You will must forgive our headline. Patricia Shea would not like being pigeonholed, however as a sample designer, her hand-painted creations inside that discipline are wealthy and diversified. There are gentle and kooky Artwork Deco designs, conventional floral creations that hark to the Arts and Crafts, folksy artworks with an Jap flavour, and there isn’t any ignoring her candy, candy pink cupcakes.
These cute cupcake illustrations – as seen on every thing from wallpaper to smartphone instances – are certainly one of Patricia’s biggest-selling traces and even appeared within the background of the characteristic movie Psych 3. In addition they encourage her on-line deal with, Design Confections.
“I’m a model,” says Patricia. “Design Confections happened as a result of Patrcia Shea was already taken on Instagram, and I like to think about my design work as scrumptious. It references my highly regarded cupcake and my ardour for patisserie.”
After dropping out of Manchester Polytechnic as a result of the textiles course she was on wasn’t specializing in textiles, she went to New York and landed a job in style. Then she went freelance for a few years, taking a complete vary of commissions – from ceramic tabletop designs to medical and golf illustration and on to paper product graphics. Now again in Manchester, Design Confections brings collectively Patricia’s creativity – she paints her motifs by hand – together with her experience in making use of patterns to totally different surfaces.
Her information and abilities are useful on this planet of print-on-demand, and Patricia has capitalised on them. However let’s not overlook her innate expertise. Whether or not it is blue denim paisley, a spinning mandala or people artwork assembled from geometric shapes – she is aware of simply the way to enthral the viewer. Little hints of shading, texture and artefacts of the handmade course of make the work all of the extra partaking, going towards the grain of medical computer-generated ornamentation.
Blue Denim Paisley.
Painted and digitally organized patterns develop into merchandise in Patricia’s retailer.
“I adored paint by numbers, Spirograph and fantastic illustration like botanical illustration and paintings by the Pre-Raphaelites, whose work I visited often at Manchester Metropolis Artwork Gallery. All of this stuff I believe now you can recognise in my work within the type of tight realism and geometric patterns and the mix of each,” says Patricia.
Whereas we frequently concentrate on magnificence, color and the intelligent mixture of types in a sample – they excite us, maybe – the calming impact of repetition has at all times attracted Patricia. Early on, her tutors recognised this and inspired her in the direction of floor design. As we speak, her creations are shipped to clients worldwide, and new ventures are on the horizon.
Damask.
Millefiori bomber jacket.
“I simply adore repeating patterns and creating them,” she continues. “As soon as I begin in a groove, I can create so many coordinated designs from just a few base motifs, which I do by means of the superb auspices of Photoshop after scanning and cleansing the motifs and illustrations up.”
As in so many different areas of creativity, AI casts a darkish shadow, and Patricia has seen her designs scraped and homogenised, was lookalike merchandise for which she would not earn a penny. It’s totally disheartening. “However I do suppose the last word end result, which I’m seeing a glimmer of proper now, is that hand-created, authentic work by people might be elevated and extra appreciated than ever. How lengthy will probably be earlier than that is the norm, who is aware of?” she ponders.
Handmade authentic in progress.
Identical to she tailored to print-on-demand and capitalised on it, Patricia is now specializing in the concept of the handmade authentic. She’s begun promoting her work, which is emotionally robust, having develop into accustomed to retaining her ‘kids’ at dwelling. One other enterprise she’s exploring is educating sample design.
“Final 12 months, I taught a mandala workshop in Marrakech at an eco-hotel owned by a stunning Mancunian, and I might be doing extra of those workshops as I transfer ahead. I’m persevering with with my PODs; I am simply additionally diversifying as you at all times appear to want to as a inventive,” she says.
Wall coverings are massive sellers.
