Papillon and Songbird

The brief that became Papillon began as a private residential commission in Westchester, New York, brought to me through Kit Kemp. The reference was high-end Chinoiserie: that refined, exotic botanical register that reads as beautiful from across the room and impeccable up close.

What I painted was something in that tradition but with a different character entirely. I replaced the exotic motifs with the English Dog Rose, drew the birds with a looser, folk-art hand, and worked the background with a sponged and stippled technique that gives the surface a warmth and irregularity you do not find in printed Chinoiserie. The refinement is there. But so is the evidence of the hand.

That stippled background is the detail I am most attached to in this design. It is what makes it feel painted rather than produced.

Two Versions, One Design

This is one design that exists in two forms, and the difference between them is worth understanding.

Papillon is the original. It preserves the design as I painted it: busier, denser, with the hand-sponged and stippled background intact. The trees are full height, the branches present in their entirety, and the texture of the painted surface travels through to the finished wallpaper. It is available exclusively through Shop Kit Kemp.

Songbird is the version Andrew Martin developed for wider commercial release. Working from the original, they pruned the trees, reduced the height, simplified the branching, and moved the composition onto a flatter, plainer background. That separation from the original texture was what allowed them to produce five distinct colourways: Spring, Dawn, Mist, Rain, and Sunset, each carrying a completely different atmosphere. Songbird is available through Andrew Martin and their stockists.

If you want the full density and texture of the original painted commission, Papillon is the one. If you want the versatility of five colourways and broader availability, Songbird gives you that. They are the same design at different distances from the hand-painted source.

The Colourways

Papillon is available in the original colourway via Shop Kit Kemp.

Songbird is available in five colourways via Andrew Martin. Sunset is bold and warm, the landscape in amber light. Spring is fresh and bright. Mist is calm and blue-green. Rain sits in chalky teal, more dramatic than Mist but more contained than Sunset. Dawn opens in pale, early light. Three of these colourways have been used by Kit Kemp in Firmdale Hotels: Sunset at The Soho Hotel, Mist at Warren Street Hotel, and Rain at Charlotte Street Hotel.

Paint to Pixel to Print

This design is a clear example of how a hand-painted original travels into commercial production, and what is preserved and what changes at each stage. The Papillon background is the element that could not survive full commercialisation intact: the stippled, sponged texture that gives the original its warmth is too specific to translate into multiple colourways without becoming something else. Songbird is the result of that translation, made well. Both are lovely. They are
just different moments in the same journey from
studio to wall.