Sue Lawty

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Elements: earth fire 2020

Elements: wood metal 2020

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Gaze 2021

Warp, weft, stitch, thread 2021

Find, make 2021

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Fibre: structure and surface 2022

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Rhythm, repetition, a limited colour palette and the austerity of working with the least number of components continue to be essential elements in Sue Lawty’s oeuvre. Lightness of touch, where every note counts, is key to her meticulous exploration of the material qualities that are inherently given by the substance she chooses to work with – her works quietly drawing the viewer in to observe the most subtle of nuances.

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Her woven work, in this case small, tight and firm, is also informed by the intrinsic relationship between the structure of weaving and the fibres chosen – as Anni Albers stated over fifty years ago... ‘the engineering task of building up a fabric ...’the inner structure together with its effects on the outside ... developing the vocabulary of tactile language.’

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For this series: Notes On Blue, Sue Lawty commissioned a range of her linen and hemp threads to be hand dyed by Jeanette Orrell in Wales. She purposely requested a range of unevenly dyed shades across the tonal spectrum and is now working intuitively, reading and learning how these tones can work together. In II – V of the first five tapestries in this series, she selects some of the palest tones from the exhaust dye bath to be woven alongside a fine natural linen thread.

In Notes On Blue I, the coloured threads are from a previously guarded small, precious reserve of dyed linen that Sue Lawty created alongside a weaver in Tasmania back in the mid ‘80’s, with the aim of creating ‘barely there shades’.

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Lawty’s works are in collections worldwide including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

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