Artist of the Month: Kate Tarling

Artist of the Month: Kate Tarling

Kate Tarling www.katetarlingtextiles.com

This month our pages are graced by the work of Kate Tarling, a self-taught artist based in Bristol. The images are beguiling— at first presenting pleasing, quite abstract compositions that one only slowly realises are aerial maps. The next surprise is to realise that these are textile pieces, and that these lines are drawn in thread. Kate explains: It’s the texture of embroidery that really appeals to me. My favourite thing to do when I’ve finished a piece of work is to close my eyes and run my hands over the stitching. It’s such a pleasing sensation of soft ridges and sharp curves; soft and undulating and yet durable and robust at the same time.

I learned hand embroidery as a child, after finding my mother’s wallet of embroidery threads. I was immediately seduced by the range of colours and was impatient to learn the many different stitches, teaching myself by working through a little handbook of embroidery techniques. More recently, I’ve come to love the speed and freedom that freehand machine embroidery offers. It has opened up a whole new world of textile excitement! It allows me to use the needle like a pencil, except the needle is static and it’s the canvas that I move, allowing the thread to draw the shapes and lines. Of course, I still have to frequently change the top thread and bobbin colours, so it’s still a slow process and each piece of work takes many days— sometimes weeks —to complete. Working this way broadened my outlook on the medium and now I mix up paint, print, machine and hand-embroidery to create my pieces. I also use pieces of hand-painted silk to embellish my work, which adds texture and reflective light.

I’m a self-taught artist and although, in hindsight, I would have loved to have studied textiles, instead I studied geography and went on to train and work as a newspaper journalist. I like to think now that my textile work reflects my early career— my maps are all about a sense of place and stitching memories into a landscape. I love sewing in the connections we all make with our surroundings and creating a piece of art that has meaning. Most of the maps I make are commissioned and I now make maps of places from all around the world, which is very exciting.

I also sell some of my work from a gallery called Fig in Bristol, where I have lived for the past twenty years. The gallery is run as a co-operative and I share the space and responsibilities with four other, very talented, artists who offer support and make the life of a self-employed artist less lonely. I make all my pieces in a shared studio at the bottom of the garden. It’s probably better to describe it as a heated shed, but at least I can store all my equipment in one place. My husband has one end of the shed, and I get the other (neater) side. I’ve got a lovely view of our courtyard garden and a huge skylight through which I can see the waving boughs of next door’s pear tree. Sometimes I choose to work in the kitchen, as we’ve got a big table where I can spread out larger pieces of work more easily (and I have access to the coffee pot).

I’m a mum of two teenagers, which is wonderful/stressful/magical/tearful. We’ve also got a dog— a whippet called Blue, who forces me to get outside every day and lose myself for a while.

You can find Kate on Instagram: @katetarlingtextiles

Cover image

Cologne, Germany 30cm x 40cm. Embroidery and silk appliqué on canvas.

Images Adelaide, Australia 25cm x 35cm. Stitch and paint on canvas. Sold

St Germans, Cornwall28cm x 40cm. Stitch and paint on canvas.Sold

Murren to Lauterbrunnen28cm x 40cm. Stitch and paint on canvas.Sold

Pitsford Water25cm x 25cm. Stitch and paint on canvas.Sold

Bristol featuring the Downs50cm x 50cm. Stitch and paint on canvas.Sold

Tondern Island, Canada30cm x 30cm. Stitch and paint on canvas.Sold

Close detail, Cornish CoastlineDetail of embroidery for a lampshade.Sold

The artist painting her Beijing mapAt work using mixed silk paints to paint on colour prior to stitching.

The artist holding her Beijing map100cm x 135cm. Paint and stitch on canvas.Sold