Mewvember, a month of cats

Week 45 is Lilac, Periwinkle, Soft Blue & Cream

A new theme for November: after October’s Dog theme we’re using Cats as art inspiration and I’ll be featuring four women artists.

I’ve a few surprises in store for you and will tell you more in the colour mixing post coming up. November’s first featured artist is new to me, but was a real mover and shaker in her time. As someone who is both an artist and designer I really enjoyed learning more about her for this week’s prompt.

Some background about my own journey as artist and designer: my first studies were in textile design in the 1980s, a time when everything was still done my hand, from designing to colour separation, and then printing on silk screens. The digital revolution had a massive impact on the industry and the way textiles and surface patterns are now produced has changed dramatically: a simple repeat pattern can now easily be done in Photoshop or Procreate. Even though I’m more of a fine artist, I still do textile and surface pattern designs and everything I do still starts off as an original painting on canvas or paper before it’s scanned and digitised to be turned into a repeat.

My wallpaper at Dear Irene in Bend, Oregon

Once a year I create a new quilt fabric collection for Freespirit Fabrics and my designs are licensed by different publishers and manufacturers including Robin Sprong Wallpaper, represented by SARZA in the States. It’s always a thrill to see my designs on the walls of private homes, restaurants and hotels.