{"id":713,"date":"2020-03-02T18:43:54","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T18:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.wordpress.com\/?p=713"},"modified":"2021-05-19T15:20:21","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T15:20:21","slug":"artists-interview-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/2020\/03\/02\/artists-interview-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Artists Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Just a reminder that each week we will feature a different TSG member, so if you haven’t seen our first two interviews, scroll down to read Si\u00e2n <\/span>Martin and Mandy Pattullo’s response. This week our conversation is\u00a0 with Penny Burnfield\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/h6>\n
Penny Burnfield\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h6>\n

Sometimes it is good to change direction.\u00a0 <\/span>The Insights Project has made me\u00a0 <\/span>review my work and has led to new ideas.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently my art work has had its origin in outside sources: for example, an exhibition in a museum of clothing, the title of a proposed show, or a curator\u2019s brief.\u00a0 <\/span>I have enjoyed this approach, it has challenged me and has broadened my artistic practice.\u00a0 <\/span>But I wondered how my work might evolve if the title, brief or venue was entirely my personal choice.<\/span><\/p>\n

My twin passions are art and gardening.\u00a0 <\/span>I have the good fortune to live in the Hampshire countryside – 50 years ago I moved, with my husband, into a small cottage with an acre attached.\u00a0 <\/span>The house was nearly derelict, and the land was a jungle of weeds and household rubbish. Gradually it has developed into a garden and now it is open to the public with the National Gardens Scheme.\u00a0 <\/span>It is a very long-term work-in-progress.<\/span><\/p>\n

My very first piece of embroidery designed by myself, was a picture of my garden, but that was 40 years ago. Since then I have avoided using the garden as source material, although it is a popular subject for textile artists.\u00a0 <\/span>Perhaps that very popularity was the cause of my anxiety – how could I find my own voice?<\/span><\/p>\n

It takes me time to see a way forward.\u00a0 <\/span>I gather ideas in a note book, a sort of brainstorming – this takes the place of a sketchbook. Slowly my thoughts coalesce. I spent time in the garden, absorbing the \u2018spirit of the place\u2019, and made a collection of things I found there, both natural and man-made.\u00a0 <\/span>These, together countless old samples and scraps, have developed into a series of collages and assemblages, which give me further inspiration.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a saying that the way to make better art is to keep making art – I just needed to \u2018just go for it\u2019.\u00a0 <\/span>I wanted to capture the feelings and emotions evoked by the garden – and the way to find my voice was to see what emerged.<\/span><\/p>\n

My starting point was to look at what was already in my studio, and see what I could do with it.\u00a0 <\/span>I had a bag full of silk organza, space-dyed in shades of green and brown, which I had used as a background for an installation in a Biology Museum.\u00a0 <\/span>I also had a large cardboard box full of green yarns and a collection of brightly coloured silk threads<\/span><\/p>\n

I experimented with overlapping the pieces of organza and stitching them together.\u00a0 <\/span>They looked beautiful with light shining through.\u00a0 <\/span>I found that the stitching needed to be minimal and long strips of fabric with an irregular lower edge worked well.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m attempting to capture the tranquility of the morning light, but it will need something more – just a little bright colour to set again the green?<\/span><\/p>\n

And in the past I have enjoyed making free-form tapestry weaving. I have used the box of yarn to make a small square using a wide variety of embroidery and knitting yarns.\u00a0 <\/span>There is a gap left in the weaving – for something more exuberant to spill out perhaps?\u00a0 <\/span>I am working on how to do this\u00a0 <\/span>– making samples – whilst continuing to collect ideas in my notebook and to make collages. <\/span><\/p>\n

This is an exciting change of direction for me.\u00a0 <\/span>Bringing my two passions together will hopefully <\/span>enrich both.\u00a0 <\/span>I am looking forward to seeing what develops.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Collage using handmade papers with onion skins and Phormium tenax root<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just a reminder that each week we will feature a different TSG member, so if you haven’t seen our first two interviews, scroll down to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1083,"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions\/1083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}