Updates and Stitching

Hello,

It's nearly March and I'm busy getting work ready for different events and exhibitions which are not far off now.
In a few weeks time, I'm looking forward to meeting members of Leicester Embroiderers Guild, where I will be giving a talk and taking a selection of my textiles and various sketchbooks.
I have just finished framing new small works which will be on display at The NEC, Fashion, Embroidery, Stitch show, I will be demonstrating on the Madeira threads stand from the 17th March until 20th March.
These are landscape fragments, taking inspiration from my drawings of nature but also of personal experiences.
You will see me working on new textile work for my Enchanted Landscape gallery, for the Knitting and Stitching Show in Edinburgh, opening on the 28th April.

I'm pleased to say that I will be taking part in Warwickshire Open Studios again this year, June 18th -3rd July, but this time as part of an exciting group exhibition at The ArtistsWorkhouse in Studley, a vibrant artists community, gallery and studios.
So thankfully, its all fairly busy, not only with stitching, but painting canvases, sorting admin ( eek!) teaching and meeting fellow artists.

Best wishes
Michala

Enchanted Landscapes at The Knitting & Stitching Shows

After India

 So for my first blog post of 2016, I thought I should bring you up to date ( long over due) with all the exhibitions I have had the pleasure of being involved in and share a few images.
It was a very busy Autumn, starting with The Knitting & Stitching Show in London in October for five days, then Dublin and Harrogate in November!
I was very lucky to be able to bring all my larger textile works together for the first time in my exhibition and also to show a selection of my sketchbooks with smaller stitched pieces.
What an amazing experience, meeting so many lovely people who are incredibly enthusiastic about textiles.
I had no idea that so many students were studying my work at schools and colleges, it really was quite over whelming, but also wonderful to know that I have played some part in a younger generations creative journeys.

The show has a great selection of talented makers working in a vast array of materials and so many exciting stalls with threads, wools, fibres and materials. ( yes, I did buy more threads!!)
I'm pleased to say that I have been invited to exhibit my gallery Enchanted Landscapes with the Knitting & Stitching Show when it launches for the first time in Scotland.
The show will be coming to Edinburgh, 28th April  to 1st May 2016 at The Royal Highland Centre.

This year I will also be demonstrating on The Madeira Threads stand at The Fashion Embroidery Stitch show at the NEC in March.
Then in December I will be showing my work as part of a touring exhibition, more news about this to follow.

I have now produced a full colour, paper back book of my work, showing my textiles, drawings and paintings, priced £10.00 it will be available at the shows I visit.
I am also able to post out my book if you wish to order it, please either email me or contact me via my website.

You will also find a section about my art work in the inspiring Through Our Hands portfolio, this book is available on the Through Our Hands website.

It's back to my stitching and you can now also follow me on Instagram @michalagyetvai.

Wishing you a very Happy New Year

Michala

Detail of Seas of Grass

Books

My Stand at The Knitting and Stitching Show 2015

Lots of Stitching with Through Our Hands part 1 !

My Sea Picture

Laura Kemshall

Bobby Britnell

Alicia Merrett

Annabel Rainbow

Clare Smith



Mirjam Pet-Jacobs

Quilt on wall by Bente Vold Klausen

Bethan Ash



 

Eszter Bornemisza

Susan Lenz

Quilt on the floor by Linda Kemshall,  back wall Elizabeth Barton , hanging work Els van Baarle

Apologies for a great delay in updating my blog, due to my problems logging in again ( hopefully sorted now) and just a lot of things happening, stitching, exhibitions, holidays etc...

I have also been using Facebook and instagram as an immediate way of updating news.

My blog missed out on an event I had in June / July at The Bilston Craft Gallery with the  international textile group Through Our Hands.

Here are a few images of the exhibition, which had some fantastic work from textile artists from all over the world, sorry I have not got all the artists here, but you will find more on the Through Our Hands website.

This group also came together to exhibit at The Festival of Quilts and you may be pleased to know that there is now a portfolio publication available to purchase ( from the Through Our Hands website ) with information on all the artists and their work.

We have recently had two brilliant new artists join our group, Jenni Dutton and Sue Stone who exhibited with us at The Festival of Quilts, blog post to follow!

 

I am at this very moment, in the midst of stitching and organising my exhibition "Enchanted Landscapes" for The Knitting and Stitching Shows, opening October 7th at Alexandra Palace London and then on to Dublin and Harrogate.

This is my first opportunity to show all my large textiles together including my latest work and a range of my sketchbooks.

I hope to see you there!

 

Michala x



 

 

 

My Images Of India

A page from my sketch book

a

 

 

 It was a very lucky Friday 13th of February I arrived in India, to spend two sun filled weeks, with my sister Nicola and her family in Bangalore. They arrived here from Warwickshire in the UK on “their adventure" two years ago.

My sister’s life changing experience has impacted on my life of art.

I am an artist and I work not only with paint but with textiles, about five years ago, I went through a very stressful time and in order to cope I found comfort in stitching onto old woollen blankets. 

My subjects are landscapes and figures developed from intense periods of drawing and painting. I layer my experience into the landscape so that it becomes psychologically charged with my own memories, emotions, narratives, dreams, and poems.

The passion and freedom encountered in the immediacy of sketching is developed and channelled through paintings, and then consolidated into textile pieces. Labour and repetition are central to this process and depending on the scale the finished embroidered textile can take many months to complete.

 

My sister had organised a hectic itinerary, to share as much of Indian culture as possible during my short stay.
On my first morning I learnt about the fascinating art of Indian block printing under the shade of mango trees. This was with Poonam in Whitefield’s on the Nallur Halli main road in Bangalore.
We printed, intricate repeating designs with hand carved wooden blocks onto white cotton cloths.

The next day we walked through glades of patterned palm trees in Palm Meadows, then through the chaos of the city, to reach the small multi-coloured painted villages.

Animals such as cows, goats and dogs were in abundance, amongst buildings, temples and swarming traffic, so integrated that they weaved with man amongst the tirade of vehicles.
The intensity of colour is intoxicating and exhilarating, everywhere I turned colour and pattern overwhelmed me, even coloured washing, hanging against the bright walls became exciting!

I was amazed by the fruits, vegetables and flowers piled high on rickety wooden carts by the side of the red dusty roads.

I loved the petals and flowers arranged artfully floating in water bowls, the chalk patterns drawn on the pavements, the kaleidoscope of colourful clothing, saris and textiles.

In my sketch book I worked with pastels on different coloured papers to record not only what I could see but how this new environment made me feel.

My drawing started to change, I altered my colour combinations, and the rhythm of my mark making became more intense and complicated.
Working instinctively I found my landscapes were becoming more exotic, taking on an eastern appearance.
 
I will share more of my experiences  and drawings of India in my next blog post.

Interview About My Work

 Photo courtesy of Rob Tysall of Tysall’s Photography



Hello,

Here is a link to a recent article about me and my work in b-c-ing-u online magazine, many thanks to the writer Ann Evans .
http://b-c-ing-u.com/2015/02/02/seas-of-grass/
The photo was taken a couple of years ago at the opening of my exhibition!

Exhibition "Powerful Forces"

Hello,

The exhibition at The Michael Heseltine Gallery has been open for three weeks and we have now have just two weeks until it closes on Thursday 13th of February.
I thought I would share some of my images of the exhibition which I have shown on my  facebook
page.
I will be there the next two Sundays with the sculptor George Wagstaffe ( we are open 10.00am until 4.00pm)
The exhibition is open Monday to Friday 9.00am until 5.00pm.
I managed just about to get through the opening despite a heavy cold, I think the adrenaline got me through it!

Just to let you know I will not be exhibiting at the NEC this year despite one of my stitched pieces featuring on the front of The Fashion Embroidery Stitch leaflets!!
They took the image when I was at the show last year.
I decided I wanted to spend more time on my work so I had something new to show another year and also I had other commitments.

Homage a' Matisse

I have a very busy week ahead organising my work for The Fashion, Embroidery,Stitch show at the NEC in Birmingham which opens Thursday next week!
One of my textiles I will be displaying is Homage a' Matisse which stands 8ft tall and took me around two years to complete. ( featured in the March issue of Embroidery Magazine)
The piece is developed from studying the rhythms in the work of the French artist Henri Matisse.
I observed the musicality in the way in which he placed colours and shapes, I took particular interest in his paper collages, "The Snail" and "The Kings Sadness", I combined these themes with my own painting which then led to this work.
Throughout the piece I have layered different threads in machine and hand stitching, emphasising areas of the work which became three dimensional.
I then manipulated those areas further by stitching the work on to a large blank canvas.

On Wednesday I will be transporting ( hope everything fits in the van)! and hanging all my pieces.
I will also be running free one hour workshops at the show everyday, places are limited to ten and need to be booked on the day of the show.
Hope to see you there!

Michala

New Year & New Work

This piece entitled "Snow on Snow" is inspired by the poem In The Bleak Mid Winter by Christina Rossetti.
I made many sketches after a walk in the snow over the fields near us, which then led to a painting.
The work above measuring 45cm x 63cm  has taken hours of stitching and includes many different threads with fibres.

In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.

I will be exhibiting this work at The Fashion Embroidery Stitch Show in March as part of my British Romantic Landscape display.
You can find more details about the event here http://www.ichf.co.uk/fashion/

My sketch book is filling up with new ideas and figures which are growing out of my landscapes, you can see more of these here http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaylacoo/

Best Wishes for The New Year!

Michala

Working With Threads

Creatively I have never been busier, stitching one day and the next it's trying to get back to the sketch book.
A lot of my energy at the moment is devoted to working on commissions, which include a hospital.
I am delighted that the brief was landscape, bringing the outside in, this work is in progress and I hope to share it with you soon.
The work above is another project which is also in mid flow.

Yesterday I spent a day at a school talking about landscapes in art history and running a workshop.
I shared how I use different materials to create landscapes in my own work.
I get so excited about working with the threads, fibres, using layers of colour, stitching rhythmically into the cloth to form shapes.

Despite my garden being a jungle and my house full of cobwebs I still have to make time to stitch!

My Work Space and New Work.

I am often asked if I have a studio and I wish I could say yes, as it would be a dream to be able to have somewhere big enough to hang all my large textile pieces.
When I'm working it frequently gets cluttered and I rarely have time to stop and sort out my creative mess.
However, last week I purchased an old apothecary chest which has 16 drawers for me to hide all manner of my threads and fabrics in.
I doubt it will stay tidy for long!



I have just about finished my large piece of work " Homage a Mattise", this as the title suggests is developed from a painting of a landscape I did near Nice, I have also incorporated the rhythms I feel when I have studied Matisse's paintings.
Matisse lived in Nice, he too was fascinated by fabrics, which he collected on his many travels, their patterns, colours and designs influenced his work.
I'm looking forward to visiting the Matisse Museum again on holiday soon, this will give me the opportunity to inspire me further in my work.
The Museum is situated in a beautiful villa surrounded by an olive grove, it contains not only his art works but his many collections of furnishings and fabrics.
Bye for now

Michala

 

Warwickshire Open Studios

Hi,

I have been busy at Warwickshire Open Studios the last few days where I am exhibiting prints, paintings, textiles, cards and tree brooches.
 If your near Kenilworth and you want to visit different artists work, come tomorrow as it's the last day of the event.
You will see me stitching my large landscape which I started last year, this piece is for The Herbert Art Gallery.
I'm hoping to finish soon, well maybe in another months time!