The Umbrella Artists...

I'm Heather Tilley and work mainly in textiles now. I trained as a painter at Bath Academy of Art, Corsham and after a year at Reading University studying for a PGCE/ATD, began teaching. Painting, print-making, sculpture, design, art history 'A' level, and I also ran classes in Adult Education, including life drawing. After taking early retirement, I experimented with collage and improved my ceramic skills, but after a two-day course in silk painting, followed by one in machine embroidery, I became hooked on textiles! Most of my work is based on drawings or my processed photos, and is designed with specific techniques and materials in mind; often layered with net, scraps of lace or painted glues. Starting points include weavings which I overprint, stitch into, or applique. I enjoy soldering fabrics and using a hot-air gun, rather than traditional skills such as hand stitching. I have chosen a diverse range of subjects for my work, from climate change to Cubism, ruined buildings to Russian Orthodox churches, and incorporate patterns when I can, deriving from folk motifs or natural sources like moth wings or pebbles. I like adding text to images and the fragmentation of images which sums up life today. Often just experimenting with images on Photoshop or playing about with pieces of fabric and threads reminding me of a landscape or townscape can lead to one or more finished works. My website http://www.textillia.co.uk/ includes some of the work I am doing currently making for a City and Guilds Professional Diploma, and lists exhibitions I am working towards every year. I also undertake commissions, nationally and now internationally; details on my website.

http://www.textillia.co.uk/