Introducing Meander Designs

Wishing you all a lovely festive season - it has been quite a while between posts here in 2015!

In between freelance design projects I have been working towards the launch of a collection of homeware products inspired by Australia's unique flora and fauna, featuring my hand painted watercolour designs.
First to launch in the Meander collection are four tea towel designs, printed locally in Melbourne using non-toxic eco friendly inks.
Printed on 75% linen / 25% cotton tea towels, these designs are an easy-to-post gift to friends and family near and far.
For more info and details, take a look at my new website: www.meanderdesigns.com.au

Eucalyptus Leaves Tea Towel

Indigo Garden Tea Towel

Lucindale Tea Towel

Nardoo Tea Towel

Coming soon - giclee prints and greetings cards.

Coral tones

A leafy textile design painted in a coral palette of Winsor & Newton watercolours - Opera Rose, Scarlet Lake and Quinacridone Red.

Daisy Drift

A drift of daisies collected from my garden and painted in watercolour. My favourites are the brightly coloured paper daisies (grown from seed) from Western Australia - they flower for most of the year.

Autumnal Leaves

A watercolour design of Autumn leaves with a tiny hint of 60's mod style.

Secret Garden

A design of interwoven leaves painted in watery shades of blue.

Robinia Leaves

A watercolour painting inspired by the lush green canopy of the robinia trees growing along the back fence of the garden.

Moonlight

An abstract design painted in shades of cool summery blues.

Red Box Eucalyptus Leaves

A watercolour design featuring the heart shaped leaves of the Eucalyptus polyanthemos, 

commonly known as Red Box, a eucalyptus found throughout central Victoria and NSW.

Indigo Leaves print now available at Domino!

I still have a few well-thumbed copies of Domino Magazine stashed away in my studio, saved from the time before the magazine sadly fell victim to the global financial crisis. Newly relaunched and with a strong on-line presence, Domino seems to have hit the right note again with their design savvy readers.
As a fan of the magazine, I leaped at the chance to enter the Minted x Domino art challenge, and am pleased that my artwork 'Indigo Leaves' was one of thirty pieces selected by the Domino editors to be sold at domino.com and featured in the magazine.
You can take a look at this painterly watercolour print here: domino.com

Spring Garden season

Perhaps my favourite thing about leaving the city and doing a 'tree change' has to be the continual inspiration of having a rambling country garden to plant and nurture (and paint of course...) I'm part of a committee organising an on-going series of Open Gardens in my local district - the first of which is taking place in November in Rushworth, North-Central Victoria. Our weekly meetings generally end up being entertaining discussions about plants and gardening rather than strictly following an agenda!

I took these photos at one of the local gardens that will be featured on the Saturday. I love the colour palette of reds, purples, yellows and whites, and those poppies were stunning in real life. I remember this house from my high school days - back then it was rented by a few young P.E and Maths teachers and featured waist height grass and a couple of scraggly pepper trees! Now the garden is planted with a great mix of drought tolerant native and exotic species, from cottage garden favourites through to native bird attracting grevilleas and wildflowers endemic to the area. I have included a couple of the local wildflowers on my poster design for the event - the yellow everlasting daisy and billy button.

An inside garden

A collection of terrariums painted in watercolours.

Painted from the garden

A section of a large textile repeat inspired by the native foliage collected from my garden and around the farm yard. Wattles, grevillea, hakea, eucalyptus, callistemon and lilly pillies all make an appearance in this watercolour design.

Many Matryoshkas

Lots of patterned Matryoshkas painted in watercolour and ready for scanning.

Free shipping for a limited time at Society6

Enjoy free worldwide shipping on a range of products in my Society6 shop until Midnight 13 July 2014 PDT! Simply click on this promo link: http://society6.com/natalieryan?promo=e27c29

Morning Tea Print

Afternoon Tea Print

New on-line shop - Society 6

My Society6 Shop is now open for business! 

You can find a selection of colourful prints for the kitchen, bedroom, lounge and office, tote bags, cards, cushions, wall clocks and iPhone cases at http://society6.com/natalieryan

Society6 products can be shipped worldwide too, and they regularly offer free shipping periods.

Butterfly Patch Set of 3 Cards

Butterfly Patch Phone Cases

Butterfly Patch Art Print

Butterfly Patch Framed Art Print

Forestia

A vintage inspired illustration featuring trees from my garden, painted in watercolour.

A little gentian - a lovely new blog with a focus on gardening

Thank you to journalist, photographer and gardener Penny Harrison for featuring my ramshackle country garden on her new blog A Little Gentian. Isn't that a lovely blog name? You can take a look at the post here: http://alittlegentian.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/gardens-textile-designer-illustrator.html

Busy on the farm

There is a lot going on outside my window farm wise - all of the tractors are busy spraying paddocks in readiness for sowing the winter crops. Here are a few photos of my version of farming throughout the seasons for a UK bed linen customer!

                           

Indigo Leaf

A design of leaves picked from my garden and painted in indigo watercolour tones.

Papery Goodness - Blog Hop

Aside from the spacious rooms and rambling garden, one of the things I have most enjoyed about moving back to the country and into my great grandparent's farmhouse has been the large stash of ephemeral papers and early 20th century books at my disposal. A few months ago I started painting on the deliciously thick parchment-y paper found on the inside covers of long forgotten novels and texts; the watercolour paint just sinks in giving a lovely softly mottled effect.

In one of the farm sheds, my great grandfather and granddad kept these rather unique hanging filing systems. 

Everything from old Cheque Book stubs, hardware shop accounts, livestock sales and purchases from the local haberdasher were speared onto a wire and suspended from the rafters.

I have gone through a few of the dusty and bug eaten stacks, but my favourite finds are the decorative bills and accounts from the early 20th century with elegant hand written script. I have scanned in some of my favourite pieces and incorporated them into my stationery designs.

My shoe box filled with receipts for the accountant doesn't have any of the appeal of these aged papers!

The PaperLove Blog Hop is a celebration of all things paper! Follow the links to discover more bloggers who love paper and use it to inspire and delight. And if you want to explore a whole world of paper, and stretch your paper passion further with a host of creative projects, why not join the innovative new online course PaperLove (starts March 31). Led by book artist Rachel Hazell, PaperLove is a five week creative adventure for paper lovers. Find out more here. 

Majo Bautista / Tona Bell / Louise Best / Cathy Bluteau / Jennifer Bomgardner / Giova Brusa / Lindsay Buck / Beka Buckley / Joanna Caskie / Jonathan Chapman (Mr Yen) / Halle Cisco / Sarah Clare / Cathryn Clarge / Dawn Clarkson / Rhiannon Connelly / Jenny D'Fuego / Molly Dhiman / Ian Dudley / Ayisatu Emore / Akmal Farid / Monika Forsberg / Claire Fritz-Domeney / Louise Gale / Chrissy Gaskell / Julie Hamilton / Emma Hawman / Rachel Hazell / Holly Helgeson / Claudine Hellmuth / Kim Henkel / Sarah Hoffman / Joanne Hus / Paula Joerling / Beth Kempton / Julie Kirk / Eos Koch / Katie LaClair / Kristy Lankford / Michelle Manolov / Doreen Marts / Rosie Martinez-Dekker / Tori Mears / Maria Mederios / Lise Meijer / Debbie Miller / MaryJane Mitchell / Suzy Naidoo / Grace Noel / Hannah Nunn / Camilla Olsson / Jo Packham / Rachelle Panagarry / Monette Pangan / Melanie Paul / Nicole Piar / Jen Pitta / Liz Plummer / Julie Reed / Michelle Reynolds / Lisa Rivas / Angee Robertson / Natalie Ryan / Aisling Ryan / Elisabet Sapena / Kyrrha Sevco / Jamie Sprague / Elizabeth Steele / Terri Stephens / Juniper Stokes / Mary Tanana / Maike Thoma / Linda Tieu / Gabrielle Treanor / Tammy Tutterow / Deborah Velasquez / Jordan Vinograd Kim / Cat Whipple / Brooke Witt / Katie Wood / Amelia Woodbridge