Pet Portraits (birds and animals) with Anne Kelly

Sunday 9th March 2025 - new date 2025

10:00-4:00

Adult workshop

(but GCSE and A-Level students are very welcome to join in. It will be a great skills workshop for those taking art)

WORKSHOP:

Anne is a cat lady, and definitely understands how attached and connected people can be to their animals. It’s such an enjoyable process to make portraits and record memories of life with your pet. So in this workshop guided by Anne, you will be designing and making a unique piece of work to celebrate or remember a special animal in your life. It could be a pet, or even a garden bird that frequents your bird feeder every day.

Using a photograph as a starting point, you will design a fabric collaged version with background and surroundings. Anne will help you to make fabric, composition and colour choices to create a really memorable piece of textile art. Hand and machine stitching will form part of the workshop and you will try to incorporate as many well-loved treasures from your collections as possible into this new piece. Beth can provide fabrics, buttons and beads etc, but to connect you will need to look through your stash for pieces of fabric that matter to make this a really personal collage.

Artist / Maker / Tutor:

Anne is an award-winning textile artist, author and tutor based in the UK, exhibiting and teaching internationally. She received a Fine Art degree in Canada and was awarded two consecutive Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grants to travel to the UK, continuing her studies at Goldsmiths College in London.

Her five books for Batsford represent her project and collaborative work. Anne’s heavily embroidered fabric collages are reminiscent of tapestry work and her signature stitching technique is applied to a variety of surfaces. She uses mixed media and print to further embellish her work. Anne ‘s work is represented in private and public collections in the UK and abroad.

Anne says: I love to honour and repurpose old textiles, using hand and machine embroidery, vintage thread and string to add texture and character. My work has been described as 'small worlds' trapping and preserving pieces of embroidery and objects within it. I use a ‘netting- like’ machine embroidery stitch over the whole surface of the work. I further embellish with hand stitching and couching using a variety of media.’

Her major solo exhibition at Ruthin Craft Centre in 2021 ‘Well Travelled’, was described by ‘Embroidery’ magazine as ‘a delight to behold’. This exhibition toured to the Harley Foundation Gallery in Welbeck. She has had solo and two person exhibitions in France, the Czech Republic, Australia and Canada. She is listed in the Crafts Council Directory, and a member of the Embroiders’ Guild UK, the European Textile Network and the Society for Embroidered Work.

What is included in the ticket price?

All equipment and materials that you need for the workshop are included. Some people like to bring extra bits and pieces but the studio is packed with all sorts of inspirational art materials, fabrics and threads that you may access.

Tea, coffee, biscuits and cake! Lots of cake!!

Where will the workshops take place?

In Beth’s inspirational studio at Insole Court, Cardiff. CF5 2LN