The Poetry of Stitch Competition
Age 11 to 15
Jan Beaney
Jan was born in London, England. She trained as a painter and lithographer before falling in love with textile art.
Landscape in all its forms has fascinated Jan for several decades. Fleeting changes of light and subtle nuances continually intrigue and challenge her to create work where elements have been simplified or exaggerated whilst still retaining it entity.
Her aim is to create a simple image that captures the essence of the place along with accumulated memories and emotions experienced at a particular time. Most of her recent work has been created using hand and machine stitching on soluble film to create a new cloth. In some instances, this is further developed with more stitching, beading or the use of an embellishing machine to integrate certain aspects of the piece.
Jan continues to experiment and develop new techniques.
Her work has been exhibited and sold in the UK, USA, Australia, Germany, Israel, Japan and many other parts of the world.
Jan has become one of the best-known teachers of textile art and has held workshops in the UK, across Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Find out more: www.62group.org.uk/artist/jan-beaney
Out of Chaos
2023
Layer upon layer of hand and machine stitchery on a cotton ground.
Creative Prompt
The title of this work suggests something beautiful arriving out of chaos, like a rainbow after a storm. The word chaos comes from ancient Greek, referring to the abyss or emptiness which existed before life came into being. Today we use chaos to mean disorder, confusion or unpredictability.
Do you prefer life to be certain and know what is happening next, or do you prefer randomness?
Can you contain chaos with rules and do beautiful things follow difficult events?
Put your thoughts and ideas into a poem, maybe focusing on one particular life event or on a general sense of disarray.
Created by Marina Castledine, Creative Learning Consultant Fiona.