About Phyllis

Born in Philadelphia, Phyllis Harper Loney grew up nearby and attended art school in that city. The artist has lived in New England for many years and now lives in coastal Maine. During her years as a commercial artist, both employed and freelance work included: illustration, graphic design, and surface design for wall coverings and other products. Beginning in the mid-eighties as a full time studio artist, she has made hand-painting with dyes on natural fiber textiles the principal focus of her work. From her studio have come such creations as: lengths of art cloth, scarves, shawls, wall hangings, framed silk paintings, art quilts, and, in her recent work, painted silk collages. She has exhibited and sold her work widely in New England and beyond.
Artist’s Statement: I paint on textiles, usually with fiber reactive dyes, directly applied with a brush to natural fiber fabrics, mostly silk in recent years. These dyes form a chemical bond with the fibers and become an integral part of the cloth. No resists are used; control of the dyes is achieved with the use of sodium alginate and a careful balance of moisture in the fabric. Forms and patterns in negative and positive images are painted in transparent layers of contrasting hues so that the shapes and colors define, obscure, and change one another. I try to exploit the fact that my work is on, and in, cloth. The textile itself has great textural appeal and can be stitched and quilted, draped and tied, in ways that add further enrichment. I have been inspired by the patterns of sun, water, and sky, and too, by an attraction to the power of symbols and designs: ancient, modern, and seemingly eternal. I am excited by the patterns I see everywhere in the world, as well as the ones inside my head, and, too, those of powers and forces only sensed.
Education: Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA, BFA Textile Design DeCordova Museum School, Lincoln, MA Print and Dye Works, late of Somerville, MA Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME Selected Exhibits and Shows:
  • Spring Exhibition 2015, Asymmetrick Arts, Rockland, ME
  • Underlying Threads, Common Street Arts, Waterville, ME, 2015
  • Pemaquid Art Gallery, Bristol, ME, guest artist, 2014
  • Markings Gallery, Bath, ME, 2012 – 2014
  • Figures, Faces and Animals, River Arts, Damariscotta, ME, 2013
  • The Stable Gallery, Damariscotta, ME, 2008 to 2013
  • The Inspired Hand V, Atrium ArtGallery, USM, Lewiston, ME, 2012
  • Quilts=Art=Quilts, Schweinfurth Art Center, Auburn, NY, 2011
  • Gallery One Eleven, Wiscasset, ME, 2011
  • Altering Matters, Atrium Art Gallery, USM, Lewiston, ME. 2010
  • 1st Annual Fine Crafts Exhibition, River Arts, Damariscotta, ME, 2011
  • Quilts and Textile Arts, Jonathan Frost Gallery, Rockland, ME, 2009
  • Surface Matters, Belger Arts Center, Kansas City, MO, 2009
  • Intertwined: Maine Fiber Arts, Lord Hall Gallery, Orono, ME, 2009
  • One artist exhibit, Crooker Gallery, Topsham, ME, 2009
  • Phyllis Harper Loney / dye paintings, Maine Fiberarts Gallery, Topsham, ME, 2008
  • MCA at Daniel Kany Gallery, Portland, ME, 2008
  • Art Quilts Lowell 2007, the Brush Art Gallery, Lowell, MA
  • Elemental: Contemporary Quilted Art, Fiber Art Center, Amherst, MA, 2007
  • Work of the Hand, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME, 2006 and 2005
  • The Inspired Hand III, Atrium Art Gallery, USM, Lewiston, ME 2006
  • Art Quilts at the Whistler III, Lowell, MA, 2006
  • Art Quilts / New England / New York, Brush Art Gallery, Lowell, MA, 2006
  • Studio Connections, Art Gallery at UNE, Portland, ME, 2006
  • Constants and Variables, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO, 2005
  • Portland Museum of Art, Another Layer, Selected Maine Art Quilts, 2004
  • Art Quilts / New England, Brush Art Gallery, Lowell, MA, 2004
  • Cutting Edge, Heartwood College of Art, Kennebunk, ME, 2004
  • Saltwater Artists Gallery, 2002 and 2003, Pemaquid, ME
  • Maine Art Gallery, Wiscasset, Annual Juried Exhibit, 2004, 2003 and 2002
  • Crafts at the Eastland, Aucocisco Gallery, Portland, 2002
  • Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library, Artist of the Month, 2002
  • The Waldo Theatre Art Gallery, Phyllis Harper Loney, Dye Paintings / Quilts and Wall hangings, Waldoboro, 2002
  • Crafts National 36, 33, and 29, Zoller Gallery, Penn State University, PA, 2002, 1999, and 1996
  • The Color Red, The Art Gallery at the Clown, Portland, ME, 2001
  • Chocolate Church Art Gallery, Bath, 3 artist exhibit, 2001 and The Juried Fibres and Textiles Exhibit, 2000
  • Fiberarts International ‘99, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, PA, 1999
  • Edge to Edge, from the Studio Art Quilt Associates
  • Heritage Plantation Art Museum, Sandwich, MA, 1999
  • Acton Memorial Library, Acton, MA, one artist show, 1999
  • Cambridge Art Association: National Prize Show, Boston, 1999,
  • Works in Fiber, Juror’s Choice Award, 1992
  • Four Visions/Four Paths, University Place Gallery, Cambridge, MA, 1997
  • Concord Free Library, Concord, MA, one artist shows, 1997 and 1993
  • From Paper to Cloth, Levy Gallery for the Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 1996
  • Threads, Greene County Council on the Arts, Catskill, NY, 1995
  • Art in the Park, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA, 1993
  • Crafts at the Castle, Boston, 1992
  • American Craft Council Shows, West Springfield, MA, 1992 and 1990
  • Juxtapositions, Schlesinger Library, Radcliff College, Cambridge, 1991
  Publications: Included in: Fiberarts Design Book 7, Lark Books, Asheville, North Carolina, 2004. Boston Sunday Globe Lincoln County News, Damariscotta, ME "THE BEAT" Courier Publications, Rockland, ME Maine Women's Journal