Whilst at home during Lockdown Deirdre not only finished the designs for her 2021 rug collection but also found time to create an artwork for her home.
Here Deirdre describes, in her own words, the process of creating this painting, inspired by one of her carpets and shares her photographs of the painting as it developed.
‘There is a shallow alcove in the stone wall of our orangery which has been crying out for a mural for some time. When lockdown happened, and I knew I had a stretch of uninterrupted time, I decided that I could use this time for painting one on a pre-prepared board in my studio.
One of my earlier carpet designs called WINDSWEPT (pictured above) depicted leaves being swept from one end to the other. I decided that falling leaves as if outside in a breeze would be simple and would require no background setting except sky. I could aim at painting just a couple of leaves a day and hopefully finish it before the lockdown ended.
It is especially appropriate too as the leaves I used in both the carpet and painting all come from my garden so the panel would be perfect for its new home.
The panel was really tall so I had steps to reach to top and climb up and down all the time to reach my materials – good for fitness! I painted the whole background as a graded sky from a deep cobalt blue fading to a whiter sky at the bottom.
I had kept all the sketches from my original research and collected many more leaves too. It wasn’t too difficult painting them against the sky as they really seem to float but I also painted a step at the bottom to tie with a real step in the orangery, and these leaves each had to have a shadow to anchor them to the ground which took quite a bit longer.
They also had to look a bit dry as if aged, and as if they were lying down instead of floating which added a bit more of a challenge. It will be finished soon I hope, and after varnishing with matt varnish, installed in its home amongst a variety of tropical plants.’
The finished artwork in situ.