Valérie is a contemporary fine artist working with fibres and textiles. Taking the rural environment as her inspiration, she explores long-term interests of texture, colour, layering and process to create contemplative and ethereal wall hung artworks.

Valérie’s primary practice is wet felting; a traditional craft technique using wool tops, hot water, soapsuds and friction to interlock the fibres together. The compositions are built in layers in which cloth is embedded, prints disguised, and threads unravelled as a painter with her brush.

The making is muscular and rhythmic as she executes the steps again and again - lay, spray, roll, squeeze, stretch. “It seems repetition nudges me into a semi-meditative space”, she explains. “It invites me to trust myself, and let the haptic connections sinuously paint a new space for the viewer to contemplate.”

Brought up in France and French Polynesia, Valérie originally came to the UK to study textile design. After a period working in the textile industry and in local government, she is now a practicing artist working and living in West Yorkshire.

In 2015, she was awarded the Embroidery Magazine’s Best Emerging Textile Artist at SIT Select Showcase, as well as Best Picture in Show at the Great North Art Show in Ripon.