Vivienne Beaumont
We recently featured Vivienne Beaumont as an Instagram takeover and we thought it would be great to share more of her story here on the blog.
I’m Vivienne and I emerged as a textile artist in 2020. Since then, I have been finding my way. I really enjoyed being part of the Edgelands exhibition earlier this year and it has been great to find my tribe in Prism Textiles.
I studied fine art, not knowing that creative textiles was an option, and became an art teacher. With a move to Shropshire in 1995, I discovered City & Guilds textiles courses at Westhope College, where I was very fortunate to be taught by Linda Kemshall, Bobby Britnell and Marie Roper. Textiles featured increasingly in my lesson plans from there on.
I love art history, particularly British 20th century art, when the rush of creativity was visceral. The textile artists Audrey Walker and Alice Kettle with their figurative and monumental work have definitely been an influence on my textile work. I love their painterly surfaces, with Audrey combining machine with hand stitching.
When I finished teaching I did an MA in Creative Crafts, which has certainly helped to establish my artistic identity and the narrative of my practice. I began to understand what my motivations were and what I wanted to express through my work.
My imagery explores womanhood, inspired by transformations of female archetypes within the context of mythology and the fairy tale. I am conscious of investing into my work an emotional energy and am currently researching how and why symbols have an emotional impact on artists and viewers alike. I am really interested in Jung’s collective unconscious, how we are genetically encoded with the experiences of all the generations before us.
The image is my triptych - Seeds, Flowers and Flowing Hair, which represents the evolution of my process and the development of my narrative. The energetic work references the archetypal transformation of the maiden. The seeds represent renewal and fertility. The flowers hint at vanitas and the inevitability of transformation, while flowing hair speaks of female power.
I thought I would tell you a little about my process. I always start with a drawing which I usually develop with Photoshop. I use sketch books to manage scattered thoughts and filter ideas. I really enjoy mono-printing designs onto fabric, where the prints are refined and enhanced with stitch. I like to create rich substrates using my Bernina 1008 and my vintage Brother Irish machine. I frequently embellish the surfaces with hand stitch. Recently I have been incorporating patchwork elements where I can.
I really enjoy the haptic qualities of fabric and thread, to touch and run the cloth through my fingers. My preferred fabrics are natural - cotton, silk and linen, re-purposed where possible. I usually use Madeira threads. Every project evolves with multiple possibilities and the alternatives need to be considered, sampled, ruled out - allowing the work to move on. I constantly refine and love physically putting together images, colours and surfaces. That’s when I’m most creative.
Following my MA I exhibited at Llantarnam Grange and the Great Northern Craft Show in their graduate showcase. Subsequently I have exhibited at the Knitting and Stitching Show and have had 2 solo exhibitions. I have had some success in the regional arts scene in Art opens, winning at AceArts in 2021 and awarded a highly commended this year in the Leamington Spa Open. Exhibiting with other textile artists is a real pleasure. The new Prism title “Any other Business” isn’t an obvious fit for me, but I will enjoy exploring the possibilities.
So, what am I currently doing? I have a few projects on the go, including Tangled, Commedia dell’arte and The Muses. In the Tangled series I continue to explore symbolism, emotions and myths. The example I have included here features Ariadne. She gave Theseus a ball of thread to unravel as he travelled through the labyrinth, so he could follow it and find his way out. I have used the labyrinth as a metaphor for the dark and the unknown. The Commedia dell’arte series reflects my interest in archetypes. But it’s the Muse series that has dominated my thoughts since January, I am preparing for an exhibition at the National Trust’s Upton House next summer and hope to see some of you there.
