Ruth de Vos

Ruth de Vos stitches hundreds of little pieces of hand-dyed fabric together to make bold textile paintings. With a riot of colour and form, the artworks are created in order to enjoy and capture the wonder of small children discovering this awesome world.

Observing small children notice budding flowers, snail trails, ripening fruit, textured leaves, floating bubbles, dripping rain and pencil marks on paper for the first time is a wonderful reminder of just how special these ordinary things are. In an effort to retain some of that wide-eyed wonder herself and to share it with others, Ruth's current body of vibrant quilted textiles incorporate traditional patchwork and quilting techniques in a contemporary way to powerfully record the learning experiences of little children.

Ruth obtains her artistic inspiration through her faith. She finds inspiration to explore new ideas and designs in the way that everything works and fits together in this world – the laws of nature, the interrelationships between animals, and between plants and animals, and the role of humans in the natural world. She also enjoys the challenge of pushing to their limits her sewing machine and the range of materials and techniques she has available to her.

Ruth hand-dyes much of the fabric she uses for her quilt tops. The art quilts are pieced by machine in a process not too far removed from traditional patchwork techniques. Where a design requires it, Ruth will also incorporate screenprinting, to add texture or tell part of the story. Every artwork is completed with intensive machine stitching to quilt the layers of the piece together, as well as to add interest through texture and embroidered patterns.

Made in Western Australia.