drawing
a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 21
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
This was listed as a Spanish design but there is clearly Arabic influence. There is a lot of Arabic influence in art, music and culture due to the conquest and occupation of Spain by the Umayyad in the 8th century. Once you identify the Arabic influence you can see it in almost everything. This pattern is so beautiful and geometric and I love the colours ♥
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 20
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
There seems to be an infinite number of Arabic and Moroccan tile designs and I love them all ♥ There is something so peaceful and inviting about the repeated geometric patterns. They look lovely close up and also when repeated… you can see the repeated patterns on my Instagram account. 
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 19
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
Another beautiful tile design from my friend Joanne Stead the artist’s personal Mexican Talavera tile collection. This one was in need of repair so at least now the paper version is in one piece 😛 Beautiful sunny colours and a wonderful naive and simple design ♥
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 18
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
I don’t tire of black and white tile designs. They look fantastic in modern spaces as well as old-fashioned ones. I am really getting addicted to repeated patterns (as if I wasn’t already LOL) ♥
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 17
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
Having spent the last month drawing Frida Kahlo’s wardrobe I feel even more in love with Mexican design and the bright colours they use. I didn’t really think about the origin of the tiles I chose to draw this month but I am realising now that a lot of them are Mexican. Perhaps it is my Spanish blood but I love these bright simple colourful designs.
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 16
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
Art Nouveau was an internationally popular style of art, architecture and applied art that was most popular between 1890 and 1910. Art Nouveau was inspired by natural forms like the curved lines of plants and flowers. This art movement just preceded Art Deco and you can see how it might have influenced it. 
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 15
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
A great artist and good friend of mine Joanne Stead is equally obsessed with patterns and tiles. She has a collection of Mexican Talavera tiles and some of them are broken. She kindly sent me some images of her favourites and I have repaired this one for her (at least on paper) 😛 Talavera pottery is heavily influenced by the Spanish colonial period of Mexico’s history and has distinctive, rich and colourful old-world designs ♥
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 14
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
I have no idea of the origins of this tile design… but it looks Spanish or European. These floral tiles were used sparsely as accent tiles intermixed with other patterned and plain tiles… often in a bathroom or used in a kitchen backsplash ♥ Pretty pretty flowers.
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 13
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
There are two distinct branches of Art Deco design… one is the minimalistic geometric school of thought and the other is the more decorative floral branch. While I lean more towards the geometric designs, I still admire the floral designs and in particular their simplified forms and symmetry ♥ The amazing thing about these tiles is that they were hand painted. Factory workers stamped blank tiles with a stencil with charcoal and painted every detail with great precision. Amazing craftspersonship. There are still a few factories in the UK that produce restoration and custom designs in this manner.
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 12
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
Another black and white geometric design to round off the weekend. After a lovely day with family, I was late getting to this one. I love the simplicity of this timeless design and it almost always looks fantastic ♥
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 11
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
When modern design references the past… this is an Art Deco inspired modern tile design that would look amazing on any floor ♥ As much as I love bright colours… I do love me a bit of monochrome. Black and white is king.
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 10
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
I thought I’d end the week with a pop of colour ♥ Perhaps it’s my Spanish blood that makes me love these kinds of designs. So retro and so cool!
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 9
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
Penny Byrne is an Australian ceramics expert and modern artist. She is best known for her politically charged ceramic sculptures that make the viewer gasp, think and laugh. She was originally a ceramics conservation expert and she has recently been enlisted to restore the fragile tilting at the Abbotsford Convent in Victoria. This drawing is based on an image shared by the artist of some of the tiles in need of restoration, however, I have done a few repairs myself ♥
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 8
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
It’s hard to know the origins of many of the designs I have found online… this one was listed as Art Deco but that doesn’t seem to fit. I can see this tile on the walls of an Eastern European kitchen in the 1950’s. Blue and white ceramics have been a design thing for centuries… it’s such a classic combo stretching back to ancient Mesopotamian artisans. Most cultures have blue and white ceramic designs at some point in their artistic evolution ♥
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 7
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
The source image for this design had no ethnic origin listed but I really like it… it has to be Moroccan or Northern African. Rusty orange and turquoise never looked so good. ♥
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 6
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
Mexican Talavera tiles are decorative colourful tiles that are traditionally made by hand. They were introduced to Mexico by Spanish settlers but the Mexican’s made them their own. Very old Talavera tiles are highly collectable and newer designs can be very bright and modern ♥
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 5
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
Sydney musician and composer Sally Whitwell has an obsession with floors and takes photographs of her feet standing on beautiful floors… she uses the hashtag #ihavethisthingwithfloors. This lovely floor is somewhere in Riga, Latvia.
Wherever you are walking… take a moment to look up, look down and look around. There is a lot of beauty to be found ♥
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 4
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
Art Deco was not only a prolific and successful period in design history, it was a great era in the evolution of the humble tile. In the 1920’a through to the 1940’s Art Deco spread throughout the world and influenced everything from architecture, furniture, fashion and interior design. It basically represented modernism turned into fashion. Many tile designs are instantly recognisable as being of or influenced by the Art Deco movement and this mirrored white flower design is one of them. The simple geometric shapes are incredibly stylised and overdesigned… in the best possible way ♥
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 3
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
Moroccan tiles whether they be ancient or contemporary are colourful and delicious ♥ It’s like a chocolate box in tile form.
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 2
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
Victorian tile designs are so decorative and graphic. I love this pattern… imagine how it would look on the floor ♥ I would love this!
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a drawing a day ::: august 2018 ::: day 1
#adrawingaday #onthetiles
I love colour and pattern and when I travelled through France and Spain in the 90’s I became obsessed with tiles… I even brought some home. This is a vintage Spanish tile design. Everything is so monochromatic and cool in modern home design that it’s hard to imagine that people used to bring a lot of colour and life into their homes and businesses through the medium of tile ♥ I am drawing tile designs I find intriguing for the month of August and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun 🙂
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a drawing a day ::: july 2018 ::: day 31
#adrawingaday #whatwouldFRIDAwear
Wake up sleeping heart ♥ While this is not actually something Frida would have worn, I love the idea of her resting on this sweet hand embroidered pillow. I am not sure if she did embroidery or if she simply loved buying beautiful embroidered clothes and accessories. She spent a lot of time resting due to her injuries and illness and it’s comforting to know that she was comforted by something so simple and beautiful.
Despierta corazon dormido translates to wake up sleeping heart and Frida’s heart was fully open. Pain can do that to people. It either crushes them or awakens them to the world. Thankfully Frida was the kind of person who took her suffering and turned it into visual poetry. She made the world a more interesting and more colourful place, in lots of ways.
I have loved drawing “what would FRIDA wear” this month and by doing so I have learnt so much more about this beautiful, fragile and incredibly strong feminist icon. Viva Frida ~ Viva Mexico ~ Viva Colour ~ Viva Art!
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a drawing a day ::: july 2018 ::: day 30
#adrawingaday #whatwouldFRIDAwear
One of the most iconic paintings by Frida Kahlo is Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird painted in 1940. The thorn necklace cuts into her throat making her bleed and a hummingbird looks dead and lifeless. The painting represents her physical pain and how it held her back. While she didn’t actually wear this necklace, she painted it on herself to express how she felt. Her surrealistic paintings had a lot to do with her feelings, however, she did not consider herself a surrealist. In her mind, she was painting her reality. Her reality was pretty bleak and she must have suffered a lot… I don’t want to go anywhere near this necklace.
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a drawing a day ::: july 2018 ::: day 29
#adrawingaday #whatwouldFRIDAwear
I couldn’t help but draw one more flower crown. It’s such a simple and beautiful fashion choice, yet no one (0ther than Frida) seems to do it on the regular. I guess like most creative endeavours it’s a reminder of beauty being impermanent. The flowers will die soon enough and a new beautiful creation will have to be created ♥ I wish I could get away with wearing a flower crown.
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a drawing a day ::: july 2018 ::: day 28
#adrawingaday #whatwouldFRIDAwear
Frida had an on-again, off-again relationship for ten years starting in 1931 with Nickolas Muray. Despite both going through marriages and divorces during those ten years they stayed friends after their affair ended, up until her death in 1954. While they were together, Muray took beautiful photos of his muse including one called Frida Kahlo in Blue Blouse, 1939 ♥ This blue satin blouse is seen in other black and white photographs but I had to guess the bottom half.
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a drawing a day ::: july 2018 ::: day 27
#adrawingaday #whatwouldFRIDAwear
Frida’s life was filled with pain because of her childhood polio and a devastating bus crash at 18 years old. After months of wearing a body cast and being confined to bed, she spent time in a wheelchair and wore different kinds of back braces to help support her agonising back. I was prescribed a brace like this for my back after my car accident that was filled with steel rods (looked amazingly similar) but I did not have to wear it for long. Maybe that’s why I feel a keen connection to Frida… an understanding of constant pain and how it can both inhibit and liberate creativity ♥ A lot of her fashion choices were made to conceal her pain, disability and necessary supports. It seems she did a great job of accepting her circumstance and making the most of it. This is one of the many reasons why she endures as an amazing and strong woman from history.
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a drawing a day ::: july 2018 ::: day 26
#adrawingaday #whatwouldFRIDAwear
Frida painted herself wearing a veil… more than once. This is more of a cultural piece than fashion but it is beautiful and fascinating. White lace and purple satin… so elegant and vintage ♥
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a drawing a day ::: july 2018 ::: day 25
#adrawingaday #whatwouldFRIDAwear
I have no idea when Frida wore this elegant coat. I imagine when she visited Paris and New York she would have had an occasion or two where she would have dressed up. If I was going to wear such a rich and colourful coat I would likely pair it with something simple but not our Frida. She wore it with different layers of colour and pattern. It’s that over the top layering of colour in Frida’s wardrobe, artwork and life that makes her so unique and interesting ♥
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a drawing a day ::: july 2018 ::: day 24
#adrawingaday #whatwouldFRIDAwear
This top is pure spring. White cotton with bright cheerful embroidery. Unlike Frida’s more traditional Huipil tops, this one was worn tucked in. It would have looked amazing with a pair of black trousers or a skirt. I think I need to go shopping in Mexico ♥ More brilliant colour from Frida Kahlo’s wardrobe.
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a drawing a day ::: july 2018 ::: day 23
#adrawingaday #whatwouldFRIDAwear
When I was going through my big earring phase in my 2o’s I would have coveted these earrings… actually even now that I’m only waring studs I think I want these beauties. I am attracted to indigenous jewellery, especially handmade silver from Central and South America. These earrings would look as great now as they did back then… I feel like getting out my silver jewellery making tools and knocking a pair of these out… if only I had the time and patience. Gorgeous ♥
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a drawing a day ::: july 2018 ::: day 22
#adrawingaday #whatwouldFRIDAwear
I’ve drawn a few of Frida’s full skirts as they are an essential element of her iconic style. I like the idea of a beautiful skirt hiding all of your worst bits and she did just that. Hiding her illness and disability with fashion was important to Frida and she did it so successfully. As usual, her choice of bright contrasting colours was genius and this purple and orange number would still pass muster today ♥
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a drawing a day ::: july 2018 ::: day 21
#adrawingaday #whatwouldFRIDAwear
Not all of Frida’s clothes were fancy and showy. She must have had clothes that she wore around the house. This top is a bit more hippy-dippy than her usual garb but the colourful detail and embroidery make it oh so Frida. She wasn’t seen often in earth tones but even when she was she brought a pop of colour to her fashion party ♥
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a drawing a day ::: july 2018 ::: day 20
#adrawingaday #whatwouldFRIDAwear
So many of Frida’s jewellery pieces are so beautiful, unique and usually have a nod to indigenous culture. There are different versions of this necklace in photographs and paintings… sometimes it’s green and other times its bone and red ♥ Who knows what the real colour scheme was but with Frida’s fertile imagination anything is possible. I used to make and wear a lot of beaded jewellery and looking at Frida’s collection I’m getting hungry to get creative… I might be getting my bead board out sooner rather than later.
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