Helen MacRitchie

I am a textile artist working in both Australia and the UK.

I concentrate upon the detail found in nature and the landscape recreating, through contemporary abstract representation, the impressions and feelings these evoke.  Texture, colour and visual design are significant to the interaction with my audience.  I find the textile interpretation of a subject offers further artistic opportunity to involve sensory awareness – the work is both tactile and visually stimulating.

I often employ wool felt in my practice, drawing satisfaction from the transformational process and close physical connection that occurs through the hand manipulation of wet felting. This medium allows my artistic vision to be expressed sculpturally as desired. The blend of other fabrics and mixed media with felt presents further interest through play on differences in surface texture, opacity and rigidity. Machine and hand embroidery further enhances the medium by providing both highlighted detail and subtle blending to a work, both distinct line and sympathetic shading. It brings a painterly finesse to an organically formed material.

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