After having a tough end to 2015 and a tougher start to 2016 I was left feeling pretty flat about painting, something I have never experienced before. I realised that more than ever my mood dictated my work, or lack of it. I was left wishing that I were one of those artists who could draw from their sadness and produce incredibly deep, dark work. Instead I just lost my appetite to paint and Leon and I made the hard decision to postpone my exhibition due to open at his gallery, Friends Of Leon, in April.

So, where to look for inspiration when you don’t even feel like looking? Well because most of my friends are as equally obsessed with fashion as me, when the shows roll round I kind of couldn’t avoid it. My Instagram and Facebook were blowing up with Spring/Summer, Couture, Paris, Autumn/Winter, Bridal and everything in between. I started listening to amazing podcasts about feminism, women of influence and, of course, the arts. I started becoming obsessed by certain colours and looking more deeply into colour theory. I started wearing my crazy clothes, not just collecting them, as my husband stated when I put on my pink, frilly Courtney Love x Nasty Gal dress with blue velvet mary-janes.

As I started mentally filing away beautiful faces and incredible designs I noticed a theme. I’ve always said if I weren’t a fashion illustrator I would be sitting in a little design studio somewhere beading and embroidering incredible clothing till my fingers bleed and I go blind. Naturally that is what I was drawn to when watching the shows, Elie Sabb, Marchesa and my biggest current obsession of them all Gucci! Sequins, beading and most of all appliqué were the techniques I became obsessed with. And how fun to paint them all on the faces I had also been obsessing over!

Slowly I started sketching these Ideas in pencil on scraps of paper and gradually they made their way to canvas. And all of a sudden it was fun again! I got out of my head and into my studio and just played with no intention to do anything more than that. And a collection came together, ladies of the same composition on the canvas all wearing a heavily embellished dress and, most surprisingly of all: not a single flower in their hair to be seen!

I’m releasing these girls into the world because I love them and I’m proud of each piece.

I’m keeping the print editions small and exclusive.

Amazing Australian fashion label Manning Cartell invited me to illustrate my favourite looks from their AW 2016 collection. It was a super tough choice as everything that the Manning Cartell girls create is so amazing! Basically the collection was made for me because it was based on art and aptly named “PATHS TO ABSTRACTION”. Both Manning Cartell and myself will be releasing the illustrations over our Instagram accounts this season so follow them at @manningcartell and me at: @lepip. 

The lovely people at Fashionary asked me to illustrate a female and male look for the covers of their new Fashionary postcard books. The beautiful little books contain 15 detachable watercolor paper postcards with the preprinted Womens or Mens figure templates in a book set and each card has been printed with stamp and address lines on the back, it is perfect for instant outfits sketching and making your original hand-painted fashion postcards! For the women’s figure book I drew a dramatic look from Giambattista Valli SS15 Couture and for the men’s figure I used a really fun Dior Homme SS15 Menswear look.

You can purchase your own set from www.fashionary.org

I was lucky enough to have six pieces selected as part of ‘The Collectables’ exhibition at Studio 281 in Maylands last month. Leo Flavel, the gallery owner put on a great night with flowers by Bloom Tribe and a great selection of drinks. I already loved the work of KimKimKim and Jerome Davenport so it was so flattering to have my work hung alongside theirs. Leo is also my go to framer so I got to see my Floral Dreams prints beautifully framed and exhibited down the halls of the gallery and available for sale, perfect for those of us who want to put our artwork up immediately!

Contact Studio 281 to view the collection.

281 Guildford Road
Maylands WA 6051
Tel: +61 (08) 9271 0922
Mob: 0413233578

Opening Times
Monday-Saturday

10am-4pm

‘A Swirling Constellation’, 2016, my entry into the @DrawADot x @MaisonValentino open call. Draw A Dot runs fantastic open call competitions for illustrators to enter. And this brief was the best: Illustrate your dream Valentino outfit that you would wear front row to a Valentino show. Of course, being a bit obsessed with all things astrology I HAD to illustrate a look from the beautiful Pre-Fall 2015 collection. In the last Draw A Dot x Valentino open call that I entered I illustrated a redhead so I thought I would continue on that theme. I wanted her to be innocent but with some kind of witchy spark in her eyes so I decided I would have her manipulating a constellation of stars, which created a whirlwind of movement around her. The detail of the print in her dress took forever to paint but was absolutely my favourite part of the process. I used the literal placement of print detail from a photo of the dress and also (the super fun part of being an illustrator) I took artistic licence and made parts up. I’m so happy with the result.

And there was no better location to shoot her than the gorgeous new home wares store in my neighbourhood: La Luna. Michelle, La Luna’s owner, is an incredible stylist (and boss, she hired me at Zomp nearly 10 years ago) so she made my redhead look right at home amongst her beautiful wares.

Pay her a visit at 879 Beaufort Street, Inglewood, Western Australia of follow at @lalunaseven.