Banksia Spill

Ruth de Vos states: 'I work from my beautiful home studio in the Perth hills, in Western Australia. I am an artist. I stitch hundreds of little pieces of hand-dyed fabric together to make bold textile paintings. With a riot of colour and form the artworks were created in order to enjoy and capture the wonder of small children discovering this awesome world. Observing small children notice budding flowers, snail trails, ripening fruit, textured leaves, floating bubbles, dripping rain and pencil marks on paper for the first time is a wonderful reminder of just how special these ordinary things are. In an effort to retain some of that wide-eyed wonder myself and to share it with others, my current body of vibrant quilted textiles incorporate traditional patchwork and quilting techniques in a contemporary way to powerfully record the learning experiences of little children. I obtain my artistic inspiration from God’s creation. I find inspiration to explore new ideas and designs in the way that everything works and fits together in this world – the laws of nature, the interrelationships between animals, and between plants and animals, and the role of man in the natural world. I also enjoys the challenge of pushing to their limits my sewing machine and the range of materials and techniques I have available to me. I hand-dye much of the fabric I use for my quilt tops. The art quilts are pieced by machine in a process not too far removed from traditional patchwork techniques. Every artwork is completed with intensive machine stitching to quilt the layers of the piece together, as well as to add interest through texture and embroidered patterns.'