Lets go on a journey together…

land rover web imageI was lucky to be selected to take part in the coaching with Cultural Enterprise Office with Lynn O’Neill.  I really enjoyed the bespoke personal service and allowing myself the time to develop.  I was encourage to think BIG, so I wanted to showcase my patterned artworks on a product that would dispel the myth that my artwork was only for scarves.  So I started an self initiated project, for my all time favourite car the Land Rover Defender.

I think the brand really matched the essence of what I’m about and my love of the great outdoors.  I wanted to use my patterned artwork and signature style of delicious colours, patterns, and expressive mark making with a rhythmic flow capturing the essence wilderness of the landscape to create sophisticated, natural and beautiful designs suitable for Land Rover Defender.

land rover section by louise kirby

So I set about creating some hand painted paper designs using imagery of the landscape, fields of pattern and animals.  My visualisation was that I see the Land Rover Defenders as something that can go anywhere with no obstacle and I wanted to capture this in my artworks by merging and blending a variety of terrains into one another to give the feeling that Land Rovers can go anywhere, with spontaneous marks the emphasise the thrill, and adventure of the Land Rover Experience through the rugged British countryside.

I could imagine my patterned artworks on  - exterior bodywork, spare wheel covers, interior upholstery, promotional leaflets, collectable toys, and water bottles to hoods.

From there I needed to visualise the artwork on a product, so without getting my hands on the real thing I tried putting my designs on simple line drawings.  Here are some of my samples.

Land Rover Repeat in Product web

land rover red in product webI searched for the biggest model I could afford and got this lovely toy and set about applying my design idea on the product.  I also made a hand printed silk wheel cover too!  I loved the little model so took it to the park to do a wee photo shoot. Here are some of the photos from that day.

Land Rover web

Land Rover View webLand Rover water web

Land Rover Grass web

I hope you like my creation; do you imagine driving about with my design on it?

I’d love to go on an adventure with Land Rover where I bring the creativity and they bring the wheels!

wheel commission louise kirby web

Childhood inspiration, fun and games

I have discovered the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green in London, I loved it! Some much to see – tin toys, puppets, spiro-graphs, sooty and sweep, folk art toys. A great place to be inspired by and reminisce about.

Great exhibition of Judith Kerrs illustrations ‘From The Tiger Who Came To Tea to Mog and Pink Rabbit‘, lots of fun interactions for the kids and big kids too!

Lovely detail and craftmanship in the mosaic entrance with the 3d pattern.

There was a great exhibition where artists worked with school children to create an exhibition called ‘stuff of nightmares‘, the whole thing was put together very well with a pretty dark side from the line up of toys who were suspects, a lovely hand quality to the newspaper trees, great mix of toys and random things – it created a whole scene! Here’s a couple of photos of it.

A trip to the zoo.

Entrance to Camperdown Wildlife Centre

Having a splash to cool down in sunny Dundee

Signage to Camperdown Wildlife Centre

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just spent the morning taking some photos at Camperdown Wildlife Centre in Dundee. I enjoyed wandering in the sunshine and seeing the animals.  There’s a selection of pygmy goats, donkey, scottish wildcats, snowy owl, rhea, golden eagle, wolves, ring-tailed lemur, wallaby, brown bears ………  I wasn’t there just for a jolly I was looking for some colour inspiration as well as animal silhouettes.

There were some funny sights with 2 rhea chasing each other and falling; and a golden eagle running with giant legs that look like they belonged to a yeti!  There were some beautiful peacocks with exquisite coloured feathers that were very inspiring.  And of course the 2 brown bears that just look like they want a cuddle.  The Wildlife Centre has just had a new entrance and coffee shop which looks so much better.  A wee thanks you to Cara Pirie for letting my borrow her fab Nikon camera to do some close ups with her zoomy lens!

Running Rhea

Exquisite colour of the peacock

Beautiful Tail Feathers