ABOUT BRIDGET
My Art
I use wool like paint to make pictures.
My work is an emotional response to what I've seen and felt in a particular moment. Light and shadows bring intensity to the colours of life, I celebrate the exceptional moments in everyday life and try to capture this in my work.
Exhibitor at the
ROYAL ACADEMY
OF ARTS
Summer Exhibition 2016
My Art Journey
Arts & Crafts have always been a significant part of my life. As a young child, they were my escape from a world I struggled with. As a teenager, they were my area of excellence. As a young person, they became an escape again, becoming a driving force and focus. As a mother, a fun time with my children and a time to be me. Now, my passion for Arts & Crafts has become my indulgence, my business and my way in the world.
Ceramics was my first speciality, as an art student and continued to be until in 2006 I began an Arts & Crafts Club in the village where I live. The club created a space for like-minded people to meet, with a view to exploring the many Arts & Crafts we hadn’t tried before or done for years, and it was exactly what happened!
In 2010 we were taught by a member of the Arts & Crafts Club the basics of felting and I knew straight away that this medium had the potential for making a picture and found myself experimenting and making my first felt picture.
Felting very quickly started to fill any spare time I had, exploring the many different things you can do with it, hats, scarves, bags, brooches, slippers, lampshades and of course pictures. The Arts & Crafts Club members were keen to learn more too, so I began teaching them my techniques and running felt making workshops for people outside the club as well.
Felt pictures became my passion, working from my photographs, I was creating pictures using wool. In 2012, a friend encouraged me to take part in a local art festival, the public’s response was fantastic and helped me realise I was creating pictures people really enjoyed. So began my aspiration to make this passion into my business.
Being able to make pictures and dreaming of exhibiting and selling them is one thing, running a business is quite another. I had little knowledge of how to run a business and how to sell my felt pictures and my workshops. So, I found a local business mentor to get me started. I approached galleries, created my own website, started to learn about marketing, found networking groups, began building an email list, talked to art curators and planned the launch of my business.
Meanwhile, my felt picture making skills really developed. I am constantly inspired by the world around me, particularly how light and shadow work together and impact colour, so lots of photographs were being taken and scrutinized for these qualities and composition. Challenging myself to capture the drama of these images and with each felt picture develop my techniques and knowledge of what wool could do.
In the Autumn of 2014 I launched my business with 3 events, a Solo Exhibition at a local Gourmet Pub, The Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace and a week long Meet the Artist exhibition at Blossom Street Gallery & Framing, in York. The response was overwhelming, I sold originals, limited edition prints and lots of workshops, not to mention all the amazing support and feedback I received.
Since then, I have taken part in many exhibitions, sold through small private galleries, taken part in large events and had the most amazing experience of exhibiting at the RA Summer Exhibition 2016.
Speaker
Over the last few years, I have been invited to Speak by several organisations. Talking about my work and my journey as an artist to where I am today, sharing how my pictures are made and what I offer people who would like to learn these techniques.
I have been...
One of 6 children
A Saturday Girl at a Hairdressers
A Waitress
A Bank Clerk
A Bar Maid
A Regisered General Nurse
An Art Student
President of the Student Union
A WWOOFer(Willing Worker On Organic Farms)
A Wife
A Mother of 2
A Northern Potter
A Play Group Supervisor
A School Gardening Club Facilitator
An Adults Arts & Crafts Club Facilitator
A Self Catering Holiday Lodge Business Owner
A Cover Supervisor
A Carer
An Art Consultant
But always An Artist!