Valérie Wartelle MSDC

Valérie is a fine artist working with fibres and textiles. Her practice is rooted in the traditional craft of wet felting and the manipulation of textiles as an expressive art form.

Taking the rural environment as her inspiration, Valérie draws on its colour, texture and form to create contemplative semi-abstract artworks in which fibres are laid, cloth is embedded, and threads unravelled, as a painter with her brush.

Starting from an original drawing, the freedom and energy of the marks are scaled up, gradually building her composition in layers. These works are not literal landscapes, but evocations - intimate responses shaped through fibre, textile, and colour.

Process has always been central to her practice, and through ongoing exploration of materials’ behaviours, Valérie has over the years perfected a unique approach to the craft. Fascinated by the organic qualities intrinsic to the medium, she works solely with natural materials.

Brought up in France and French Polynesia, Valérie originally came to the UK to study Textile Design. Following a career as a knitwear designer, and Council officer, Valérie set up her art studio in 2014 in Halifax, West Yorkshire.

In 2021, she received a William Parker Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) award which took her to the Netherlands to work with renown artist activist Claudy Jongstra.

Valérie’s works held in private collections in Europe, North America, and the UK.

EDUCATION

• 2000 MSc Interactive Multimedia Production, Huddersfield University
• 1989 BSc(Hons) Textile Design Huddersfield Polytechnic (1st Class)

AWARDS

• 2021 Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST)
• 2015 Best Picture in Show, Great North Art Show, Ripon
• 2015 Best Emerging Textile Artist, Embroidery Magazine, SIT Select Showcase

RESIDENCY

• 2022 Claudy Jongstra Studio, the Netherlands, Jan-Mar

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

• 2024 Meanderings, Saddleworth Museum & Gallery UK
• 2023 Closer Still, The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle upon Tyne UK
• 2019 The Fate of Threads, Staithes Studios Gallery, Staithes UK
• 2018 A Tale of Thread & Colour, Water Street Gallery, Todmorden UK
• 2016 Wisps & Whispers, The Gallery, Anthropologie, London UK
• 2016 The Common Thread, Calver Gallery, South Square, Thornton, Bradford UK
• 2014 Entangled, Queenies, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield UK

RECENT SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

• 2025 Future Icons Selects, London Craft Week, 83 Rivington Street, London
• 2024 Luminous, The Sanctuary Studio & Gallery, Newnham-on-Severn
• Making Spaces, Decorex, Olympia, London
• Glimpses, Birch Tree Gallery, Edinburgh
• Holmfirth Artweek, Civic Hall, Holmfirth
• Showcase #1, Haddon Hall, Cheshire
• Future Icons Selects, London Craft Week, The Bargehouse, OXO Tower, London
• Earth Murmurs, The Lake Gallery, The Wirral
• Saltaire Art Gallery, Winter Show
• 2023 GNCCF, Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, Victoria Baths, Manchester
• 2022 GNCCF, Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, Victoria Baths, Manchester
• Collect 2022, International Fair for Contemporary Craft & Design, QEST Gallery
• 2021 Knitting & Stitching Show, Harrogate

PRESS

• 2022 Embroidery Magazine, Industrial Action, The Sewing Room, p10-11, Mar/April
• 2020 Felt Matters, The Felt Landscape, An Invitation To Amble, p23-25, 139, Jun
• 2016 Embroidery Magazine, The Way of Felt, p38-41, May/Jun

TEACHING – TALKS – OUTREACH SESSIONS

• 2025 Teaching residency Lainamac, Felletin, France
• 2024 QEST Education Programme, Crafty Fair Sheffield
• 2023 QEST Education Programme, Rotherham High School
• 2021 Woven in Practice Conference, University of Huddersfield
• 2015 – Current Workshops, residencies, talks studio based and across the UK
• 2015 – 2021 Artworks, The Everybody School of Art, Halifax

MEMBERSHIPS

• QEST Scholar
• Craft Council Directory