Jane Brooks

Inspiration for my creative work comes from landscape and nature. Currently  this interest focuses on seasonal time and making work which celebrates it. I  like to be out of doors, walking or drawing, there I see certain colours and  marks in the natural world that appeal. These are the beginning of a personal  journey, exploring, listing or collecting examples of both the mark and colour.  Usually this preliminary and development work happens in a sketchbook and  is an area of art and design that I find most pleasurable. Following on from  the sketchbooks my response to a particular locality and environment  evolves into abstracted images or design on textiles. 
I have a growing desire to explore the way and how textiles or quilts are  constructed. When looking at the front, which is the surface intended to be  seen, I find I’m beginning to ask the question, “what is happening behind, at  the back and in the middle? Is there more, and can seeing the methods of  making add to the visual understanding of the work”? 
As an environmental consideration I try to use up-cycled cloth and threads.  
Originally I trained as a printmaker, however during the past two years I’ve  developed an interest in hand stitch and in slow stitch. This is a direction and  ethos that I want to continue to develop. I will be intrigued to discover the  creative path that working in this way will take me.