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My work has been purchased by several museums in the UK, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, The Whitworth Gallery, Manchester, The Glasgow Museums and The Museum of Costume and Textiles in Nottingham.
My work has grown from the love of fabric, colour and traditional patchwork quilts - although my imagery is far from traditional. I work happily with multiple images - each block being a little like a separate study. I think of myself as a designer, craftsperson and textile artist, and feel that I use all three categories to a varying degree on each piece.
After working my way through many design themes with my quiltwork since 1975 (pictorial pieced images, 3D geometric images and collage, both paper and fabric) I have now decided to divide my work into two sections - the water reflection images using fabric collage, and the laminated blocks using natural found materials, laminating plastic and fabric.
The 'Water Reflections' are a continuing theme which began in 1993 with works such as Nottingham Reflections, followed by Whiteadder and Tweed Reflections II. I begin my design process by taking many photographs and I use these as a starting point to produce fabric collage blocks. I am constantly trying to work more freely with fabric and stitching, which continues to be a challenge to me. My tools are fabric, 'Bondawebb' and scissors. I work directly with the fabric with no preparatory drawings, using a collage technique and both hand and machine stitching. My work has moved a long way from its traditional beginnings, and the hard edged 'piecing' of my earlier quilts.
The laminating works are a new direction for me. I am collecting natural material from my local environment, such as petals, leaves and grasses, pressing them and laminating them to squares of pre-coloured fabric or painted cloth. I deliberately choose a similar colour to that of the leaf or petal being laminated, so that both the fabric and the natural object merge together. I then assemble these units into colour studies, stitching them into quilt like hangings. I feel that these works feed my other 'water reflections' series, in the way that they help me to tune into and heighten my colour sense.
I like to think of my work changing and growing as nature does - continuously - without that change it would become dead and lifeless.
In 1998-9, I completed a large exhibition, Take 4 - New perspectives on the British art quilt which began at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester in September 1998 and toured the UK. The exhibition was shared with Jo Budd, Dinah Prentice and Michele Walker. It was a little like four one person shows combined and traced work progression and development in our textile work.
My subsequent one-person touring exhibition of quilts, collages and photographs - Quiltworks - visions of the natural world has recently finished touring. This started at the Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead in Mid June, 2004 and included the Knitting & Stitching Shows at Alexandra Palace, London, R.D.S., Dublin and International Hall, Harrogate. The show also visited the Collins Gallery, Glasgow and the Bankfield Museum, Halifax. A Portfolio collection book was published with Telos, in early 2004 to coincide with the exhibition. Authors - Dr. Jennifer Harris (from the Whitworth Art Gallery) and Judith Duffey-Harding. It features most of the work in this exhibition.
My book Quilt Studio, Innovative Techniques for Confident and Creative Quilt Making and Design was published by The Quilt Digest Press in May 2000.
Working in the Scottish Borders, I gain much inspiration from the wonderful countryside around me. My work now divides into two sections -
Pauline Burbidge is both an artist who creates lyrical quilts and a designer-craftsperson who shows meticulous attention to detail.
Michele Walker from Quilt Studio, The Quilt Digital Press.
Artist's Work
Artist's Web Site: Pauline Burbidge Quilts
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