Many thanks to all of you who entered our tea towel design competition! We had hundreds of entries, but just six winners - Savannah Hogan and Robbie Ainslie for the Young Artist category, Gemma Davies-Fairclough, Kelly Gratton, Lauren Stevens and Subhashini Narayanan from the adult category. Their designs will all be available to buy on our website for the rest of 2022! Here's a bit more about the artists and their beautiful work.
Young Artist Category
Savannah Hogan
What inspired your design?
My design was inspired by my daddy who loves running and who had just run the Brighton Marathon. He takes us to play tennis and sports and teaches us to keep healthy by doing exercise.
How did you create your work?
I started my design with the slogan and then thought of the characters and things that could go around the slogan and then chose the colours.
Where can we find more of your work?
You can find lots of my art work in my families houses, they love all my pictures and paintings.
Who's your favourite artist?
My favourite artists are James Rizzi and Monet. I love how they are so different in their style.
Favourite Quote
My favourite quote is “ Your amazing just the way you are”
Young Artist Category
Robbie Ainslie
What inspired your design?
My design was inspired by dinosaurs and how much I love them.
How did you create the work?
I made some straight lines to keep the writing neat them I rubbed them out. I based the Albertosaurus on the one from Jurassic World Evolution and the others were from my imagination.
Where can we find more of your work?
Just anywhere in my house or at school.
Who's your favourite artist?
I don’t have a favourite artist but I like pictures of brutal or cool things like dinosaurs or sharks or other predators.
Favourite Quote
‘Life finds a way.’ Dr Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park.
Adult Artist Category
Gemma Davies-Fairclough
What inspired your design?
My design is inspired by nature and bold vintage graphics/ prints from the 1950’s,1960’s and Art Deco travel posters.
How did you create your design?
The design has been created by drawing directly into illustrator using bold graphic shapes and colour pallet and deliberately offsetting some of the shape and line.
Where can we find more of your work?
My work can be found on creative websites such as they-draw.com, red bubble.com under ‘Chickpea designs’ and also via my new upcoming website www.littlechickpeadesigns.co.uk Who is your favourite artist?
Growing up one of my favourite artists was Paul Klee, later, I was inspired by my collection of 1950’s book illustrations with that lovely offset/ out of registration print look. Art Deco travel posters and vintage advertising tins.- A real retro vibe.
What's something creative you’ve done during the lockdowns? I started to write and illustrate a children’s book ‘Mammoth and Minnow’ which I am still working on… but hopefully it will be worth the wait! Favourite quote? Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.
Adult Artist Category
Lauren Stevens
How long have you been creating art?
My design was actually taken from a commission piece I did for a close friend. She wanted to give her mum a lovely piece of artwork, so contacted me. We came up with the idea of a leaping hare surrounded by cornflowers, (her favourite flowers) and I added details such as the butterfly. The actual artwork also had real pressed flowers, sticks and leaves attached to it, as well as within and on the frame. I also added metallic paints to the painting to give it that lovely shine when the sun lands on it. The whole piece was painted in a mixture of watercolours and acrylic paints.
Where can we see more of your work?
I have a few different social media channels but my main ones are as follows:
Instagram: @heartsinabox_ and @lfsartwork
Favourite artist?
One of my favourite artists at the moment is Amanda Clarke. Her work is simply stunning!
What's something creative you've done during lockdown?
During the lockdowns I was on furlough like so many others, so I took that opportunity to paint paint PAINT! I started with a painting of a bumble bee and then went on to paint many of our UK garden birds. I also wrote a children's story, which I am still currently attempting to illustration!
Favourite quote?
That's a hard one for me, I have so many. Most of which are from films and TV. I suppose one of my favourites would be: “Everything ends, and it’s always sad, but everything begins again, too. And that’s always happy. Be happy.”
This quote resonates with me particularly, because I lost my brother in 2020 very suddenly. I know he would want me to be happy so, so I try my hardest to be so.
Adult Artist Category
Subhashini Narayanan
What inspired your design? I originally created that illustration inspired by the prompt by theydrawandcook on Instagram. The colors and textures of the fig inspired me to play with textured and cheerful colors.
How did you create your design?
I painted this design using gouache and finished off by adding details with color pencils.
Where can we find more of your work?
You can find more of my work on my Instagram page - @subhashini.artfactory
Who is your favorite artist?
So many! But to name one, I love Ukrainian folk art painter, Maria Prymachenko. Her art is so unique and I love her style.
What's something creative you’ve done during the lockdowns?
I made tons of art with my ever-curious daughter.
Favorite quote?
"Stay afraid, But do it anyway! - Carrie Fisher"
Adult Artist Category
Kelly Gratton
What inspired your design?
The inspiration behind my design was celebrating the
variety of root vegetables used daily in kitchen life.
How did you create your design?
I first collected a moodboard of images of different vegetables for inspiration either
from the internet or photographs, from this I was able to sketch out my illustrations of
the vegetables in my own style. When I was happy with the sketches I scanned them
into my computer and digitally coloured them in using Photoshop and my Wacom
Cintiq. When all the illustrations were complete I then arranged them into a pattern to
display on the towel template
Where can we find more of your work?
https://kellycreatesthings.wixsite.com/kellygratton
Who is your favourite artist?
I don’t have one specific artist as I am inspired by a
range of different artists / illustrators, However I am very fond of Aaron Blaise’s
work as he has worked on many of my favourite Disney animations.
What's something creative you’ve done during the lockdowns?
During the first lock down I decided I wanted to use my illustration skills to create
repeat pattern / surface pattern designs so I did an online course to learn the
fundamentals and set up an Instagram account to display my work.
https://www.instagram.com/kellycreatesthings/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Favourite quote?
“You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn
You can find the winning tea towels by all our artists on our Wraptious product page. Thanks to everyone who entered!
