Cedar Falls
£2,100
68 x 87 x 2 cm Wet Felting
71 x 90 x 4 cm Framed in Obeche wood tray
Merino wool, silk, linen on silk Georgette and muslin cotton base layers
Cedar Falls Valerie Wartelle
Valérie is a fine artist working with fibres and textiles. Her practice is rooted in the traditional craft of wet felting and the manipulation of textiles as an expressive art form.
Taking the rural environment as her inspiration, she draws on its colour, texture and form to create evocative semi-abstract landscapes rich in climate. The compositions are built in layers, hinting at what may lie beneath, and use translucency and light to create absorbing moods. These are highly textured felt pieces in which cloth is embedded and threads unravelled, as a painter with her brush.
Process has always been central to her practice, and through ongoing exploration of materials’ behaviours, Valérie has over the years perfected a unique approach to the craft. Fascinated by the organic qualities intrinsic to the medium, she works solely with natural materials such as wool, silk and linen fibres.
Brought up in France and French Polynesia, Valérie originally came to the UK to study Textile Design. Following a career as a designer, then officer in local government, Valérie set up her art studio in 2014 in Halifax, West Yorkshire.
In 2021, she received a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) award which took her to the Netherlands to work with artist and activist Claudy Jongstra. In 2022 she was invited to showcase her work at Collect, International Contemporary Craft and Design Art Fair, at Sommerset House, London. In 2023, Valérie’s exhibition ‘Closer Still’ was the first large scale solo show of textile works ever to be shown in the Cube Gallery, The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle upon Tyne.