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 Jean
Collyer BSc. Hons - Textile Artist. In the distant past Jean trained in Botany and Zoology, spending countless hours making drawings from natural specimens, little appreciating the full value this training would prove. Now, Jean uses the shapes, textures and colours of natural forms to translate into textiles, using fabric, paints and stitch. More recently, Jean began to show her work in major exhibitions and found success with her mixed media wall pieces. She entered the International Quilt Festival in Nagoya, Japan, submitting five wall quilts and was astounded to learn that she had won prizes with four of them. They were later exhibited in Japan's Expo and are now owned by the International Quilt Festival Committee. With success like that, she was hooked on exhibition, so, in 2002, as a new immigrant to Australia Jean looked for and found in the beautiful Southern Highlands of NSW, both a textile group to join and a gallery in which to exhibit. In 2004 Jean gained the People's Choice Award in the Goulburn Regional Art Award Exhibition with two large textile pictures of flowers in their natural settings. In 2005 she was again voted People's Choice with two panels showing her impressions of the seashore, and in 2006 her large wall hanging of the rainforest and two other pictures took the People's Choice Award for an unprecedented third time. Jean's work is in private collections in the UK. USA and Australia and one of her embroidered panels is on permanent display in the Bowral Library, having been purchased by the Friends of Wingeecarribee Libraries.  Making textile art and teaching others has become more than a hobby, it is now Jean's passion and way of life - insomnia is never a problem, waking at 3.00 am is just another opportunity to plan or develop one of her myriad projects - too many projects, too many ideas to experiment with - but never boredom! |