Arts In The Spotlight 15 April 2026

A (slow) stitch in time

Fran White discusses how slow stitching provides space to pause, reflect and care in a culture too often driven by speed and distraction

An older woman wearing a paint-splattered apron works on a colourful painting in a bright, art-filled studio, surrounded by brushes and canvases. Sunlight streams in as she embraces creativity, exploring the connection between brain and art.

Fran White

Artist

reading time: Two mins

Arts and society Health and wellbeing Mindfulness

Summary

Artist Fran White, FRSA explores the practice of slow stitching as a response to the speed of contemporary life. White’s work combines painting, textiles and mindfulness. She holds slow stitching events at RSA House, with an emphasis on presence and the restorative potential of making by hand. White has developed a meditative practice that informs both her artwork and workshops, showing how slow stitching can be a powerful tool for reflection, wellbeing and cultural repair.

^{Published in the print edition of the 15 April 2026 issue with the title ‘Fran White.’}

In an age shaped by digital saturation, fragmented attention and low-level, persistent anxiety, the simple act of hand-stitching might appear modest, even anachronistic. Yet it is precisely this slowness that gives craft renewed urgency. Across contemporary art, wellbeing and social practice, hand-making has re-emerged as a counterpoint to acceleration, offering material presence in a culture dominated by abstraction and speed.

Within this craft resurgence sits a parallel cultural shift: the renewed visibility of the older woman as artist, thinker and cultural contributor. Increasingly, women in later life are reclaiming space through practices rooted in experience, patience and emotional literacy. Slow stitching, with its emphasis on time lived rather than time saved, speaks directly to this revaluation of maturity and attentiveness.

A basket with colourful embroidery threads and maize sits on a glass table surrounded by clear zip bags, each containing craft materials and a booklet featuring a stitched design that celebrates the link between brain and art-inspired creativity. — Sewing kits from Fran’s group sessions

Back to my roots

The My art practice sits at the intersection of painting, textiles and mindfulness. Originally trained as a linen weaver, I returned to cloth during a difficult personal period. What began as a 10-minute daily commitment to stitching evolved into a sustained practice I now call slow stitching: a meditative engagement with needle, thread and time that has reshaped both my wellbeing and wider artistic language.

This approach now underpins my visual artwork. During a 2025 residency exhibition in Hastings (the Tree Travelling series), I explored themes of movement, rootedness and emotional navigation through both stitched textiles and painted works.

The series translates the rhythm of stitch into layered, intuitive mark-making, where paint is built slowly, edges soften and traces of thread sometimes remain visible. The works suggest journeys across landscapes, emotional states and stages of life, held together by repetition and care.

As I reflected in a March 2024 post in my online journal: “Sometimes life feels a bit like an emotional roller-coaster… I am learning to recognise this sensation sooner and respond in a more measured manner, which is inevitably having a positive result on my creativity and sense of wellbeing.”

Art as attention

Slow stitching shifts the emphasis from outcome to process, from speed to presence. Each repetitive gesture becomes a site of attention, a tactile dialogue between body, breath and material. Research into craft and wellbeing suggests that such embodied making can support emotional regulation, ease anxiety and foster reflective thought – not as cure but as restoration.

This sensibility is evident across my body of work, where painting, drawing and textile pieces sit alongside reflective journal writing. Together they articulate a practice grounded in stillness, noticing and sustained engagement – values increasingly at odds with contemporary productivity culture.

My slow stitching workshops extend this ethos into shared space. Participants have consistently described feeling calm, experiencing relief from daily noise and finding a sense of belonging through outcome-free making. As conversations around wellbeing, ageing and loneliness intensify, this practice offers a potent model of cultural repair.

In an anxious world, slow stitching becomes both personal refuge and quiet statement – a reminder that repair happens one careful stitch at a time.

Engage with the artist

Learn more about Fran’s work and find out about slow stitching events near you at franwhiteart.com

Colorful collage of diverse faces on the left with the text "Become a Fellow Today" in bold, followed by information about events, webinars, research, insights, and a physical journal being delivered.

Fran White, FRSA is a full-time artist. Her contemporary abstract practice is materially driven and experimental, combining acrylic, graphite collage and fabric – often her own woven linens.

Knowledge grows when shared.

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