My Buzz

I am a thread painter, creating portrait and wildlife artworks with hand stitching. The majority of my artwork is created with recycled fabric, wallpaper and plastics, though I do also enjoy rummaging in a remnants bin in a haberdashery. Originally I trained as a painter and this background has helped with my blending of threads and creating fine details. 2018 is my tenth anniversary of stitching and it has gone so fast but it's great to look back to the early days of just creating portraits to now where I also have prints, tote bags and greeting cards with my artworks on. I'm looking forward to the next ten years.

My Bio

Ramsgate artist Emily Tull graduated from KIAD in 2000. Since then, she has exhibited internationally, regularly in London, and across Kent in group and solo shows. Recently winning a Kent Creative Award for Visual Art she has also been a finalist in the Winter Pride Art Awards (2015), and selected for the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, Mall Galleries, Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize and have been a contestant in Sky Art's Portrait Artist of the Year 2014.
Inspiration comes from many sources including Lucien Freud, Francis Bacon, Curiosity Cabinets, ripped wallpaper, Egyptian tomb paintings and the Pre-Raphaelites. The work covers a range of subjects based upon everyday life and literature. Since 2011 I have used wildlife imagery to experiment with fabrics, predominately British species but I am also inspired by curiosity cabinet displays and my mother's bee collection. The actual sewing is quite a random act unless it is a face, where I start with the eye and work out from there. I will flit from colour to colour thread cross hatching, weaving the thread over and under until I am happy with the overall effect, I compare it to using colouring pencils. I am striving to close the gap to what is deemed 'craft' and what is art.

Publications:
'Kent Artist Profile: Emily Tull' - Inside kent Magazine (October 2018 issue)
'Artist Profile: Emily Tull' – Textile Fibre Forum Magazine (issue 124 Dec 2016)
'Emily Tull' – Art Reveal Magazine (issue no 13 Feb 2016)
'Portraits In Thread' – Be Creative With Workbox (issue 153 Jan/Feb 2016)
'From Sketch To Stitch' – Stitch Magazine (issue 96 Aug – Sept 2015)
'A Portrait Artist of the Year: A Little Book of Portraits: Beyond the Canvas' (2014), Quadrille publishing LTD

AWARDS: Visual Arts (non digital) – Kent Creative Awards 2017
First prize for 'I Am Here' – UCL 2015
Highly Commended for 'Fragile #2' – RBSA 2008

COMPETITIONS: Finalist, Emerald Winter Prize Art Award 2016
Shortlisted, Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize 2015
Regional Finalist, Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2014. Sky Arts.

My Business Tips

Any creative business need to take good photographs of their products whether that be artwork or greeting card.

Follow us
Categories