Private Studio Tour of Fabric Artist Alice Beasley

Join us for an insider’s look at the techniques and tricks Alice Beasley employs to attain the stunningly realistic fabric portraits of people and objects. Without the use of paint or other drawing materials Alice creates realistic portraits by assembling and layering fabric.

She says: “I find color, light, shadow, line and value in the pattern of ordinary household fabrics. From these I snip small pieces which I arrange and fuse into a figurative composition. As such, the work grows from within rather than being applied to the surface of a canvas by paint, pencil or similar drawing tools. When the image is complete, I sew it together with the stitch line constituting the final “drawn” line.

In her studio she will demonstrate the process of printing fabric on her large, freestanding textile printer; cutting and assembling the resultant photo prints into shapes she transforms into figurative artwork. Final stitching is done on her longarm quilting machine which she will demonstrate.

Alice’s work has been exhibited in many venues throughout the United States including the American Folk Art Museum in New York and the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum as well as abroad in Madrid, France, Japan and Namibia. It has been purchased or commissioned by a number of individuals and public entities including the DeYoung Museum, the city and county of San Francisco, the County of Alameda, Kaiser Hospital, Highland Hospital and the Sunnyvale Medical Facility.

When registering please choose EITHER the 11am OR the 2pm tour

Attendees will receive directions to Alice's studio 2 days before the event.

Note: The studio is up a hill with many steps.

Alice discusses Water Dance, her entry in the 2023 deYoung Open.

Image courtesy of Alice Beasley

Floating Into the Heat of the Moon. Entered in the 2021 deYoung Open and now a part of the museums' permanent collection.

Image courtesy of Sibila Savage Photography.

When and Where I Enter

Image courtesy of Sibila Savage Photography.

Richmond Reimagined

Image courtesy of Sibila Savage Photography.

Host or Publisher Textile Arts Council