I live with my husband and our golden retriever in a village in Oxfordshire. I can’t quite believe we’ve been here nearly 20 years as it’s much the longest I’ve lived anywhere!

Growing up, despite having a mother who was, and still is, a keen gardener, I didn’t catch the gardening bug until I had my first rented house with its rather wild outside space. Determined to improve it, I started reading gardening books and visiting garden centres and I soon became a full on plantaholic! I moved several times, once into a house with just a tiny terrace, but always found a way to have plants in my life.

I was diagnosed with a chronic illness in my twenties which lasted many years and obviously make it difficult to garden, but I found methods and tools that made it possible even if I was often more ambitious than my energy would allow

Luckily my health has improved in recent years and I’ve been able to throw myself into changing areas of our current garden that had always been unsatifactory.

It’s always difficult to make big changes but we took our time and planned it out first.

The biggest change has been removing some conifers and creating a cutting garden with six raised beds. This is where I produce hundreds of cut flowers, which I make into bouquets and sell for charity.

I started sharing this on Instagram and discovered a friendly and helpful community there. I also recently started a YouTube channel where I share gardening tips and methods I’ve picked up over the years. I now also share the art projects I’m working on and tutorials on the methods I use.

Artweeks Day 19 Something surprising… Did you know that dahlias, as well as being beautiful are edible and you can make dye from them? This is some bamboo silk that I dyed with dahlia flowers after doing a workshop with @thesecretdyer last
Artweeks Day 15 Buildings and city scapes This is probably the closest I get to urban! I had made some rusted fabric where you first spray it with vinegar and then put it in close contact with something made of steel, in this case an old incinerator
Artweeks Day 14 - Todays prompt is flowers and gardens so this was hard for me 😉. #oxfordshireartweeks #venue337 #openstudios24 #acreativegarden #oxfordshire #textilart #opengarden #mixedmediaartist #printyourgarden #catherinerye
Artweeks Day 11 Pattern and Stitch I use a lot of free machine stitching in my textile pieces. This is when you lower the caterpillar tracks on your machine so you can move your fabric in any direction. I use it as a filler stitch when I’m qu
Artweeks Day 10 Degrees of Abstraction #oxfordshireartweeks #venue337 #openstudios24 #acreativegarden #oxfordshire #textilart #mixedmediaartist #printyourgarden #catherinerye

I have also produced a free 12 page booklet with my own illustrations, where I outline which flowers to grow for cutting if you only have the space for one bed.

For as long as I can remember, I have always made art but my main interests are textile art and mixed media. This includes making many fabric wall pieces which I surface decorate using various methods, and then quilt with free machine embroidery.

I collaborated with two other artists for an exhibition in 2015. More recently I have explored digital art and filming and editing short films.

I will be having a solo exhibition in May 2024 as part of Oxford Artweeks. Plus one of my designs has been selected to adorn a life size ox as part of Oxtrails in the sumer!