Embroidery - Beyond the Hoop

Solo Exhibition of New Work by Textile Artist ASarah Michelle

Painter and textile artist Sarah Michelle predominantly features women in her work.  Her tattooed images are pantings in acrylic with embroidered tattoos.  Whilst quite different in characgter from her delicate stitched illustrations, they nonetheless form a cohesive body of work that investigates femininity in many different guieses, and explores fashion and texture using many different techniques. 

Sarah Michelle is interested in alternative portrayals of women that challenge traditional notions of beauty and directly confront the unrealistic and airbrushed images that appear in the media.  Her body positive series first emerged in 2018 and the whole of that set of pieces sold out.  For this exhibition she has produced new body positive pieces that celebrate the female form.

The reference to the Hoop is both allegorical - a nod to the heritage and history of the relationship between women and stitching - and real as Sarah has recently completed a series of pieces that are left in their hoops - the hoop forming the frame for the piece.  This exhibition also features new stitched pieces in A4 and A3 formats - a hybrid mix between life drawing and fashion illustration, but completed entirely in stitch and applique.