Meet the Artist: Madeleine Elizabeth Harwell
Madeleine Harwell (b. 2004, Sarasota, FL) graduated with honors from Florida State University with a BA in Studio Art and a minor in Art Entrepreneurship. She runs a wholesale needlepoint design business, Madeleine Elizabeth, since she debuted as one of the youngest designers at the Spring Needlepoint Tradeshow in 2018. She has also created a body of traditional 2-D work that explores her memories and life experiences.
Her work has been featured on the back cover of Needlepoint Now magazine in the May/June issue in 2021, Needlework Retailer, and The Tale of Three Stitchers in the 2021 July/August issue of the American Needlepoint Guild Magazine. Outside of the needlepoint industry, Harwell has interned with two fine artists Sarah and Cosby Hayes assisting in their mural work and studio practice. During the last year of her BA Degree she completed an Honors in the Major Thesis: Facilitating the Bridge Between Retrospection and Introspection: A Journey of Personal Discovery. Now, you can find Harwell live painting at Café Barbosso in Sarasota with her work for sale in their gallery.
How she got started...
Madeleine started needlepointing at the age of nine when she learned from a local shop owner in the store where her mother worked. Madeleine excelled with her stitching and soon was creating her own 'stitch guides' picking her own threads, and helping ladies at the shop do the same! Madeleine is a beautiful stitcher and decided to take this skill to the next level through painting needlepoint canvases.
She launched Madeleine Elizabeth (with the help of her parents) and was introduced to the Needlepoint World at the Orlando Spring Needlepoint Show in March of 2019.
Supported and encouraged by family and friends, Madeleine is now the Artist & Designer behind Madeleine Elizabeth!