Figurative work
Landscapes
About the artist
Born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1950, Cresside Collette migrated to Australia in 1962.
Originally trained as a Graphic Artist at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), she worked as a book illustrator and advertising artist whilst developing large embroideries and exploring the textile arts. She was employed as a foundation weaver of The Victorian Tapestry Workshop (now the Australian Tapestry Workshop) in 1976, where she worked as a production weaver for fifteen years. In 1980 she undertook post - graduate studies in the Tapestry Department of the Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland, and subsequently completed a Master of Fine Art (by Research) at Monash University in Melbourne in 2003.
Exhibited in both individual and group shows consistently since 1971, her work is represented in both public and private collections. She tutored in drawing and tapestry weaving in the Studio Textiles and Design Course at RMIT University for eleven years. A tapestry weaver for whom drawing has always been an integral part of her fine art practice, her paper, "In translation - drawing as the foundation for and manifestation of tapestry", was delivered and published as part of the "DrawingOut" conference at RMIT in Melbourne in 2010.
In 2003 and 2004 she was awarded residencies at Bundanon (the estate left to the nation by renowned Australian artist Arthur Boyd) where she pioneered working "en plein air" in the medium of tapestry. The resulting exhibition of tapestries and drawings, A Month at Bundanon was shown at the Box Hill Art Space in Melbourne and the Drill Hall Gallery in Canberra. Her exhibition, Woven Worlds; ten years of 'en plein air' tapestries, toured nationally between 2014 - 2016.
For 25 years she combined her own exhibition practice with designing and producing community tapestries for schools, city councils and universities. Her current art practice examines the dichotomy of belonging to two lands, inspired by her return to Sri Lanka in 2009 to attend the Lanka Decorative Arts Workshop and subsequent visits over the past few years.
Cresside has designed and conducted "Mastering the Fine Art of Tapestry", a tour to view major tapestries, workshops and the work of studio artists in the UK and France in 2011-2013 and 2015-2019.
For more information see tapestrytour.blogspot.com
Click in the images below to see more.
Figurative work
Landscapes
As a tapestry weaver for whom drawing is a major part of my practice, my subject matter is inspired by the major pictorial themes of Art History – landscape and the body. The 21st century demands new definitions of representational art. Using the timeless craft of tapestry in a contemporary way, I have reconstructed Classical images of the figure in an exploration of how fabric simultaneously masks and reveals the human form. In addition, my technique of interpreting the landscape – literally the ground – in "en plein air" weaving brings a fresh perspective to a traditional process.
In recent years my thoughts have turned back to a childhood spent in Ceylon and its impact on my development as a visual artist, and I am seeing my own art in a richer, cross - cultural context. My recent work explores the linking of two lands, juxtaposing the features of the Sri Lankan and Australian landscapes through collage and print. These are extended into abstract tapestries that explore the sensations of colour and light both in comparative commentary and singular experience.
© The copyright of all images and text on this website, with the exception of the content of referred links and reviews, is the property of Cresside Collette. Material may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the artist, Cresside Collette.| Website Design : Doug Willis