A passion for pattern

Tess Newall has taken time off from painting murals to design a collection of wallpaper and lampshades, finds.

- Eleanor Doughty

AS a small child, Tess Newall would paint on the floor of her mother Sally Oyler's studio. Aged seven, she graduated to depicting a sun set on her bedroom wall, 'red at the bottom, and sponged to become yellow at the top. Turning that childhood whim into a highly successful business painting murals and furniture was well timed; the demand for Arts-and-Crafts-inspired decorative painting about which she is passionate is on the rise and, with it, what she describes as a 'positive shift in the value that people place on the handmade and the hand-painted.

The revival of murals, Mrs Newall says, also coincides with 'people being braver with colour'. Plus, she adds, 'people working from home want to feel that they are in a place that is inspiring and thoughtful. The problem is that the amount that any painter can produce is finite, so she recently launched her own collection of wallpapers and lampshades with a similar feel to those that she paints by hand. Her Folk Flower collection came about when experimented with a potato print, using only three motifs to create a pattern reminiscent of traditional folk decoration. The wallpaper has been traditionally surfacing printed, giving the texture and imperfection of the original artwork. Handmade lampshades with complementary trims complete the collection.