Paul Schutte

Paul has been involved in quilt making and textile wall-hangings since 1981/2.

He is a quilt and textile artist in his own right due to his excellence in producing an original, creative and technically excellent body of work. He is an award-winning quilter who received Master Quilter status. The inspiration from his outstanding work to South African quilters cannot be underestimated. He likes the creative aspect of quilt-making the most. 

He focuses currently on all the possibilities to depict Trees: naturalistically and even spiritually. He has a substantial body of work and achieved significant recognition for his textile work.

INTERNATIONAL AWARDS 

• 1989: Quilters Newsletter Magazine (QNM): Home Sweet Home International block contest: he won the Ribbon for the block with the Best Overall composition.
• 1991: American Quilters’ Society contest, Peducah, USA: An Honourable Mention in the theme category.
• 1994: The Fourth International Contest of QNM: Celebrating the tradition in Karlsruhe (Germany), he won the prize for the Best Innovative variation of a traditional pattern.
• 1994: United Nations Peace Quilt, New York: From all the entries, his block was chosen to represent SA in this contest.
• 1998: "Goodbye England’s Rose" has been accepted for the International Touring Exhibition with the theme "Rhapsody of Roses”. This exhibition toured to several Art Museums, amongst them the world’s most prestigious textile museum in Lyon, France: Musee des Tissus.
• 2000: Two textile hangings were accepted for a touring exhibition in Canada.
• 2003/4: Five quilts were accepted to be exhibited at the 9th and 10th European Patchwork Meeting, France.
• 2006: "Time Orientations" was accepted for a curated touring exhibition in Europe - Organised by Dorte Bach of Germany.

NATIONAL AWARDS

• 1990: National Festival in Durban: Rotating Stars for Africa won Best on show.
• 1992: National Festival in Port Elizabeth: Two Second prizes in the traditional section and the wall-quilt section. He received a Special recommendation for hand-quilting and machine-piecing. One quilt received a Judge’s choice. He designed and organised a group quilt which won a Second prize in the Group Quilt category, and a First prize for scrap quilts.
• 1994: At the National Festival in Cape Town he received a First prize for his quilt and a Highly Commended for machine-piecing and a Second prize for machine-quilting. One quilt received a Judge’s choice.
• 1998: The quilt "Antique Lace" received the prize for Best Machine Workmanship at the National Festival in Port Elizabeth.
• 2002: At the National Festival in Cape Town: "Down-to-Earth", the quilt "Blooming time in the Kalahari" received First prize. He also received a Third prize in the "Challenge" category.
• 2004: National Festival in Durban: The wall-hanging Merry Pebbles won Best on Show in the Innovative category; in the "Challenge" category his wall-hanging received First Prize, and in the traditional small category another quilt received a Third prize.
• 2008: National Festival in Johannesburg: In the Master’s section the wall-hanging DUET won First prize in the Innovative category; and the textile hanging, WINTER, received the Best on Show in the Art Category.
• 2011: At the National Festival, Stellenbosch, his wall-hanging won Second prize in the Bernina Challenge.

As far as we know, he is the only SA quilter who has won a Best on Show in three different categories: Theme/Challenge, Innovative and Art category.
He is also a member of Fibreworks, TAPE and SAQA: (Studio Art Quilt associates -International). 

IMAGES IN PUBLICATIONS

2010: Images of three textile wall-hangings were accepted to be part of the book published in the USA: 1000 Artisan Textiles: Contemporary fibre-art, quilts and wearables.
2017: An image of his textile wall-hanging: Distortion: Polluted Ocean was accepted for the book published in the USA: ART QUILTS INTERNATIONAL: ABSTRACT AND GEOMETRIC by Martha Sielman. Out of 1300 submissions from 461 artists only 97 images were chosen.
The American quilt author, Joen Wolfrom, used images of his textile wall-hangings to illustrate certain design aspects in two of her publications: PATCHWORK PERSUASION and COLORPLAY.
Pat Parker and Jenny Williamson also used images from Paul’s quilts in two of their quilting books: QUILTS ON SAFARI and QUILT THE BELOVED COUNTRY.
Paul also features in Norma Slabbert’s book: A PASSION FOR QUILT-MAKING: LEADING SOUTH AFRICAN quilters show and tell.
He was also profiled in LASLAP EN KWILT - Inspirasie uit die Verlede. The book is a joint publication of SAQG and LAPA Publishers.
Images of several quilts made by Paul appeared in American, European and Japanese Quilting Magazines: Quilters’ Newsletter Magazine, Magic Patch, Patchwork and Quilting; and the prestigious Patchwork Quilt Tushin and Quilt Japan.
Maretha Fourie, one of the pioneers of quilting in South Africa, asked Paul to write the preface to her most recent book: QUILT POTPOURRI. He also assisted her with the final fine-tuning of the book.

EXHIBITIONS

Two-person exhibition with Elaine Barnard in the Netherlands.
Invited as solo artist to exhibit in the Art Gallery in February-March, 2011, at the University’s Art Gallery in the city of Potchefstroom, South Africa.
He was invited as one of the solo textile artists to exhibit his two series of 12 textile works each: TREE OF MY LIFE (about his prostate operation) and DIALECTICAL TENSIONS during the 18th European Patchwork Meeting in Val d’Argent, France 2012. Private and corporate owners have purchased several quilts and textile wall-hangings.
Paul took part in several group exhibitions, National and International travelling exhibitions: amongst others at Innovative Threads ’96, ’97, ’98, ’99; in April 1998 at the NSA Art Gallery in Durban; 1999 and 2020 at the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg and 2021 as part of TAPE’s  “Out of the Blue” exhibition. As part of Innovative Threads, several wall-hangings have been exhibited abroad, viz. in Japan and Germany.
The then Director of the European Patchwork Meeting in Val D’Argent, asked Paul to curate two different exhibitions to be exhibited at their world renown Festival  in France, 2003 and 2004. Paul has been one of the founding members of both the local DE OUDE MOLEN KWILTGILDE and the Golden West Guild. He became the President of the South African Quilters’ Guild (1996-1999). He is a qualified judge and judged at several local shows, at three National Festivals and twice at the National Quilt Festival in Harare, Zimbabwe.  With Rosalie Dace and Suzette Ehlers, Paul was responsible for teaching the first course in Quilt Judging in South Africa. 
Paul is also a well-known and a SAQG accredited Recognized quilting teacher. Internationally he has taught in Zimbabwe, Germany at the Irsee Academy, New Zealand and the Netherlands. He was also invited to teach classes at the 9th, 10th, and 18th European Patchwork meeting in Val d’Argent, France, during their annual European Quilt Festival.
What is exceptional is the fact that he produced this body of works in spite of the fact that he had a full-time job till the end of 2014. He was Director of the School of Communication Studies at the North-West University which included the departments of Corporate Communication, Journalism, Video, History of Art and Graphic Design.