Maree Caplin Textile Artist

ABOUT:-Although born on mainland Australia, I have made Tasmania my home. My studio is situated at Wilmot, on the road to Cradle Mountain a magnificent World Heritage area. I draw inspiration from the unique nature of this very special place.At a very young age I was introduced to sewing after being given a hand crank machine to play with. My mother, a seamstress, discouraged my desire to draw pictures with my machine, insisting that machines were for making clothes. I went on to successfully designing and manufacturing clothing but always had a desire to draw with my machine. Having a background in garment design and construction has enabled me to be a very versatile artist. I have specialized in portraying nature scenes with an emphasis on foliage, fur, feathers and fins! This is a reflection of my love for all things wild and natural; I use free motion techniques such as thread painting, collage appliqué, and photographic fabric in my work. None of my work is done using a digitized embroidery machine all embroidery is done free motion (hand guided) on either a Bernina or Sweet Sixteen machine.

 “My hope as an artist is to spark an interest in my subject matter with the viewer, to portray the beauty and fragility of nature in such a way that the viewer feels the need to look harder at the work and question not only how I did it, but whether that is actually what the subject really looks like.” Maree Caplin