An exploration of abstract textile work with practical tips on how to progress from the realistic to the abstract within your own practice.

From Amish quilts through to contemporary makers, abstract textile work is a captivating art form that can capture a mood or feeling. In this fascinating book, renowned textile artist and tutor Anne Kelly shows you how to incorporate abstraction into your own work through experimentation and process. From shapes, colours and surface patterns to line art and textile influences, you will be armed with everything you need to make and experience your own personal responses to the theme.

Beautiful artworks by the author illustrate the themes and techniques in the book. There are also contributions from other exciting contemporary artists and makers, such as Sarah Z. Short, Lorna Crane, Iain Perry and Helen Banzhaf.

Chapters include:

• From Nature to Abstract: Getting Started.



• Shapes and Colour: Midcentury Influences.



• Surface Pattern and Mixing Media.



• Capturing Emotion.



• Playing and Process: Materials and Experimentation.

This fascinating and evocative book is suitable for all ages and abilities, from students to experienced practitioners, or anybody seeking to inject new inspiration into their textile practice.



Anne Kelly is a textile artist and tutor. She trained in Canada and the UK and now teaches and speaks to guilds and groups. Her work is exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions, including private collections in the UK and abroad, the Vatican Collection in Rome and at the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto, and she was artist-in-residence at Sussex Prairie Garden in West Sussex and exhibited at the international World of Threads Festival and the Prague Patchwork Meeting. She is the author of several books published by Batsford: Textile Portraits, Textile Nature, Textile Folk Art and Textile Travels, and was the co-author with Cas Holmes of Connected Cloth. She lives in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

Introduction

Chapter 1 – From Nature to Abstract: Getting Started

Chapter 2 – Shapes and Colour, Midcentury Influences

Chapter 3 – Surface Pattern and Mixing Media

Chapter 4 – Following the Line

Chapter 5 – Capturing Emotion

Chapter 6 – Playing and Process: Materials and Experimentation