Alison Holt is a textile artist whose work combines silk painting with free motion machine embroidery to create richly layered surfaces and textures. Using a basic sewing machine as a drawing tool, she produces detailed and expressive studies inspired by landscapes and the natural world.

Her practice is driven by a long-standing fascination with light, colour, and pattern. Through the interplay of stitch and paint, Alison seeks to capture fleeting moments and personal memories, motivated by a desire to observe, record, and interpret her surroundings. Alison has a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Textiles from Goldsmiths College, University of London, she is an author and tutor.

 

This body of work was inspired by a walk around Cors-y-Gedol, an area rich in history and myth. The landscape offers a breathtaking array of views and intimate details, where light and texture shift. Alison sought out these fleeting moments and translated them into her medium of free motion machine embroidery, using stitch and silk painting to echo the rhythms, surfaces, and atmosphere that she discovered on her walk.