My practice brings together early experiences of domestic textiles and home sewing with a formal fine art education in painting at Ravensbourne College of Art, where postwar British abstraction and Abstract Expressionism became defining influences.

Rooted in an early exposure to thrift and resourcefulness, my work explores what it means to have a material practice in a time of climate change. I draw from experiences with my grandmothers’ and domestic making and from my fine art education which fostered a  love of contemporary abstraction.  Formative years spent overseas, where encounters with new environments, material cultures, and colour have shaped my visual language. Alongside the richness of these experiences, the instability of my early childhood has deeply informed my creative identity.

I am interested in ideas of repair and re-making, comfort, and the meaning of home — and in what ‘progress’ might signify for both humanity and the natural world. Resisting disciplinary hierarchies, I ascribe new value to throwaway materials and scraps, constructing works through screen and monoprint, embroidery, and needlework. Through these materials I explore abstraction as a response to the rhythms and emotions of everyday life.

Textile functions as both form and content in my practice. Underpinning the work are questions of sustainability, textile waste, and the significance of cloth in relation to body, home, and environment. Recent works have introduced figuration and narrative to consider the intimacy of touch and the body’s navigation through the world.

Chance and improvisation play a vital role in my process. The resulting works negotiate uncertainty and fragmentation, driven by an ongoing compulsion to reconstitute, repair, and reclaim.

©maxinesutton 2025