Lisa Le Quelenec Seaside studios paintings, prints and mixed media: inspiration

Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts

Thursday, 26 February 2026

Colour palettes for a new Fabric and Wallpaper Collection.

I thought I would share how I start to play with colours and choose palettes for new pattern collections in fabric and wallpaper. I am very drawn at the moment to yellows, ochres and soft lilacs which feels like a big leap from the teals, blues and turquoise I have turned to in painting and printmaking lately.

I am very inspired by this postcard that I picked up at the Russell-Cotes Museum of 'Magpie or Still Life with Magpie by Clementina M Hull 1866-1908. It may not come across in this picture but the colours are both subtle and vibrant and the complimentaries sing beautifully against each other. I need the cheerful colour in the middle of Winter amidst all the grey and dark.

Isolating the colours and curating them with shells, objects from my collections and paint swatches that I have painted is an interesting exercise. I like to move physical objects around and lay them on painted swatches as it feels more real than just manipulating on a screen. I want to see how colour behaves in different light and how it will drape around a form like fabric will in real life. It helps me to imagine how it can be used within a real setting.

Isn't the koi door handle and plate above stunningly beautiful? This is from the Russell-Cotes Museum too. The stripes are from corrugated plastic roofing on Boscombe pier - not quite so artisan and romantic but colour inspiring in its own way.

This gorgeous botanical sample was photographed at an exhibition of May Morris designs last year. It was amazing to see the drawings, watercolours and evolution of her designs along side the finished work.

You can see from these palettes that I am a bit of a magpie too, always collecting treasures, making connections. Sometimes the flotsam and jetsam takes years to surface and influence work but I think the benefit of time is important, ideas need to evolve and percolate waiting for the right moment.

The new Collection will hopefully be ready to share next week or the week after, I have been working away on them since December and am partway through loading them onto Spoonflower.

Thursday, 20 March 2025

Ran's Daughters - Bara, Unnor & Dufa

The tempo is quickening....the breeze grows in strength....something is brewing.

A stronger current, colder, deeper waters, a more insistent tug to the depths.

Wednesday, 5 March 2025

Ran's Daughters - Himinglæva, Kólga & Hrönn

So far these ladies have been a little playful but I think we are about to see a sea change....

Wednesday, 26 February 2025

Ran's Daughters - Blóðughadda first steps and experiments

Daughter no.1 Blóðughadda ;

I began with mixing my inks using quite a bit of extender to aid transparency. To apply the ink to the lino block I used a palette knife varying the thickness of ink and intuitively laying down the colour. Whilst the initial image is starting as a lino print my intention is to layer different materials and techniques to result in a mixed media series. The print process will achieve a variation in textures that will enhance further layers.

You can see from the first six prints the variations in colour and tone. There is also good variations in texture between very fine flat ink and thicker raised areas and bare paper, this will make interesting surfaces to work with other materials.

I printed a few more variations, my intention is to make some art books (a page for each daughter) and it feels right that there will be nine - maybe with Ran linking each page, or possibly to present each of the daughters mounted as one image. I am sure I will disappear down a few rabbit holes along the way. It feels good to be working on a big long term project.

I have started using one print and drew into it with coloured pencils, pencils and ink. I am still feeling my way a bit. A minutes sunshine drew some lovely shadows across the page.

Thursday, 23 January 2025

Ran's net - a new project for 2025

I am slowly easing my way back into work trying to find my thread from before the holidays. I had been picking up from a project half started a long time ago back in the days of home school during the lockdowns... A project inspired by a Norse mythology book shared with my son.

One character captured my imagination, a Goddess named Ran (a personification of the ocean) who possessed a net which gathered sailors drowned at sea. She is both the cause and the consequence. I can't find many mentions of her in the texts that I have read and it is that most likely that elusiveness which has intrigued me....

I have so many notes and post-its and scribbles and thumbnails that I think it is time to start collating my thoughts together.

I have been going back through my notes and experiments - firstly a very textured detail from a collagraph plate using tile adhesive and aluminium foil tape. This was just a small part that I kept as I loved the texture and colours so much. It's not much more than a snippet but I couldn't part with it.

Second, a section of a ghost print ( a second printing of a plate without adding extra ink) that I worked into with collage, watercolour and coloured pencil. I regularly make a ghost print as fodder for experimenting with new ideas. I like the idea of work continuing, evolving and a continuous thread connecting pieces and projects - many tides, one ocean.

Another connection for these details is the strong 'V' composition that I seem to regularly circle back to.

Broken but oh so beautiful fragments of piddock shells, inspiring textures and compositions.

Thursday, 26 September 2024

Sundial shell pattern collections

Always a sucker for a spiral, I love these sundial shells. I love the bottom face as much as the more pronounced swirl on the top. The beautiful spiralling circles in this particular one called to me.

This one little shell has inspired a whole collection of repeat patterns available as fabric, wallpaper and home accessories at Spoonflower and as clothing, accessories and home accessories in my RedBubble Store.

Of course no collection is complete without being available in a selection of colours. Whilst teal is my favourite there is also duck egg, chartreuse, and claret with forest green and navy being the latest versions of the designs. Co-ordinating pinstripes, plains and seigaiha wave/scale patterns are also within the collections.

As I work more with pattern making I am discovering that I often reach for far richer and bolder colours that I would never use in my painting or printing. I am wondering if, as I continue, this may change. It is interesting to stand back and watch the creative paths converge and diverge, one often feeding the ideas of another.

Which colour is your favourite?

Friday, 14 June 2024

Little treasures from the shore

Look at these little beauties found in Scotland. I have never found these before though I believe they can be found here in the South. I may have jigged a little happy dance when I spotted the first one 😊 The colours are many and are really subtle when you look closely. I picked up these three for the variation in their colouring, the photo doesn't do them justice.

The treasures in the photo below are from a more recent trip to Kimmeridge, I think they make a nice potential palette.

Thursday, 23 May 2024

Spiral inspiration

Inspiration really is everywhere! Aren't these spirals just perfect. Trimmings from paintings I was getting ready to mount. I feel a new pattern coming on....

They remind me of Karl Blossfeldt photographs.

Monday, 22 January 2024

Inspiration in unusual places - part II

From this....

...a little more manipulation digitally to this....

....and before I knew it.....

Each design is available on a variety of fabrics, wall paper and home furnishings in my Spoonflower store and co-ordinates with all the designs in my Coastal Collections.

These designs are also available in my RedBubble store on a variety of different home accessories, soft furnishing, stationery and clothing.

Inspiration can strike at any time and in the most unusual places.

Thursday, 18 January 2024

Inspiration from unusual places...

It started on a sunny day, I noticed the denim rag rug and the way the light had faded areas - the patterns made by light and shade, the tones, the colours and textures... a little noticing.

I grabbed my sketchbook and sketched out some thumbnails.....which led to some collages.....

That were strangely addictive to make..... to be continued......

Thursday, 5 October 2023

New Dry points and mixed media beachscapes on Folksy

Well I'm not sure where September went but it has been busy! I have been having a bit of a jujjjjge around with all my shops making new store fronts, profile pictures and even a new blog banner (I hope that you like it) to refresh everything. It feels much more co-ordinated and coherent now - hopefully it will become more recognisable too around the interweb.

Of course I have also been creating some more work, I have just been lapse at getting it onto the blog - so many balls to juggle and so little time. I have been thinking hard about new ways to present work and I think sometimes it would be nice to show the inspiration behind my process. This is the latest set of work that I have produced over the last little while shown with the inspiration behind colour choices, shapes, marks and textures. I often have trouble putting that kind of thing into words but hope that these montages of images might go some way to explaining.

These will all be in my Folksy shop by Friday for Folksy's 'Shop Early for Christmas' weekend 7th-8th October.