In an interview with Bored Panda, Moy shared more about her background.
“I studied at Glasgow School of Art. As soon as I left art school, I started working full-time as an artist and have done so since. I pioneered an artform I call felted paintings and have been developing them for some time now. I have had books published on this artform to teach others and have been invited worldwide to teach and share this art. I work from a studio at my home and have a gallery in Peebles.”
We were curious what drew Moy to the world of artistry. She shared that from a very young age, she was already exploring painting and crafts. “I was painting with my uncle who was a wonderful painter and doing crafts with my mother. My father is also creative, so I guess it is in my genes.
I have always been drawn to colour and texture. At art school, I was aware of a divide between fine art and other disciplines. I wanted to try to bridge that gap as, in my opinion, all art forms are equally worthy. With that in mind, I combined two disciplines: fine art and applied art, creating what I call Felted Paintings. So my medium is fibres in place of paint, utilising a traditional craft of felt making (to a point), but my application is more fine art-based, so I created something that looks like a painting but on closer inspection, it is not. That only becomes obvious close up.”
To better understand how Moy creates her masterpieces, we asked her to share her creative process with us.
She wrote: “To start, I select my colour palette from a wall of hanging coloured fibres I have in my studio. I blend colours with a set of carders that are basically big brushes. Fibres are built up, just as I would do with paint, really, to create my composition. Finer fibres and fine details are added. When I am happy, the piece is covered with mesh. This is where the magic happens…
Hot soapy water is added and rubbed in, causing the fibres to mat together. Much like putting a wool jumper in a hot wash!
The fibres magically bind together, and the piece may shrink a bit in this process, making it durable and in one piece. The mesh is peeled off to create an artwork. This is an aspect I particularly enjoy and I am not totally in control, so there is always an element of surprise. There are three more processes after this one. Needle felting, where I tweak anything that has moved too much and to add extra shading. The third stage is free motion machine stitch, where I use a sewing machine as I would a pen to add very fine lines. The last bit is adding marks and more texture with hand stitch. The results are very bright and textured works of art that I then frame behind glass.”
Moy also shared more about her artwork’s meaning to her: “Using this medium as I do, it is a very therapeutic and almost meditative process. So much so that I was happy to write the books to share my techniques and introduce this to others.
I run workshops and retreats from my studio in the Scottish Borders, where I welcome people from around the world to learn this artform. Out of the hundreds of people I have taught, I would say practically every single person has loved the whole process and gets easily hooked as well as coming away with wonderful felted paintings of their own.
I have online courses and projects available and am currently in the process of trying to set up live workshops after many requests from people interested in joining in live workshops from around the world. Watch this space.
Lastly, Moy added: “It’s a privilege that people choose to buy my work and live with it in their home. Ultimately I just want to create a feel-good factor within my work. Colour is very healing.”
