internet inspiration

ooking for illustration styles at work today got me looking at these fabulous designers and drooling over their wonderful sense of colour and strokes.....from the top - sarah Jane, Frederique Bertrand, Julia Denos and Helen Dardik

gauguin

appy New Year to all of you who have found yourselves here! Desperate for some kind of inspiration after the flu ridden festive period, the family and I took ourselves off to see the stunning Gauguin exhibition at the Tate Modern here in London. What is so wonderful about retrospectives such as this one is that there is always a painting that you had never seen in any of the art books pored over in the past, and we all decided that the beautiful painting above 'the little one is dreaming' painted in 1881 was the one we would all want to take home. What also stood out was the flatness of colour and shapes and the lack of depth, making it possible to focus on some gorgeous figures in the backgrounds....I love the woman crouching near the house....

kaffee fassett

h how wonderful are these paintings by the amazing Kaffee Fassett. I saw an exhibition of his huge canvases in Liberty's many moons ago, and fell in love with the way he paints the patterns and not really the forms so that the whole thing could then be very easily translated into a tapestry or patchwork...the colours are so gorgeous and inspirational....

Billie Spile

uly has certainly been eventful, with the beautiful things that I saw while in France providing enough visual stimuli for about 6 months. Billie Spille the incredible artist who is a friend of the Armitages, opened her home to the workshop ladies....look what they brought back with them.....while Billie's work is a amazing as ever, ( I love her industrial chimney pots) her husband Dean had painted these exquisite watercolours on old letters! what a treat to see this work.....

inspiration

ou might be forgiven for thinking that I have spent all day looking at beautiful work on lots of blogs! The amazing tea cups are by the pantry Violets' Guru Julie Arkell....want to do some papier mache now! and I love the work of Sarah Young sooo much. To think that she is only in Brighton, less than an hour away!

cool faces

eally happy with the beautiful letterpress print from Pistachio Press that I received this morning. I found it when I was looking at the fabulous mummysam blog whose work I have been admiring for ages, and lo and behold she had collaborated with a printer to produce these great faces......I wonder if I could give it as a valentine pressie?

Hannah Lamb

mmmmm have a look a the lovely work by a textile artist that I saw years ago at the Chelsea Crafts fair....amazing handbags made from found textiles, but so cleverly designed around predesigned garments, gloves etc. There is very little on her website, but have collected some images here to show.....

Kristin Vestgard

Here is a treat ladies, saw this artist in Badcocks Gallery in Cornwall a couple of years ago, and have followed her stunning work since then, always too broke to buy any of her exquisite paintings....they remind me of Lisbeth Zwergers work....the colours and the soft haze is inspirational.