Tasmanian textile artist Cindy Watkins threads and stitches stunning freestyle artworks, inspired by the trees around her.
Story Emma Wilkins Photos Joy Kachina
On Tasmania’s Meander River, beneath its Great Western Tiers, lies a farming town that’s home to one of Australia’s largest annual craft fairs, and one of Tasmania’s most awarded textile artists. The town is Deloraine and the artist is Cindy Watkins. While she often paints, draws and sews by hand, she also ‘paints’ with a sewing machine.
Some look at Cindy’s intricate depictions of forest trees and landscapes, or her Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen sit-down, long-arm sewing machine, and assume she’s programmed in a picture and pressed a button. In fact, all her stitching is done freestyle.
Cindy grew up admiring trees, both the canopies of those standing tall in forests, and the root systems of those felled by forestry workers. When, in adulthood, she started learning about how their root systems nurture, feed and communicate with each other, she pledged to make 5,000 tree-inspired artworks, donating a portion from the sale of each one to Landcare Tasmania. Some of the artworks were painted, but many were stitched onto fabric dyed with leaves that Cindy collected from her bush block. She admits that when she reached the 1,000-mark in 2019, she thought, “Oh my God, I’m bonkers!” but she persevered, and completed the project last year.
This story excerpt is from issue #167
Outback Magazine: June/July 2026
