If you follow any of my social media accounts like Facebook and Instagram, you've probably noticed a lot of blue and white lately. Last month I was busy getting ready for a group exhibition at the Aspire Gallery in Brisbane's Paddington. The theme was 'comforts of home' and I took it as an opportunity to resurrect some old ways of working as wall as learning some new skills.
Having spent a significant portion of my life traveling I was interested in exploring what images might represent home when I've had so many different ones. I decided to narrow it down the most recent few cities, adopting a very homely subject of chintz fabric, patchwork and china plates.
Using different floral and bird motifs I created individual artworks to represent a home city and country. The passion fruit to me is Brisbane, Sydney the frangipani, London a rose and Wellington a Kawhai. The birds are a Rainbow Lorikeet for Australia, Wren for England and Tui for New Zealand.
Using antique illustrations as a starting point I recreated the flowers and birds from security envelope lining, then grouped them together to form a chintz 'fabric' pattern. It was my first attempt at making a repeatable pattern and is definitely something I'd like to try again.
I printed the pattern in large format then cut it into piece along with more security envelope lining to create a large paper patchwork. I then went back to the individual floral images and created blue and white china plate designs. It was nice to go back to working with porcelain again, something I used to use a lot in my NZ gallery. This time rather than hand painting I was able to transfer my designs directly from the printer onto the plates. There are also limited edition prints of these pieces on lovely glossy paper.
