Why 'Posh & Painterly'? Good Question!

POSH!

I’ve lost count of the number of times I've been asked, ‘Why did you choose the name Posh & Painterly for your business?’. So I think it’s time I explained!

Spare bedroom rug

When I started working on my new portfolio website , I needed a ‘brand’ name. Obviously I wanted it to be a name I could identify with, something that would reflect my ‘Signature Style’.

But that’s where I got stuck! 

I seem to have so many quite unrelated styles that I couldn’t possibly find a name that covered them all. This time last year I was so desperate to find a common thread running through my work that I wrote a blog post about it, hoping that someone would identify something that I was missing.

Fortunately help was at hand in the form of a suggestion from the Surface Pattern Course I took last winter. We were advised to look at our wardrobes and our homes and see if they gave us any clues.

Luckily mine did straight away!

And here is what I noticed . . .

My Norwich house - quilt and cushions from 'Country & Eastern'

My Hereford house, this time the quilt is plain because the wallpaper is 'painterly' - the Country & Eastern cushions remain!

Two of my favourite shirts - both decidely 'painterly' but both made in India!

The name that immediately came to mind was ‘Country & Eastern’. 

(Country & Eastern is the name of one of my favourite shops. When I lived in Norwich it was just a small shop in one of the alleys but already a wonderful source of gifts, to give and to receive.)

Both the way that I dress and the way that I furnish my home reflect my liking for florals, bold and painterly as well as dainty mini-prints – hence the ‘country’. But there’s also more than a hint of ‘Eastern’ in my favourite clothes and in many of the ornaments and furnishing in my home, some of which came from that lovely ‘Country & Eastern’ store.

So that would have been a perfect name – and I like the touch of humour too! – if only it weren’t already taken! But at least it gave me something to work with and ‘Posh & Painterly’ represents my dual styles just as well.

This photo I took in my Abergavenny Dining Room encapsulates 'Posh & Painterly' for me!

POSH – at school we were taught that ‘posh’ stood for ‘Port Out, Starboard Home’ – the preferred cabin position of the gentry sailing 1st Class to India, that gave them shade on each leg of the voyage when passing through the Suez Canal. I’ve discovered that this a myth but it’s such a lovely definition, I decided to keep it.

PAINTERLY – here’s one definition: Characterized by qualities of color, stroke, and texture rather than of line. And here are some more details – Painterly Definition: http://painting.about.com/od/artglossaryp/g/defpainterly.htm

Looking at my patterns, I think those two words cover most of my styles, one way or another. 

And somehow we know when a name feels right, I think, and this one did straight away.

and PAINTERLY!

Hope you'll agree!

POSH & PAINTERLY