Embroidery & Oils
Hayley Mallett is a mixed media artist living in Guernsey. Born in 1985. Hayley graduated University College Falmouth in 2007 with a degree in Textile Design, before which she had completed a foundation course on the island in Art and Design. She now runs Sula Framing and Gallery in Guernsey, and is very thankful to being able to work full-time within the arts on the island, allowing her time to work on her own artwork when it is quiet at the gallery.
Even when Hayley was little she used to love spending time in her parents greenhouses, and being amongst the plants, she then went on to work in a garden centre for 5 years during holidays and as a Sunday girl and she was always thinking about which plant she wanted to draw next. This continued at University where she was surrounded by many amazing gardens in Cornwall, including the Eden Project.
Hayley also always enjoyed pattern. When she was little she used to spend hours colouring in intricate pattern books, and also loved sewing. She loved being creative with her hands and began experimenting while at College in Guernsey. When she went to University she found it difficult working to a brief, because she had previously enjoyed a lot more freedom to experiment. However this was where she found her love of beads. She did a workshop on beading and never looked back. Just after graduating she went to spend 2 weeks work experience at Hand and Lock (the royal embroiderers), where she continued working with beads. She then found an amazing bead shop in Turkey where she regularly went on holiday, and used to bring back bags full of beads. A lot of the colours she uses in her work are probably also influenced by the vibrant colours in Turkey. Colour is really what attracts Hayley to something, hence the bright colours in her work.
It wasn’t until after university that Hayley started experimenting with working on canvas. She usually works on deep edge canvases so that she can get her needle right to the edge. She starts off by painting in acrylic on the canvas, and then once it’s dry she adds the most exciting part of her work…beads, fabric, embroidery and whatever else she fancies. The pictures often evolve into something totally different to what she first had in her mind, thanks to different finds along the way. Hayley always hand sews each individual bead onto her work, so she has to have a lot of patience. Some of her works take about 200 hours; because of the length of time spent on each piece she also creates Limited Edition Prints on a selection of her favourite pieces.
In August 2012 Hayley held her first solo exhibition at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital, Guernsey. It just so happened that this coincided with the filming of ITV’s Island Hospital, based around Guernsey’s hospital, hence she was asked to be included in the filming of this series. They followed the work of her final piece for the exhibition, from taking photos down at the Little Chapel, to working in her studio, setting up the exhibition and filming at her opening night. Following the success of her exhibition came the showing of Island Hospital on ITV, after this came a lot of interest in the work, including sales and commissions that she has been working on. She now has work in private collections in Australia, Spain, England and the Channel Islands.
Group Exhibitions:
- St Peter’s Church, Guernsey, April 2014
- The New Life Springs Eternal, The Bank Square Gallery, St Just, Cornwall, May-June 2013
- Mourant Art Prize, Guernsey Airport, December 2010
- Fox Art Prize, Jeresy and Guernsey, November 2010
Collaborations:
- A Celebration of Mother’s with Deirdre Harris-Child, Sula Gallery, Guernsey, March 2010
Solo Exhibition:
- Princess Elizabeth Hospital, Guernsey, August-November 2012
