Website: www.forestandthreads.com
Email: quiltmakers@ozquiltnetwork.org.au
Linda is a Textile Artist, Printmaker and Arts Educator with a Diploma of Art Education & Cert Gifted Ed Primary. After completing her training at A M CAE (now
Uni of NSW School of Art & Design she took up a scholarship to study printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, Hungary. Returning to Australia she began teaching art in secondary schools while continuing her own art practice. She has worked for the last 20 years as an Education Officer at Bundanon, artist Arthur Boyd’s property near Nowra NSW, gifted to the nation in 1993, and still enjoys working with visiting student groups and helping to inspire the next generation of young artists.
Her works are semi-abstract and often focus on subtle colours and patterns in the natural surroundings and the micro environment. She paints and prints on silk and other fabrics and uses stitch and collage to interpret these patterns and explore the colours of the bush, sometimes focusing on close up detail. Eco dying has been a feature of more recent work, with beautiful colours and patterns achieved with bark, gum leaves andnother plant material and then embellished with print and hand and machine stitching.
As a Textile Artist and Printmaker Linda is also a member of ATASDA and Megalo Print Studio ACT and has participated in many Fibre Forums over the years. Linda has works in collections of Craft Council NSW, Bundanon and Shoalhaven City Council and with Private Collectors in Australia and New Zealand. She is a regular exhibitor in
group and solo exhibitions.
Shadows from the Peach Tree
Price: NFS
Dimensions: 74 x 49cm (H x W)
Statement: I sat on the back verandah at Meroogal and noticed the shadows across the laundry window. The panes of glass had been painted white ( for privacy? ) but were scratched and worn and marked by time and provided no clear view inside. I was in the present, and the window was a symbol of a view into the past and the history and memories of the generations of women that lived there, and shadows of the past is often all that remains.
Exhibitions: Meeroogal Women’s Art Prize 2020
After the Rain
Price: $250
Dimensions: 40x40cm (H x W)
Statement: After years of drought across the country and a scorching, fire ravaged summer the rain finally came. On the coast green now dominates the landscape and crops are thriving.
Photographer: Cassandra Balding
The Past Reimagined
Price: $800
Dimensions: 117 x 117cm (H x W)
Statement: This work was inspired by an old Roman floor mosaic in a church in Turkey. Weathered and worn by centuries of use, the subtle colour changes achieved by the eco dye process emulate the damage and decay, also echoed in the changes to the symmetry of design.
Exhibitions: Australian Quilts in Public Places 2021
Life Force
Price: $380
Dimensions: 90 x 68cm (H x W)
Statement: The Tree is a potent symbolof life, providing shelter and clean air in a healthy environment. On a personal level to develop well we are influenced by previous generations,culturally, genetically and physically. We absorb all these traits and experiences as the tree absorbs sustenance through its roots. .
Exhibitions: Megalo Members 2021
Empowered by Family
Price: $200
Dimensions: 25 x 25cm (H x W)
Statement: The River is a symbol for me of all the past generations who have genetically and personally made me who I am. Three branches of the river, my children, the red thread my husband and I. Now with grandchildren we are empowered to be a nurturing example for them.
Exhibitions: One Red Thread – Empowered M M Huskisson 21
© Linda Balding
