About
“Whether the brief is for a heritage institution or a contemporary hotel, the process always begins with hand-painting in the studio. ”
From my studio in Hastings on the Sussex coast of England, I design and paint patterns and places ~ drawing history into the present.
My practice has its roots in an unconventional place: the Elizabethan wall paintings and painted cloths of the painter stainers. That beguiling tradition still anchors everything I do, while my love of surface pattern keeps inviting wider, ever-changing influences in.
I work across scales and surfaces ~ from intimate fresco secco panels to panoramic scenic wallpapers that wrap entire rooms. Whether the brief is for a heritage institution or a contemporary hotel, the process always begins with hand-painting in the studio, and the final result always carries the mark of the brush.
My work has taken me from Buckingham Palace to New York hotels, from Zoffany collections to Elizabethan museum reconstructions. Each project is different, but the thread that connects them all is a deep love of decorative painting and a commitment to keeping historic techniques alive in contemporary practice.
“I digitise with the lightest touch so the imperfect hand stays ever-present.”
In thirty years as a decorative artist, I have been fortunate to follow paint into some extraordinary places. From canvases for The Queen’s Summer House at Buckingham Palace to Elizabethan painted cloths for Shakespeare’s Birthplace, each commission has taught me something new about the relationship between paint, place, and history.
Today, I am most at home where research meets creativity. There is a specific thrill in translating a fragment of Tudor pattern or an 18th-century landscape into a modern interior; it is here, in the revival of lost aesthetics, that I find my greatest inspiration.
“Each commission has taught me something new about the relationship between paint, place and history.”
Photo credit: Julian Calder
Awards →
← Press
Andrew Martin International · Annie Sloan · Birmingham City Council · Charleston House Trust · Chelsea Textiles · Diageo · Firmdale Hotels PLC · Fortnum & Mason PLC · GP&J Baker · John Smedley Knitwear · Johnnie Walker · Larkspur & Hawk · Le Bon Marché, Paris · Lewis & Wood · London Craft Week · Martin Brudnizki Design Studio · QEST Enterprises · Retrouvius · Royal Warrant Holders Association · Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust · Weald & Downland Open Air Museum · Zoffany (Sanderson Design Group) · Plus private clients at home and abroad.
