Little Yellow Vertical III, 2019
Contained Box (Soft Oblong) Black and Black with Gold Interior, 2018
Jo Barker originally trained at Edinburgh College of Art, and works from her studio in Edinburgh whilst teaching as a lecturer at The Glasgow School of Art. Her initial abstract designs are collaged together on a computer from a combination of hand painted, drawn and inky marks. Colours are arranged in blocks, pools and smudges in overlapping layers. Employing this flowing way of designing is in complete contrast to the slow and intensive process of weaving. Wool, cotton and embroidery threads each have differing colour qualities. Combined, they offer a richness and depth of hue that continues to enchant, along with tapestry’s unique sensibility of surface texture and material construction.
‘A love of working with my hands: drawing, painting and making things; plus a long-term interest in colour are essentially at the heart of what I do. My compositions employ a range of marks, shapes and patterns which have evolved over a number of years, with recurring themes of ellipses, circles, halos; borders, edges and layers, creating a sense of movement and depth of field enhanced by reactions of particular colour combinations. The finished images are consciously abstract and ambiguous. I want to create a sense of something as opposed to an identifiable object or picture.’ – Jo Barker, 2017.
Public Collections include:
V&A, London; The House of Lords, London; National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh; Aberdeen Art Gallery; Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle; Scottish Executive, Edinburgh
Sara Brennan originally studied tapestry at Edinburgh College of Art. Her work is an unspoken response to the landscape. Using a refined and reduced approach to colour and form, her work takes two routes; weaving either from her drawings or reacting and responding in smaller works to yarns as they are placed directly next to each other. Sara Brennan obsessively explores the meetings that occur through the surface quality and by a manipulation and an exploitation of the line. She has exhibited internationally and her work is held in numerous public collections.
‘I work from a series of drawings and paintings, often repeatedly exploring the translation of a surface or mark into tapestry. I also work as a direct response to the reaction and relationship between yarns, with a disciplined and restrained approach to colour, tone and form. Choosing each yarn is as important to me and the tapestry as making the original drawing. The yarn must work to help balance and convey the feel and mood. It is vital in the interpretation of the drawing, bringing the tapestry to life…’ – Sara Brennan, 2017.
Public Collections include:
Aberdeen City Art Gallery and Museums; HBOS Headquarters, Edinburgh; Scottish Parliament Building, Edinburgh; Shipley Art Gallery
Sara Brennan’s work featured in A Considered Place -The Edit in February 2020.
Originally from Perth, Susan Mowatt studied Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art, before completing her Master of Fine Art in Tapestry. After graduating she worked in the Fränkische Gobelin-Manufaktur in Bavaria and later in the Victorian Tapestry Workshop in Melbourne, Australia, as an invited Weaver on the Federation Tapestry. Susan is currently Programme Director of Intermedia at Edinburgh College of Art. Interested in the act of weaving itself, Susan’s work has included live performances of weaving and unweaving in a gallery space (during a solo show at GalleryGallery, Kyoto, 2012) and an exploration of weaving through other media including drawing and moving image.
Exhibiting both nationally and internationally, Susan has been the recipient of numerous awards and most recently won The Cordis Prize for Tapestry in 2016.
‘Weaving for me is thinking: a place where the past, present and future come together in one action. For some time, I have been weaving and unweaving lines, placing the emphasis on the process rather than the end product. Sometimes the lines are reused in works and at other times they just unravel, allowing the yarn to return to the bobbin. This ancient process continues to inform the way I see things: everything woven together.’ – Susan Mowatt, 2017
Susan Mowatt’s work featured in A Considered Place – The Edit in February 2020.
Andrea lives and works in Edinburgh and set up her studio in 2005 following the completion of a degree in fine art, and postgraduate study in glass, at Edinburgh College of Art. She has since received invaluable support from the Crafts Council (UK) and Creative Scotland, enabling the continued creative development of her practice that pushes the boundaries of her chosen materials – ceramics and glass. A significant contribution to her practice has been the award of residencies including the ‘Artist Into Industry Residency’ through the British Ceramics Biennial – a project with the ‘Minton’ brand based at the Wedgwood ceramics factory in Stoke-on-Trent (UK), which facilitated learning directly from master craftsmen, and allowed privileged access to historical archives. This opportunity continues to influence her practice to the present day. Andrea has established a growing exhibition profile in the UK and internationally. Her work has been shortlisted for the British Ceramics Biennial Award on three occasions, purchased for major public collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum and National Museums Scotland, and in 2017 was one of twelve finalists in the BBC Radio 4/V&A/Crafts Council ‘Woman’s Hour Craft Prize’. Andrea was also shortlisted for the LOEWE Craft Prize 2019.
‘My work is an exploration of the box and vessel form, through which I am interested in ideas of containment, materiality, preciousness and value. Working with glass in combination with fine bone china, I seek to celebrate their shared material qualities including purity and translucency and am influenced by their alchemic nature and rich historical associations. Contained Boxes are my most recent series of work. In each piece the vessel is kiln cast in glass, forming an individual vitrine, which cradles a small ceramic box within. Intimate in scale, the work embraces tactile investigation due to it’s form, size and proportion and evokes a response akin to jewellery, eliciting the desire to hold and to cherish. Each single work in this series results in an entirely unique study of interior and exterior, their direct relationship, and captures a subtle, timeless presence. The opacity of the container can conceal, or if translucent can veil, the contained box held within, which is revealed only when the viewer is drawn closely to look inside from above. Therefore the display of these pieces is integral to the work, where differences and relationships between the pieces can be experienced, and yet where they are also afforded the space to breathe.’ – Andrea Walsh, 2018.
Andrea presented her first solo exhibition at The Scottish Gallery in May 2018 and her work featured in A Considered Place – The Edit in February 2020.