VIEW OF ADDENBROOKE’S ACROSS HOBSON’S PARK
by Vicky A

 

• What’s your name? Vicky A

 

• Where do you live (which road or which part of Trumpington)? Bishops Road

 

• How long have you lived in Trumpington? 12 years

 

• Can you tell us a bit about your panel?

I wanted to create something that showed the relationship between the building work going on all around us in Trumpington and the fields where the buildings are springing up. So I chose the view across the new country park – Hobson’s Park – towards Addenbrooke’s Hospital, where my daughter was born. When we first moved to Trumpington 12 years ago, the park was arable farmland owned by the Pemberton family since the late 1600s. Over the past few years, thousands of new houses have been built and Addenbrooke’s has expanded in all directions, with cranes dotted across the horizon. At first I was upset to see these lovely fields being built on, but I am now growing to appreciate having access to two country parks in Trumpington on some of those fields where potatoes, sugar beet and wheat used to grow.

 

• What materials & techniques did you use?

I used fabric paints to create the sky and clouds – a technique I learned at one of the Stitch in Time workshops. I added in some silver cranes later, again with fabric paint. Then I raided some of the Trumpington Stitchers’ fabulous fabric collection for offcuts and samples to create the buildings in the background – and the London to Cambridge train cutting across from the left. For the foreground I used my Mum’s embellishing machine to punch pieces of wool and other bits of shiny fabric to green calico. My aim was to create an abstract rendition rather than an accurate depiction of the view, and, as my first piece of textile art, I was quite pleased with how it turned out! As a writer, I’m usually more involved with gathering words and stories, but it was great to be involved in a project that captured some of the visual elements of Trumpington at such a pivotal moment in its development.