As the famous peonies flowers bloomed into season, our talented artist Sophie transferred the gentle and delicate petals onto canvas using several shades of blushed pink pastels. The original photo which inspired this piece was designed by Iona, another artist in our team.
Firstly I spoke to our talented Sophie about her painting process;
What were the challenges of painting such a detailed piece?
“It was challenging due to the size of the piece and the intricate details of the soft, fine petals. We’re so used to painting large scale pieces on walls that it can be challenging to downscale onto a smaller canvas.”
Did you enjoy the process?
I really enjoyed painting this piece although it was really challenging. My favourite things to paint are always inspired by nature so this was right up my street”
Did working on this inspire you in any way?
“Yes, it did actually, it inspired me to want to paint flowers on a much larger scale!”
I then followed by chatting to Iona as she designed the piece before it was painted,
What inspired you to design this piece?
“I guess I have seen a lot of floral murals around at the moment and I don’t think there’s anything that can be printed that we can’t paint better and make nicer. I quite like a lot of the Dutch Masters paintings, painted by the likes of Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer and Jan Steen and was inspired by their work. I think when people think of Graffiti life they think of quite traditional things so it was nice to demonstrate our artists talents when painting detailed, intricate pieces which are a bit softer and less commercial.”
It is much smaller than your usual work, was there a reason for this?
“I liked the idea of a mural that didn’t completely fill the wall, so that we had a little more space to play with. It was nice to have flowers coming in from one to corner, almost as though they were growing in from around the corner. We then set it with a really strong background colour. It was also a great alternative for a statement wall as it demonstrates that a mural does not necessarily have to cover the full wall, it can work around your room and be an eye catching piece without being on a large scale.”
Did you draw the piece in advance or was it a collection of photographs?
“It was actually a collection of photographs of different peonies to demonstrate different shades, tones and colours of petals to create variation between the petals.