summer project. Influences and inspirations

"Everything I experience influences everything I do".

This summer, I seem to be drawn to nature and the outdoors. I find this inspiring and uplifting especially when I see something which I think will influence my work.

I visited Falmouth and came across these black rocks with mustard colour marks. Straight away I was drawn to this as its such a contrast in colour and couldn't help but think about adding this to my colour palette. I always think about contrast in my work whether it be colour or texture, the rock shows both of these elements. The yellow mark was slightly soft where as the rock is obviously hard and smooth with layers of indentations.

Unintetionally when I went to Norfolk I found more rocks with this gorgeous yellow mark.

The moss on these are gathered together on each individual rock creating a mark which looks as if it was painted on.I can imagine having a natural fabric such as linen (which would be quite textured) with an abstract screen print in a similar colour to the yellow moss creating contrast textures and colours.

 The wooden structures on Sheringham beach have been smoothed down from the rocks an waves from when the tide comes in making the wood extremely soft to touch. The reason I chose this is because of the contrast between the wood and the pebbles. The natural colours of both reflects the type of coloured fabric I like to use in my work and the texture. I prefer to work with natural colours adding brigher over the top. As I want to take an interior approach to my work I think about designs on soft furnishings with natural, simple inspirations.

During my visit to salts mill I observed the 'home interiors' floor which was extremely inspirational and obviously I wanted to buy everything! one product I liked in particularly was from a display consisting of a wooden chair, wool throw and a cushion which I was really excited about.

This is a screen printed cushion by Miriam trent who is a modern British designer from leeds. I love the designs and colours of her work.

I came across the work of Alyn Carlson, her work is built around water colour, layering different colours. Adding quick scribbled drawings with pen over the top adds depth. Everything about it from the colours to the media I LOVE! The colours in this piece are very similar to mine. I like how the ink drys and creates different marks on top of the more watered down ink.

I visited salts mill and solitaire, looking around the interior shop I noticed glass cabinets with archives of vintage crockery etc. This particular deism caught my eye. The simple design with the white, pristine fabric looks fab! The grey triangles add depth as the off set orange triangle adds a splash of colour without it being too busy.

During my short visit to Leeds with a couple of my friends, I went to the hotel chocolat cafe. As always I was too busy admiring the interior rather than the actual products! The table tops had a really unusual finish, I couldn't tell if it was meant to look like coffee cup stains or fossils. The natural greys remind me of fossils and the shapes. I don't know why I was so fascinated by this but if the design is intentional or not I was definitely inspired. I can imagine this being a layered print using lightly dyed fabric adding bleach print to take away the colour leaving natural looking marks.

Walking through Victorian quarter the walls are marble. It looks like a watercolour with all the different shades and markings. The natural pattern in the marble creates detail with darker colours and slight hints of yellow.

Me and my friends decided to go on a bike ride to a lake, sticking with the natural theme that runs through my work it seemed silly not to use nature as an inspiration! This plant was a rich yellow (like my rock images above)and added vibrancy to the side of the water. At the moment I'm obsessed with the mustard colour mixed with deep greys and navy's, I think it sets a design off really well and would like to use these colours in my work in the near future.