NEW DESIGNS: a launch EXTRAVAGANZA!

LONDON DESIGN WEEK
FOCUS September 2013 
Design Centre Chelsea Harbour

So I had a double whammy at the interior designer's paradise that is Design Centre Chelsea Harbour. Crammed with 99 showrooms FOCUS is their annual new collections launch fest.

I had two new designs launching. One with ZOFFANY and one with LEWIS & WOOD.

Here are a few snaps I took in the showrooms on the day I went up. First up....

THE GONDOLIER for Zoffany

The new Tespi book (left) and last year's Arden book (right) 

After the success of my Arden Collection last year (here's my post for from that day) it was great to be back at the Zoffany showroom to see the launch of my new design for them.

The Gondolier depicts scenes of Venice and gives a narrative element to their luscious new Tespi Collection

Available as a velvet and a wallpaper, you can read more about the design in this recent post.

At the showroom The Gondolier was everywhere from their window display....

....to a lush upholstered chair (with cushions and piping in Zoffany's utterly sumptuous Curzon velvet) ....

....and here it is, all velvety, snuggled between other Tespi fabrics

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left to right: Oreste, Gondolier, Granada,

....and finally here is The Gondolier on Zoffany's gift bags...
(i confess I was embarrassingly chuffed to bits with the bags!)

Then it was over to the Lewis & Wood showroom to see my first design with them...

ROCOCO for Lewis & Wood

This exuberant damask-y design is my first collaboration with the charming Lewis & Wood team.

In my next post I'll share some professional shots of Rococo, meanwhile here are a few glimpses of the design on launch day.

Suspended from the ceiling is Rococo as a wide-width metallic wallpaper (ultimately 4 colourways)

Here is Rococo as a romantic linen. The colourways are cleverly designed to sit comfortably amongst other Lewis & Wood fabrics.

 I just love how Rococo works on a cushion. It crops really nicely because of the empty space within the design.

The cushions either side feature Skittery which is a lovely, fine linen with a tumbled finish. Skittery comes in a mouthwatering range of faded sherbet-y colours and I especially love the lemon yellow.

Cushions: Rococo linen in Fritillary colourway flanked with Skittery linen cushions.  

Some discerning ladies handling Rococo which is printed on a fine, tumbled linen

Rococo in Sparrow colourway - detail

Rococo wallpaper in display cabinet

Facts and figures about Rococo wallpaper and fabric can be found on the Lewis and Wood website.

I'll show you the gorgeous velvet version in my next post.

THE GONDOLIER, a new design for Zoffany

The latest fabric and wallpaper design by Melissa White

This scenic design forms part of Zoffany's new TESPI Collection launching September 2013

Following the success of our Arden Collection with Zoffany last year I was invited to produce artwork for their new Tespi collection which aims to "transport you to a place where the grandeur of Venice in bygone days meets the charm of Umbria"

The commission was to design and paint a Venice scene featuring iconic canals, bridges and architecture.

So here is the original artwork at my studio, painted to scale on plaster so I could rub it back and distress it a little before it went off to the Zoffany team to be processed.

The collection is inspired by the creative legacy of the amazing Spanish designer Mariano Fortuny.

The Tespi Collection is "based on antique brocades, damasks, velvets and paisleys found in the Zoffany archive, the designs were re-worked by the (zoffany) design studio using contemporary techniques such as printing on foil and digital printing to capture the spirit of the original textiles. The Collection is complemented by the luxurious Tespi Prints, Weaves and Embroideries." 

From Zoffany's website: 

My figurative Gondolier print completes the collection by adding a narrative twist.

Tespi is Zoffany at its most sumptuous and opulent and the fabrics really need to be handled to appreciate their luxuriousness.

The Gondolier will be available soon as a wallpaper and a velvet (colourways are Dawn, Sunset and Twilight)

Tespi will launch at Zoffany's Chelsea Harbour showroom during FOCUS and features in the October issues of Elle Decoration and World of Interiors:

Learn more about the rest of the gorgeous Tespi Collection on Zoffany's Facebook page

See the Zoffany website for stockists

CORONATION FESTIVAL MURALS

To celebrate the Coronation Festival in July I was invited to create a mural for the Summer House within the gardens of Buckingham Palace.

I was one of five artisans from the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) selected to transform the octagonal Summer House.


On the Festival's Royal Preview Day I presented my canvas murals to H.M. The Queen and TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall.

Meeting HM The Queen in the Summer House, Buckingham Palace

Here's how it all happened:

The Coronation Festival was a celebration of the 60th anniversary of The Queen's Coronation. 

This unique event took place in the Gardens of Buckingham Palace and was hosted by the Royal Warrant Holders Association (RWHA). Over 200 companies with Royal Warrants had marquees displaying their wares and "celebrating innovation, excellence and industry through trade and craft".

Loads more info and photos at the Coronation Festival website

Summer House exterior with wicker corgi

QEST, being the charitable branch of the RWHA, was invited to decorate the Summer House set within the Palace gardens. A scholar since 2007, I was approached to submit ideas for the three blank walls of the building (the other 5 walls being glass doors). Of the proposals I put forward it was a scene of rolling landscape that won favour.

I foraged through the Royal Collection online for inspiration and discovered two perfect scenes by the Georgian landscape artist John Wootton. Both depicted bucolic rolling landscapes with views of Henley-on-Thames.

A View of Henley-on-Thames, John Wootton, The Royal Collection

A Distant View of Henley-on-Thames, John Wootton, The Royal Collection

Eventually I unearthed a third Wootton painting called “View of Park Place”. It turned out the three paintings had likely been conceived to hang together in the same room so it was destiny that they should be reunited for this panoramic commission.

A View of Park Place, Henley, John Wootton, The Royal Collection

Painstakingly I stitched the scenes together in Photoshop, depopulating them of their hunting narratives, joining up the horizons and adding a few strategic trees. The resulting composition was now a seamless panorama that would flow across the three walls of the Summer House.

Next the design needed to be scaled up to fill the Summer House’s 22 square metres of wall?

It was impractical to paint on site so I had nine stretcher frames constructed (109 x 211cm each) in order to paint at my studio.

It took an intensive six weeks to paint the series including several days of knuckle busting canvas stretching.

stretching canvases at the studio

With such large canvases the linen had to be de-crimped (double stretched) and close-stapled to avoid sagging and ensure a tight painting surface that would survive the fluctuating temperatures of the Summer House. 

After thorough priming and two coats of gesso I set to work painting the sky then worked my way across the nine panels one field at a time.

Painting the first 3 panels 

Whilst I usually paint with natural pigments or chalk paint I decided to use best quality acrylics here for their stability and colour mixing versatility.

Paint set-up at studio

I beamed my designs onto the canvas with an overhead projector to give me the basic lay-of-the-land but once the darker colours are applied it becomes very hard to see what's being projected so I relied mostly on my printouts for the details.

painting the last 3 panels

Below are shots of my references followed by the finished painted panels.

left hand wall reference

left hand wall, finished canvases

middle wall reference 

middle wall finished panels 

right hand wall reference 

right hand wall, finished panels

To enhance the illusion of distance I added a simple wall along the bottom with trompe l'oeil panelling.

Given the tight deadline for completion I needed to approach the commission in quite a bold, theatrical way as might a scenic painter, focusing on one tree at a time rather than one leaf at a time. That said, when I contemplated the prestigious final setting for these paintings, I found myself obsessing over the minutiae.

matte varnishing the canvases

With a set-in-stone deadline for completion I worked long days and weekends to finish in time. With subject matter like this I could have gone on for days tweaking trees, adding people to the empty paths and livestock to empty fields. Ultimately my last brush stroke was dictated by varnish drying times.

To celebrate varnishing day I had an impromptu party where with friends and family, we quaffed the Queen's favourite tipple Dubbonet and gin (crikey!) and ate salmon and cucumber sandwiches (crusts removed of course!)

Finishing party: spot the tiara and the Dubonnet and gin

Then it took another day to pack up the canvases. The courier was knocking on my door just as I was strapping in the last panel. Skin of my teeth! Phew!

Off they went to London based master upholsterers Albert E. Chapman Ltd to be infilled with insulating materials. The team then installed the panels at the Summer House by hanging them on cross bars fitted to the walls.

The guys from Albert E.Chapman Ltd 
installing the panels in the Summer House

When I went up to London to see the installation it was my first chance to see all nine panels in a row. It was a relief to see that the scene flowed nicely across the three walls and that the horizons all joined up. 

The resulting panoramic scene was designed to suit the informal, relaxing atmosphere of a summer house. 

Ultimately, I think the scene is peaceful yet vibrant; 
sort of serene and surreal at the same time.

Panels installed in Summer House

Of course the Summer House make-over was a team effort:

In the photo below you can see fresco artist Sarah Hocombe's magnificent sky ceiling. Gazing up at it is Bob Johnston's charming wicker corgi and next to him are two chairs upholstered in Jean Monro's "Jubilee Bouquet" fabric by specialist upholsterers Anthea Laing and Stephen Mills.

Summer House with artisans' work

Joining our work as permanent fixtures within the Summer House were a stunning cherry and walnut wood dining table made by Aidan McEvoy (pictured below being thoroughly admired by TRH the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.) Plus an elegant engraved plaque by letter cutter Daniel Meek commemorating QEST. 

Aidan McEvoy's table admired by 
TRH the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. 
My landscape panels in the background

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For the four day Coronation Festival many other QEST scholars were invited to display their work in and around the Summer House. It was great to meet some of them for the first time and the range of skills is incredible. Everything from pewterers to milliners, stone sculptors to dolls house restorers.

You can read about all of us artisans in the QEST newsletter.

This legacy project will be enjoyed for years to come. It highlights the eclectic range of crafts that QEST has supported since it was established by the Royal Warrant Holders Association in 1990. 

I'm thrilled to have been involved...

.....and of course I got to meet the Queen.....;-)

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Huge thanks to the QEST team for putting this amazing event together:

QEST trustee and development director Penny Bendall and her assistant Julia Robinson for looking after us scholars and curating the event.

QEST Chairman Nick Farrow for organising the event and keeping it fun

QEST press officer Shelley-Anne Claircourt for being the fairy god-mother of PR

spot the corgi

Verdure Painted Cloth

Here's a little post about a painted cloth commission I completed last year.

A client in Warwickshire had a dining room wall to treat and she was taken by the Verdure fabric from our Arden Collection for Zoffany (more about the Verdure design here). She also liked the animals in the Arden fabric (below).

Her interior designer Kay Wootton came up with the solution to paint a new Verdure that included selected animals from Arden. This meant devising a new, non-repeating arrangement to fill the client's large wall space.

The painted cloth verdures fashionable in the 17th Century were derived from tapestries and were fairly stylised with the landscape piled high and in the same scale up to a high horizon.

The picture below shows the extremely rare painted cloths at Owlpen Manor. Here they are nailed floor to ceiling on all four walls.

In preparation I stretch unbleached linen over a large stretcher frame and prime it with rabbit skin glue (size).

Then with the linen nice and taught, I map out the design with thin washes of colour:

This is the "staining" technique used by painter-stainers in the 17th Century. These types of stained cloth were produced in large quantities at the peak of their popularity and were sold by the yard.

They were also known as "waterworks" as the paints were so thin. It is thought the artists may have laid the linen on the floor and worked bare foot painting on the flat.

Below are details of the original painted cloths at Owlpen Manor. You can see how the thin paints allow the weave of the linen to show like tapestry.

(there is lots more information about painted cloths on the Owlpen website and also on my website www.fairlyteelizabethan.co.uk).

So back to the studio and I'm still there painting leaves and creatures......

 For this type of work I make up paints using earth pigments and glue size. I also use a few colours from Pinebrush Colourman who make the nearest thing to this by using natural earth pigments in their lovely chalky paints.

.....so eventually the cloth is finished.....

 ....the naive border is painted....

...and I've given it a rub down to soften and distress the surface...

....and then it's time to take the linen off the frame and to my sewing lady to line the back and weight the bottom:

The finished cloth has tabs at the top so it can be hung against a wall from a pole like a tapestry but, like many commissions, this is the last I see of it before it leaves my studio and heads off to its new home.

This was the type of commission I was keen should ultimately derive from the Arden Collection; bespoke, hand painted artwork inspired by an off-the-peg range and tailor-made to suit a client's room scheme.