Courtyard Arts Gallery

25 August – 19 September, 2026

CREATIVE JOURNEYS

PAT DENNIS, ANN HANKINS, ANNIE ROGERS, JENNY SANDLER, MOIRA SMITH & CATRIONA WARBURTON

A group of six artists with a passion for textiles, joining together on a creative journey and exhibiting their latest works here at Courtyard Arts. This is their second exhibition, and pieces will include collage, embroidery, collagraphy, printing and quilting.

Urban Textiles was formed about 20 years ago after members had completed a City & Guilds course with Barbara Weekes. The idea of getting together to continue their creative journey was formed. The group is based in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and they meet regularly to share ideas and critique each other’s work. They have created shared pieces for exhibiting, but mainly continue to explore their own styles, learn new techniques and push boundaries. Most importantly they have become firm friends.

PAT DENNIS
Pat’s interest in textiles goes back many years but it is in the last 10 years that she has become keen to experiment in a more creative way. A self-taught artist who attends workshops run by a variety of tutors as a way of learning a variety of techniques. Pat has decided to pursue print as her main creative channel and enjoys mono-printing and collagraphy, especially when combined with stitch.

ANN HANKINS
Ann paints, draws, makes collage and stitches. She is very interested in archaeology, particularly pre-history. Our landscape is a vast canvas of marks left by the people of the neolithic. The works for this exhibition are about the atmosphere of these places.

ANNIE ROGERS

Annie is currently exploring the seemingly endless possibilities of colour and texture in nature using her hands and imagination to interpret what she sees. Woodlands and surrounding countryside are often the starting point for her designs, reflecting her love of all things natural, floral and botanical. Annie’s current work mixes different mediums and techniques; stitching on layers of printed tissue paper or combining felting with richly textured hand stitching.

JENNY SANDLER
With a grounding in knitwear design, Jenny’s first port of call is colour, and how different colours play against each other. This drives the work, and it’s not until she is satisfied with the balance that it passes muster! There are two elements to the exhibited pieces; embroidery, which her grandmother taught her many years ago, and patchwork.

MOIRA SMITH
Graphic design is Moira’s background and so she is drawn to geometric and abstract designs. Moira also has a fascination with Japanese art and design. Much of her work has a loose Japanese influence. Moira is also a keen amateur photographer, and her work is often inspired by the shots she captures. Colour, pattern, shape and texture inform her designs. For this exhibition she is using red as her colour inspiration and the simple square shape.

CATRIONA WARBURTON
Like so many textile artists Catriona’s interest in creating with textiles began in childhood, but it was only after retiring from teaching that she could fully explore experimenting in the many multimedia techniques. She uses a diverse range of materials, and her preferred colour palette is very ‘earthy’. Most recently she has begun incorporating these into weaving and her work uses patterns derived from Nordic Krokbragd and traditional patchwork designs. Her loom is a homemade copper pipe design, but she would love to move on to using a larger Mirrex loom.

Each artist has a different style and skill set and has chosen their own theme for this exhibition, and although different, they complement each other.