Audrey Walker facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Audrey Walker MBE
Born	3 July 1928
Died	17 November 2020
Nationality	British
Education	Edinburgh College of Art Slade School of Art
Occupation	Artist
Known for	Textile art

Audrey Walker (born July 3, 1928, died November 17, 2020) was a very talented textile artist, embroiderer, and teacher. She was active in the United Kingdom from the 1970s to the 1990s.

Audrey Walker became famous for her new way of embroidering. She used fine threads with both machines and by hand. This helped her create amazing wall hangings that looked like pictures of people or things. She once said her work was like "drawing with fabrics."

Early Life and Learning

Audrey Walker was born in 1928 in Workington, Cumbria. She was the only child of Stanley Walker and Jessie Sewell.

She went to the local grammar school for her secondary education. Her art teacher at school really encouraged her talent. This led her to study art further. She first attended Edinburgh College of Art from 1944 to 1948. Then, she went to The Slade School of Art in London from 1948 to 1951.

Her Career as an Artist and Teacher

After finishing art school, Audrey Walker became a prize-winning young artist. She then started teaching art in schools in Leeds and London.

Teaching Art to Students

At Parliament Hill School, her teaching methods were fresh and exciting. She took her students on outdoor sketching trips. They also visited art exhibitions and the Royal College of Art. This helped her students see art in new ways.

While teaching, she also took Embroidery classes at the Embroiderers' Guild. She found a lot of inspiration from textiles she saw at the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. About ten years after art college, she started to move from painting to working with embroidery and textiles.

Joining the 62 Group of Textile Artists

In the mid-1960s, Audrey joined a special group called the 62 Group of Textile Artists. This group was a co-operative of artists. They wanted to help textile artists show their work to more people. Being part of this supportive group helped her develop her own unique way of sewing and embroidering.

Audrey Walker found inspiration in many places. She once shared that popular songs, sentences she heard on the radio, or old objects like a piece of Greek sculpture could spark ideas. Even old stories, like that of Adam and Eve, influenced her art.

Teaching at Universities

Her experience teaching in schools led her to teach at a higher level. She became a lecturer in painting at Whitelands College, Roehampton. Here, she could experiment even more with embroidered and stitched fabrics.

For the last 13 years of her teaching career, she was the Head of the Department of Textiles at Goldsmiths, University of London. She retired from Goldsmiths in 1988. During her time there, she was a very important teacher. She helped broaden the textiles course to include many different textile practices, not just stitching.

In 1993, Audrey Walker was made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE). This honor was for her "Services to the Arts." After retiring, she moved to Wales to focus fully on her own artwork.

Her Amazing Artworks

Audrey Walker mainly created textile art. She used both hand and machine stitches on many different fabrics. These included cotton, wool, silk, and organza. She used these materials to create her images.

Her art often looked like mysterious or thoughtful portraits. She sometimes found ideas from famous painters like Titian and Rembrandt, or from Greek sculpture. Some of her pieces also looked like still life paintings.

She showed her art in many group exhibitions. She also had her own shows at places like Ruthin Craft Centre, Goldsmiths’ College University of London, and at Knitting and Stitching shows in London, Dublin, and Harrogate.

Her Lasting Impact

Audrey Walker was a founding member of the Fishguard Arts Society. She later became one of its trustees. She also advised on the embroidery for The Last Invasion Tapestry in Fishguard, Wales. This tapestry remembers the last time French forces attacked Britain in 1797, known as the Battle of Fishguard. This huge embroidery is 30 meters long and 53 centimeters wide. It was inspired by the famous Bayeux Tapestry.

In 2009, she worked with her former Goldsmiths colleague, Eirian Short. Together, they designed the Pembrokeshire Banner. This banner celebrates Welsh history and culture. It is an appliqued and embroidered panel. It was created by the Pembrokeshire Guild of Embroiderers and the Fishguard Arts Society. You can see it on display in the East Cloister of St David's Cathedral.

Audrey Walker created a large amount of textile art. Her pieces can be found in private collections in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. They are also in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Public museums and galleries in Reading, Leicestershire, Bedfordshire, and Kent also have her work. Examples of her drawings and stitched pieces are part of the Diana Springall Collection, put together by teacher and embroiderer Diana Springall.