INSPIRATION
Siân Martin uses textiles to convey movement and layering in her art. As well as the natural beauty of the landscape, her work makes connections with ideas of conservation.
MATERIALS
Siân uses cloth, paper and stitch to make textiles inspired by places and events within her home environment of Somerset, and in particular the moors and wetland areas.
She includes non textile materials such as locally grown willow and uses the natural environment to weather and colour fabrics. She works on experimental ways of joining multiple shapes to create illusions of movement and sometimes actual movement.
EXPERIENCE
Siân Martin has been a maker of textile art since she graduated from Birmingham Polytechnic in 1972 with a BA Hons and MA in Embroidery. She exhibits with the 62 Group of Textile Artists and the Textile Study Group. After graduating from Birmingham, Siân gained her Art Teachers Diploma from the University of Leicester. She enjoys teaching and encouraging others to experiment and explore their ideas through textiles. She offers individual mentoring and mentors a small group of committed textile students – Stitch Textile Artists.
Siân offers textile workshops and lectures to Embroiderers’ Guild Branches and Textile Groups both in this country and abroad. She is the director of ‘Distant Stitch’, which offers a range of online Courses in Embroidery.
Exhibitions
Siân Martin has been a maker of textile art since she graduated from Birmingham Polytechnic. She contributes to the ’62 Group of Textile Artists’ and the ‘Textile Study Groups’, exhibiting in the UK, Sweden, Paris, Tokyo. She also exhibits in and around Somerset with two fellow artists – ‘Artwork Together ‘
‘CONVERSATIONS‘ – 62 Group of Textile Artists – St Barbes Museum & Art Gallery, Lymington
‘CHANGE MATTERS‘ – Artwork Together – Town Mill Gallery, Lyme Regis, Dorset 2020 -Bridgwater Arts Centre, Somerset
‘CHANGE‘ – Artwork Together – CICCIC, Taunton, Somerset
INSIGHTS – Textile Study Group – Festival of Quilts
Ctrl/Alt – 62 Group of Textile Artists – Touring
DIS/rupt – Textile Study Group – touring
62@50 – 62 Group of Textile Artists – Holden Gallery, Manchester
INTERVENTIONS – 62 Group of Textile Artists – Platt Hall, Manchester
SURFACE TENSION – Textile Study Group – Knitting and Stitching Shows
AT A TANGENT – 62 Group of Textile Artists – Gallery Oldham
VISUAL THINKING – UNPICKED – Textile Study Group – The Hub Centre, Lincolnshire
BENDING THE LINE – 62 Group of Textile Artists, The Hub Centre, Lincolnshire then touring to Amsterdam and Collins Gallery, Glasgow
9e TRIENNALE INTERNATIONALE DES MINI-TEXTILES, Angers, France, touring to Quebec and San Cugat, Spain. ‘Secheresse’ bought by Musée d’Angers for permanent collection.
PFAFF ART EMBROIDERY CHALLENGE – UK Knitting and Stitching Show and then touring to Paris and around Europe.
Teaching
Siân lectures and presents workshops in the UK including Art in the Frame, Jersey and Plas Tan y Bwlch Study Centre, North Wales and further afield in Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada and Israel. She also tutors workshops at the Textile Study Group Summer School.
Siân mentors a group of textile artists at a bi-annual residential masterclass near Bath, Wiltshire.
She also runs an online textile course – Distant Stitch – designed and tutored by her. Siân offers personal online mentoring sessions to individuals.
Siân offers a textile workshop here called ‘In the bag’ and often uses Facebook and Instagram to engage and encourage others to be creative.
Publications
Fragmentation and Repair by Shelley Rhodes 2022
Insights by the Textile Study Group 2020
Textile Landscapes by Cas Holmes 2018
DIS/rupt by the Textile Study Group 2017
Traces of Life 2015
Approaches to Stitch by Maggie Grey 2013
Radical Thread 1962-2012 The 62 Group Celebrates
African Inspirations in Embroidery by Mary Sleigh 2004
Textile Aspects by the 62 Group
Creating Sketchbooks for Embroiderers and Textile Artists by Kay Greenlees
From Image to Stitch by Maggie Grey
Inspiration to Stitch by Bailey Curtis 2003
Fibre Visions by Fibre.Art.Wales. 2002
Starting to Stitch (Batsford) edited by Val Campbell-Harding
Contemporary British Textile Art by the 62 Group
Constance Howard’s ‘20th Century Embroidery in GB from 1978’
‘Embroidery’, ‘Stitch’, ‘Be Creative with Workbox’, ‘Classic Stitches’,
Celebrity Artist Interview Workshop on the Web and ’textileart.org‘