Local artist Sally Scott stood at the bright blue door of her house wearing a big smile, her arms full of silver bracelets welcoming me into her home.
Local artist Sally Scott stood at the bright blue door of her house wearing a big smile, her arms full of silver bracelets welcoming me into her home.
Inside she has created an artistic jungle, with earthy toned blankets covering the couch and yellow lounge walls adorned with round African baskets and Bushman skirts. The real magic lies in her outside studio though, where she practices and teaches her passion.
Raised on a cattle ranch in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe by her adventurous pilot-farmer father and artistic mother, Scott developed a passion for the environment, which remains her muse.
She is a fibre artist, landscape painter and teacher. At her private studio, Scott has weekly drawing classes and creative workshops.
She has worked as a professional fibre artist for 20 years, exhibiting nationally and internationally, winning numerous awards.
In 2005 she won first place for one of her quilts in the innovative section at the annual World Quilt Competition.
She had not entered the competition since then, but this year she decided on a whim to enter her large, blue wall hanging, ‘Towards Infinity’.
Scott was delighted when she won the 'Best use of colour' category in the 2011 World Quilt Competition, held this in August this year in Manchester, in the United States.
She took part largely to see where she stood among other artists, and this year artists from ten countries entered. She feels that “It’s a gauge of where one is on one’s journey as a textile artist,” she said.
‘Towards Infinity’ is approximately two metres long and one metre wide, and is made with brightly coloured cotton fabric, patterned string, beads, felt and hand embroidery. She said the work explores the sense of individual growth which is an “ongoing journey”.
“My belief is that we will have more harmony in the world when each of us takes the time to know ourselves,” she said.
The international competition’s selected works will now tour different states in America.
Scott said moving to Grahamstown was the best thing she ever did because of the people she has met here and the support she has found for her work.
She attributes her achievements to the passion she has for her art.
“To me success is doing what you love,” she said.
