Julie Crabtree was born in Nottinghamshire England, attained City and Guilds of London qualifications in Fashion, Textiles and Embroidery at Mansfield College of Arts where she went on to teach before leaving for a life in Canada and eventually the United States.
Along this journey experiencing various aspects of life and skills. She brings this all together as a practicing textile artist, teacher and painter. Primarily a textile artist but more recently painting has become a prevalent passion. “Painting has always been a part of my textile creations, keeping a sketch book journal as a basic working reference to my ongoing projects”.
Landscapes are a primary focus steeped in color, texture, earth, trees, foliage, sea and rocks distorted through time and the extreme elements give an endless inspiration for ideas. From realism to a more recent exploratory textural expression. The immersion of nature with centuries of erosion evokes a desire to create as in the past with needle, thread and paint capturing the feeling and time within the pieces.
Julie travels with sketchbook and camera always at hand whether it be locally, in the woods and hills of her now home in Vermont or as in a recent trip to Orkney and the Outer Hebrides of Scotland which has become a huge influence in her present work. Spending many hours developing ideas, which can include layer upon layer combining stitchery by hand , free motion machine stitching, use of sheers and netting, painted and dyed backgrounds, distressed fabrics, hand spun and dyed yarns, felting, use of soluble stabilizers and other experimental techniques to create the effect and feeling she is striving for.
“I felt a huge connection to the Orkney Islands, its bleak austere land. The magnitude of archeological history; Viking culture, sea and rugged cliffs it is a land to its own with so much to give the artistic soul”. There is so much more to explore. That as an artist we are given this gift to see and create during our time on earth.
