17th July 2025

 

'Paint with fabric, draw with stitch'  by Melanie Baugh 

Melanie completed city and guilds in interior creative techniques, also HNC in stitch and constructing textiles, she has also undertaken a variety of jobs and roles including teaching textiles. Life changed with the Covid lockdown, she took a Dionne Swift online course 'drawing for textiles' which also used water paints.

This led Melanie to put the scenery, images,emotions and memories from her running, pre and post lockdown onto paper in the form of small sketches, some of these were abstract in nature. 

The first piece she created was a series of squares each one representing something she passed whilst running and the middle part of the panel depicts her running route for her half marathon.

The squares are made using paint, scraps of fabric and threads stitched into place with hand and machine stitches. Melanie uses the ends of threads she cuts off after stitching to create the running route.

 

Her next panel was based on a poem/piece she wrote featuring her training runs both on the roads and over the hills.

 

 The pictures she drew are abstract eg the road runs alongside a hedge which borders a ploughed field whilst the other side of the road has a wire fence.

Melanie also drew landscapes which she would photocopy and then cut these into small pieces/panels, she would then experiment with paint/handstitch/machine stitch etc.