Dream Designs 18 - Carrie Tasman

Today I have a very different and original Dream Design post. Carrie Tasman is a talented painter and designer living in Oregon, USA. Carrie is also a recent graduate of the groundbreaking course The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design, where she has further nurtured her passion for pattern and colour. Her Dream Design feature piece is an experimental 'painting with pattern' and she explains to us how she created this design.

 

The name of the pattern is "Retro Dotty". I love chairs and dogs, and I paint them often. I've had the thought I'd like to create patterns from my paintings, but then I had the idea why don't I try filling my paintings with my patterns? So I decided to "cover" a favorite chair/dog painting with my one of my favorite prints that I created. It was SO much fun...hmmm...possibilities!

I have examined Carrie's work closely and her paintings are very distinct both in style and subject matter... she paints 'dogs and chairs' wonderfully and creates some lovely mixed media collage work. It is also true that her work is full of patterns and although I think until now they have perhaps taken a back seat there has always been a strong decorative element within her style. Her new interior design patterns have an illustrative feel to them and she has begun to create patterns using motifs and elements taken from her paintings. 

Furthermore I am so happy that by creating a piece for Dream Designs she has explored the possibilities of digitally adding pattern to an existing painting. I believe this is a completely new approach for her and hope it will prove to be a success. The overall result is quite beautiful. The painting is richer and more striking because of the additional patterns, I particularly love the patterns on the chair and especially the leaf and tile details on the floor. It will be exciting to see if this experiment will lead to a new era in her work.

Please take a peek at Carrie's lovely 'new' website here and read about her interesting career to date as a painter and designer.

P.S. Carrie sent me her lovely Efuto envelope before Christmas as part of The Little White Book of Surface Pattern Designers project and although I believe I mentioned it I don't think I posted an image of the envelope. Just to prove I am the proud owner of an original handpainted artwork created by Carrie! Thank you so much.