You can read an article on my inspiration at Textileartist.org here:
http://www.textileartist.org/sue-stone-where-top-textile-artists-look-for-inspiration/
Where I look for Inspiration
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Tag Archives: textiles
New ebooks from Textileartist.org
A great new series of ebooks from Textileartist.org
NB: My work is featured in Contemporary Stitch 1
See all Textileartist.org ebooks on their ebook page
See Textiles Re:imagined e-book
See Response to Landscape e-book
See Contemporary Stitch 1 e-book (NB:This one features my work)
See Contemporary Stitch 2 e-book
63:63 – 2016
Portrait of a Grimsby Girl 2014
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Retrospective • An Archive of Work 2015
A Gallery of Work made in 2015
Most of the year 2015 was taken by the making of 63 • a Self Portrait made up of 63 images but I did manage to fit in a couple of other pieces. I began the year by making a partner piece for Portrait of a Grimsby Girl 2014 which was called Portrait of a Lincolnshire Lad a triple portrait of my Dad. It measures 76 x 55 cms and is mixed media : hand and machine stitch with paint.
Portrait of a Lincolnshire Lad 2015
I also managed a commission of Great Grimsby Ice Factory.
Great Grimsby Ice Factory 2015
About 63
63 is a self-portrait made up of 63 images, one for each year of my life so far. So why put myself through all this work, and, to be perfectly honest, the angst of self examination, a replaying of all the ups and downs of life?
There were several reasons, but the main one was that I was asked to take part in a self-portrait exhibition in 2015 and I was given a 6 metre wall to fill!
For this I had to work to a deadline and that in turn forced me to look at the way I work and helped me find a simplification of my mark-making.
I didn’t finish it in time as my thought process was slower than expected and so it was shown as work in progress. Numbers 1 to 42 were shown.
Numbers 1 to 57 were completed in 2015 and are shown below.
63:1
63:2
Self portrait age 3 2015 one of an ongoing series of self portraits
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Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries
I’m proud to say that Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries 2015 shown above is now part of the prestigious Diana Springall Collection . It measures 25.5 x 30.5 cms.
Exhibitions 2015
Society of Designer Craftsmen Christmas Market – 14 – 20 December – Mall Galleries, London
Illustrative and Stitched Drawings – 28 November – 10 January 2016 , Customs House Gallery, South Shields, Tyne & Wear, UK
New Textiles Transformed – 3 October – 7 November – Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, USA
Shifting Images – 8 September 2015 – 7 February 2016 FHC, Grimsby, N E Lincs, UK
Face the World – 12 October – 25 October Sam Scorer Gallery, Lincoln
Festival of Quilts – 6 August – 9 August – NEC Birmingham with Through Our Hands
62 Group • NOW! -17 March – 10 May Upfront Gallery Cumbria
Designer Crafts at the Mall – 8 January to 15 January, Mall Galleries, London
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Stitched Up Like A Kipper: Fishy threads loom large on the Humber.
It’s been long time coming and we’ve been the butt of many a recent film and TV joke; in fact it goes all the way back to Music Hall days but as you can see from this fantastic new blog who have kindly featured my work, some of us are indeed trying to put the Great back in my hometown of Great Grimsby.
Woman With a Fish, AKA Sue Stone, is a totally unique and original Grimsby voice. An artist and maker who works in hand stitch, machine embroidery and mixed media to juxtapose often gritty modern urban scenarios and graffiti art with between the wars, homely, nostalgia. The medium of thread making the contrast both jarring and engaging. It’s also funny, but in an odd sort of a way, as opposed to rolling round the floor in err… stitches. The quirky humour coming from a meme sewn into all of Stone’s work, which is the fact that at least one of her subjects is always carrying a fish. An all to common occurrence in this part of the world.
Big fish, little fish… hey we forgot the cardboard box again.
She is current chair and exhibiting member of the 62 Group of Textile Artists and Fellow of the Society of Designer Craftsmen. Born in Grimsby, Sue Stone studied Fashion at St Martins School of…
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Retrospective • An Archive of Work 2013/14
Portrait of a Grimsby Girl 2014
Portrait of a Grimsby Girl 76 cm x 55 cm + Book 29 cm x 26 cm
Statement about work 1: 2014 marks the centenary of her birth. The usual ups and downs of life preceded the diagnosis, in 1978 of a rare form of Leukaemia. In 1979 her family watched helplessly as her life ebbed away. As one life ends another begins. 3 weeks later her grandson, Sam was born.
Materials: cotton/ linen fabric, cotton threads, fabric and acrylic paints, bondaweb
Techniques: hand and machine embroidery, painting, bonding
Photo credit: David Ramkalawon
Portrait of a Grimsby Girl Book 2014
The Unknown Statistic
The Unknown Statistic 100 cm x 70 cm
Statement about work: They stood in the doorway and watched. He whistled as he walked away. He didn’t look back and they never saw him again. The number of children left fatherless by WW1 was not accurately recorded either nationally or locally. Memories fade. Their young lives went on but were changed forever.
Materials: cotton/ linen fabric, cotton threads, fabric and acrylic paints
Techniques: hand and machine embroidery, painting
Photo credit: David Ramkalawon
The girls go to London Town 2014
Double Take 2014
Shopping trip 2014
Murals Day Out 2014
The Girls who made the Suits 2014
3 Girls and a Fence 2014
Family Gathering 2014
The Boys Go to London Town
mixed media • 122 x 92 cms
A Group of small studies made in 2013
Study for East End Girls 2012
Auntie Madge 2012
Study for Double Take 2012
Study for Some Things 2012
Study for Tea Party 2012
hand stitch portrait
Do You Come Here Often? 2013
As usual my subject matter comes from close to home and I have combined three images. My Mum, my Dad and a church window are the component parts of the composition.
The piece is about my parents early courtship.
He was always a snappy dresser who was a Fish Merchant when Grimsby was known as the ‘Klondyke of the East Coast’. Working his way up he was first a barrow boy and then a filleter before starting his own business. She was a talented tailoress with a rich, and vibrant contralto voice and from a staunch Methodist family.They often met at Flottergate Methodist Church where she was in the choir.
My sister and I have a theory that he only joined the Men’s society so that he could court my Mum. They were married in 1939 when she was 25 years old.
The Universal Child 2013
Statement for ‘The Universal Child’ and ’I listen to the radio and hear his voice’
Children are killed, maimed, physically and mentally scarred every day, caught up in the crossfire of senseless religious and sectarian wars
Each stitch on the recycled, linen fabric becomes a symbol of remembrance for the hundreds of thousands of lives lost. The cross-stitches used to represent the kisses those children will never receive.
On radio 4 the news is bad, the words of both bereaved mothers, and victims of horrific attacks are heartbreaking. Those words are depicted by machine embroidered graffiti.
Images of Fred, ‘The Universal Child’ and Harry,’I Listen to the Radio and Hear his Voice’ turn into a device to connect past with present and the materials used to portray them form the common link. The two boys are children of the first world war, the so-called war to end war. Almost 100 years on there is still no end in sight .
I Listen to the Radio and Hear his Voice 2013
Grimsby Girl’s World Tour Stopover Tokyo 2013
A girl from Grimsby, a tuna from Tsukiji, a holiday in Harajuku combine. Travel through ethereal layers of time and place to Takeshita Street. The artist’s mother was born on 6th December 1914 in a fishing port in the UK. 99 years later this Grimsby girl meets modern day Tokyo.
Linen/cotton fabric, cotton threads, fabric paint. Hand and machine stitch, painting. 59 x 145 cms
A Tea Party in Tokyo 2013
Grimsby, UK, once the world’s busiest fishing port, is the artist’s hometown. East, west, past and present, connect when three sisters from 1920s Grimsby have a tea party in Tokyo. The youngest of the three, Irene, the artist’s mother-in-law was an avid tea drinker all her life.
Linen/cotton fabric, cotton threads, fabric paint.Hand and machine stitch, painting. 60 x 115 cms
RIP Grimsby St E2 version 2 2013
Retrospective • an Archive of Work 2017
Retrospective • an Archive of work 2016
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2015
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2013/14
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2011/12
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2009/10
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2007/8
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2003 to 2006
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Retrospective • an archive of work 2011/12
Some Things Never Change 2012
Some Things Never Change 2012
Children of the First World War, the so-called ‘war to end war’ commemorate the plight of children worldwide.
Thousands of kisses on a concrete pillar will never be received.
Cut to 2012. A mother sobs. This is not her war.
Killed by mortar fire, her children were 12,10 and 5 years old.
Materials: Window cleaning linen, applied recycled shirting.
Technique: hand and machine stitch, acrylic paint, appliqué.
First shown at the Knitting & Stitching Shows 2012.
Homage to Nicholson 2012
Weekend in Barcelona 2011
From Grimsby to Gracia • right and David as Dali • left were inspired by a recent visit to Barcelona, they reference cardboard cutouts of Dali seen outside the Dali Museum , the Gaudi mosaics and tiles in Parc Guell , a colourful tiled floor from a neighbourhood bar and fish from the artist’s hometown of Grimsby.
A Lot can Happen in 50 Years 2011
A Lot can Happen in Fifty Years • 2011 84 cms x 117 cms • hand and machine stitch
Referencing several items from the Manchester Museum’s costume Collection, including a button shaped like a fish, and a dress and jacket from 1962, the year the 62 group was formed this is a portrait of my sister, Jean, first aged 17, then aged 67.
The clock on the wall shows 2.05 am whilst the wrist watch is set at a later time to indicate the passing of time.
The side panels are made up from labels showing more items from the Collection .
They also reference personal, national and global events from the past 50 years .
Family with Fish 2011
RIP Grimsby St E2
RIP Grimsby St E2
mixed media • hand and machine stitch with acrylic paint
size 70 x 100 cms
An analogy between two different eras and two different environments, which nonetheless share a name and a sense of loss. Three friends, one carrying a fish, explore one lost environment, Grimsby Street, London, E2 whilst hailing from another. 1930s Grimsby (Lincolnshire) girls meet London 2012.
Girl with a patterned Dress 2012
Study for Tea Party 2012
Girl with a Bow 2012
Study for Some Things 2012
Auntie Madge 2012
Study for East End Girls 2012
Study for Double Take 2012
Girl’s Day Out for Hilda, Nellie and Ida
Girl’s Day Out in the East End for Hilda, Nellie and Ida 2012
mixed media • hand and machine stitch with acrylic paint
size 128 x 102 cms
Exploring displacement using old family photographs, images of distant relatives I never knew, cut into to a modern day environs, Girls Day Out enquires into and questions, the sense of belonging/not belonging whilst referencing the passing of time and the transience of life itself.
East End Girls
East End Girls • aka Alice, Madge and Muriel 2012
mixed media • hand and machine stitch with acrylic paint
size 128 x 102 cms
Combining the then and now, evoking a sense of the journey in between produces an ‘at first glance’, homely domestic situation, three women with their dog. On closer inspection abandoned sofas, graffiti, the dilapidation in the slightly surreal composition create an allusion to the circumstance of the women portrayed.
Retrospective • an Archive of Work 2017
Retrospective • an Archive of work 2016
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2015
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2013/14
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2011/12
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2009/10
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2007/8
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2003 to 2006
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Retrospective • an archive of work from 2009/10
Woman with a Fish Solo Exhibition 2009
This exhibition was an observation of the Grimsby fishing Industry from a personal perspective. Many of the pieces in this exhibition tell a story, of experiences and memories from my childhood, of the ‘then’ and ‘now’ and sometimes the journey in between.
Woman with a Fish ’09 ( featured image above) is the second version I have done of Woman with a Fish . The first which is much smaller was on tour in Europe from March ’08 to November ‘09 with the Embroiderers’ Guild ‘ Art of the Stitch’ International Biennial Exhibition .The original idea came from an illustration done by my husband David Pitcher in the 1970s when he was a student at St Martins School of Art in London. I felt it was such a great idea and as the original illustration had been lost, I felt it was both a name and an image worth reviving. My pieces ‘ Closed’ and ‘ East End Chair’’ are actually closer in composition to the original but this one shares its name. This piece portrays my maternal grandmother Annie Jane Smith standing outside her terraced house in Columbia Road, Grimsby. She is cradling a fish in her arms. The fish symbolises the great importance of the fishing industry to the town and what it meant to be part of it . Grimsby was at one time the largest fishing port in world, the‘ Klondyke of the East Coast’, alas no more.
Fred and Harry on the Pontoon • 60 x 46 cms
Skipper Johannes Hansen 2009 • 40 x 46 cms
Woman with a Fish 2009 – photo by Steve Thornton
A Parcel of Fish
The Braiding Shed
A Parcel of Fish
A Mug of Ship’s Tea • below
In the 1950s Grimsby’s fish docks were very familiar for me as my father Fred Stone worked there as a fish merchant and as a young child I remember being taken on board a trawler by him and meeting the crew who showed us around the ship. It made a huge impact on me as I was fascinated to see how the men managed to live and work in such a confined space for their long and dangerous trips at sea and it is one of my earliest memories of the fish docks. I have a vivid memory of being given a drink of milky tea in an enormous enamel mug and when I went to school the following Monday we were asked to write a story about what we did at the weekend . My story went like this. ‘ At the weekend I went on a trawler with my Dad and I had a mug of ‘ship’s tea’. That memory is captured in this piece of work which shows me with the mug of tea and my father, Fred standing by a trawler with the crew looking on in the background.
A Mug of Ship’s Tea 2008 • 30 x 46 cms
Life on the Coast Exhibition 2009/10
The touring textile exhibition ‘Life on the Coast’ was designed to preserve a record of the artist’s childhood whilst capturing a glimpse of social history, and celebrating the lives of some of the people involved in the fishing industry.
The project which was supported by the National Lottery, through Arts Council England began at the Campden Gallery in Nov/Dec 2009 and continued during April 1st to May 31st 2010 at concurrent exhibitions at the Fishing Heritage Centre and Gate Gallery, Grimsby
SKEGNESS BEACH
Humberston Fences
Behind the Fitties
All the work in this exhibition had some connection to my life and environment . Combining hand and machine stitch my work is often figurative, usually narrative and sometimes has a surreal sense of humour. I use thread and stitch as a means of mark making and all its facets; line/colour/texture/tone,the stitches multiplying until the image is complete. My family have close connections with the fishing industry as my husband’s grandfather was a skipper and my own father was a fish merchant so I spent many hours ‘down dock‘ as a child and I have always loved the much underrated Lincolnshire coast where my family holidays were spent. The exhibition was divided into two parts.
At Play
In the 1950s many families from Grimsby holidayed along the Lincolnshire coast from Humberston Fitties down to Skegness . It was commonplace for the father to carry on working whilst the womenfolk and children were on holiday. In my family my Dad used to take us to Chapel St Leonards on a Saturday, go back to Grimsby to run his business all week and then collect us again the following Saturday. In my husband’s family his Dad ferried them to the Humberston Fitties one at a time on his scooter and then commuted every day to Titans to work as a sign writer.
Haille Sands Fort
The Humber Forts are two large fortifications in the mouth of the Humber estuary. They were built in 1914 to protect the entrance to the estuary. They stand 18 metres above the water and have a diameter of 25 metres. There was accommodation for 200 soldiers. They took three years to build and construction finished at almost the same time as the First World War. During the second World War they remained as a deterrent and were regularly attacked by enemy aircraft. During this time a netting was put up to prevent enemy submarines traveling up the estuary to Grimsby or Hull.
Haile Sand Fort is around the low water mark between Humberston and Cleethorpes on the coast of Lincolnshire
At Work
In the 1950s, Grimsby was the largest and busiest fishing port in the world and was known as ‘ The Klondyke of the East Coast’. As a result of the Cod Wars with Iceland this industry has been in decline for many years. The port is still home to the largest fish market in the UK although most of what is sold is now brought overland from other ports or even overseas in containers.
The Braiding Room hanging (below) portrays several women braiding nets . Amongst those depicted here are Maureen Brown ( in the fore ground) , Ivy Venney, Marie Alcock, Edy French, and Beattie Kinnaird. In memory of Maureen Brown on whose original photograph this hanging is based.
The Braiding Room
Retrospective • an Archive of Work 2017
Retrospective • an Archive of work 2016
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2015
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2013/14
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2011/12
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2009/10
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2007/8
Retrospective • An Archive of work from 2003 to 2006
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From Conception to Creation
Read about the making of my piece ‘The Unknown Statistic’ at Textileartist.org
Detail of the Unknown Statistic
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A Taste of Seville – Part 2
The Tiles of the Alcazar Real
The Alcázar Real of Seville encapsulates the historical evolution of the city during the last millennium, amalgamating influences starting from the Arabic period, late Middle Ages Mudéjar right through to the Renaissance, Baroque and the XIX century.
The tiles at the Alcazar Real are incredible and they are everywhere floors, walls, ceilings,and also outside in the gardens!. Here is just a flavour of what we saw. Truly inspirational.
Read more about this incredible Palace here
Tiles Alcazar Real, Seville
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Ebb & Flow • Behind the Scenes
Portrait of a Grimsby Girl
The opening of the 62 Group Ebb & Flow exhibition is getting closer but the project itself has been almost two years in the planning.
It started with an invitation from Grimsby Minster to show our work in the Minster which is a busy and vibrant resource for the people of North East Lincolnshire, an “architectural gem” tracing its history on this site for more than 900 years. I soon realised, however, that because we are such a large group of very diverse artists that there would not be enough suitable hanging space and display for smaller 3D work in the Minster for all of our work to be shown.
A second venue was sort and we were offered the upper floor, the mezzanine, of the Muriel Barker Gallery at the Fishing Heritage Centre in Grimsby. The Grimsby Fishing Heritage Centre was purpose built and opened in 1991. Its permanent exhibition tells the story of the Grimsby Fishing Industry in its heyday in the1950s. The white-walled space at the Fishing Heritage Centre contrasts nicely with the grandeur of the Minster.
Lucy Brown
All at Sea
The Ross Tiger, GY398, is an ex-working 1950’s trawler and the largest item in the heritage collections. Lucy Brown, one of our exhibiting members has made site specific work to be shown on board the Tiger. The image left shows Lucy’s ‘sea bags’ which will be installed around the living quarters on the Tiger. Once the venues were in place we worked on the detail of the project and funding bid to Arts Council England by Grimsby Minster which was successful. This enabled us to work with freelance writer and curator, June Hill who has been on hand to advise the group throughout the project and who will be opening the exhibition on 13th September. It also helped the group to put together a full education programme and to produce a full colour catalogue with professional photography which will be on sale at both venues.
Details of our education programme can be found here. Many of our members visited Grimsby in February when we were given a tour of both venues and of the museum collections store. All of our exhibitions are selected by a selection panel of 5. The panel is different for each exhibition and can include a representative from the venue. The selection process has now been completed and 37 pieces of work were selected for the exhibition made by 28 artists.
Photography Day at the Minster
This week we also completed the photography for the catalogue which is now in the design stages. The catalogue will be on sale at both venues.
The photographer for the majority of the pieces is David Ramkalawon who came to Grimsby from London for 2 days to photograph work at both venues.
The snap left shows David photographing work in Grimsby Minster.
Next week the hanging process begins. Watch this space for more ‘behind the scenes’ glimpses of Ebb & Flow.
womanwithafish 