Rachel Wright

Rachna Singh, Editor, The Wise Owl talks to Rachel Wright, an embroidery artist. Rachel Wright is a textile artist living and working in Buckinghamshire. She studied Fashion and Textiles at Birmingham City University, specialising in embroidery, and completed both a BA and MA before graduating in 1994.

 

Rachel creates intricate textile artworks that capture the beauty of land and seascapes, as well as birds and animals, using machine embroidery. Much of Rachel’s work is inspired by the natural landscapes of the British Isles, using layers of fabric and thread to evoke the shifting light, swirling clouds, and restless tides. The embroideries enable her to draw and paint through the medium of fabric and stitch. She has previously exhibited with The 62 group of Textile Artists, and The Society of designer Craftsmen and has previously shown her work at events such as Art in Action and Artisan at The Edinburgh festival.

 

Thank you Rachel, for taking time out to talk with The Wise Owl.

 

RS: Our readers would love to know what drew you to embroidery as a form of creative expression. Were there any mentors who nurtured your love for this art form?

 

RW: I grew up with art all around me because my father is a fine artist. He paints in oil and watercolour and does wonderful wood engravings. We used to spend lots of weekends in galleries and museums when I was young. I got my love of textiles from sitting at my Grandmother’s knee as a child. She was always stitching or mending something and she had an old sewing box full of sewing curiosities, which I found endlessly fascinating and just loved to root through.

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In school I was fortunate to have one of ‘those’ teachers. My needlework teacher was able to see what motivated me and she encouraged me with textile art and helped to fuel my passion. I had no idea that you could study embroidery at degree level, and it was this teacher who opened my eyes to the courses available and encouraged me to go for it.

 

So having completed my ‘A’ levels and an art foundation course, I studied at Birmingham School of Art and Design, specialising in embroidery and eventually completing both a BA and an MA in fashion and textiles.

 

 

RS: Your work beautifully blends embroidery with fabric collages. Can you walk us through your creative process—from concept to completion?

 

RW: I take lots of reference photos which become an invaluable resource as I start to plan my embroideries. I always begin with an under drawing; a pencil sketch directly on to the calico. Its purpose is merely to lay out the positioning of the key components and to allow me to visualise the overall composition and make adjustments. The next stage is to gather together a palette of fabrics and threads. My work space is overflowing with baskets full of fabrics, so I spend time at the start of every piece pulling out fabrics I think I will find useful. Essentially I think of myself as a painter, but my tools are just a little less conventional. The fabrics are my paint palette and the stitches as my brush strokes. So I look for colours, textures, marks and patterns on the fabrics that relate to my subject matter and will help me to describe it in my textile ‘painting’. Then, working in small areas I carefully cut shapes and place small pieces of fabric into position, before beginning to stitch on the sewing machine. I use a darning foot with the feed dogs lowered to allow free motion of the machine. This is what allows me to draw into the fabrics. The stitching is what begins to bind the individual fabric elements together and add-in the details.

 

 

RS: Your signature dramatic skies add a unique depth to your landscapes. How do you achieve these expressive effects with fabric and stitch?

 

RW: I often find myself saving the sky portion of a landscape until last because I relish the freedom it gives me to express myself creatively. It’s also very much the part of a piece, which sets the tone and mood of a land or seascape. Large bodies of water are almost always a reflection of the colours and moods set by the sky, so the sea can look cold and forbidding on a grey wintry day or jewel like, bright and sparkling in the sunshine.

 

Whether it is a stunning sunset, a moody threatening cloud formation or merely a backdrop to a swoop of acrobatic swallows, skies offer a wealth of opportunity to let my creative imagination fly.

 

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RS: What role does colour play in your work, and how do you select your vibrant thread palettes?

 

RW: Use of Colour is really instinctive for me and vital to my work. It sets the tone for any piece I’m working on. If for example I’m trying to capture a wintry landscape the colours might be very soft and muted greys and off whites capturing the dustiness of snow or the crispness of frost. For a summery scene  drenched in sunlight I will choose bright, clear colours with dark shadows to show the sharpness of the light. It’s not something I ever think very much about as it comes really naturally to me. Unlike a painter who has to mix colours of paint to achieve a certain result I have the advantage of being able to find and choose ready-made colours and patterns in my stash of wonderful fabrics.

 

RS: How do you balance realism and artistic interpretation in your embroidered pieces?

 

RW: I think there is quite a lot of realism in my work but I will use certain parts of a piece to allow myself more freedom and expression. Often it’s the sky where I might use swirling pattern or directional movement to imply the perpetual motion of the clouds or wind moving through the branches of a tree or stirring the sails of a windmill. Water is also an element which can be fun to play around with. It  can appear completely still with clear sharp reflections, or you can give it movement and direction and life. You can show it travelling, give it speed or make ocean waves rise and swell by using artistic interpretation and exaggerating their characteristics.

 

RS: Your love for the sea, harbour towns, boats, and lighthouses is evident in your work. What draws you to these subjects, and how do you keep them fresh in your creative practice?

 

RW: I am particularly inspired by the beauty of the landscape we find all around us, by the forces of nature which shape our surroundings, carving out our coastlines, sculpting landscapes, twisting mighty trees and painting wondrous sunsets in the expansive skies above our heads.

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Keeping your creative practice fresh is about constantly finding inspiration. When I’m feeling tired and low and struggling with work, a favourite area of mine to visit which never fails to inspire me, is the North Norfolk coast with its salt marshes and creeks and its signature panoramic skies. I love the unique character of the long, deep, winding creeks in the salt marshes, hiding little boats whose tall masts seem to mark their positions like pins in a map. Sometimes the little vessels are stranded and abandoned, only to be taken back into the marshes gradually by nature’s inevitable process, leaving behind sculptural skeleton structures of decaying wood. The once brightly coloured boats fade and blend back into the landscape with the patina of time and tide imprinted upon them.

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North Norfolk has a very particular flavour, which has certainly fed into my love of big skies that have become a particular feature in many of my embroideries.

 

 

RS: How do you balance the artistic and commercial aspects of your work—creating for galleries while maintaining your creative vision?

 

RW: That is always tricky.  I know I’m not good at the commercial side of things at all. I have learned to be quite picky about the galleries I work with and I’m lucky to have good relationships with them. Mostly they are very flexible and allow me to follow my own direction so for me personally there hasn’t been any real conflict in that respect.

 

RS: After years of working as an embroidery artist, what keeps you passionate and inspired?

 

RW: It is both exciting and terrifying to see a piece of work emerging, battling through the tricky stages when it really isn’t working until at some point it turns a corner and everything comes together and finally you have the piece that you imagined in your mind’s eye at the start of the whole process. I think the buzz I get from that battle is what keeps my passion alive.

I also have a strong passion that  embroidered textiles should be regarded as Fine Art. We are finally starting to make some progress on this but there’s still a way to go.

 

 

RS: If you could experiment with another medium or artistic discipline, what would it be and why?

 

RW: My Dad is a wood engraver (as well as an extremely talented painter). I have always fancied trying my hand at wood engraving but it requires a completely different way of thinking and planning which I can’t quite get my head around. The prepared smooth wood blocks are really expensive so the thought of ruining one with my first attempts is terrifying. Maybe one day I’ll be brave enough.

 

Thank you for your thoughtful responses Rachel. It was a pleasure talking to you. We wish you the very best in all your creative endeavours.