Oxmarket Gallery

Painting with Wool

Oxmarket Gallery
Chichester, UK
August 5, 2014 – August 17, 2014

An exhibition of hand felted art paintings created by textile artist Paivi Suomi, who works from her studio in Chichester.
Wool and felt wall hangings have traditionally served both as art and with functional purpose to provide insulation to the walls and keep the draught out.

Felt art is very soft and tactile and is meant to be touched.

The images and colours of my world around me are the inspiration to create my art with wool. I hand dye most of my wools, yarns and silk fibres and use locally sourced wools wherever possible. These become the paints that create my canvas. A combination of hand crafting textile techniques: wet felting, dry needle felting, crochet, hand stitching and machine embroidery complete the work.

From an early age, the world of textiles has been Paivi’s passion. She studied hand weaving, hand spinning, felt making and colour theory at Kootenay School of the Arts in British Columbia. Paivi operates a business selling her limited edition hand spun yarns. More recently Paivi has turned her attention to the art of felt making, creating pictures and functional objects with wool.

Some of my felt art pieces are now available at Saatchi Art.

	Colour Study – Concentric Circles, 1913 Wassily Kandinsky Wet felted circles of pure merino wool, embroidered with hand spun yarns Approx size: 36 inches x 25 inches Available on Saatchi Art
	Bavarian Mountains with Village, 1909 Wassily Kandinsky The inspiration for this piece comes from one of Kandinsky’s early works, a scene of a mountain village in Bavaria. The lake becomes a river and the season turned to springtime. Merino wool and silk hand felting using a combination of wet felting and dry needle felting techniques. Embellished with crewel work embroidery and hand stitching. Approx size: 26 inches x 37 inches Available on Saatchi Art
	Winter Landscape, 1909 Wassily Kandinsky Wet felted merino wool and silk fibres, hand dyed Approx. size: 40 inches x 17 inches Available on Saatchi Art
	Starry Night, 1889 Vincent Van Gogh Hand dyed merino wool and silk felted using wet felting methods. Embroidered with machine stitching and silk threads. Approx size: 24 inches x 49 inches Available on Saatchi Art
	Field with Poppies, 1890 Vincent Van Gogh Hand Dyed merino wool and silk feled using wet felting methods. Embroidered with machine stitching and silk threads Approx size: 44 inches x 23 inches Available on Saatchi Art
	Sunflowers, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh Wet felted and hand dyed merino wool and silk. Embroidered with machine stitching and silk threads. Approx. size: 33 inches x 23 inches Available on Saatchi Art