Place: colours of the Cornish landscape
At this late summer moment, Cornwall is at its most vibrant and inviting: summer-green fields, blue skies and calm seas beckon.
Cornwall is always at the heart of our collections, and this season we have embraced the vivid colours of her untamed environment. Sandy coves of turquoise waters overlooked by rugged cliffs; riotous meadows of the last blooms of summer; lush green grasses and wind-rustled crops: this month’s designs are a response to the landscape we love and the creativity it has stirred up for generations.
Cornish artist Peter Lanyon had a unique perspective on the landscape of his home. He trained as a glider pilot and his abstract paintings captured the shapes and colours he saw from the sky.
“It is impossible for me to make a painting, which has no reference to the powerful environment in which I live.” – Peter Lanyon
Our palette is inspired by Lanyon’s vibrant work, with field greens, deep indigos and soft sky blues, balanced with earthy shades.
Our signature yarn-dyed pieces are the perfect vehicle for the more delicate shades of the scenery of home. Lovingly crafted canvases of dawn-light greens and blues, and soft weaves of sunset-sky reds capture the ever-changing light of a Cornish day.
The clarity of light and breath-taking scenery has always drawn artists to the small fishing town of St Ives. During the first half of the 20th century, a pioneering group found safe harbour in this beautiful coastal town. Artists such as Lanyon, Barbara Hepworth, Terry Frost and Patrick Heron worked alongside self-taught painter Alfred Wallis and world-renowned potter Bernard Leach. An art colony by the sea, the Cornish Modernists threw out the rulebook, producing instinctive sculptures and paintings that expressed their emotional response to the environment they lived in.
From the round-cut motifs of our Lanyon Circles print, to the playful forms of our Summer Sailboat design, which evokes the fishing vessels and pleasure dinghies of St Ives harbour, our print designers have been influenced by the bold, abstract, shapes beloved by the artists who made the town home.
We hope the freeing styles and vivid hues of this collection take you to a place of fresh air, open spaces and the sea in every direction.
