The show is a retrospective exhibition of Joanne Breen’s textiles, embroidery and weaving.
This exhibition has a local link, as Joanne spent a lot of time in Lewis.
Originally from Wexford in Ireland, Joanne’s travels took her to Lewis in the mid nineties and she was much inspired by the landscape and its colours.
“Much of Joanne’s work is as finely crafted as a silken spider’s web. Often she dyed each individual thread which made up a piece in order to include the myriad colours that bring a landscape to life. And by using fine tapestry as an integral part of her watercolours, she added a depth and clarity to the landscape which would otherwise be impossible to achieve.
The Lewis tapestries are very different. Created from the fuitheagan that fell, discarded from her great friend Chasm’s loom, they evoke at a glance the smell of the moorland and the wet peat; the pools we used to leap over as children and the low growing flowers and rough heather – worn down by incessant wind and grazing sheep. The tapestries are as rough and as wild and as earthy as the moor and the bogs they represent.”
In her collaboration with her calligrapher sister Frances Breen the two perfected the same trick, only this time with words and poetry. Joanne’s threads defined colour and movement which the calligrapher’s skilful hand extended and refined. These works were also an inspiration for An Leabhar Mor.” Joni Buchannan writing for the West Highland Free Press.