ARTIST INSPIRED BY DORA CREEK

Internationally acclaimed fibre artist Judy Hooworth uses her local environment around Dora Creek as the inspiration for her third exhibition at Newcastle’s Timeless Textiles Gallery in November.

Documenting walks along the creek with photographs and drawings, watching the birds and generally ambling about ‘Down the Creek’ has been integral to Hooworth’s life and artistic practice for the last 14 years. She draws on this resource for the quilts in this latest exhibition.

“I’m fascinated by patterns, light on water, trees and branches, grasses and leaves, the changing colours and moods created by variations in the weather, day by day” she said.

Her quilts have a strong linear element as a design focus. She taps in to her emotional responses to the environment to create personal marks on the cloth.

“Over the last few years I’ve experimented with various techniques as a means of further self-expression,” Hooworth explains. “Discharging cloth with bleach, painting and drawing with brushes, pencils, crayons and even plant material from my garden, overpainting, deconstructed screen printing and intensive stitching are evident in the work.”

Working spontaneously as much as she can in creating the cloth, Hooworth enjoys the process of collage, and rearranging pieces of fabric to make abstract compositions. In contrast to her large quilts, she will show small intimate works incorporating discharged fabrics, photographic images and embroidery.

The Down the Creek exhibition will be opened by Louise Berry on Thursday, 9 November. It will run from 8 November to 3 December.