Collection: Penny Berens
Penny Berens was born in England and now lives in Nova Scotia. Her stitching started with traditional English embroidery from the age of four. As an adult she studied City and Guilds Embroidery and Design through Dundee college, Scotland. Over the years her work has evolved into a freeform mark-making style.
Penny’s work has been shown in solo and group shows across Canada and internationally, as well as being published over the years. Her most recent work has been for a duo show with Judy Martin. The show entitled ‘In the Middle of the World’ has travelled to the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum. Almonte, The Muse gallery in Kenora and soon to Arts Place, Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. A catalogue of the same name is being published in 2023. Penny herself writes about her work, her process and sources of inspiration on her blog “Tanglewood Threads”.
Penny frequently works on two bodies of work. One being wall hangings inspired by daily observations on the rhythms and seasonal changes of the landscape she lives in, which she hand stitches on plant dyed fabrics. Her second body of work reflects her interest in recording the passage of time. These large journal pieces are created over long periods of 6me in daily increments.
Artist Statement
Living here in this wooded coastal landscape of Nova Scotia, every day begins with a walk. I want to know this place I live in, all it’s changing patterns and seasonal rhythms.
The vastness of it all can take my breath away but sometimes it is the small and insignificant that draws my eye. The wind can be a gentle caress or a whirling menace trying to sweep me off my feet. Each daily walk brings new inspiration and draws me closer to the world around me.
I find my centre, my middle of the earth, in the middle of my woods. It pleases me that these woods are not only my inspiration but that they can also provide the plant dyes I use to colour the materials I work with.
My roots come from the simple embroidery stitches my grandmother taught me so many years ago. It pleases me that my chosen medium of needle and thread connects me to the tradition of grandmothers and mothers passing on their skills.
