I also encourage readers to remember none of the techniques presented in the book are meant to stand alone. Instead, I suggest ways to experiment and combine the various techniques. In my own practice, I’ll often work into surfaces with a wash of colour (paint or dye) and then work layers on top with printing techniques. This also applies to commissioned pieces. Sometimes just sitting and taking in what is around me (often with a sketchbook in hand) gives me time to ‘just be’…to absorb things and think. And then the connections I make between objects and the ‘story’ of a place or person brings the work to life. Monoprint print and plate: Textile Landscape by Cas Holmes is published by Batsford. Artworks by Cas Holmes, photographed by Jacqui Hurst Fiona Robertson originally trained in fine art and this influence is evident in her work as a textile artist. Working with embroidery to create intricate landscapes has altered her way of looking at the world. The versatility of nature as a subject is a constant source of inspiration; the striking contrast of a landscape that has been muted by rain, or has been sharpened by the light of the sun provides endless possibilities for exploration. She creates her imagery from personal experience, sketchbooks and photography. Each piece is built from hand-dyed silk, cotton scrim and a combination of other diverse fibres. The basis for Fiona’s work is machine stitched, before detail is added by hand. Felting has a long history of practical and decorative applications. Offering a textural and tactile appearance that can stimulate the desire to touch, it can be meditative to create, satisfying to embellish and an exciting and versatile material with which to sculpt. Cas grew up in Norfolk and now lives in Kent. Her work has appeared in both solo and group exhibitions across the globe. She regularly works on collaborations and community projects including a commission with the Garden Museum (London) and a project with a homeless charity in the Medway area. She was also an artist-in-residence at West Dean College where she regularly teaches.

You might not make it to an art class with Cas, but this book allows you to share her teaching in the comfort of your own workspace. You’ll love it. Glenys has the ability and reputation to get internationally renowned artists to teach for her. I was drawn to the work of fellow teacher, Chris Atkins; her powerful pieces draw their inspiration from, and talk about sense of place and our connections to the idea of ‘home. The mixed media sculptural works are painstakingly created combining casting of found objects in metal with complex machine stitch which defy translation and are beautiful in detail and content. In a review of the work Judith McGrath says:I’m also fortunate to receive scraps of cloth and paper from people I teach or generally meet in the generous world of textiles. Those gifts often trigger an idea. “Tea Flora Tales” is a perfect example in which people created their own connection to the landscape in small postcard-size pieces reflecting local wildflowers and places of special interest. And that effort also helped raise awareness of the need to conserve habitats.

The chapter also explains how stitched and textured surfaces of cloth can give interesting results in both direct and screen printing. The stitches and textures serve as a sort of stencil in resisting applied paints and dyes. An example would be the ‘Medway Gap’ work featured on the cover of the book. It was created by using a silkscreen and local plants as a resist. This article features an interview with Cas in which she explains what inspired the book’s creation, as well as some of her favourite techniques featured in the book.

In the closing chapter of Textile Landscape, I reflect upon a question raised at my show in a small library gallery in Kent: ‘…but textile artists don’t do landscape, do they?’ That global collaboration just kept growing and was recently exhibited at The Knitting and Stitching Shows. Cas Holmes has been a TextileArtist.org featured artist and wrote a wonderful piece for us reflecting on the life, home and work of a textile artist. She’s recently returned from Australia, where she was invited to share her expertise with fibre arts students.

In 2006 Miniart textilcomo selected my work ‘Winter Bramble’ to win the ‘La Tessitura’ Mantero prize, from a selection of textile artists worldwide. The piece was free machine stitch over fine florist wire, embellished with hand stitch and beads. If you are inspired by the work featured in this article, take a look at the eBook Textiles: A Response to Landscape, which brings together 10 more incredible contemporary artists who speak of the subject matter in a unique way. In compiling the book, we sought to highlight the vast range of opportunities textiles offer as a means of interpretation by exploring the stories, influences and techniques of the artists featured. There’s also a wide selection of beautiful images of their work. Dagmar Binder selected just one element and duplicated this to create a repeated three-dimensional pattern. Like Dagmar, you can look to nature for inspiration selecting shapes, motifs or patterns you’re drawn to. You build your own relationship to the experience; the places you have been, the objects you see, as part of the act of making a record

Working in short bursts

Harlem-born artist and activist Ringgold began working with textiles after a trip to Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseumin 1972. There, a gallery guard introduced her to Tibetan thangkas—traditional Buddhist paintings on cloth, surrounded by silk brocades. Returning home, Ringgold enlisted the help of her mother, a professional dressmaker, to make politically minded thangkasof her own, sewing frames of cloth around depictions of brutal rape and slavery. In 1980, Ringgold crafted her first quilt—again, with some sewing help from her mother—called Echoes of Harlem(1980) ,portraying 30 Harlem residents in a mandala-like composition. Her next book Connected Cloth: Creating Collaborative Textile Projects (co-authored with Anne Kelly who is also soon to be featured on Textileartist.org) is due out in Autumn 2013. Write about your thoughts and feelings; from words come clues you can visually translate into the work. Explore ideas that will bring the concept of your work together. While the field of landscape art (pun intended) has been explored many times, the real pleasure in this book comes from Cas’ curation of the textile techniques you can try, and the involvement of other artists. Artists like Jane Fairweather are included for further inspiration An article Sketch to Stitch relating drawing to stitch appears in Stitch Magazine, August/September issue 2013 (out the end of July). For more information about Stitch Magazine see our recent article: Top five textile art magazines.