BETHAN ASH - IMPROVISED ART

Renowned quilt artist Bethan Ash now lives and works locally and has been producing her unique style of textile art quilts since the 1980's. Bethan is a member of Quilt Art, Society of Designer Craftsmen and Studio Art Quilt Associates and has exhibited extensively world wide at prestigious galleries including the Museum of Art & Design (MAD), New York and most recently in the Victoria Gardens in Neath. I was lucky enough to have a chat with her to persuade her to come and be one of our tutors.

She generously took time to explain her way of working and modestly explaining that anyone could use her method to create panels, cushions, anything in fact! (I think there is a little more to things than that...) She will generally find a 'title' - an explanation to 'pin' the piece of work upon, as illustrated by the panel here - called Sticks and Stones.

And again with this 'Rhosyn Ddu'.

After a career in fashion design she found art quilts enabled her to express her own ideas. Though there is a basis of traditional quilt making in her work she works spontaneously making the method more like collage.

Bethan uses the colour of dyed and printed fabrics overlaid with stitch to create a surface where pattern and movement are visible. She treats fabric like paper to make her layered collages and this gives freedom of movement to the design as it can be assembled and reassembled until she is entirely happy with it. It is spatial relationships and colour that are the backbone of her work.

During the workshop we will be making a small panel and Bethan is happy this day will suit both beginners and experienced. She will show us her techniques to build up the composition and help us develop our own innate sense of colour and composition. I'm sure we will find a new path to travel and we will go away enthused by improvised textile art.