March Meeting - Anne Brooke from A-Z and back...

A chilly March evening saw us settle down to a talk from our own member and treasurer Anne Brooke. Anne is head of art at a local high school, mother of two girls, and producer of a prodigious amount of textile art! 
Despite the best efforts of her father, Anne left school and did a foundation course in Art. Being short of funds, Anne tried to use available materials and recycle where possible, and this aim has remained with her - even now she is to be found prowling the aisles of DIY stores "recovering" wallpaper samples and reusing clothing found in charity shops. 
Abandoning her initial aim to become a primary school teacher, Anne began her teaching career at a secondary school in Lincoln. This led to her doing a photography course and also exploring felt-making, which piqued her interest in textile art, an area she had not previously explored in any depth. 

Several years of workshops and experimentation later, Anne came across a City and Guilds stand at a textile show, and started a distance learning course which allowed her to use up many of the UFOs (unfinished objects...) that we all have lying around. She showed us some of the felt vessels which had been her reaction to criticism from her tutor about using muted colours (above).
Learning that the textile course was being wound up, having to complete four modules in three months led to Anne concentrating on the kind of work she liked. This piece, using limpets as a theme, saw her return to the use of puff paint - a favoured medium. You can see from this picture that Anne's work is multi-layered and uses many techniques, along with hand and machine embroidery. 

Since completing her City and Guilds, Anne concentrated on seed pods as the main theme for her work - as subject which has always fascinated her. 

Working in mixed media, she has entered her work into many exhibitions which has led to her being invited to exhibit in galleries throughout the country. She has also had stalls at such shows as Art in the Pen in Skipton, where she described her excitement at finally selling her first "big piece"!

Below, you can see an example of one of Anne's workbooks - she says that keeping written and illustrated notes on a daily basis helps to develop her ideas. 

Frankly, I do not think there was a member present who was not left feeling shell-shocked (and in my case, inadequate!) by exactly how much Anne manages to cram into her life. Sleep must be a stranger to her! 

She also has a shop on Folksy, a blog (see link on the side bar of this post), and a website, using her working name, "H-anne Made". She continues to work full-time and is currently preparing for further exhibitions, shows and workshops.