Whether as a yardstick by which the glories of other parts of the world are measured, or simply as a delight in and of itself, the Dorset landscape looms large in From Purbeck To Scotland, Kirsten’s new exhibition – her first for three years – at the charming St Andrew’s Church in the grounds of Lulworth Castle.

It’s there in the lush depth of meadow greens in ‘Kingcombe’; in the ochre layers of ‘Toadstools’; and in the autumnal embroidered shades of ‘Hartland Moor’ with its silver birch steadfast in the foreground not far from Kirsten’s home in the Purbeck village of Stoborough.

“I love Hartland Moor,” she smiles.

“I know it so well and yet there is always something new to find, or familiar things to see differently. It also helps me find new techniques to work with.

“Toadstools fascinate me, the way they are so intricately layered. In trying to copy that in my work I have refined the way I build up the depth of colours with layers of fabric and stitching. Too much embroidery suffers from a lack of shade and tone, but I try to make colours as natural as I can – I think of my embroidery as paintings, I’m not really a needlewoman.”

Kirsten dyes her material and threads with silk paints and is passionate and resourceful in her work – anything is fair game if it serves the picture, from old cheap lace to net produce bags from the supermarket used to add texture, depth and new layers of interest.

The new exhibition features a series of landscapes from a visit to the Flow Country, in the far north of Scotland. Its peatland and wetland were quite unlike anything Danish-born Kirsten had ever encountered.

“I expected it to be quite similar in some respects to the Purbeck heathland I know so well, but not a bit of it. I was totally unprepared for the colours – the orange and rust, the flatness of some parts and then the most amazing thing of all, the purple sea. No matter what time of day we went there or how bright the sunlight was, the sea was always a shade of purple. It was incredible.”

Other highlights of the exhibition include a group of small box frames with portraits of horses, ponies and cows, some intricately worked samples of work inspired by lichen and several of the Viking designs that link Kirsten’s Norse heritage with her love of nature.

She also plans to show some examples of the renowned and widely praised ecclesiastical embroidery that first drew her to the craft in the late 1980s.

“I have no doubt that God planned this for me,” she says. “Until the early 1980s I was a potter, but I became very ill with rheumatism – since diagnosed as osteo-arthritis – and had to give it up, which I found incredibly difficult because I had always been a maker. I had a long time looking for something to take its place and only found it when I took charge of vestments at East Stoke Church where my husband was organist.

“I was brought up a Lutheran so knew nothing about church vestments and had to read up about it. In doing so I discovered modern embroidery. It’s also a way of sharing my faith. My first commission for an altar front was for St Nicholas at Arne, such a beautiful church, and that was in 1990.

“I loved doing them as you have to speak to a committee and get an idea of what they’d like as a design and it has to fit with the architecture so it actually ends up as quite a tight brief, whereas in my other work I have a completely free hand to let my imagination run away.”

For all the creative skill and undeniable flair in Kirsten’s work, there’s also a sense of hope, of looking forwards and meeting the future head on.

“I hear people my age moaning and groaning about what they can’t do, I’m much more interested in thinking positively about the things I can do.”

Underpinning it all is her steely resolve and spirited resilience – a family trait as it turns out.

“My aunt Hilda Sehested was one of the first eight women to be admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts,” she says with all due pride. “Unlike her though I love people to have my work because I want then to share in the joy I found in making it. She hated to sell her work and would only allow it to go if she really liked the person who wanted it.

“On my wall I have paintings of my aunt, mother, daughter and cousin and photography by my other daughter, so where most people have family pictures, we have a gallery of family work.”

Kirsten T Webb: From Purbeck To Scotland is at St Andrew's Church, East Lulworth from September 24 to October 13, open daily from 10.30am to 5pm.

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