Pierre Frey

“La Ceremonie Fleurie”

Being asked to create something for Pierre Frey, one of the most highly regarded interior design houses in the world, has been a highlight of my artistic career.
This was a monumental project for me, which took a year to complete, and challenged me in every way.
The finished, printed wallpaper panel measures 2.8m x 3m. It was painted in three main sections: Ground and Wisteria painted to 1/3 scale; and the entire tabletop painted to 1/2 scale. These were then scanned in, and digitally joined together to create the full piece.
Working out the proportions of all the details to scale, was one of the most difficult aspects of this painting. My talents unfortunately don’t extend to anything mathematical! I spent at least half the time stepping back and looking at it from further away. Considering the minutiae, I was constantly zooming in to paint and zooming out to see how it worked as part of the larger piece. Finally seeing it all together as a whole at the end was an enormously thrilling moment.
Pierre Frey loved the black pen and ink line drawings I did in a presentation sketch, and asked me to include them in this painting, interspersed with watercolours. This too was a challenge, as colour is usually everything to me, but the result has a more contemporary feel which I love.
There is a story behind each and every element I used in this piece. Each holds a certain special place in my heart, from somewhere in my life story, and having an opportunity to fill a single painting with so much that I love, has been an absolute joy.