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Meet the artist
Ruth O'Leary
Ruth O'Leary
Ruth is an experienced embroiderer and multi-disciplinary textile artist with many years’ experience in designing and creating textile artworks, including bespoke pieces on commission, and has exhibited in a range of forums, including private displays, public spaces and galleries.
Using a variety of embroidery techniques in her work, Ruth specialises in needle painting her own origial designs in long and short stitch, creating exquisite pictures in an almost photo-realistic style.
As part of the Rostara brand, Ruth’s designs are now exclusively available as limited-edition art prints. Exploring the potential of cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the design process, she is working with generative art to expand the range of the possible.
Ruth has been a member of the Embroiderers’ Guild for over 25 years, and is a past Chair of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne branch.
Artist Statement
I am a self-taught hand embroiderer and multi-disciplinary textile artist based in the North East of England, and have been sewing since I was a child. I have always loved fabrics and threads, and the way these simple materials can form beautiful objects.
I am particularly interested in the ways in which centuries-old textile craft skills can be used in the modern day, especially the subtle use of colour in needle painting or thread shading techniques, and their use in my own contemporary designs. This requires considerable craft skill, an eye for detail, and a good deal of patience.
More recently, I have discovered the power of generative AI. I initially started to use it as a design aid for my textile work, but soon realised that I could do so much more than that, and started creating with it purely for its own sake, with no other end in mind. During my career in industry, I worked in website design and management, and was involved in projects incorporating machine learning. Generative AI has enabled me to bring together my professional and artistic lives in wholly new and unexpected ways.
My textile art is central to my life, and I constantly notice surfaces, textures and forms that inspire me. The finished pieces are part of an ongoing development, with themes and messages joining and reappearing within my work, always moving towards something new.