Gillian Arnold

Gillian Arnold is a Northern Irish born textile and print artist, now living in County Durham, England. She began and continues her own artistry with paintings made using her monotype technique, which she has developed over the past twenty years to print pressed flowers onto her textile canvasses. She is inspired by the natural wildlife around her, and often works with plants and flowers that are overlooked. She has expanded her design range to use this same technique to produce lampshades, jewellery, ceramics and glassware, including repeat pattern wallpaper and home furnishings.

She moved from her home town of Carrickfergus in Northern Ireland to Liverpool to study Textiles at John Moores University, after which she moved to London in 1996 to study for a master's degree in Textiles at Chelsea College of Art. Arnold then stayed in London until 2012, working as a resident artist in a number of south-London schools, and as a freelance artist working on community projects such as creative workshops and theatre productions in youth groups. Arnold worked extensively with people in deprivation and addiction, the homeless and in church groups reaching out to people living on the very extreme margins of society. She also worked on a fair-trade initiative in Pirang, Gambia.

The start of her business was prompted by her husband, Tim, when he asked, ‘I married an artist – when are you going to start doing your own work?’ "I started doing printing, mosaic and sculpture workshops in London and would go around inner-city schools doing loads of different projects with kids. It was lovely but it was very hard work. My husband could see that I was really frustrated" Despite being six months pregnant, Gillian immediately began to work on several different projects. "[I was] sitting on my studio floor, creating new canvases, ceramics and jewelry, which later that month we began to sell at Greenwich Market, where we soon became regular traders."

The business slowly began to take off in May 2012, with an expansion in premises and equipment. This was closely followed by trade shows and wholesale opportunities across the UK. Eventually, Tim quit his job as a theatre sound engineer in London and they both moved to Tim’s hometown of Bishop Auckland to set up their first studio. The studio is in a space bought by Auckland Castle to help the Pod project, a business accelerator hub which is devoted to helping and promoting businesses in the North East. Pod is part of the Auckland Castle Trust and has dedicated a gallery in Bishop Auckland to Northern artists who need a space to evolve and sell their artwork.

Arnold is currently based at this studio in Bishop Auckland as part of the Auckland Castle Trust.