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JANET BOLTON

Here Janet tells us about her stitching journey.

I first began quilting when we moved into an old house with very draughty windows.

Using old blankets I made quilts to give more insulation, and I believe that one of these, when I appliquéd cotton pieces onto a lovely woven blanket was my first Quilt, an abstract pattern that I built up as I went along. (I must have been about 26)

I had left Art School intending to go back to painting, but an interest in folk art led me to look at old quilts and really appreciate them and their maker’s life stories.



I describe myself as someone who makes images with cloth rather than with paint, I have never really considered myself a quilter in the traditional sense.

I have never followed a pattern in any form, I always allow my work to develop as and change as it progresses.

I left Lancashire after Art School, and have lived in London for the last forty or so years. As my family are still up there I visit regularily, and find more and more that particular landscape is the inspiration and starting point for my work. I do feel that English landscape gives some my work an English “feel”.
 

Maybe it is the soft colour palette that I often, but not always by any means use.

Although I enjoy sketching I use it as a separate activity and never work from drawings. I work from memory and create my own imaginary world. I always work directly with the fabric that I am going to use, and never try to transpose a drawing or painting into a fabric piece

I am interested in the juxtaposition of flat pattern and a sense but not realistic sense of perspective and space in landscape pieces.

I don’t keep a journal but I do keep lots of bits of paper and notebooks where I have jotted down ideas, sometimes in drawings, sometimes just words.

My favourite painters are Mary Newcombe , Winifred Nicholson , Alfred Wallis , Matisse , Klee; really too many to mention. My favourite quilts are The Quilts of Gees Bend  , which I saw in New York, and  many of the old quilts.

 I am interested in the overall aesthetic effect and not a bit interested in immaculate technique as an end in itself. Although I do love the white Durham quilts and do appreciate precise technique if the aesthetic content is worth it and the technique is a necessary part.

In my work if the stitches are not straight and show, they are deliberately placed so, for a compositional reason.

At the moment I am working on some free hanging pieces, using some antique Romanian hand woven linen. Each piece is about 40cm wide with a lovely selvage, and they are about 6 foot long.

I am also working on a series of found objects placed in boxes, and some constructions, some of these `I intend to use as inspiration for new work.
 

You could win your very own copy of Janet Bolton’s book, Textile Pictures . This link will take you to the publisher’s website. Please click on “Feuilleter ce livre” to look inside the book. The book is written in French and English in the same edition, which is not only convenient if you are multi-lingual but also looks beautiful!

Janet Bolton is the author of several beautiful books, some of which are out of print. To see more of Janet’s books you can try Amazon as a good source.