Media Release about this fibre art exhibition coming soon.

Watch this space.

Spirits of the Sky soar in new exhibition

The movement of birds in the environment is hauntingly captured in Spirits of the Sky, a new exhibition opening at Newcastle’s Timeless Textiles Gallery in February.

Artist Nicola Henley drew inspiration for the soaring images in her Spirits of the Sky exhibition from studying birds and their flight, with particular reference to the sky, air currents and changing light in different locations.

Many of the exhibition pieces derive from time she spent at an artists’ retreat, Cill Rialaig in County Kerry, Ireland. The converted crofters’ cottages are perched on the edge of a rocky, heather-covered peninsular, which juts out into the Atlantic sea, offering unique artists’ studios where sky and sea meet.

“This wild setting offered me time to sketch the ever-present gulls, soaring over a wide stretch of the Atlantic, backed by the rugged landscape,” Nicola said. “The area has a humbling and majestic beauty. When I’m there I reflect on the spiritual life of the ancient monks who spent periods in the early centuries, living in extreme, isolated conditions on the nearby Skellig Islands, which dominate the horizon as they rise dramatically out of the sea, eight miles off shore.”

The works in Spirits of the Sky were also influenced by Nicola’s visits to Dublin’s National Gallery, to study William Turner’s watercolours.

“His mastery of colour and brush marks, suggesting the changing light over seascapes and mountains, fill me with inspiration,” she said. “Attempting to create these textures with dyes and pigments on fabric is a challenge!”

Nicola has effectively captured Turner’s sense of scale and freedom with hints of detail by repeatedly printing, painting and stitching the surface, washing, steaming and ironing, to build multiple subtle layers, representing birds moving in their natural environment…like Spirits of the Sky.

Spirits of the Sky exhibitions runs from 15 February until 12 March, with the opening at 6-8pm on 16 February.

Birds inspire soaring SHORELINES exhibition.

The wild and beautiful coastline around the village of Laurieton on the NSW mid-north coast inspired an uplifting exhibition by Irish-based textile artist Nicola Henley opening at Newcastle’s Timeless Textiles Gallery in February.

“Coming from Ireland, the scale and expanse, intensity of colour and variety of what I saw rolled over me like a wave,” Henley said. “I tried to make some sense if it by drawing and collecting images, capturing some of the aspects of what was affecting me.”

The resulting Shorelines exhibition depicts birds and their movement, with particular emphasis on the dynamics of their spacial relationship within the natural landscape.Henley’s works draw our attention to the delicate balance of nature and to connections between ourselves and the environment.

“Being immersed in such a powerful new landscape I focused, as always, on the birds, and tried to depict the way in which they fitted into the environment, like actors in a vast stage of natural beauty,” she explains. “My focus was on where sky meets land, sea meets sky and land meets sea.”

These sketches and studies later led to larger works in textiles, created by Henley back in her studio in Ireland.

“Trying to hold on to the essence of Laurieton from my drawings throughout the following year, I have created a body of work that represents these memories and their lingering effect on me as an artist. They are pieces that evoke for me the intense moments of observation, my connection with place and nature. I hope that they can give something of this to the viewer in this exhibition.”

In Shorelines, the artist uses a broad range of techniques from dyeing, screen-printing and painting with pigments onto cotton calico, and then collaging the surface using both hand and machine stitch. The change of scale, from bold printing and painting to the intimacy of close stitching, helps to convey the contrasting elements of near detail within the vast open spaces of the surrounding environment.

Nicola Henley completed a degree in Fine Art Textiles at Goldsmith’s College, London in 1984. She has worked as a textile artist since then, exhibiting widely in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Japan, Australia and the USA. Born in Bristol, England she moved to County Clare, Ireland in 1991 to set up a studio and continue working on large-scale textile art pieces.

She completed a short residency in Laurieton last year and is currently in Australia for the solo Shorelines exhibition at Timeless Textiles, Newcastle.

Shorelines opens at 6-8pm on 19 February 2015 and continues until 15 March 2015.

Food meets fibre in Taste of Textiles exhibition.

Taste of Textiles, is being launched Saturday 12th December 2014, at Newcastle’s Timeless Textiles Gallery, which celebrates a passion for humble and exotic, seasonal food and the rich textures of fibre arts.

Taste of Textiles exhibition brings together work from 20 fibre artists from around the world displaying their passion for textile art, cooking and growing food. This creative venture will appeal to everyone with a love of food and a flair for the creative. Artists contributing to Taste of Textiles include Nicola Henley, Marjolein Dallinga, Polly Stirling, Sylvia Watt, Glenys Mann, Judy Hooworth and Meredith Woolnough to name a few.

The contributing artists have represented a variety of vivid produce in their works, including the humble potato, mulberries, beetroot, saffron and rose petals. Each has created a visual narrative based on and inspired by their love for that particular produce.

Inspired by the artists’ passion, local cook Bev Whitehead has created and tested simple recipes to mirror the artworks. These include lemon myrtle spelt shortbread, chilli jelly, fig affogato, pomegranate with rosewater jelly with Persian Fairy Floss.

A limited edition boxed set containing stunning images of the both the final dishes and the artwork that inspired them, beautifully captured by local photographer Garrick Muntz is also available at the opening.

Opening: by Janet De Boer at 2pm, Saturday, 13 Decemberand continues until 23 December 2014.

Birds inspire artist’s flights of discovery.

The intricate and beautiful textiles by Irish textile artist Nicola Henley, on display in a new exhibition opening soon at Timeless Textiles, combine an amazing array of techniques, from dying, painting, and screen-printing to surface texturing with various materials stitched into the cloth.

The UK-born artist’s work is inspired by studying birds in flight in the natural environment in the west of Ireland. The works on display in the exhibition, Flights of Discovery, encompass dramatic changes of scale, from bold printing and painting to the intimacy of close stitching, which sets the foreground detail within the open space of a landscape or seascape.

Trained at Goldsmiths College, London in 1984, Henley moved to Ireland in 1991 and now lives and works in County Clare. She has exhibited and lectured widely in the UK, USA, Japan, Ireland and Scotland. Her work is represented in the Crafts Council Collection, Embroiders’ Guild, Kyoto Museum of Modern Art, Gallery Pousse, Tokyo, British Rail, Microsoft Ireland and numerous private collections.

The Flights of Discoveryexhibition will be opened from 6-8pm on Thursday, 21 February and will run until 17 March 2013.