Mona Craven, Artist

Thank you to curator Dr Loucia Manopoulou, Director of Newlands House Gallery, and Kas Williams for co-creating a tremendous menu and table setting for the Old Dining Room at West Dean as part of the first ROSA Botanical Art Fair. This opens tomorrow at 10am. Join us in the Old Dining Hall in all its surreal hues. Here, between 1 and 4 May, on the Banquet menu, is my installation 'a protea's heart'. The Banquet is a compilation of artworks and objects by artists working in ceramics, basketry, metal, glass, textiles, lace, printmaking, embroidery, and mixed media, set against a floating, surreal cloud created by installation, the artist Rachel Grimes @themirrorandtheveil . Artists: @ashleyhowardceramics @_annette.mills @alisonbaxterartjewellery @carawassenberg.sculpture @corinneyoungstudio @studiomerriman @fleurgreniersculpture @helen_dyne_ @kaswilliams @msmonacr @louciamanopoulou ROSA Botanical Art Fair is a brand-new event organised by ROSA (Sussex Arts + Culture Magazine) @therosamag In partnership with West Dean @westdeancollege , featuring leading galleries, artists and designers from across the UK. In addition to the exhibitions in the historic Estate House, there is an Art + Design Marquee, a sculpture garden, contemporary floristry installations and a programme of events. Celebrated musician and songwriter Guy Chambers is giving a free performance on Saturday afternoon in the Oak Hall, as is poet Rev. Peter Owen-Jones. Included in the events are exclusive historic house tours, garden tours, taster sessions, and workshops to book. Open 1-4 May. For full details and tickets at botanicalartfair.co.uk. Quote code NHG10 to receive a 10% booking on tickets. #installationartist #printmaker #proteas #botanicalart

This weekend I'll be working on a new piece as part of an exciting project with @alisonbaxterartjewellery . Called Generation to Generation, it examines how Craft skills are passed down and how current makers are responding to the items passed down through their own families. This piece was made by Anna Jones, my great grandmother in about 1879. Crochet or lace? Any ideas welcome!

An exciting element of my practice-based research has been employing drawing methods to think through ideas and to draw on aspects of these outcomes to create new work. Drawing, for me, becomes a tool for creating a unique voice. #explorativedrawing #expandeddrawing #drawingconfidence #drawing #ochreprintstudio #drawingadventure #practicebasedresearch #drawingasresearch

🖊️ Expand Your Drawing Language with Dr Mona Craven ✨Sensory Experimental Drawing Sunday 8 February | 10am–4pm £75 / Members £70 Discover new ways of drawing and transform your mark-making practice in this one-day workshop with Dr Mona Craven @msmonacr , at @ochreprint Ochre Print Studio. Through a series of guided exercises, you’ll explore a wide range of tools and approaches that move beyond traditional drawing. Together, you’ll investigate methods to sharpen observational skills, build confidence, and develop a more expressive visual language perfect for both two and three dimensional work. This workshop is ideal for complete beginners, returning artists, or anyone wanting to refresh and expand their creative process. About Mona: Mona is an artist, researcher and educator working across drawing, textiles and installation. With a background in graphic design and a practice based PhD, she exhibits nationally and internationally, and continues to explore the intersections of textiles, photogravure and expanded drawing at Ochre Print Studio. Join us for a day of playful exploration and expressive discovery. Tickets are limited. Book your spot in our website. Follow the link in our bio ⬆️ #OchrePrintStudio #DrawingWorkshop #ExpandedDrawing #MarkMaking #CreativeWorkshops #SurreyArtists #ArtistResidency #MonaCraven #ContemporaryDrawing #ArtPractice #DrawingSkills #GuildfordArts #LearnToDraw #ArtWorkshopsUK #ArtEducation

Over the last few months, in the spirit of secrecy at an open-access studio @ochreprint , I have created an artwork for the RWA’s Secret Postcard Auction. 🚨 Bidding for the @RWABristol ’s Secret Postcard Auction goes live 24 Oct at 17:00pm – until 10:00pm Thursday 06 November. My artwork is in the auction – can you guess which one it is? I join 100s of big-name artists who have created one-off, unique, postcard-sized artworks – all to raise money for the Charity. Every bid helps foster lifelong journeys with art, keeping art accessible for everyone. Bid now at .uk #textileartist #printmaker #artistinresidence @ochreprint #rwasecretpostcardauction2025 @rwabristol #artcharityauction

CRAFT SKILLS: GENERATION TO GENERATION, @craftsstudycentre during October Craft month 2025 for @farnhamcrafttown . Amongst beautiful things in the Crafts Study Centre, a wonderfully generous group of people worked together to think about the textile skills learned from our elders, family and friends. In this second week of the project, using the workshop materials left to me, we shared and related stories whilst stitching together leftover bits of cloth using traditional patchwork methods. #ucatextilearchive #craftsstudycentre #patchworkworkshop #insidethemuseum #farnhamcrafttown #farnhamoctobercraftmonth2025

I've contributed a unique postcard-sized piece to the @RWABristol annual fundraiser! This is an auction where every single bid helps the gallery support artists, run brilliant community programs, and inspire lifelong journeys with art. The fun is in the mystery; you won't know the artist's identity until after the auction closes. Don't miss out! The bidding for these anonymous masterpieces goes live on October 24th. Bidding live 24 Oct – 6 Nov .uk/secretpostcard Wish me luck, and let's raise some money for art. #rwabristol #artauction #postcardart #printmaker #textileartist

Thank you to curators Alice Kettle and Lesley Millar, and the wonderful RWA team, for all the care and attention shown across the many phases of exhibiting. A special thank you to fellow artists, the Textile Society and the many visitors from near and far. It has been a privilege to show work and participate in Soft Power, Lives told through textile art. @lesleymillar4 @alicekettle @rwabristol @actionspace @sarahjoy.ford @shellytippingoldsmith @riekokoga @liselinnert @susiemacmurray @rachelfallon3840 @maher.alice @pollyandotherstories @ecdipakistan @made51_unhcr @ashfistan @karisteihaug @erinmriley @ppowgallery @motherstankstation @sabinemake @pippa_hetherington_studio @keiskammaartproject @philippa_lawrence_artist

Hospice Store Caretag Mona Carven, Hospice Store Caretag, 2025, Framed photogravure, chine collé, embroidery ‘Using 19th-century image-making technologies and equipment, the submission of a print brings together an assemblage of haberdashery-related items bought in my local hospice store. Among the things are four needles, thread and a 50p selection of mother-of-pearl buttons. Where and how these beautifully rounded shapes might have washed up on the seashore opens up an imaginative space. Did collecting involve meandering a wet shoreline, searching for the effervescent sparkle? Who purposefully ground these smooth polished shapes and pushed through the two holes? Which other hands used a needle and thread to stitch these small things onto old and new garments? Now, gift aid fastenings are on haberdashery shelves where attention is given to unravelling small things to bring care and respite to others.’ @msmonacr Mona Craven is a fine artist, researcher and educator.

I am delighted my work, 'Whilst embroidering flora 1', can be seen in the THE DIRECTOR'S CUT, an online exhibition by @woolwichcontemporaryprintfair from 04 - 31 August. The showcase features some great artists. Finding and collecting my familiar flora (a pincushion) here in England led to thinking about early nineteenth-century botanists and embroiderers encountering the rich, diverse flora of Southern Africa. In printmaking I explore drawing using textile media and nineteenth-century image reproduction technologies. @woolwichcontemporaryprintfair #photogravure #photopolymer #chine-colle #drawing #printmaker #paperembroidery #textileartist #thedirectorscut2025 #thedirectorscut #woolwichcontemporaryprintfair #printmaking #fynbos #protea

Graduating on just another one of those July hottest days ever, the day was completely celebrated, filled with colour and conversation. Thank you to my family and friends near and far, my @unicreativearts supervision team and the research office for your support on this long and varied journey. An additional thank you to the UCA graduation team for facilitating such a memorable day. @unicreativearts #uca #phdgraduation #practicebasedphd #rhodesuniversityalumni

🔦 Spotlight on Soft Power: Lives told through textile art | Mona Craven @msmonacr Mona Craven’s Whitework, An Unravelling wants you to move around it, breath in its many layers, get as close as you dare to examine its swirls of embroidered detail. It is an imagining of a section of embroidery blown up to a large scale and deconstructed so you can physically stand within the layers of history that formed the art of whitework. We spoke to Craven about how multiple histories informed this piece: 🪡 The work forms part of practice-based research for a PhD in textile culture. The installation involved a conceptual unravelling of a cloth embroidered in 1860s India, which is also a christening gown. It depicts a hybrid version of the white-on-white nineteenth-century ‘Chikankari’ and ‘Ayrshire’ embroidery styles. Researching the surface in hands-on ways allowed me to think about what might be involved in making such a cloth. 🪟 Relying on digital technology to reproduce the surface, I deconstructed the cloth, creating a new surface big enough to fit a former Victorian import house’s window. Reworking the design involved drawing for days on end while I was thinking about how such a finely embroidered muslin cloth was made. How many people worked to stitch the stretched cloth surface? What were their stories? 🍃 Walking past the work, a visual movement occurs, bringing an interactive, unpredictable element into play. It is my hope that my work, as seen at Soft Power, stimulates a visitor to think about their stories and presence within the space and about other work seen from within the installation. 📅 See Mona Craven’s work in Soft Power: Lives told through textile art until 10 August 2025. 👉 rwa.org.uk/softpower or visit link in bio #RWAArtGallery #TextileArt #ArtExhibition #TextileStories #WomenInArt #GlobalVoices #ArtWithImpact #EmbroideryArt #FabricOfLife #ArtTellsStories #BristolArt #RWABristol