Textile artist Nicola Henley evokes the beauty and wildness of her Irish home in a Wild Atlantic Coast exhibition at Newcastle’s Timeless Textiles. 

This accomplished artist brings an energetic new show for her return exhibition at Timeless Textiles. Portraying the natural sculpting of wind and water on Ireland’s west coastline, she conjures the majesty of that environment in her new works.

“Over the last two years, I have also been inspired also by the work of the English painter William Turner,” Henley said.

“I have tried to capture the skies, landscape, energy, colour and forces that I have experienced along the coast in my new collection.”
The textile works suggest birds in motion and offer hints of the landforms and rock formations seen in the unique limestone area of the Burren mountain ranges. 
“The ranges, with their subtle and changing palette, deliver drama, which unfolds minute by minute,” she describes.

Working from field sketches, photos and memory, Henley develops a range of images in the studio. These are then transferred onto silk screens using a photographic stencil process, then printed multiple times onto dyed calico.

Using brushes, the artist then works textile pigments into the surface, building up colour and texture before the piece is washed, then overprinted and painted again.

Her intricate works are then embroidered, using both hand and machine stitching, often applying a range of printed and hand-made Japanese papers.

The Wild Atlantic Coast exhibition will go until Sunday 8 March.