Mary Farmer studied Fine Art at Beckenham School of Art (1958-1961) followed by a prestigious Digswell Arts Fellowship (1964). This was the visionary arts residency programme established by Henry Morris in 1957 and whose other early residents or ‘fellows’ included Michael Andrews, Peter Collingwood, and Hans Coper.
Mary established her first studio in Guildford developing her ideas in both gouache and tapestry with the latter attracting early interest: the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Circulation Department made an important acquisition of a monochrome rug and works were included in the significant US touring show of British design organised with the Smithsonian (1969-1971).
Mary began teaching at Farnham Art School and further major awards from South East Arts (1979) and the Crafts Council (1980) cemented her position as a leading figure in innovative contemporary tapestry. In 1981 she and her husband, potter Terry Moores, acquired a wonderful early nineteenth-century wharf side building in Boston, Lincolnshire, which they converted into studios and living accommodation, and which remained her creative base throughout her life.
In 1983 she joined the Textile Department at the Royal College of Art, London as a tapestry tutor going on to establish and develop a newly independent Tapestry Course within the Fine Art Painting School until its closure in 1997. Her mastery of colour and inventive use of the language of abstraction in weave led to a growing number of invitations to exhibit both nationally and internationally with works acquired by the Government Art Collection, Sainsbury Centre, Crafts Council, and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. Important public commissions and acquisitions included the British Oxygen Company, Channel 4 Television, and Lambeth Palace.
Ann Sutton’s acquisition of ‘Float One’ In 1983 coincided with another show organised by Ann herself for the John Hansard Gallery also in Southampton entitled ‘Attitudes to Tapestry’. Ann says about this work from her collection:
‘I knew Mary and was deeply interested in her work before I went to her exhibition 'Woven Colours' at Southampton City Art Gallery in 1983, where I fell in love with, and purchased, her red/blue masterpiece ‘Float 1’.
Mary went to considerable lengths to source fine wool (often from Sweden) and would dye wool herself if she could not find the exact tone or colour she needed for the work. She commented in an interview:
‘Colour is to me the single most powerful and emotive visual sensation. I use wool for its incomparable intensity and saturation of colour; tapestry for its richness and for the personal control possible over its construction and substance.’
Her work is included in several significant catalogues and publications including:
- The Maker’s Eye (Crafts Council, 1981)
- British Craft Textiles (Collins, 1985) organised and edited by Ann Sutton. This is a very comprehensive review of textiles in UK in the period.
- Tapestry by Barty Phillips (Phaidon,1994)
