Having lived all my life in the Lincolnshire countryside surrounded by flowers and nature, I have been inspired by the colours and shapes that the natural world brings. I love bright colours and I am fascinated by the variation in texture and form that plants impart which in turn influences my work.
I am full of ideas and I am always making things, I can find uses for unwanted fabrics and yarns and enjoy the challenge to produce something beautiful and unusual out of discarded scraps.
In this Hi-Tech age of hustle and bustle, I find myself increasingly pre-occupied in keeping alive traditional sewing and knitting skills and values that have been passed down to me. I believe these qualities should be preserved for future generations. I hate the throwaway society that we have now become, but embrace the “make do and mend” attitude that our ancestors believed in.
My original artwork disciplines mainly focus on painting (including my love of miniature paintings) and textile art (including creative knitting and hand embroidery).
My career has been varied but has always centred on my artistic abilities. Having qualified as a textile artist, I started out designing and manufacturing knitted fashions, and then moved on to teaching both adults & primary school children. The latter encompassed a wide variety of art and design techniques from textiles and fashion to fine art and theatre design. I have spent over 10 years painting miniature dolls house paintings which have been bought by dolls house enthusiasts worldwide. My appreciation of past artists grows daily. The art movements I particularly enjoy are the Pre-Raphaelites, Impressionists, Rococo, Romantic and Baroque. Very classical tastes!
I am interested in history and love to explore historical buildings. Fashions of the past also fascinate me and, as I learnt how to pattern cut in my younger days, I find the methods of construction used in these garments intriguing.
I am also a keen gardener and love a garden full of flowers as this in turn attracts wildlife. My garden provides me with great inspiration and I delight in capturing the unusual life of the garden with photography. Growing vegetables and herbs enhances my culinary creations as I am a lover of all things homemade.
In recent years greeting card design, painting and creative knitting have been my main focus, I feel I have come back to my original passion for mixed media, (artwork in which more than one medium has been employed), this has brought a new sense of freedom to my art and design.
Kay A Burton
