Cindy Watkins / Artist
Cindy Watkins is a textile artist based in Deloraine, Tasmania, whose work combines technical mastery with a deep connection to the natural world. Renowned for her innovative use of fabric and stitch, she creates expressive pieces that capture the textures, colours, and rhythms of her environment. Using free-style machine stitching on silk and cotton, often hand-dyed with leaves and bark gathered from Tasmania’s bushland, she brings a sense of place and authenticity to every work.
Over her career, Cindy has exhibited widely across Australia and internationally, with solo exhibitions at the Wilderness Gallery at Cradle Mountain, the Hive in Ulverstone, and Van Diemens Land Creamery in Elizabeth Town. Her work has been recognised through numerous awards, including national quilt prizes and international selections for the World Quilt Show in the USA. Her pieces are represented in private and public collections worldwide, and she has been featured in publications across Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and the United States.
Cindy is also a committed teacher, sharing her skills through workshops, forums, and festivals such as Grampian Textures and the Geelong Fibre Forum. In 2019 she began her ambitious “5,000 Trees” project, pledging to stitch and sell 5,000 tree artworks and donate funds to Landcare Tasmania for each one sold. She completed the project in May 2025, combining her artistic practice with environmental advocacy. Today, she continues to inspire with her creativity, her dedication to sustainability, and her enduring passion for textile art.