Featured Artist Irmgard Geul

Fiber artist Irmgard Geul creates fascinating embroidery paintings, inspired by the Midwest landscape and nature. See more by visiting her website.

 

 

I am an artist originally from Blaricum, The Netherlands, now based in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. My artistic journey began with a five year fine art education at HKU University of the Arts Utrecht. That was followed by a career in fashion design and visual communication.

 

 

While art is my first, horses are my second love. About 25 years ago, I moved to Oklahoma to pursue my dream of working with horses. After retiring from that field, I returned to my first love—art. Today, I create from my studio on a horse ranch, where I blend my experiences from two worlds.

 

 

For years, I worked primarily in abstract compositions. A family visit back to The Netherlands inspired a transformation in my practice. Receiving a collection of my mother’s embroidery and sewing threads, scissors and needles, sparked a flood of memories from my childhood. I spent it watching my mother, an haute couture seamstress, work in her studio.

 

 

This deeply emotional connection led me to incorporate fiber into my own artwork, fusing embroidery with acrylic painting to create what I call embroidery paintings.

 

 

My work explores the contrast between man-made structures and the unstoppable cycles of nature. I capture mainly rural-inspired landscapes. These range from a weathered water tower on a winter’s day to a ribbon of road beneath a stormy sky.

 

 

Working on heavy paper, layered in acrylic paint, I add texture and depth to the scenes with embroidery and loose thread. Each stitch is deliberate. I add depth and texture to my painting while also paying homage to my roots.

 

 

I hope my work encourages viewers to notice the beauty in often-overlooked details—a flower wilting by the roadside or the reflection of light on an empty highway. My art is as much about these small moments as it is about bridging the two cultures I’ve lived in. The landscapes I depict are both familiar and distant, reflections of the roads, rivers, and trees I’ve seen across the United States and the memories of my childhood in The Netherlands.

 

 

Throughout my career, I’ve exhibited nationally and internationally. I’ve had features in Oklahoma Today, Textile Plus, and Art Focus, as well as a recent appearance on Gallery America by Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA). I was honored to receive a Citation from the State of Oklahoma for my exhibition The Long Way Home at the Oklahoma State Capitol. My work can be found in both corporate and private collections worldwide.

 

Irmgard Geul invites you to follow on Instagram and Facebook.

 

 

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