Rhia Pateman

Central to Rhia’s work is the landscape. She walks and photographs it, intrigued by how the light and weather can change it, how people move through it, the tracks we make and boundaries we create within it. She’s drawn to places that have a sense of the past or a story to tell from expansive, sweeping landscapes to the details that can be found in hedgerows and pathways.

Her observations become starting points for stitched works on cloth. She paints, draws and prints onto fabric before developing the surface with machine and hand stitch. Through this process, she translates the experience of walking through the landscape into tactile layered pieces that explore memory, place and the traces we leave within it.

While Rhia’s practice is rooted in mixed media, in recent years she has become increasingly focused on the use of soy Pigment to colour cloth. This process encourages a slower more considered approach, allowing the work to gradually develop over time.