Books, Birds & Bees by Oenone Randall
Introducing a friendly face to Emerald for our latest exhibition which opens this Saturday. I am delighted to welcome Oenone Randall back to the gallery.
As you may know, Oenone is a Buckinghamshire based copper and textile artist with both mediums combining seamlessly in this latest collection of art.
Oenone explains her preparation in designing and making all the artwork that makes up – ‘Books, Birds and Bees’.
“Work began on this exhibition in January, and with the garage being my workshop – which was freezing, I took the warmer option and worked inside, stitching in the warm. All the artwork on display is created using treasures from my collection of vintage fabrics.
I’ve always had a love of books - especially the penguin book series, and I started planning out my ideas with words based on certain titles. Following focusing on key words and statements, I then explored the materials I was using such as some Liberty print fabric and weaving in detail such as memories of an old letter from my cousin when she worked for Vogue.
I have created larger statement book designs for this exhibition, which have been quite time consuming, but I’ve really loved making them.
The Complete Book of British birds, with five embroidered birds on the cover – was a real labour of love 🦆
As a child, I had a beautiful Audubon bird book and a spoonbill poster which I just loved, so it seemed only fitting to make an Audubon Birds of America book with a wonderful flamingo stitched on the cover.
Lampshades
Before lockdown I had an idea to embroider designs on lampshades. So, February started with my first lampshade being made. I used vintage fabric as the shade material and then embroidered birds flying around its circumference and I was hooked!!
The lampshade designs have diversified into bumble bees and butterflies often with words running around them. I have a collection of these lampshades in this exhibition – I hope you like them.
Moving into March I began to create collections of embroidered bumble bees and butterflies. With copper backs and textile fronts….. they were popped into glass domes, giving them the feel of special exotic specimens”.
Butterfly box frames
The exhibition is completed by embroidered bumble bees and butterflies which are displayed inside box frames – a bright, cheery twist on entomology frames.
Oenone is our exhibitor for the Bucks Art Weeks event this year. We are part of a fabulous local art trial and look forward to everyone’s visit. More on that to come!
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