London Fashion Week 2011 - Collection by Tata Naka

Illustration for Amelia's Magazine  plus article about the new collection by fashion designer Tata Naka, for London Fashion Week 2011.


© Alison Day Designs

Retail Therapy Fun - Alison Day Designs

In Need of Some Retail Therapy?

For fabulous designs on a selection of products...
why not visit my online shop: Alison Day Designs - Etsy  

Lydia Jonkman - Artist Interview

Converging on the neighbourhood centre in Vinkhuizen at the same time, Lydia was instantly recognizable from her website photo; short blond hair tied up in pigtails framing an enthusiastic and friendly face. She led me inside and upstairs to her tiny studio, small, but with perfect light throughout from the large windows at either end. Long white curtains hung from each window and each sported a large knot, as if a reminder of some future task.

Whilst Lydia made coffee I had time to look around. A large white horse galloped full force towards me in her current work, which stood pride of place on an easel in the centre of the room. The walls were lined with canvases and prints, while those just back from being lent out, rested against each other waiting to be freed from their protective bubble wrap. The subjects were an eclectic mix of Mediterranean scenes, people, Vespa’s and animals, particularly enormous depictions of cows. As with her website, an obvious love of colour was plain to see. The large Ikea bookcase intrigued me, as it was not only filled with the obvious, but with paintbrushes in pots, pencils in a wicker basket, egg boxes nestled inside each other and magazines, all neatly organized and knowing their place; an artist’s paradise. A large green cactus and an orchid, sitting proudly side by side, topped this all off.

Lydia returns with not only coffee and water, but the tray has two delicious looking muffins filled with chocolate chips. We settle down to chat, and she tells me that after her initial artistic study, she came to be in Italy through a scholarship for a year studying at the academy in Genoa. After the year she stayed on and found herself involved in the twice-yearly children’s art projects held by the museum. All the while she was busy with her own work, which a gallery kindly exhibited and sold for her. She resided in a small vacation spot called Drentino, where she lived with her then Italian boyfriend, and although she decided to return to Groningen permanently in 2003, she still divides her time between the two countries, remaining involved with the museum in Italy and being inspired by the landscape and the people for her work. She finds it important, in her words, “You must do what you’re good in…”

As to her inspiration, Lydia says she will often see an image in a newspaper or magazine, which sparks her interest. This she combines with symbolism taken from her religious affiliation, and the natural world. Even if the subject matter is of a depressing nature she attempts for a positive interpretation: “People need happy things,” she says.

An ongoing experiment is with colour, as well as how the canvas is used for the subject matter. The former, colour, is something she has actually studied, and I asked her how she came upon such a creative diversity of colours, often using colours for objects that aren’t realistic, but somehow work in her paintings. She says that by using a colour wheel she experiments with how colours, complimentary colours and their opposing colours relate to each other and hereby reaches her desired effect. For example, when what we know as a blue sky is painted orange: “…then you come into a new world,” she says. The dividing up of the canvas, can sometimes cause quite a mental block in artists, but Lydia uses a combination of the Golden Ratio, plus lines that cut up the landscape or emanate from it and are stretched from the central subject, for example a Vespa, when it is added to the landscape.

Although a realist, she will often, add something quirky to her main subject, like a small coloured diamante stone in the centre of an animal’s eye, or a bee will be painted into the corner of the picture. In another, the bubbles of flying fish mutate into balloons as they float across the painting, but this alchemy doesn’t look out of place, it fits!

I then ask her, if money was no object, if she had a dream or if there were anything she would like to realize. A refreshingly original reply comes back that she is already doing it, hopes to be able to continue for a long time; all she needs is, time.

If you would like to follow a painting course given by Lydia, she gives regular classes at the Kunstcentrum in Groningen. She also has a new venture: Lydia’s Children’s Studio, starting up 7 September 2011, as well as doing rather fantastic pet portraits! (See flyer)

www.lydiajonkman.nl

First published in the Connections magazine #32 Summer 2011

Read & download issue here

View all issues of Connections HERE (editor, designer, illustrator: 2006-2013)

Alison Day Designs

Racy Red - Agata Koschmieder Lodz - PFW

Illustration of the beautiful flowing racy red dress, designed by up and coming Polish fashion design talent, Agata Koschmieder Lodz. Shown at the recent Fashion Philosophy Fashion Week Poland, May 2011.

First published in Amelia's Magazine 1 June 2011

     

 © Alison Day Designs

A Mermaid Riding On A Carousel

Having a look on Daria's blog recently I saw a little competition she'd set. Leave a comment on her blog giving her an idea of what to draw next...anything,! Prize is a couple of her lovely illustrations, and the winner will be drawn out of a top hat. I posted my idea: A Mermaid Riding On A Carousel, and then thought, why not illustrate it myself? So here it is. 

Daria's competition runs until 25 May 2011, so if you'd like to join in, more info can be found here

Alison Day Designs website

© Alison Day

Boat To Row Illustration

Illustration for a review of band: Boat to Row.

First published in Amelia's Magazine May 2011. For a sample of their music go here     © Alison Day Designs

London Fashion Week - Lako Bukia

I enjoyed illustrating the clothes from the Lako Bukia show at London Fashion Week and for this experimenting with two different digital styles.
For the article on the show, written by Amelia Gregory - visit Amelia's Magazine

First published in Amelia's Magazine, March 2011

© Alison Day
Alison Day Design 

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The Colourful World of Leona Leppers - Artist Interview

Hurtling through the Dutch countryside on a particularly grey Monday morning and travelling in a north-easterly direction away from Groningen, Kim and I headed for the little village of Ee (pronounced ae) to interview our next artist, Leona Leppers.

Both not having an awfully good sense of direction, even with the electronic route finder chatting merrily away on the dash board to itself, we wondered if this time we hadn’t gone a little far in pursuit of an article. But perseverance pays off and as we rounded the corner we were pleasantly surprised when we saw the house. A jewel on the landscape, this little house could almost come out of a fairy tale book with its garden filled with colourful objects, candles, mosaic slabs and streamers fluttering in the wind.

Leona opened the door with a welcoming smile, clothed and be-jewelled from head to toe in her amazing Technicolor creations and invited us in for coffee. Inside, the house comprises of two main rooms with an adjoining kitchen and Leona’s work can be seen from floor to ceiling in every nook and cranny. Just when you think you have seen it all, you discover another creation.

Creative from an early age and having previously worked as a drama therapist the dramatic change in her life came when her contract wasn’t renewed and she decided to look for something else. She was asked to take part in a fashion show entitled ‘Regal & Kitsch’ where for the finale she created a queen’s costume using the materials, which have now become her trademark style. Later she continued by making bags on request, which in turn has led to soft jewellery, interior objects and workshops for women interested in learning how to make her colourful designs.

The colours she uses are bright and the materials sumptuous, fluffy and velvety making you want to touch them and pick them up. Her designs are decorated with beads, unusual bits and bobs, shells, felt, in fact anything she can lay her hands on to decorate. All this she finds at markets and in curiosa shops, saying she has a nose for finding what she wants. This makes her work always refreshingly original. Influences in her designs come from music, and from travel books on India and Africa as well as religious icons taken from Christianity and Buddhism.

Leona doesn't live in the house anymore; she lives a stone's throw away over a little bridge in a larger house. There just isn’t enough room for her family any more, comprising of two sons (aged 9 and 12) and her partner. The little house is used as a gallery and studio for her work. She also has the intention of starting up a Bed & Breakfast in it for those wishing to escape the pressures of city life.

The house is also very symbolic of her life and personal growth over the years. Having first found the house when it was more or less condemned, with a mud floor, straw walls and no electricity or running water, Leona has breathed life into it and lovingly restored it to its present state. She has made it hers and filled it with a riot of colour and life, it is a haven where she can be herself without the need to explain herself in any way.

Find out more about Leona’s colourful work on her website at: Leona Design

First published in the Connections magazine #19 Spring 2008 

View all issues of Connections HERE (editor, designer, illustrator: 2006-2013)

©  Alison Day Designs