You may remember the amazing portrait and hand pieces from our Showcase 2022. Well, the teacher of those classes is visiting us! She will be teaching a few interesting classes, one of which is the underlying theory of creating those portraits. ( She will be back next year to do build on those skills you will learn in this class).

Mary Jane is a self-taught textile artist and her background is predominantly in science and medicine. She is particularly interested in the portrayal of the human form and creates realistic textile works - predominantly nudes, people and portraits.

Mary Jane is an artist member of the Otago Art Society, a member of Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA), Gondwana Textile Artists, and Aotearoa Quilters. She currently has 4 fabric artworks touring in the USA and Australia/New Zealand. Two artworks have been selected for a book about textile art inspired by birds to be published late 2023. She won first prize in Aotearoa Quilters ‘Lines’ challenge 2022 for ‘Line of Descent’, the viewers’ choice award in the National Cleveland Art Awards in 2021 for ‘Bertie and Mac’, ‘Black Panther’ won an award in the Cat exhibition at the Otago Art Society in 2021, and she received a Special Commendation in the Hope and Sons Art exhibition, 2022 for ‘Sundown’. Her work is in private collections in France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, China, the USA, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

We are excited to have her visit Handzon for a week in October to teach 3 classes. She will also be our guest at our Trunk Shop evening on Tuesday 3 October 6 - 8pm, where she will talk about her work, have a mini exhibition and you will have the opportunity to ask questions.

You can see more about her and her work here:

 website: mjstextileart.com

instagram: mary_textileart

Programme for the week

Monday 2 Oct, 9:30 – 4:30:  A Bumblebee in machine applique and machine thread painting

Tuesday 3 October. 6 - 8pm: Trunk Show with Mary Jane Sneyd. Bubbles and nibbles included.

Wednesday 4 Oct, 10 – 4: Beginner one-day Fabric Art class. Values and Shadows.

 Thursday 5 Oct 10 - 4: Landscapes in applique and machine thread sketching