Louise Tilsley was a New Zealand artist who worked with textiles from the 1940s. The Louise Tilsley textile prints in the Applied Arts collection are screen-printed. They reflect the fashion at that time for rediscovering Maori images, pioneered by the artists known as the 'Rutland' group. For 30 years she was a member of "the Monday nighters" who met to paint and draw on Monday evenings.

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Born in 1898, Louise studied and later worked at Elam School of art and became adept at lino and woodcut blocks. She produced a variety of handprinted fabrics that became part of her living environment.

Her daughter Frances remembers: "The floor rugs we had were her designs. Later I had Kauri leaf pattern curtains in my lounge. For her bedroom curtains she had nude Polynesian girls with a coral pink background. I thought they were very attractive."

"She screen printed fabric souvenirs which she marketed through outlets in Rotorua and elsewhere. These had Maori motifs on bookmarks, place-mats, tea-cosies and tea-towels. One order she received was for several thousand of one item to be produced within a month. She had to turn it down because there was no way she could accomplish it by hand."

Louise's interest in things Maori went beyond use of imagery, and she studied the language and culture at Auckland University. A 1947 article in the Weekly News described her and fellow artist Ruth Coyle's work as: "keenly interested in native botany and bringing our flower-motifs more into the limelight for here and overseas. all of Mrs Tilsley's work is distinguished by a true New Zealand stamp, and many of their scarves and tea showers have been sent to America."

Sybil Ferguson, a fellow fabric artist and friend of Louise says of her fabric work. "Fabric printing was in its infancy - there were no fabric printers.we had to struggle on our own, but Louise was an inspiring force. In spite of our lack of knowledge, and equipment and materials, Louise forged on producing and making endless mistakes, correcting them - starting again over and over again. How she would have loved to be working in the art field today, with all the advances, new equipment, materials, paints, dyes, etc, she would be in her element. She always shared materials with me and passed on any new information about dyes."

In her later years she continued with her landscape painting and screenprinting fabric. Loiuse Tilsley died in 1983.

From: "Gran's Memory Book" by Frances Davey; and from Ian Thwaites' book In Another Dimension" Auckland Book Plates 1920-1960 Puriri Press. 2001. Auckland Library. Also, conversations and correspondence with daughter Frances Davey and son Bob Tilsley with Jean Clarkson, July 2002.