Artwork by former Palmerston North teacher Laura Hudson needs a new home

This Laura Hudson quilt /applique piece needs a new home - one with a large wall. Photo / Judith Lacy

For more than a decade, the river’s flow and the birds’ flight were hidden behind plastic and paper.

Now the piece by textile artist Laura Hudson needs a new home - one with a big wall.

Sue Artner found the piece wrapped in plastic and paper hanging from rafters in the workshop of her friend Margaret Taylor’s home.

Taylor is a former director of Manawatū Art Gallery. She has moved to a retirement village and will soon put her Ashhurst house on the market. Artner is finding new homes for Taylor’s artworks and wants to give away the Hudson piece.

It is thought the piece depicts the Manawatū River and the Ruahine and Tararua Ranges with the yarn tuffs birds in flight.

The piece is 3m wide, 1.3m high and 5cm thick. It is completely backed in wool.

Artner says there must be a school or public building that would be enlivened by having the piece.

Hudson died in 2021 in the Bay of Plenty. She exhibited at many galleries including at Te Manawa in 2004.

She used to live in Palmerston North and taught art at Queen Elizabeth College.

Hudson was a member of the Association of New Zealand Embroiderers’ Guilds and the Central Print Council Aotearoa New Zealand.

She is featured in the books Stitch: contemporary New Zealand textile artists by Ann Packer and Proof: two decades of printmaking by Print Council Aotearoa New Zealand.

Proof says Hudson combined textile art and printmaking to explore themes of migration, displacement, urban decay, and women’s domestic labour.

Artner, who taught art at Queen Elizabeth College from 1971 to 1997, says Hudson put a tremendous amount of work into the quilt /applique piece.

Hand-dyed fabric was quilted and detailed machine stitching was used to form the river.

Detail of the river created by textile artist Laura Hudson. Photo / Judith Lacy

Artner thinks the piece will need fumigating and there is a small hole in the woollen edging on the left.

She has been told the piece used to hang in the Palmerston North City Council chamber. When it decided to let the piece go, Taylor offered to store it.

If you are interested in the piece, email sartner@xtra.co.nz.

Judith Lacy has been the editor of the Manawatū Guardian since December 2020. She graduated from journalism school in 2001 and this is her second role editing a community paper.