Sofield’s palette emerges from the land itself. In recent years, she has developed her own naturally dyed cotton thread and earthen pigments from minerals gathered along the coasts of Brisbane and Whangārei, imbuing her works with the subtle hues of the landscapes that inspire them. These naturally derived tones connect her practice to cycles of place and memory, grounding her delicate paper forms in the enduring materiality of the earth. The tactility of her surfaces invites a slow encounter; an intimate viewing that mirrors the thoughtful process of their creation.
Through her folded and stitched compositions, Sofield reflects on notions of stillness, repetition, and rhythm as both aesthetic and emotional states. Her works embody a gentle balance between control and surrender, order and variation; a visual manifestation of calm that arises through acts of careful attention. Each artwork, though meticulously structured, retains a sense of softness and subtle movement, capturing the beauty found in pause and presence.
Sofield’s ceramic works combine traditional clay techniques with the soft, sculptural forms of crochet. Each porcelain sculpture begins as hand-crocheted cotton, which she dips into liquid clay and coats with successive layers before firing in the kiln. The process preserves the delicate textile structure within a hardened ceramic shell, transforming softness into strength and craft into sculpture. The resulting forms appear supple and tactile, inviting touch while playfully defying their soft appearance.
After two decades living in Australia, Sofield has returned home to Aotearoa New Zealand, establishing her studio along the coast of Whangārei Heads. Trained in interior and textile design, her artistic practice began in 2014 while living in a remote mining town in Western Australia, where the scarcity of materials led her to experiment with paper and thread. This limitation evolved into a defining language of restraint and invention that continues to shape her work today.
Sofield’s refined paper and textile artworks have been commissioned for international projects, including the refurbished Waldorf Astoria in New York, the Orlando Marriott, and the Dallas Grand Hyatt. She runs online workshops through Artisan Queensland and is an active member of both the Paper Artist Collective and the International Association of Hand Papermakers and Paper Artists (IAPMA). Her works are held in private collections within New Zealand and abroad.
Parnell Gallery has represented Liz Sofield since 2025.