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Christine Restall
As a child, I had informal training in painting, and I learned to sew at my mother’s knee. But I took an academic direction at university,
though I continued to paint. I then had a long career in advertising, marketing and market research, and had to give up painting through lack of time. Instead, I started quilt making in 1975 as a recreation - a
portable activity as my international career developed. I have travelled widely both on business and for pleasure over the last 25 years. I gave up my paid work in 1998 to concentrate on textile art, which has
gradually become my major interest. Since then I have learned a great deal in a short time, especially about painting and dyeing my own fabrics. I have exhibited widely and won a number of awards, including gold,
silver and bronze awards in the “Horizon” art quilt competitions, 1998-2002, and first prizes at Quilts UK, Malvern, 2002, and the National Quilt Championships, Sandown Park, 2002. But I am proudest of having been
chosen to participate in the Devon Guild of Craftsmen Exhibition, “Rise and Shine”, in 2001, and of being juried into Quilt2001 and Quilt2002 at the Knitting and Stitching Shows, and into the Husqvana Viking
European touring exhibits of 2000 and 2002, where the quilts have been (and are still going) around the world. More recently, some of my work was chosen, with that of five other quilters, to represent European quilt
art at the huge biennial show in Yokohama, Japan.
My main inspiration is the natural world, or sometimes the place of man in the natural world. I particularly love the sea, and have spent
many weeks at sea over the years, and in most of the world’s oceans. I also like the play of light at different times of the day or year, and in differing circumstances or climates. I tend to work in series, and the
main ones have been : Grayton Beach (a nature reserve on North Florida shore) - 4 quilts so far; New Zealand/Southern Ocean - 2 quilts so far; Arctic or icy seas - 4 quilts so far; Chile and Peru western
coast/desert and antiquities - 3 quilts so far; Brittany - 3 quilts so far. I have just started a new series, on red clay roads in Alabama.
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