Artist Profiles > Jan Irvine-Nealie

Jan Irvine-Nealie

Textile Artist

Artist Statement

Although I have trained in drawing and painting, I find a greater satisfaction in expressing my creative imagery in fabric. I enjoy the fall and flow of fabric, and its versatility.

The starting point in my work is a visual image which I express as textile art. The image can be seen for its immediate value or can stimulate reflection on a more abstract, perhaps philosophical concept.

The land is my abiding inspiration. Land exudes energies to nurture and influence the life it sustains. I use landscapes as a dramatic stage for presenting ideas, often reflecting some philosophical or social issue.

While developing my original idea, I reflect my world as I see it and, in this sense, my work is contemporary. But it is the stitching process which satisfies and links me back into the chain of human condition, firmly locating me within a needlework tradition.

The textile processes of airbrushing and stitching through layers deepen the energies in the work, bringing intensity to both image and resulting surface texture. The image of each work is airbrushed with dye onto whole cloth. This dyed top is always quilted, with sweeps and emphases designed to enhance the image. The gentle gathering of stitch creates a textured surface and gives greater depth and interest to the initial image.

April 2006

The markers in her works are the stitches, graphic elements in their own right. As the stitches become more graphic, more reflective of drawn, incised or punctured lines, they create movement that also becomes a freeing element within the works.

Noris Ioannou (1998) Masters of their Craft Craftsman house, Sydney

"Above and Beyond" 2006
720 x 1190 mm framed.

Airbrushed dyed silk, wool filled, hand stitched


Circling high and riding air currents these wheeling birds travel freely above broken terrain. Airborne, they rise above a land-based sense of sliding toward the deep abyss. Juxtaposed against the gravity bound difficulties below, they suggest a lighter, unfettered reality.

"Seacliff, Muriwai" 2006
2004
590 x 1020 mm framed

Airbrushed dyed silk, wool filled, hand stitched


There’s a gannet colony at Muriwai. The birds cover the cliff tops with their nests and have done for generations. When it rains residue is washed from the nests, down the cliff face and into the sea. Where they meet, the elements of sea and residue create suitable conditions for brilliant green algee to flourish. Above it the cliff is glazed buff with guano and below it the sea scours the volcanic rock to a steely grey, but between the buff and steel grey shines a soft and luscious growth of green.

"Blowhole, Muriwai" 2006
2004
620 x 1100 mm framed.

Airbrushed dyed silk, wool filled, hand stitched


The Image here is a reflection on the powerful and persistent force of that most giving element – water. Water’s nature is to flow, to respond by accepting forces acting upon it and to continually seek its own nature. When it comes up against obstacles it continues to express itself – while its path may be obscured, its nature remains true. In its accommodating nature water carries a great and persistent force. Rock is solid, water is fluid, yet water wears rock. Over time, its action against this obstacle of rock has smoothed and eroded an outlet for its pent-up force.