Thoughts from the first floor

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surface matters

There are oodles of roadworks around at the minute – many re-patching the shattered pot-holes whose fillings crumble every winter…. The sign SURFACE DRESSING propped up on a local pavement made me smile and think of my own work – I couldn’t help doodling on the photo. Put at its simplest, my job is concerned with making decorative surfaces. In the last thirty days or so I’ve covered a lot of ground in matters of the how, what, where and why of applied pattern.

NEWS!

When Clare from Bloomsbury Publishing got in touch out of the blue to ask if I’d be interested in writing a book I said yes. That was in October 2020 and the proposition was, loosely, for a ‘maker’s guide’ to painting on fabric. After a lifetime of painting patterns on paper for ‘the industry’ I’d been slowly developing a new repertoire of pattern and gesture applied directly onto cloth. Re-reading my very first email sent in response to her I see that I’ve remained pretty-well true to my starting point:

When Clare from Bloomsbury Publishing got in touch out of the blue to ask if I’d be interested in writing a book I said yes, although I’d never undertaken, or even considered, quite such a huge venture before. That was in October 2020 and the proposition was, loosely, for a ‘maker’s guide’ to painting on fabric. After a lifetime of painting patterns on paper for ‘the industry’ I’d been slowly developing a new repertoire of pattern and gesture applied directly onto cloth. Re-reading my very first email sent in response to her I see that I’ve remained pretty-well true to my starting point:

‘us in the life’

• 

Look what just arrived – newly printed fabrics! In January this year I sent a group of just-painted designs to Free Spirit Fabrics in North Carolina for my collection, ‘Fresh Picked’ – my first for this company.

‘us in the life’

• 

Look what just arrived – newly printed fabrics! In January this year I sent a group of just-painted designs to Free Spirit Fabrics in North Carolina for my collection, ‘Fresh Picked’ – my first for this company.

page turning

A couple of days ago I had a longing to paint stripes! Luckily I found a new concertina notebook stashed in my studio drawer – couldn’t be a better match. Sometimes it’s so nice and so necessary to have a play, to make familiar marks and run colours together just for the fun of it; to use as many brushes and as many palettes as I want for no reason other than pleasure and curiosity.

a solitarian celebrates

I certainly have some things to be celebrated, but it’s something of a challenge as to know how: I’m not drawn to zoom social gatherings. I had a bit of a birthday a few weeks ago, and I held an impromptu lockdown table-top tea party –

abroad-thoughts, from at home

Try as I might, I can’t avoid the feeling that this lockdown has a doomy air about it. Even though some of us are getting vaccinated; even though spring is coming

’tis the season – almost!

Usually, on an early december weekend I’d be taking part in both the Selvedge winter fair in town and the Open House studio sale event run by a generous and enterprising group of friends in Balham.

a shop, a show, a show-off

I’ve left it rather late in the day to tell you about ‘Painted Treasures’!