MARY FOGG A celebration of cloth
Pioneering quilter and textile artist
Mary Fogg 1920-2016
Mary Fogg came to textiles and the quilt medium relatively late in life, in her fifties, coinciding with the 1970s 'quilting revival' in the UK. Her breakthrough piece was a bedspread for her teenage younger son. This website follows her subsequent progress over a thirty year period, as she pioneered a technique of strip-piecing using fabrics of many different types, textures and weight, developed works with machine-stitched text and undertook site-specific commissions. She exhibited widely in the UK, Europe, in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and Japan. Her work is in private and public collections in the UK and abroad.
"Each quilt is a voyage of discovery exploring effects of light and colour. I put together fabrics of different texture as well as pattern and I like to work with used materials as far as possible. These already have 'character' given by previous or more common use. Other starting points are aspects of nature - seascape or Australian desert perhaps. The materials, wools, cottons, silks and synthetics were mostly acquired from Oxfam shops."
Mary Fogg A Celebration of Cloth, Quilt Art 2004
Mary was a founder member of Quilt Art. Established in 1985, it aims to develop the quilt as an artistic medium and promote its recognition as an art form. Its 19 members are from Britain, Europe and the United States. Quilt Art's 2019-2022 touring exhibition, Material Evidence, "celebrates the adventurous spirit and rich heritage of women artists who make art through quilting and textiles, and in particular that of our pioneering and influential founder member Mary Fogg". www.quiltart.eu
Mary was a true master of her craft, she always remained faithful to her way of working but at the same time thought beyond traditional limitations, capturing a mood or atmosphere with the use of space, light, colour, and movement. She was fascinated by converging and separating forms, a restricted range of colours and the interchange of light and dark. Her crisp, tailored approach, often using recycled fabrics, was very refreshing.
Bethan Ash : Art that Inspires textileartist.org