Beverly Ayling-Smith

Half-remembered on Waking, 2023

Bedsheet, paint, wax, earth pigment, thread 85cm x 48cm

This piece recalls the feeling of trying to remember a dream or nightmare, trying to see through the fog of sleep.

Half-remembered on Waking, 2023

Beverly Ayling-Smith

Marking Time, 2023

Bedsheet fabric, paint, thread 37cm x 28cm

One square stitched every day to mark a seven week period of time in 2023

Beverly Ayling-Smith

Marking Time, 2023

Beverly Ayling-Smith

Hidden, 2022

bedsheet, earth pigment, thread 40cm x 70cm

This piece explores what may lie beneath the surface - hidden in crevises or under floorboards

Beverly Ayling-Smith

Hidden, 2022

Beverly Ayling-Smith

A Sense of Place, 2024

Calico, tissue paper, wax, earth pigment, silk and cotton threads 38cm x 90cm

Beverly Ayling-Smith

A Sense of Place, 2024

Beverly Ayling-Smith

A Year of Dreams, 2023

Pillowcase, silk thread, lead wire 51cm x 79cm

This work consists of 365 folded pockets of cloth stitched in layers on a pillowcase suggesting that each may contain the memory of a dream.

Beverly Ayling-Smith

A Year of Dreams, 2023

Beverly Ayling-Smith

Paradise Lost, 2019

cotton, organza, metallic thread, machine thread 43cm x 94cm

According to the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve, tempted by the serpent, ate fruit from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and were banished from Eden. Drawing on imagery from traditional Toile de Jouy prints of an idyllic countryside, this work explores three moments in the story: before the serpent tempted Eve; the moment of temptation and the loss of Paradise. All three parts of the triptych have been layered with an excerpt from John Milton’s seminal work ‘Paradise Lost’. This section of his work on The Fall, published in 1667, deals specifically with how the banishment from the Garden of Eden and loss of Paradise came about and describes its consequences for the future of man and of women.