Flowers on a friday

And a butterfly for good measure. Happy Friday!

Inspired by....Dufy

With Baz Lurhmann's adaptation of  The Great Gatsby about to hit our screens, I found myself delving into a favourite reference book - Art Deco Textiles - The French Designers by Alain-Rene Hardy. Dufy's wonderful floral and pictorial designs and skilful repeats always inspire.

The French artist Raoul Dufy (1877 - 1953) was encouraged to design fabrics by the great Art Deco era couturier Paul Poiret. In 1911 Poiret set up a small textile printing studio to produce Dufy's lively and dramatic patterns, which were incorporated to great effect into his clothing designs.

Coat, 1911
Paul Poiret 
Textile design by Raoul Dufy 
Ivory and navy block printed velvet with brown fur trim and gold metallic mesh-covered silk closures.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Such was the success of Dufy's collaboration with Poiret, less than a year later the artist was offered a contract with the Lyons silk firm Bianchini-Ferier. Between 1912 and 1928 Dufy designed over 2000 patterns for dress and furnishing silks, and linen and cotton furnishing textiles.

The Harvester, c.1920

Design for printed linen by Raoul Dufy

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Roses, c.1925

Design attr. to Raoul Dufy

Les Tuilleries, c.1920

Design for woven silk by Raoul Dufy

Fleurs, 1918

Design for block-printed cotton by Raoul Dufy

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Jungle, 1922

Design for woven silk / wool by Raoul Dufy

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Venice, c.1920,21

Design for woven silk by Raoul Dufy

V&A Museum

Forest and sky

A pile of painted artwork on my desk ready to scan and put in repeat. Can you tell which paint colours  are constantly on my art supply shopping list?

Mono-printing

I have been busy mono-printing on this hot summer's day - the mess will have to wait for now, it's time for some air-con and tennis on the TV!

Bird's the word

Birds from around the world casually strut across this mono print design.

What's for dinner?

A variety of mushrooms and toadstools in a not so edible colour palette!

Retro florals

A few 70's inspired designs using my favourite mono-print technique.

A strong dose of colour

Once again, the new fabric and wallpaper collection entitled 'Colour for Living' from the UK company Sanderson features a vast selection of beautiful (and colourful) designs that are bound to become design classics. I really admire the collection for the manner in which it gently references historical design for a contemporary market. 

St Ives - a wallpaper and fabric design featuring the hilly streetscapes of this renowned artistic hotspot, carved into lino in a naive style .

 This Rainforest fabric design reminds me of the Austrian / Swedish modernist designer Josef Frank. I love the blue colourway.

The linen textures of this Block Leaf design hark back to the pared-down and graceful 1950's patterns designed by Lucienne Day.

 

Another of my favourite designs from this collection is Bellflower -  I love the Atelier Martine / Dufy influence. 

You can view the entire collection of fabrics and wallpapers from Sanderson's Colour for Living range here.

Amazing Amazon available online

I used one of my favourite print making techniques (monoprint) when designing the artwork for 'Amazing Amazon' - one of my final designs for the Hiccups Linen House for Kids bed linen collections. 'Amazing Amazon' is now available from Myer.

You can visit their website here:

Jimmy Jaguar cushion with Amazing Amazon pillowcase

Tommy Toucan cushion

Iggy Iguna and Tommy Toucan

Hello Hello Yarn dye stripe bed linen pictured with Amazing Amazon printed bed linen

Hello Kitty, Hello Liberty

An exciting collaboration between Liberty of London and Hello Kitty!

Five glorious new fabric prints available in eight colour ways, available from 26th September 2011. I love the blue apple print....

Pre-order Hello Kitty fabrics online here: http://bit.ly/qZYlbA

A butterfly a day

I love to play around with mono-printing every now and then. I finished this butterfly design last night sitting right next to the heater. Brrrr.

Rev Heads

 A new design for little boys who love the sound of a humming engine.

 I designed 'Rev Heads' in a painted paper collage technique, using lots of different textures to create a feeling of movement. These machines like to go fast!

Ahoy!

More design goodness from US graphic designer / printmaker Wayne Pate. A fresh take on everything ship shape and sea-faring!

'Jacques'

'Sammy Seagull'

'Flock'

Visit Wayne Pate's Good Shape Design shop here.