Weaving the way: How textile artist Ptolemy Mann fell in love with paint

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. open image in gallery Mann’s ‘thread paintings’ will go on display this month “On the one hand, the two practices couldn’t be more opposite: painting is quick, gestural, spontaneous, wet; weaving is dry, controlled, mathematical, slow,” Mann tells me. Both for those restrained and precise pieces, and for Mann, who hasn’t stopped making what she calls her “thread paintings” ever since. So, I’ve never found a correlation.” open image in gallery Mann believes she experienced a creative burst after relinquishing the idea of becoming a mother As for that male tutor who told her she wasn’t good enough to be a painter, does she wish she’d ignored his advice? “Without him, I would never have discovered weaving, which has become a profoundly important part of my life and my work, and which has now led to this.” She pauses, and adds, with a lilt suggestive of a smile: “Actually, I wouldn’t change a thing.” Ptolemy Mann’s solo show ‘Thread Painting’, presented by Taste Contemporary, opens on 14 May at Cromwell Place, 15 –19 May 2024: tastecontemporary.com.