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.

Upholstered in Arden velvet

HAPPY 2013!

...bit of a slow blogging start to the year but I've been hibernating at my chilly studio through January, working on secret designs for the autumn.

Just to prove I'm still here I thought I'd share these photos sent by the lovely ladies at Östermalms Textilateljé a fabulous interiors showroom in Stockholm.

This is the eponymous Arden design from our Arden Collection which we launched with great success in 2012 with Zoffany (and pretty much all I blogged about last year too!)

The Stockholm team have upholstered this retro sofa for their showroom using the Venetian Red colourway of this luxurious velvet.

ABOUT THE DESIGN:

We adapted this enchanting forest scene from a mid 15^th century wall painting that was discovered in a house in Halifax in 1901. The house fell into ruin shortly afterwards and the painting was lost forever. The scene depicts a forest floor richly studded with clusters of small flowers, possibly wood anemones. In amongst the trees are rabbits, hedgehogs, horned sheep, squirrels, wild fowl, moles, deer and a handsome unicorn. The creatures were probably modeled on those found in popular medieval bestiaries. This style of wall painting, known as imitation tapestry, was fashionable all over Britain.

The Arden design is available printed on luxurious velvet and on linen.

Images from www.fabricsandpapers.com

It's nice to see a large sofa upholstered in Arden. The one we featured on the cover of the Arden brochure was a stylish 2 seater called Snooze by Ochre.

Arden brochure front cover

Snooze sofa by Ochre

Curiously the red background colour on the Swedish sofa and the brochure sofa looks very different but the Swedish sofa is much closer to the actual fabric - it is more burnt orange than deep red - weird that!

Thanks to the enthusiastic Stockholm team at Östermalms Textilateljé for keeping me updated.

You can read more about my visit to Stockholm in this post: ARDEN ON TOUR - Stockholm

Painted Cushions for Chelsea

NEW Painted Cushions for Solid ID shop in Chelsea

painted cushions at Solid ID

Having blogged incessantly about my Zoffany Arden Collection for most of the year, it's time, methinks to share some of the other stuff I've been up to at the Fairlyte Studio.

First off I've been supplying my wares to:

SOLID ID
273 Fulham Road, London SW10 9PZ, 020 7351 3045

painted cushions (detail)

Newly opened in Spring this lifestyle shop in chic Chelsea is the new venture from the people behind bespoke flooring company Solid Floor. 

Solid ID offers "an idiosyncratic array of furniture, lighting, tableware and accessories, with a focus on handmade, one-off pieces."

Solid ID interior

In this post I'll quickly show you around the shop then maybe next time I'll take you behind the scenes at my studio.

bench cushions and cushion stack

The shop sells all sorts of bits and bobs including the painted and distressed benches above. I've supplied cushions for these painted with various patterns on rustic linens. Also pictured above are my cushion stacks painted with coordinating designs in lime green and indigo on linen, wool and silk. 

painted cushion pads

Above are my painted boxy cushion pads that come in matching sets of three and below are various large cushions made with re-cycled grain sacks. Each sack is different and the texture of the weave dictates the kind of design I can paint on it. They're great fun as I can get big and bold with the more gnarly ones!

grain sack cushions

 Amongst some top notch products Solid ID stocks wallpaper by fellow Hastings gal Deborah Bowness (below right) and the jars are painted to shop owner Eelke's whim by Hastings' Nick Kadomtzeff at Signwork:

Sign written jars and wallpaper by Deborah Bowness 

You may have spotted Solid ID at this years Design Junction which was THE place to be and be seen during September's London Design Week:

Design Junction 2012: Solid ID stand (photo by Solid ID)

Keep an eye on Solid ID. These guys have big visions, a dynamic and fun approach to design and they are an exciting team to work with.

Prices from £65 for a 12" painted silk cushion.