7 everyone’s talking about... DIANE HILL
The artist currently reinventing chinoiserie in a palette of modern shades
Why and how should we embrace chinoiserie?
It’s such a joyful interpretation of the beauty of nature, bringing in uplifting colour along with the refined style of painting to make a feast for the eyes. To experiment with it, I’d suggest framing pieces of wallpaper as art – a bite-sized way to introduce chinoiserie to your decor. Or wallpaper the fronts of wardrobe or cupboard doors so it feels like panelling.
Which colours are you most drawn to?
I love to bring in as much aqua and turquoise where I can, and also lush greens. Aqua reminds me of the sky and the sea, the things that are so important and connect everyone on the planet. They say this is why blue is the most loved colour globally. It makes me feel calm and refreshed, so I even bring it into my greens quite a lot. When designing, I always celebrate pinks, peaches, purples and yellows when thinking about flowers. All in all, these are colours that stand out in nature, they sing to me, I guess.
How did you get so interested in chinoiserie and wallpapers and fabrics?
I studied textiles at Manchester Met, with a strong focus on surface pattern design. We did a lot of still life painting and this is where I was introduced to gouache paint. It was amazing because of the consistency and opaqueness. We learnt screen printing and that’s when I specialised in wallpaper design. I love the impact that a wallpaper can have on a whole room and the ability to lift your mood being surrounded by beauty has.
And what designs are you producing with Harlequin - has the collaboration been a big learning process?
There are cotton satins, velvets, emerised cotton and a voile. The wallpapers are a mix of digital and gravure. I wasn’t as involved in the production process so this is slightly out of my comfort zone! My paintings were all on silk for an authentic look, they are then sent to be scanned and colour separated which enables us to recolour them endlessly. There was some work done to fine-tune the compositions digitally and then it was onto print testing.