Hilary Johnstone

Hilary Johnstone lives outside La Ronge, Saskatchewan and spends as much time as possible in the bush and on the lakes. The land, water and plants inform her art and life.

Johnstone started out as a painter, after taking a M.A. with a major in painting. she started making fabric collages in 2008. Now she paints mainly as a sketch for fabric collage. Her art is made with pieces of fabric, cut and collaged together, then stitched and quilted, to give it some rigidity, and to allow it to be hung on a wall. She begins with a coloured sketch, or a painting. She gets out boxes of fabrics, selects fabric for the different areas, and begins to draw and cut and adhere shapes to the backing fabric. Johnstone then sews all the edges down with a satin stitch before adding the quilt backing and sewing through all the layers. She admires the tactile aspect of fabrics, how soft and homey they feel, and the ability to work with patterns, and multi-toned colours of commercial fabrics.

 

Artist Profile