Lesley Coles: Guest Post
Through a series of guest posts, I am exploring Nature Connection and how different people experience and connect with the natural world.
In this post, Lesley Coles, a textile artist, will share her experiences and how they inspire her beautiful artwork.
I was brought up walking and cycling in the country. We learnt the names of birds and wild flowers as we walked. When I was about 7 we moved to a new home, we had apple trees in the garden with one right outside the dining room window. We hung a piece of beef fat for the birds here-usually blue tits, sometimes great tits. I loved watching them.
At junior school I loved the nature table and was keen to contribute my finds. Broken Bird eggs we found under the hedges, and an old birds nest one winter after the hedge had lost its’ leaves.
At senior school we could choose to take part in holiday competitions set up by the biology teacher. One year I found a small shrews’ skeleton. I carefully dissected it and laid it out for display, naming the parts I knew, or could find out from books my parents had. Another year I wrote and illustrated a diary of a blackbird, observing 2 blackbirds that built their nest in a neighbours’ hedge and laid a clutch of eggs, through till the babies hatched, fledged and flew the nest. Trouble was on the front I had written the Dairy of a Blackbird! (That was very embarrassing.)
I won several prizes including a wonderful tin box of Derwent watercolour paints. Although they were well used I still have and occasionally use them, with replacement water colour palettes in most colours.
I had various jobs over the years, including training and working as a Nursery Nurse. At the Nursery where I trained we had a nature table to encourage the children to find and display their finds. When my own children were older I went back to train as a teacher of adults. I taught textiles specialising in patchwork and quilting, stitching by hand as well as machine. I continued to enjoy drawing and painting, but also sewing.
I have been inspired by other textile artists including Cas Holmes. I started stitching hares and birds, for friends’ cards and later Birthday gifts. I have also sold a few. I like using scraps and recycled fabrics, some of which I have dyed. I start by drawing from my own photographs or referencing images in books or on the internet. They are my own interpretation rather than copies.
Once I have a simple drawing, I trace this onto household greaseproof paper and use it as the foundation for my stitched work. When my granddaughter, Jess was about 8 she wanted to do a horse picture, so I helped her choose her fabric and thread. I told her she was drawing with her needle.
Jess has done several fabric pieces, but like her father prefers to draw as she has got older. She included birds as part of her GCSE course work, in 2019. For a very short while she considered taking an Art course, but settled on Jockey training instead, but still loves drawing and the great outdoors.
As I have been able to walk locally during lockdown, I continue to take my photographs, draw and stitch a bit. If I lived on my own I would probably stitch all day when the urge took me, but having a husband who loves outdoors and walking regularly it is fitted in around other things. Having said that, these times provide inspiration that feeds my creative urge. Living in Cornwall has defined many of the pieces I have stitched.
I love sharing my passion for textiles with others and although I will be 72 this summer I had still been teaching until the pandemic stopped us meeting together. I hope that I will be able to go back to teaching again, only time will tell. But one thing I know is I will continue to stitch as long as I am able.
Lesley Coles, 2021
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