About The Artist

Donna Cheshire is a contemporary textiles artist, she lives and works in Newcastle upon Tyne. Donna trained as a Textile Designer and worked in education before focusing full time on Textile Art.

Her location in the North East of England gives Donna access to the beautiful landscapes of Northumberland, Cumbria, Yorkshire and Scotland. She takes her sketchbook and camera on walking trips, recording the mood, colours and textures of the land and seascapes around her. She combines her love of colour and texture with a passion for walking and experiencing the British landscape, particularly the hills, coastline and wild flowers.
Donna stitches images of a particular time and place, engaging with landscapes that she knows and connects with, using notes and sketches taken on location to inform composition. This process results in powerfully evocative textile art, conjuring the experience of being in the natural environment with cloth and thread

How is the art made?

On her walks, Donna gathers information in sketches, notes and photographs that she takes back to her studio. From these resources she develops her textile art pieces, using hand dyed fabrics and thread to reinterpret her drawings.

Each piece of work evolves from sketchbook, via painting and collage to become a stitched interpretation of the place under scrutiny.

Donna uses recycled fabric, strengthened with craft weight interfacing as her canvas. Onto this, she draws up the composition and then builds up the surface with fragments of dyed fabric. She uses free motion embroidery to secure the fabric and add detail to the piece. Each piece of fabric is like a painter’s brushwork, with the stitched lines adding detail in the manner of a drawn line.

As the piece reaches its final stages, Donna pins it on the wall, so that she can consider any further additions to the piece. This might include applying more machine stitch, painted bondaweb, hand stitch or found objects. Once she is certain that the piece is complete Donna frames the work, with large pieces framed in custom made box frames and smaller work mounted in ready made frames.