog called http://www.textileartist.org which has links to several books including the aforementioned one. Do take a look.

In the meantime here are some of the images of mine that you can see. I talk about the way in which landscape has been a major influence on my life and my work. Both these images are based on the South Downs where I live. A summers day catching glimpses of poppies in the distance, and the Downs near Goodwood, which I see as soon as I start to travel north out of my home town Chichester

CN Where poppies bloom

downs near Goodwood

Petworth Revisited

04 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Commissions, Drawings, Embroiderers Guild UK, Exhibitions, galleries, Inspirations, stitched textiles, Textile Art

≈ 4 Comments

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Art, Embroiderers Guild, embroidery, exhibitions, landscape, Petworth House, textiles

I wrote about my work for the Capability Brown Festival in my last entry, explaining how Petworth House in West Sussex was my inspiration, but this was not the first time I had used this beautiful venue for my work. Back in 1997 I relinquished my  post as principal lecturer in the Fine Art department at Chichester University in order to free lance and concentrate purely on making my own work. This was a pretty scary step at the time, waking up each day with no timetable and no commitments other than going ot my studio to stitch! I began to apply for anything that looked possible for textile art, and saw a Festival of Craftmanship advertised. This was being organised by the Surrey Guild with Crafts Council support. Nothing venture, nothing gained, they wanted applications for commissioned pieces. I had  carried out a commission for St Richards hospital in Chichester earlier in 1997, and this had been the catalyst that made me stop teaching. The brief for the commissions was to make work inspired by Petworth as the festival was to be held there in 1998. I was delighted when my ideas and designs were accepted.

As you will see from the images that follow, my work was completely different nearly 20 years ago! At that point architecture was the theme I had been working with, so the house provided me with wonderful starting points. I made a diptych (approx 55cm x 130 cm) each panel for the commission, and made several more pieces that explored architectural features in Chichester and Petworth. I don’t have really good photos of the work, but I think the following gives a clear idea. Here is the diptych where you can see the architectural features of the house and gardens, followed by a detail.

Petworth hanging

Petworth detail small copy

 

drawings of building features Petworth drawing 4 copyPetworth urn 2

and finally one of the other embroideries I made which I still have at home! September Haze, Petworth, 76cm x 60cm approx

Petworth, September copy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brighton Art Fair 2014

21 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Exhibitions, Inspirations, Processes, stitched textiles, Textile Art

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Art, Brighton Art Fair, drawing with threads, embroidery, exhibitions, galleries, landscape, south downs, textiles, thread

I’m busy preparing my work for Brighton Art Fair which takes place from September 26th-28th. For non UK readers of this blog, Brighton is situated on the south coast, a really lively and historic town centre.  I shall be showing the Skyfall series, some of which have featured in earlier posts here, as well as smaller, more intimate pieces. I like to contrast detailed, impressionistic works with larger more gestural pieces. As most of the other exhibitors will be showing painting and printmaking, I’ll be one of a handful of textile artists. Here are a couple of images for you. The first is a smaller piece that measures approximately 20cm square mounted onto a canvas and in a box frame to make the overall dimensions 33cm square. The second image is a detail of the sky from Skyfall 1, a windy day on the Downs

Hints of Lavender001EPSON scanner image

Lavender Fields

10 Wednesday Sep 2014

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Commissions, Inspirations, Processes, Textile Art

≈ 6 Comments

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Art, embroidery, private commission, stitch, textiles, thread

I’ve been working on a series of small images inspired by a visit to our local lavender farm in West Sussex, as well as using ideas observed on my travels in France and Spain. I build line over line in different blues, purples, greens, trying to suggest my experiences rather than copy what I see. The techniques I employ in this and all my works incorporate cable stitch, where heavy threads are put in the bobbin. I turn over and stitch on the reverse side, so that the top thread couches the heavy thread on the right side. This allows me to use a really wide variety of rayon, metallic and woollen mixes that would otherwise be inpossible to stitch. Here’s a piece that was commissioned by a client, called ” Shades of Blue and Lavender”

Shades of blue and lavender

This is a follow up piece called “Where the Lavender Grows”

Where the Lavender grows001

And here is a detail of the stitching

Where the Lavender detail

Thomas Hardy and the sea

01 Tuesday Jul 2014

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Drawings, Inspirations, poetry, stitched textiles, Textile Art

≈ 1 Comment

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Art, Charmouth Bay, drawing, Oddicombe Bay, stitch, textiles, Thomas Hardy

My last post was about the way in which the poetry of Robert Frost had influenced my approach to making textiles. This entry shows you a few ideas and pieces that have come from other sources. “Oh the opal and the sapphire of that wandering western sea” These words are from “On Beeny Cliff” by Thomas Hardy. I actually studied him many years ago at school and this poem and its description of sea, cliff, love and life never left me. The sea has always played a part in my life, living by or near it, watching its moods and colours, crossing it, drawing it.

The following textiles are from a series I made a few years ago. The little drawings are from a visit to Cromer in Norfolk (eastern UK) last week. My sketchbook always goes with me, it is my diary and I never know whether I will use my drawings or whether they simply serve as a reminder of places visited and observed.

Charmouth Bay 2008 (found a home in Ireland!)

Charmouth Bay-C Naylor

Oddicombe Bay 2008, currently on view at Primavera Gallery, Cambridge. A departure in terms of colour for me, inspired by the amazing red cliffs and sands there.

Naylor C Oddicombe Bay

Little seascape, Cromer, Norfolk, 2014

Cromer002

Cromer, seascape,rain in the air 2014

Cromer001

Robert Frost influences

21 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by carolnaylortextiles in Exhibitions, Inspirations, poetry, stitched textiles, Textile Art

≈ 2 Comments

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Art, embroidery, exhibitions, landscape, Robert Frost, Spain, stitch, textiles, thread

With the Chichester Art Trail over, a number of works have found new homes, which is always gratifying! In particular a favourite piece of mine called  “Sierra 1” went to a new customer. It was one of four pieces I made inspired by the poem “Nothing Gold can Stay” by the wonderful Robert Frost. An image follows with images of Sierra 2 and 4 as well. I was trying to look at the way in which the light changes throughout the day, altering the way in which we perceive colour, which is so beautifully expressed in this poem.I havent reproduced the poem here as I’m not sure about copyright! Sierra 1 is about early morning, and the other three pieces looked at different times of the day. Read the poem and you’ll see what I mean. Poetry and songs have helped me formulate ideas on a number of occasions. Thomas Hardy is another, and even titles from Joan Baez songs have found their way into my visual repertoire! I’ll save those for another post!

Here is Sierra 1, early morning in central Spain, the source of so much personal inspiration

Sierra_edited-1

Sierra 2, as the golden light turns to green

Sierra 2

 

Sierra 4, morning light revisited

Sierra 1V

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