Details
| First Name | Gyllian |
| Last Name | Thomson |
| Username | gyllian |
| Website | |
| Region | Dumfries & Galloway |
| Disciplines | Applied Arts and Craft, Painting |
| Themes | Abstract, Landscape, Portraits |
Statement
| Statement | Tapestry weaving tells a story, the story of weaving itself and story the artist wants to tell. I was trained in the traditional textile technique of tapestry weaving and bent my textile language to my own needs. I graduated in 1995 from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art with a first-class honours degree in Constructed Textiles. My journey took me into teaching but three years ago circumstances allowed me to return to the loom and I am now a very content full time Tapestry artist. My work is my own personal response to what I see in the world round me. I meditate in the view of the land and sea around me. I enjoy the thought and feeling that there are other forces under me and above me that I cannot see but can only feel. As I walk, I am making and thinking, making and marking my thoughts onto the loom. Using textiles is like a tactile literacy. First, I paint then I interpret these into my tapestries using wool, cotton, acrylic, threads, and plastics. I work on an upright scaffold loom and weave painterly marks via warp and weft. Tapestry requires an intimate involvement with the hand and eye in an unaggressive way. It has a quiet strength, a gentleness and a fragility, but it also demands a respect and an admiration. This is why I chose it as my way of expressing myself, it feels like part of me. It is unassuming at first but increasingly demands attention. I live with a chronic pain condition myself and in a way I feel I share some of the fragility of my tapestries. At the same time tapestry gives me strength as I am always in awe of the way it grows from the start to the finished piece. When I look at my work I am caught in a non-judgemental response to the work. It is a happy time and it demands that I challenge myself to create. https://www.gyllianthomsontapestries.co.uk
|
Biography
| Biography |
Education PGCE Art and Design (Secondary Education) 2000-2001 BDES (Hons) First Class in Constructed Textiles with Printmaking Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art 1991-1995 Awards The Independent Advice Centre Award, Glasgow, 2024 Finalist Kate Derum Tapestry Award, Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne, 2024 Edinburgh Printmakers Publishers Award 2022 SSA 130 yrs exhibition Visual Arts Scotland, Scottish Arts Club Award 2022 VACMA bursary 2022 Simon Jersey Tapestry Award first prize winner, Butlers Wharf, London, 1993 Exhibitions The Big Art Show , Paisley, August – November 2024 Collective:15, Peebles Art Gallery, Peebles, July – November 2024 Detail Gallery, Edinburgh, August – September 2024 SSA Threads exhibition, Gala House, Galashiels, July – September 2024 SSA Treasures exhibition , Gairloch Museumand Art Gallery, July – September 2024 Kate Derum exhibition, Melbourne, Australia Heallreaf 5, International and UK exhibition, Shropshire, London and Cumbria, June 2024 – April 2025 Spring Fling Open Studios, Dumfries and Galloway, May 2024 The Whitehouse Gallery, Dreaming in Colour exhibition March 2024 Visual Arts Scotland Centenary exhibition, RSA, Edinburgh 2024 SSA at the RSA, Edinburgh, December / January 2023/4 March 2023 Scottish Arts Club Solo Show Spring Fling June 2022 open studios and virtual studios. Reverb exhibition, Visual Arts Scotland, RSA, Edinburgh February 2022 ‘To the water and the wild ‘, Scottish members of The British Tapestry Group, Aberlady January 2022 ‘Connections’, Group exhibition with Solway Tapestry weavers. Exhibition, Gracefield Arts Centre Dumfries 2021 Work Experience Secondary School Teacher of Art and Design 2001 to present. Teacher of Art for children with impaired capacity 2014-2017 Art Workshop Tutor Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries 2016 Gallery Assistant Compass Gallery Glasgow 1998-2001 Memberships Member of Edge Scotland Ordinary Member of Visual Arts Scotland Member of the Society of Scottish Artists Member of the British Tapestry Group Member of the Dumfries and Galloway Fine Arts Society Member of Applied Arts Scotland Member of Upland CIC Private Collections Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries
|