Polly Woolstone – Oxfordshire Artweeks

484 Polly Woolstone

Region: Oxford East – City

Artform: Mixed Media, Painting, Textiles

I studied at Canterbury College of Art and have taught Art and Textiles all my career. Now retired from full-time teaching, I work from my studio in Oxford.
My work reflects my travels – from landscapes in the UK and Ireland to my many visits to India. I try to express both physical and emotional journeys, sometimes incorporating poems and words that resonate.
Working in mixed media, my work combines a love of mark-making, texture and colour.

‘Come Walk with Me’

I have based my recent work on walks I have taken with my sketchbook. Taking words from a poem ‘walk slowly, pausing often’, I have stopped along the way to reflect and to draw. Sometimes I record the landscape, sometimes the marks that I observe.

The coastal reactions of Ireland and the UK have given me much inspiration along with the Ridgeway and the Malvern Hills.

The countryside is full of echoes of the past – a recurring theme in my work ‘..and those who came before…’ and how they have left their mark on the landscape through things such as sunken roads, stone walls, hill forts etc.

In contrast to this I spend some time each year in India with my sketchbook and the colours, stitch-work and fabrics I find are reflected in these pieces.