Debbie Lyddon: Responding to environment

Debbie Lyddon: Responding to environment

Textile artist Debbie Lyddon makes non-representational objects, textile art installations and wall hung pieces that are inspired by nature, though not a representation of it.

Debbie’s beautiful art is multi-sensory and explores how the eye collaborates with the ‘skin’ senses of sound and touch.

In this article, you’ll get an insight into how natural environments fuel every stage of Debbie’s process.

‘Moving through the landscape ….feeling, hearing, seeing, touching, through the mind, the eye and the hand – the touch and texture of things.’ Barbara Hepworth

Debbie Lyddon: Cloth lies at the centre of my practice and I enjoy the process of making and experimenting with traditional and non-traditional materials. I place my work in the context of artists who manipulate, reprocess and reform materials: Eva Hesse, Susie Macmurray, Ann Hamilton and Cornelia Parker.

Caught by the Tide

We are lucky enough to own a cottage on the North Norfolk coast at Wells-next-the Sea and for the past eighteen years I have de-camped up here for the summer. It is not a time of relaxation but has always kick-started a period of intense creative activity as I respond to this unique environment.

‘This is a landscape in flux. Dunes creep. New channels cut the sandflats and slow, glassy tides spread thin smears of mud to build slick upon slick into new marsh.’ Richard Girling, The Return of the Tide

The Quay is a source of inspiration for textile artist Debbie Lyddon

The Quay, Wells

The harbour of Wells lies one mile inland from the North Sea along a narrow channel that fills and empties twice daily as the tide creeps in and out.

Carrying on past the town the channel narrows even further and divides into numerous muddy creeks. It is a bleak, ever-changing place that is land for half a day and sea for the rest. I have walked on the mud and sailed on the water. North facing, it has a soft blue/grey light.

The Creek in Morston is a source of inspiration for Debbie Lyddon, popular textile artist.

The Creek, Morston

I am interested in all aspects of this landscape but the processes of change that occur within it capture my imagination the most: air, wind, water, light and sound. My work is a response to these visible and invisible forces.

Soundwalk drawing by Debbie Lyddon

Soundwalk Drawing, detail – Debbie Lyddon

Inner perception, Outward observation

I walk and I notice. Sometimes I record these ‘noticings’ in a sketchbook – quick pen sketches or written notes – things I hear or see, an interesting texture, or a movement caused by the wind or water.

I pick things up that have been caught by the tide on the sand or marsh: old rope, bits of worn plastic and cloth, sea-smoothed wood. These things feed my work but I do not aim to represent them literally. Instead they give me a clue or a starting point to the things I make.

The artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham wrote that her drawings and paintings came from ‘an inner perception and outward observation’. As I make work I draw up memories of these images and experiences – outer sensing turns into inner seeing.

Sketchbook drawing by Debbie Lyddon

Sketchbook drawing by Debbie Lyddon

Cloth is found in this environment in the form of tarpaulins and boat covers. These are protective cloths but to do their job they in turn need to be protected from the effects of the weather.

Wax, varnish, bitumen and salt are substances that preserve, and these materials play an integral part in the non-representational objects, installations and wall-hung works I make.

Detail of a Boat Cover

Detail of a Boat Cover

Invented forms

These works at first appear familiar and suggest a utilitarian functionality, paraphernalia dragged in by the tide whose use is undetermined. As you look closer the more curious and ambiguous they become. These invented forms encourage you to create stories around them.

Bitumen Buckets

Bitumen Buckets

When I arrive in Wells at the beginning of the summer I normally have work to finish off or continue but when this is done I like to let my imagination wander.

I bring materials with me that I think I will need: cloth (cotton duck, linen, muslin and silk), sewing and linen threads (black, white and grey only) white emulsion, wax, varnish and paint (watercolour and acrylic) – I nearly always end up having the wrong things as I never know where my thoughts will take me.

One year I created a series of three suspended forms, that were part of Chinese Whispers, an exhibition by textile group Studio 21. These suspended forms have led to new explorations based on the eyelet construction in the middle of one piece.

Sea Waves and Currents, detail by textile artist Debbie Lyddon

Sea Waves and Currents, detail – Debbie Lyddon

A series of works, Caught by the Tide, was slowly being developed from the eyelet construction explorations.

These works suggest lost or discarded flotsam and jetsam (flotsam comes from a wreck and jetsam is thrown overboard deliberately). They could be parts of a boat or its equipment or disintegrating tackle that is suggestive of a former utilitarian function.

Building on the experience of previous works

Drawing is my way of thinking, a literal drawing out of the mind, and new work always starts with my sketchbook. Ideas flow from one to the next as I doodle and scribble notes.

I jot down the materials I might use and begin to think what form the work will take.

A narrative begins to take shape based on how this work might relate to previous work or the work of another artist or something I have read or I might bring a recent experience from a walk into play.

I find that each new piece I make builds on the experience of previous works.

Sketchbook pages showing the process of textile artist Debbie Lyddon

Sketchbook pages – Debbie Lyddon

Work in progress by Debbie Lyddon, an artist working with textiles

Sketchbook pages

The sketches of this new work bring these things to mind:
Drawings that I did earlier this year and that are a response to a walk along the beach ….

Sea Edge Drawings - Debbie Lyddon

Sea Edge Drawings – Debbie Lyddon

…. a piece I made two years ago ….

Waxed Cloth Muslin and Eyelets - Debbie Lyddon

Waxed Cloth Muslin and Eyelets – Debbie Lyddon

…. A small waxed book

Tarpaulin Book - Debbie Lyddon

Tarpaulin Book – Debbie Lyddon

…. a driftwood construction by Margaret Mellis

Margaret Mellis - Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea

Margaret Mellis – Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea

I prepare my materials and start to make, responding to various stimuli as I go along: how the material reacts as I work it, how one colour sits next to another, the balance and shape of the cloth as I fold and stitch it….

Painted and waxed silk and wire rings

Painted and waxed silk and wire rings

Stitches in the sea

My biggest resource on the coast is the sea and I often place the objects I make into it to speed the decomposition and change of materials.

In this case I want the wire rings to rust and when the stitching is finished I dump it into the sea two or three times to mark the linen thread and silk cloth.

The action of the waves also marks the delicate wax soaked silk adding to the marks made by my hands in sewing in the eyelets.

First time in the sea – high tide, waves

First time in the sea – high tide, waves

Drying at the beachhut

Drying at the beachhut

Second time in the sea – low tide, calm sea

Second time in the sea – low tide, calm sea

This piece needed just two sea soakings to rust the rings so I took it home, dried it and added two outer waxed silk strips to enclose the sea marked pieces.

Finally I stitched eyelets top and bottom to string each separate component together, hang and photograph.

Wrack, from Caught by the Tide Series - Debbie Lyddon

Wrack, from Caught by the Tide Series – Debbie Lyddon

Wrack, detail - Debbie Lyddon

Wrack, detail – Debbie Lyddon

Wrack, detail - Textile artist Debbie Lyddon

Wrack, detail – Debbie Lyddon

Writer and poet Jean Sprackland sums up my feelings about this place;

‘I never tire of the coast because it’s never the same twice ….. The tides and the weather change its physical shape, and they bring different things to look at. There’s always something new. It’s all about change, shift and ambiguity.’ Jean Sprackland, Strands, A Year of Discoveries on the Beach

If you’ve enjoyed glimpsing into what makes Debbie’s work so unique, let us know in the comments below.

Tuesday 26th, December 2023 / 20:52

About the author

Joseph Pitcher is the son of textile artist Sue Stone. He is an actor and voice-over artist and has worked at the RSC, the National Theatre, West End theatres and several other leading regional venues across the UK. Find Joe on Google

View all articles by Joe

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16 comments on “Debbie Lyddon: Responding to environment”

  1. Wen Redmond says:

    Beautiful in thought, action, & promise. The work is wonderful.
    I need to ask how you hang the work and do you ship it to shows? I imagine it can’t be folded.
    Thank you for an enjoyable 15 minutes.

    • Joe says:

      Absolutely agree – Debbie’s work is extremely detailed and very beautiful. I’ve forwarded your question to Debbie so hopefully she will pop over here and give you an answer. Thanks for the comment.

      • Thanks for your comment Wen. ‘Wrack’ is hung very simply with a small tack banged into the wall and a looped piece of twine. It is surprisingly robust (it has already been in the sea!) and would survive shipping by being loosely rolled in lots of bubblewrap and boxed.

  2. meta says:

    Love the waxed silk!

  3. Kirsty Hall says:

    What lovely work. I like that it’s not a slavish representation but is inspired by the landscape and made in collaboration with the elements.

    • Joe says:

      Hi Kirsty – thanks for the observation. I think Debbie is extremely talented and you’re spot on – she takes her inspiration and does something fresh with it.

  4. Marian Roberts says:

    Hello Debbie

    Having just discovered your work I am finding it exciting and inspiring. I relate so much to what you say in the article. I live in Norwich and also have a passion for the Norfolk coast. I envy you your cottage in Wells. When walking along the coast I also collect flotsam and jetsam am trying to use print stitch and weave with it at the moment. Seeing your work and other Artist s on this site encourages me to carry on exploring in this way. Thanks, look forward to seeing more of your work.
    Marian

  5. Anna Lund says:

    Wunderful! Inspiration!
    The sea always change, but is also always there and mowing…
    Thanks for your work, I see the sea here in Sweden archipelago, so
    very sculptural och monumental.

    warm greetings from Anna

  6. Christine Heath says:

    Love to see flotsam and jetsam as I have just been experimenting with my findings from the coast here -north east yorkshire .Yours are inspiritational and I can smell the sea just looking at them .

  7. Alison Banks says:

    Absolutely fabulous work- I miss the sea having moved to Tucson Arizona. I have admired Debbie’s, work for years and am always just astonished and inspired by it. Thank you.

  8. Laura Schejter says:

    I like too much !!!!

  9. Enid Davies says:

    Wonderful work, beautifully recounted. Always so interesting.

  10. Elizabeth says:

    The Australian coastline has wonderful promise . Very different colours and moods. I have appreciated your commentary and admire your work, technique and spirit.

  11. Jane Benoit says:

    I am not familiar with Debbie Lyddon and her work. I did, however enjoy “Responding to Environment” and her forms and am most intrigued with her waxed silk. Looking forward to her class on May 25.

  12. Thelma Robinson says:

    Although I’ve always lived as far from the sea as you can get, when I’m on the coast or by the sea anywhere I feel completely at home, it seems to speak to my inner being. The Norfolk coast, near Wells-next-the-Sea, is one of my favourite places. Debbie’s descriptions and her work are so evocative. Looking forward to her Stitch Club Workshop next week.

  13. Kathleen Mckindles says:

    This gal needs to write a book! She’s not just a fabulous artist but a beautiful writer as well; her discriptions of her work are clear and understandable. No “art talk” babble here! Find her a publisher!

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