Monday 8 July 2013

Adventures in Art Nouveau - originally posted: 01/02/2013

Today I've been busy preparing for my work to be featured on a stall at Hodsock Priorycourtesy of Verdant Wildlife. I've screen printed custom art onto some tote bags so that one side has snowdrops (a popular feature of Hodsock) and the other has the Verdant Wildlife logo. It was some hard work with a few mistakes, but I think all in all, they look pretty good. It still needs my own logo putting on there too however.


As I don't normally delve into the floral world, (I'm more fauna) I needed a stylised way of making a pretty piece including the snowdrops, that would look good and wearable on a bag. A quick sketch of some had me drawing curled stalks which were reminiscent of the Art Nouveau style of the early 1900's. It's a style I was taught about in college and something I've always admired. Aubrey Beardsley is an illustrator I adore and a key figure in the movement, which can be recognised by his use of flowing line and natural forms. Perfect for depicting flowers. 

    Through trial and error I came up with the design for the bag above. So much screen printing ensued, 4 different stencils used, 2 colours of ink, all done by hand. I also had a play with creating an image which could be used perhaps as a print for a postcard, which you can see below. 


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