Website: www.forestandthreads.com
Email: linda.balding54@gmail.com
Linda is a Textile Artist, Printmaker and Arts Educator with a Diploma of Art Education & Cert Gifted Ed Primary. After completing her training at A M CAE (now
Uni of NSW School of Art & Design she took up a scholarship to study printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, Hungary. Returning to Australia she began teaching art in secondary schools while continuing her own art practice. She has worked for the last 20 years as an Education Officer at Bundanon, artist Arthur Boyd’s property near Nowra NSW, gifted to the nation in 1993, and still enjoys working with visiting student groups and helping to inspire the next generation of young artists.
Her works are semi-abstract and often focus on subtle colours and patterns in the natural surroundings and the micro environment. She paints and prints on silk and other fabrics and uses stitch and collage to interpret these patterns and explore the colours of the bush, sometimes focusing on close up detail. Eco dying has been a feature of more recent work, with beautiful colours and patterns achieved with bark, gum leaves andnother plant material and then embellished with print and hand and machine stitching.
As a Textile Artist and Printmaker, Linda is also a member of ATASDA and Megalo Print Studio ACT and has participated in many Fibre Forums over the years. Linda has works in collections of Craft Council NSW, Bundanon and Shoalhaven City Council and with Private Collectors in Australia and New Zealand. She is a regular exhibitor in group and solo exhibitions.
Shadows from the Peach Tree
Price: NFS
Dimensions: 74 x 49cm (H x W)
Statement: I sat on the back verandah at Meroogal and noticed the shadows across the laundry window. The panes of glass had been painted white ( for privacy? ) but were scratched and worn and marked by time and provided no clear view inside. I was in the present, and the window was a symbol of a view into the past and the history and memories of the generations of women that lived there, and shadows of the past is often all that remains.
Exhibitions: Meeroogal Women’s Art Prize 2020
After the Rain
Price: $250
Dimensions: 40x40cm (H x W)
Statement: After years of drought across the country and a scorching, fire ravaged summer the rain finally came. On the coast green now dominates the landscape and crops are thriving.
Photographer: Cassandra Balding
Inside the Courtyard – Budapest 1977
Price: $350
Dimensions: 80 x 53 cm (H x W)
Statement: From a photo taken 1977, looking through the arch way of a dilapidated apartment building, it is a sneak peek at what is usually behind closed doors. Eco dyed silk is used to create varied tones of the peeling paint and cobbled courtyard. Screenprinted entry archway & doors. Hand painted.
Exhibitions: ATASDA In The Making Exhibition – Theme – Look Inside Stanmore 2023
Forest Dawn
Price: $400
Dimensions: 50 x 40cm (H x W)
Statement: Inspired by my forest surroundings where I live this work attempts to capture those first rays of sun light filtering through the gum leaves in the early morning. Screen printed gum leaves on cotton fabric, hand painted and machine quilted.
Exhibitions: ATASDA 50th Anniversary Exhibition – A Touch of Gold – Willoughby Art Space 2024
Forest Surprise
Price: $650
Dimensions: 135 x 94cm (H x W)
Statement: The forest is forever Unfolding, revealing the birds, animals and flowers within. Screen printed patterned fabric, zipper windows, woollen threads, padded and machine quilted. When hung the work can be revealed slowly or displayed showing all its inhabitants.
ExhibitionsAQIPP 2023 – Theme -Unfolding, Concealed,Revealed. Box Hill Melbourne.
