Hazel Mutch Art

I have been drawing, painting and making things for as long as I can remember. I studied theatre wardrobe, then fine art, and was interested in art therapy, but took a detour into teaching, mentoring, and then psychotherapy. All the while, art still played a crucial role in my life, sometimes converging with my other work and sometimes providing a contrast.

Through the decades, I have painted theatre sets, shop signs, and portraits, and have explored a range of media, particularly inks, oils, and textiles. The natural world, and how we are embedded in it, is a huge source of inspiration, as is the vast world of myth and imagination beyond the material one. It is often when I’m wondering round in nature that images come to mind, and these are what I’ve been painting recently.

The living world also informs my handmade felt. I find the process of felting very satisfying; transforming loose fibres into sturdy objects. It is an ancient art that connects me to the human story and is a way for art to be useful as well as beautiful.

Poetry is an important part of my practice and sometimes words and images arrive together, or influence each other. I don’t see them as that far away from each other – just different ways of expressing something about this magical and confounding world we live in, the mystery of the lives we inhabit, and our human nature.