Flights of discovery: Nicola Henley

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.

Find out more about Nicola

Textile Artist, Nicola Henley trained at Goldsmiths College, London specializing in print and embroidery. She has built an international reputation for her large-scale works, which are inspired by bird flight and movement and how it relates to the natural environment of the landscape of Ireland where she lives.