Stitched cotton fabric collage mounted on canvas backing.

Measures 35.5 by 28 cm (14 by 11 inches)

Gillian Smith was born and raised in Victoria in a boating family and developed her love of the sea at an early age. She has taken many trips with her camera around British Columbia’s West Coast; she is fascinated by the coastline edges where the land meets the sea and the ever-changing reflections in the water of islands and trees. Gillian makes fabric collage seascapes based on her photos, to make fabric and stitch look like fog in the channel and reflections in the sea — a realistic illusion. She often paints and dyes her own fabric to get the colour and effect she wants. She loves working with her sewing machine and pushing the edges of what it can do.