The Folklore Story

It all started with blackberries - in fact, it started with blackberries during a lockdown walk back in 2020...

Something about this photo really stuck with me, blackberries carry such a sense of nostalgia from my childhood - blackberry picking, conker collecting, foraging for Christmas foliage - all a regular occurance when I was young. My Mum really is my true inspiration, we were always out collecting things and making things!

Then a couple of years ago I spent a summer looking after my Niece and Nephew and my friends two kids. We spent time in a small patch of woods that is full of blackberry bushes. The memories of that summer are so special I decided I wanted to paint something to commemorate it a little and then I remembered this photograph and used it as a loose reference.

That's when 'Blackberry Jewels' was created...

I decided to experiment a bit with inks and canvas and the result was so much better than I had anticipated! I held on to this painting for a long time, not sure what to do with it or where to take this technique. Then around May time this year I took a trip to my allotment and my friend had grown some beautiful tomatoes and I thought they'd also make a great painting so I tried the same technique and again it came out so well!

I'd then intended to paint another two similar paintings to create a small collection, I was thinking more fruits and vegetables, maybe things I've grown or things you can forage but I wasn't sure. Then an online drawing challenge came up called Peachtober and the first prompt was acorns so that was my next painting sorted!

The theme of Folklore followed shortly after, I needed something that really tied it all together and I'm really fascinated by old books and stories, old wives tales and superstitions so it seemed the perfect topic! I started taking books out from the library to get some inspiration for more paintings and accidentally came across one from 1864! Unfortunately most of the folklore in that one was pretty morbid so I didn't take much inspiration from there!

The next painting I wanted to do was my favourite flowers (again! I've painted these so many times!), echinaceas! I started with the left and the more I looked at it the more I didn't like it. I almost threw it away but a lovely friend commented that they liked it and it gave me that tiny spark to keep going and I'm so glad I did as it's now one of my favourites!

The paintings took me a lot longer than I had hoped, ideally I wanted to have my calendar ready by September but it took me an extra month to finish and order a sample. It was worth it though as my calendar turned out so well and I am so in love with this style of painting I have developed. I already have an idea for my calendar for next year, a new collection and an idea for a monthly print club which I am super excited about!

The original pieces from the Folklore collection are going live tomorrow, with prints becoming available from the new year.

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Thanks so much for reading all about this collection, there is so much more I could tell you about it! If you have any questions please do pop a comment below.