A re-creation of the Cornish coast, painstakingly stitched entirely from memory over five years, is to go on display at Warrington Museum after being recognised by the Royal Academy of Arts.
From the Sea View is the creation of mathematician-turned-artist Angela Gould who initially started sewing simply as an expression of love and hope during the pandemic.
The resulting seascape was based on some of Angela’s happiest childhood holidays to the village of Downderry in Cornwall, which she visited twice a year. But more than just a calming view of the sea, it came to represent the healing power of memory and creativity at one of the most difficult periods of her life.
The former Culcheth High School student said: “I lived alone during lockdown and, like many people, I found the isolation very hard. I was lonely and felt very scared – kept apart from the people and places I love best – and the constant focus on illness in the news sometimes made everything feel overwhelming.
“So I started sewing, just to give me something to do, and to try to calm my mind. It became a way to steady myself and remember something soothing and familiar.”
Although most of her family is now gone, the coast from Downderry to Polperro, that Angela has frequently travelled to since she was seven months old, remains her ‘favourite place in the world’.
So she started sewing the sea view purely from memory – the legacy of many hours spent sitting and playing on the beach, and a vision of what she hoped to live to see again.
Angela, a former Executive Director of the UK Maths Trust, added: “It is a magical place for me. The sea, the sky, the rockpools, looking for lighthouses at night, collecting shells, eating pasties and running on the beach.
“It’s called ‘From the Sea View’, because the Sea View was the name of the pub in Downderry when I was a child. It has a beer garden overlooking the beach and the water, and in my mind’s eye I was sat there in Covid, sewing, recreating the memories of the place and the people I love.
“I work in mathematics and came late to art, and so have had no formal training. I sewed free-style, straight to the fabric, I didn’t have a pattern or a plan, I didn’t draw anything or look at photos or search the internet, I just sewed the sea and the sky from memory. I know that coastline so well, it’s part of me.
“The repetition of the stitching was like the tide in my mind, rhythmic, washing back and to. With every needle I threaded I was creating a remembered world for myself, of love and loss and family and belonging and connection and the will to survive, even when you’re not sure you’re going to make it through.”
Despite having only done small bits of sewing and cross stitch in the past, Angela’s project grew and grew. She worked on it every week, in between work commitments running an online maths club for teachers – and slowly but surely it amounted to around 500,000 stitches and about 800 hours of work.
Angela had it framed and thought that was that – but when astonished guests encouraged her to exhibit it publicly, she began to see it a bit differently.
Since then, this incredible work has gained national recognition when it was selected for the prestigious Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2024. It was also recognised by the Royal School of Needlework, who selected it to promote Mental Health Awareness Week.
She said: “My sister and niece thought it hilarious I’d entered the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition – I’m famously unable to draw a straight line – but they were incredibly supportive. Dozens of friends and colleagues travelled to London to see it at Burlington House, which was very touching.
“I didn’t quite believe it at first. On the first day, I half expected someone to tell me there’d been a mistake, that my piece was not being exhibited. It was the most rewarding experience of my life, bringing together my past, my family, my friends and a sense of a possible future.
“The Summer Exhibition has been running for more than 250 years, so for an ‘outsider’ like me to be selected first time was, and is, unbelievable. When I first saw the listing in the exhibition catalogue, it was almost surreal.”
Now the Warrington artist is preparing to exhibit From The Sea View in her hometown as part of her inaugural solo exhibition at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery.
The show launches tomorrow (Saturday) and will also feature a number of other previously unseen hand-sewn cross-stitch tapestries that Angela has created since embracing her newfound success as a ‘fledgling artist’.
But they all share a similar theme with Angela describing them as ‘scenes from a life lived with Cornwall in my heart’.
Angela Gould’s From the Sea View is at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery until May 31.
