Visit this garden studio to see original artwork, hand-made with dyed fibres and full of vibrant colour.
See how Ushma uses wool, silk, cocoons, flax, nylon and other fibres to create her pictures. See and touch how the fibres vary in texture and properties and find out how this influences the choice of materials in each piece.
New work to see this year includes a new series exploring mental health. This project came about during the later lockdowns and uses floral themes, colour and texture to evoke moods and emotions as they change through the year.
The lockdowns gave many artists the opportunity to grow and change and the pieces Ushma created in this time reflect a change to larger, more detailed and experimental work both in representational landscape and abstraction. Do take the opportunity to see these in person as so much about textile work doesn't come through in photographs or videos - a bit like not being able to smell food on a cookery show!
Living on the Ridgeway National Trail, where Wiltshire and Oxfordshire meet, Ushma Sargeant creates evocative textile art reflecting the stunning landscapes which surrounds her
Ushma says of the Ridgeway, “you can see for miles, and I can’t get over the changeability of the views; the light can change in minutes altering the view completely. You can stand with a camera taking a dozen pictures in ten minutes to find they look like different scenes, the changing seasons are fascinating as well, with seasonal flowering bringing dramatic colours into the landscape.” This inconsistency is an interesting contrast in a place with such a long history, where the essence of the view has remained the same for centuries.
The pieces Ushma creates depict this rural England in a medium which captures light, depth and texture better than she feels she could achieve with paint. As she says, “When ‘painting’ landscape views in fibre, capturing light, shadows, depth and texture is almost done for me by the fibre.”
Having started using fibre in her work in 2015, Ushma is continuously exploring new techniques to achieve the desired effect. She uses a variety of fibres including wool, silk, camel, alpaca, llama, angora, flax, seaweed, bamboo and acrylic, always looking for the right fibre and texture for the detail and enjoying the challenge of learning new techniques.
As well as the landscapes, Ushma has been exploring the use of fibres, colour and texture in a more abstract way and how these can reflect mood and emotions.