Colour Inspiration in Nature

I was wandering around the garden snipping at some flowers for vases when I had the thought that often the word 'natural' is used to describe an off white, pale beige sort of colour.  Actually, when you look at natural plant life every colour is there and in such vibrancy, particularly in countries like India where the Bouganvillea is the most dazzling pink you have ever seen.

Colour combinations are my passion, I try to find clashing colours to see how they make me feel, I constantly push the limit of experimentation to experience the emotions in colours. Does that sound a bit hippy drippy, sorry. 

Sorry about the deceased bird, and without launching into the dead parrot sketch from Monty Python, let me explain. I have four cats and live in the countryside so mice and birds are sadly par for the course. We do try to re-dress the balance by rescuing wildlife for a hospital and do our best to liberate them if they still have life.

This bird was so beautiful I just wanted to photograph it. 

The colour of these yellow and pink roses is almost sherbet like. 

This colour combination makes my mouth water, the pink rose, blue delphinium, offset by the pale turquoise/aqua of the plate. Looking at this I could see it working on a wall, the main colour being the dreamy plate colour with a stencil or wash containing the darker blue, violet, green and pinks.

All the background colours here are using Annie Sloan chalk paint which I have mixed myself and worked several colours together with water.                                                  

I would love to hear about your favourite colour combinations, I have a pinterest board called Paint Passion where I've invited some guest pinners to join me and we are picking interesting textures and moods created with paint. 

Individuality is about stepping to one side of what everyone else is doing, not playing it safe and definitely not playing by the rules, do that and you will look and become one of the sheep.  Me I'd rather be a Lion, one that wears a big purple hat. 

Great artists the world over have contributed many theories about paint, colour and nature affecting the human soul. Jeff Koons said that his father taught him to think - how do turquoise and gold make you feel, now think of how black and red make you feel. It's different right?  Hundertwasser actually believed that "The straight line leads to the downfall of humanity", that there are no straight lines in nature, only those created by man, therefore the straight line is ungodly.

So heres my advice, colour outside the lines, be a Lion not a sheep.   

Warning - by Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple

With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

Urban Jungle Bloggers and Woven Wall Hangings

Im really quite excited at the moment by two elements of interior styling and the use of colour. One of these elements is the re-discovery of house plants through the network of Urban Jungle Bloggers and the other is woven wall hangings.

If you are wondering what Urban Jungle Bloggers is all about then let me give you an idea here.  Set up by two lovely souls, Igor and Judith, they have brought an online community together of people who love house plants.  At first I thought it was for people living in the city but now I've met Igor and Judith I realise its for everyone who likes plants in their home and who like to style with them. 

As I've mentioned before, I attended a blogging conference a few weeks ago, primarily to meet in person the people behind some of the most inspiring things on the internet.  Bloggers are people who often are working in complete isolation and this can become far too inward looking if you're not careful. So when you meet the creators of a cool online community and they are really nice with a great philosophy and attitude, its a bonus for sure.

Having travelled extensively when I was in the music business, to over 42 countries around the globe, you find that some nations have very cool attitudes to life and I think that this is exuded by Igor and Judith in bucket loads. Their 'no rules' approach and philosophy is so rare these days, the idea to facilitate the meeting (virtually) of like minded people for no financial reason is a Karma which will return to them Im sure. This is also something I would love to emulate in my #paintpassion community.

Setting a theme monthly to their house plant stylings Im delighted to say that in my first month they have chosen my area - colour - to be the topic, giving it the hashtag #plantcolorpop (and don't forget its the American spelling of color not the English spelling - Colour.

Since working with Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint(tm)for Painters In Residence, Ive continued to explore this paints properties and abilities. Becoming more and more free with my approach I've been developing a technique of working with a wet brush and just dipping the same brush into different colours, then working it with water and so on, to blend and wash.  Ive chosen to do this on some back boards as a way to practice but Im intending to expand onto canvases too.

The backboards give me the possibilities to try out colour combinations and see how they work with different objects on and around them.  So to my third element here, the woven wall hanging.

I studied textile and embroidery for A level in the late 1970's, so the revival of the this type of wall hanging has amused me enormously. Its been a right trip (in the hippy sense of the word) to pick it up again and be able to play around with it for interior styling. 

Last weekend I went to Yarnspiration2015, a day of workshops and socialising for people who love their yarns, like alcoholics anonymous for wool hoarders - where do you keep your hidden stash?, did you secretly spend the housekeeping on cashmere and silk yarn, oh the confessions.  Hello my name is Janice and Im a yarnoholic.

It's Fibre East at the end of July, a big yarn related show which I shall be popping along to and reporting back on.  Its my nearest big wool show, in Ampthill. 

Anyway, back to the wall hangings, Ive tried two on the small basic hand loom and one utilising a tapestry frame.  I don't want to give a tutorial here yet until I feel Ive tried out a few things and can tell you the do's and don't from first hand experience. Like anything, practice makes perfect so I shall practice a bit more and let you know.  

You can find Urban Jungle Bloggers here and I'd put money on it that after looking you will be rushing off to the garden centre.

Im back off to do some more weaving and paint sploshing now, please tag me and #paintpassion so I can see what you have been up to. 

Blogtacular 2015

Blogtacular at The Royal Institution

It would be weird not to blog about a blogging conference, although Im not sure how interesting it is except to other bloggers. However there is always inspiration in colour and style to be found, especially when the hosts - Blogtacular - find such beautiful venues and sponsors.

Despite having worked on both Bond Street and Berkeley Square back in the 1980s for Polygram Records, I'd never set foot in the Royal Institution of Science. They have done wonders with the interior and surprised that is had such contemporary aspects.

it wasn't lost on me that it was Worldwide Knit In Public Day

A room full of blogging women (mostly) there was a lot of love. I actually wasn't surprised that there was so much support for each other in this community.  I find that women cut to the chase, it made it easy to network. So I found out lots of technical stuff about the layout of this thing and boring stuff like that. It was very useful to me and once its all instigated I hope it will make this blog more enjoyable to you the reader.

It was so comforting for me that one of the sponsors was Annie Sloan Chalk Paint as it gave me the chance to tell some of my fellow bloggers about it, we talked about paint quite a lot as a result and so Im starting my own hashtag photo community called #paintpassion.

Join me if you like, its anything thats painted - thats it, whatever has been changed due to the application of paint qualifies, from masterpieces in oils to old shed doors, pin it on pinterest (let me know if you want to join the board) tag it on instagram and maybe in the future lets do some blogs about it.

I was thrilled to meet many people, not least of all people behind Urban Jungle Bloggers.  Expect to see some posts and talk about plants, paint and colour.

And then we rounded off the day at West Elm on Tottenham Court Road, Ive bought some cute things to feature in my photos as well as some lovely cutlery. 

Prior to the conference we had a meal at a lovely restaurant called The Cha Cha Moon, just of Carnaby Street and behind Liberty. Another old hunting ground of mine and fond memories of lots of times spent with Metallica, whaaat, did you read that correctly, yes, I was their press officer and helped to break the band in Europe. If I did my job right then you might have heard of them.

My photos from Liberty London will be going on a blog I do for Love Stitch Heswall. A fabric shop with a cafe and studio, a place for my craft connections to collaborate. 

This part of London was a great trip down memory lane and looking back at those times from my new life, where I re-use my old skills but with different tools. The list of inspiring people at Blogtacular are too numerous to mention but I shall give them more time and proper links in forthcoming posts. 

Fellow Blogtaculars, please keep in touch.  Im hoping to move this blog onto its next level now that Im armed with all the info. 

Blogging its the future .... and the future is now. 

photo by Piers MacDonald for Blogtacular and Mollie Makes

Amara Interior Blog Awards

Im going to be terribly cheeky now, I don't ask for much, but Ive never ever been voted for anything and I would sincerely love to get in the running for a blog award.  

If you like the bright and colourful stuff here, then perhaps you could nominate me in the Colour Inspirations category over at Amara here   (interiorblogawards.com) 

You may have found my blog during my residency as a Painter for Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  During this time I tried to push my limits of colour combinations, painting on every surface - furniture and walls to create striking looks and atmospheres. 

My home is continually morphing from one look to another depending on the season and my mood, or, if I get a new piece of furniture to play with. Styling it up seasonally with my large range of props and foraged finds from nature and different countries. Integral to this is always the colour combinations, I respond on such an emotional level to the colours around me that I can't do monochrome. So while I love to look at the clean lines and classic design shapes in a minimalist home, its not for me. When I change my walls I feel soothed, relaxed, envigorated, cheerful, because every colour sparks an emotion. 

So if you like what I do,  then pop over to the Amara nominations page at www.interiorblogawards.com and choose the category for Colour Inspiration as I feel thats my particular thing.

Many many thanks Janice 

Styling The Seasons June part one

Another month and the challenge moves on to see how to represent the change in seasons. It's only the beginning of June so I feel I may have another Styling The Seasons photo or two in me for later in the month.  For now though, I have a few looks which seem to represent how I feel at the beginning of this month. June.

Every season I have a favourite flower, one that I think, yes, this is my favourite of them all. So when I saw this gigantic foxglove in the hedgerow, I simply had to bring it home. I have always loved foxgloves, there's something fairy like about them, very unconventional in their blossoms.

Very close by were some giant poppies, so they came home too.

For some reason we expect that as soon as June starts the weather should be good. In the UK we never learn. So far, we have had some good days, and we have also had some freakishly bad days too, without any rhyme or reason.

Ive done a bit of decorating and changing things around, so decided to do away with the dark red walls which I painted for Christmas and go back to some neutrals again, using Annie Sloan Chalk Paints of course. 

Styling The Seasons this month of June also has a sponsor, that being the incredibly stylish furniture company Loaf  so a big thank you to them for spurring us on to create some images that represent the month.  As we have actually had a hail storm at the end of May, terrible gail force winds and bright clear hot sun shiney days, all in short succession, I decided to keep the ice skates hanging on their hook next to my sun hat as a joke.  (I actually bought these in a Swedish charity shop just because they are cute despite being a bit heavy to bring back.

This time next week I will have just returned from Blogtacular and Ive also got some fun photos to do featuring cushions and cocktail glasses #lovemyjob !

Styling The Season for May

So many flowers to choose from in the garden at the moment, and also in the hedgerow.  For styling my home with nature I chose to revamp my previous wreath with lilacs and clematis. Its above the bed so that I catch wafts of lilac scent.

Another addition to my room is a beautiful piece of original art from an artist called Anne Marie Butlin.  Her painting of apple blossom touched my heart and so, I hope to feature her in a future blog.

To find out more about Anne Marie Butlin you can find her facebook page here

I found this artist through facebook originally and took the opportunity to visit her during Crouch End Open Studios week.

As an ex-Crouch Ender I felt a soft spot for this lady and her lovely family.  Her studio at the bottom of the garden is gorgeous and oh how I would love to have a whole wall full of her work.

My painting is oil on linen. Im going to try it in a few different rooms but for now its by my bedside and Im totally in love with it. 

Instagram photography and floral styling.

I've become such a mahoosive fan of Instagram of late, I guess because its more about pictures than words. My brain is clearly one which responds to visual stimulation, being obsessed with how my house looks, and by that I don't mean neat and tidy, quite the opposite.  I love colour, detail, interesting objects from every era, creating a visual story.  Taking photos and mood shots for myself and others gives me the excuse to hoard, what I call 'props' and have even managed to convince the other half that I need all these 'props' for photos.  Even shoes become props! Darling I need them for a photo idea ...

So maybe its time to talk about photography. My history with a camera goes back to 1978, so you could say that Ive been married to one most of my life, just upgrading now and then.  My first SLR was a Pentax Spotmatic F, fully manual.  I shot on film and printed in a darkroom, oh, how things have changed. 

Without going too far down memory lane, lets jump to now. My latest love is my Canon 5D Mkii. I have two lenses, one zoom and one fixed. This camera is great at shooting in low light and chosen because I hate studio lights and artificial lighting.  Using just a folding reflector to bounce and direct light at times. 

My most recent purchase was a 100mm fixed macro lens which I bought second hand on e-bay.  It is a bit risky buying on ebay, I did once buy a camera body for my step-daughter which totally didn't work, luckily e-bay refunded but it did spoil her birthday surprise. 

Its a shame that camera shops have disappeared, my nearest one is quite some distance.

One thing about Instagram is its format for square photos, having always arranged and shot for old school oblong format either portrait or landscape. Its taken me a few weeks but now Im finding that I arrange and set up for the square format as it works better on social media. 

My drive for taking photos almost daily has been set with Instagram challenges which I have talked about before. And sometimes when I think the subject is out of my comfort zone, I surprise myself. It really keeps you on your toes, plus there are so many brilliant photographers there to aspire too.  I have won some challenges and competitions recently and it is such a thrill to be featured by great taste makers and style setters. 

Next week Im off for a flower styling course I won, so will be bursting to tell you about that. 

  

Making mood boards is a great way to try colour and texture combinations. Flowers usually feature as the colours of nature are the most inspiring and often the most vivid. Move in closer to see the detail and you will see things you never noticed before, I never really liked Ranunculas until I started photographing them.

This Graphite chalk paint background is the perfect muse for pinks and purples.

A lot of my background colours are using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, some of them are left over pieces from my Painters In Residence project.  

Mobile phone cameras are now remarkably good and I believe that its this that has encouraged a lot of women to take up photography.  I would encourage anyone who finds themselves taking more photos on their phone to think about moving onto a basic DSLR like the Nikon D60 or D90.  

My other tip is don't be lazy, don't just snap from where you stand or sit, get up, bend down, move the right distance away.  Think about the angle and how it changes the perspective.  A table wont look like a table if you shoot it from a standing position, get it at eye level so the legs don't warp. The beauty about digital photography is that you can take hundreds of pics and then go through them on the computer to see which works, a good learning curve.  

Ive met a few interior photographers who say that when they go to shoot homes, whilst the homes look beautiful to the naked eye, they don't always look so great on camera.  Hence why every part of my house looks like its been set up for a photo or a shop display, I just can't help myself. What this has taught me as an interior designer is that you don't need an impressive mansion, my home is very modest small roomed house with no period features but you wouldn't notice that if you came round, with your eyes distracted every which way with crazy colours and objects.

To join in on challenges and competitions just look out for the hashtag # followed by subjects like - my still sunday - capturing colour - gathered style - by arrangement - floral friday - my monday moodboard - this joyful moment - styling the seasons.

I actually have my own one #farfromthemaddingcrowd  where you post a photo and tag me @janiceissitt_life_style with a pic that shows your interpretation of "Far From The Madding Crowd". Please do find me and join in, theres a paperback copy of the book for the winner. I should also mention what a wonderful community it is on Instagram.  If you follow the right people you will not be bombarded with pouting selfies, but lovely insights into creative souls who support each other. Find your likeminded doppelganger who is residing on the other side of the world, the girl in Amsterdam who shares your love of tattoos and clogs, the mum in America who also collects Dala Horses and Swedish folky stuff, they are all out there through this portal called an App.  Modern life eh, its not so bad.

See you next week after Ive been to London for my prize of Syling Spring At Mine.

Styling Spring At Mine and Styling The Seasons

Hello and welcome April. I've so enjoyed the blossoming garden particularly photographing flowers and have treated myself to a new lens for my camera, a 100mm macro for super close-up work.  Joining with Apartment Apothecary and Lobster and Swan on their challenge to show how you style your home for the seasons.

Heres some that Ive done recently and I shall add more to the post as the days pass and new blooms appear.

Against my Aubusson chalk paint wall and with this Bitossi vase.

Using my latest car boot treasures, watering can as vase against Graphite chalk paint wall.

I bought a few of the outdoor pots inside for a while.  Books are a great way to get height in your displays

this is a collage made inside a copper bottomed box from Holy Cow Home

a small pleasing arrangement of green themed items to make a pleasing collage

my latest little collection of Observer books are not only interesting but look good. 

gardening has begun