Nel Whatmore Interview

We interview artist turned fabric designer Nel Whatmore and find out about her new fabric collections and free cat pattern...

Hi Nel, Could you please tell us about your background, have you always been creative from a young age or did you discover your talents later in life?   

I was born in Wombourne near Wolverhampton and now live in Yorkshire with my husband who is a writer and our two children.  I have always been creative, loved drawing, painting and making things. In my teens I was always decorating my bedroom and luckily had very patient parents who allowed me to paint large murals on my bedroom wall and do pretty much anything to my room from printing my own duvet cover (which turned out really badly I hasten to say!) to making batiks etc.  I am a fine artist and so have come into textile designing only in the last few years but hopefully bring a slightly different way of looking at designing fabric.

Have you always worked as an artist/designer or were there other jobs you did before that?

No, I have only ever been an artist apart from a spell as a clown face painting at the Edinburgh Festival and working in The Theatre Workshop there.  Other than that I have been an artist all my life and this year will have been doing it for 25 years! Yikes!

Why do you love to paint? 

Simply because I couldn't not do it. I adore the process and find the challenge of conveying beauty and emotions to others through painting a constant challenge and delight.

I noticed your work is predominantly floral, what makes you focus on flowers?

I actually paint many things it's just I am most well known for my florals as that is what people see around the most in galleries or produced on other products.  I actually love abstract painting and emotive landscapes too.  What they all have in common is a great love of colour and the positive effect it can have on peoples lives.

You were an artist long before you started working with textiles & needlecrafts.  What made you decide to turn your designs into fabric & needlecraft kits?

My then agent approached Coats who do the Maia stitch kits to see if they would be interested in producing my work as tapestry kits and stitch kits.  From that I approached Westminster Fibres/ Freespirit to see if they would be interested in me designing textiles for them.  As they were already selling the stitch kits and were looking for designers who could produce more painterly fabrics they said they would like to work with me.

Tell us about your needlecraft kits, which are part of Coat’s Maia range.

Well, it’s very easy they do the most fantastic job in interpreting my work from the original pastel paintings into stitch kits.  Coats wanted to produce a range of up market very high quality kits. People seem to like my work as kits as they are colourful and more contemporary than a lot of other kits and customers seem to have been looking for this.  I am keen to show how tapestries can be used in different ways and don't just lend themselves to being cushions or framed.  In fact for the Festival of Quilts I designed a special Happy Go Lucky patchwork tapestry kit and also made a bean bag using a tapestry as the top.

Recently you have also started designing fabrics too.  Please tell us about your collections and the ideas behind them.

Happy Go Lucky was my first range for Freespirit it came about because the phrase that my customers most use when describing my paintings is that ‘ they just make them feel good” I wanted this feel good factor to be translated into the fabrics.  People seem to particularly like the colours I use, which is great as it is one of my main motivations to paint.  I play music very loud when I paint and sing (probably too loud also!) but find that painting with a happy heart makes for better painting.  

‘Happy Go lucky’ says a lot about all the things that are important to me and my work, and I liked the idea of incorporating that into a quilt. From my abstract paintings echoed in Checkerboard, to Well worth Waiting For and Trefoil focusing on my florals, inspired from my annual exhibitions at the world famous Chelsea flower show.  Other patterns such as Polly Poppit are inspired by my daughter Polly and her whacky tights as a child and the flowers I painted on her bedroom wall, a flower a night each morning telling her that the elves had come to decorate her room while she slept. So life’s rich tapestry really.

Sleeping Beauty has just been released and can be purchased on the Cotton Patch website here.  Sleeping Beauty is inspired by a series of paintings that I did that all have a rather fairy tale and oriental theme. Each painting is all about layers and beautiful things hidden, as well as a little mystery.  Sleeping Beauty was always one of my favourite childhood stories hence why I chose it as inspiration for my second collection.   It has a soft and gentle palette with butterfly prints and small silhouettes and rambling flowers and misty stripes.

How long does it take you to design a collection of fabrics, and what is the process behind it?

 It takes a very long time as it has been a huge learning curve for me. I didn't know how to put things into repeat or anything much about designing fabric so my first range took weeks and weeks.  I always start with my original paintings and work from there. Now that I am immersing myself much more in the sewing world I am having all sorts of ideas for ranges.

Are you working on another fabric range to follow Sleeping Beauty?  If so can you tell us anything about it?

I have literally just finished Katharine's Wheel which has arrived in the States this morning. I can't wait to make bags that will have lovely spotty linings and quilts that will be simple but lovingly made.  Hopefully next month I might be able to give you a sneak preview on my blog.

Each of my collections are about life, just like my paintings.  Katharine's Wheel is homage to life's rich tapestry.  It took ages for me to notice that our house was full of spirals, silly I know but true. We had actually bought over the years many different things for our house which have the same curling spiral shape on. From garden paths we have made together, when the children were little, that involved pushing hundreds of glass beads into cement to ceramics and furniture that were decorated with swirls and curls. It seems as though we are as a family drawn to soft curving and soulful shapes. Life is rich but also surprising rather like a Katharine Wheel itself, busy spinning so fast ,shedding a million colours and changing from one thing to another all the time.  Also my middle name is Katharine so hence it being my wheel or collection of colours!  I hope you like it when it is revealed.

What advice could you give to someone who wants to be a fabric designer?

Golly that's an interesting one. Probably I would say be true to yourself and see what is out there, but at the end of the day design fabric that is you, not what others say you should do.  I am probably not the best person to ask as I have fine art sensibilities which will always make me want to do things differently as we all seek to be original. Having patience is also an important thing if you want to be a fabric designer.  Also try to keep the copyright in your work and don't sell the design rights lock stock and two smoking barrels as you could sell the rights to other companies for other products.

You are married, with 2 children do you find it hard balancing work and family time?   Do you have any tips/advice for other working mums to help get that elusive work/life balance?

Any woman who says she has a great balance and has it all sorted would be the envy of 99% of other women.  So I will be very honest, I work very hard and at times when I feel the balance between everything is not how I would like it to be I console myself that there is great value in mums working as there are things and situations that my children have had the opportunity to experience as well as deal with, that have made their lives richer.  Earning your living as an artist and also a writer for that matter is not the easiest road to follow, but it makes for a diverse never dull day which is pretty priceless.

Naturally tips would include the obligatory stash of chocolate, odd gin and tonic, and getting your family involved where possible rather than trying to be wonder woman and do everything.  On that note I better go and help my hubby and son packing exhibition invitations downstairs while watching QI!! 

Can you tell us what you do in a typical day?

My day usually starts reluctantly with trying to prise myself out of my bed. I have never been an early riser, always a night owl.  So once I’m up, I take my kids to school then drive on to my studio in Leeds.  I have recently moved my work out of the house and into a small purpose-built studio space where there are other artists.   It’s smaller than my studio at home, has no chair and no heat until I arrive! Why have I done this? Well, because there are no distractions, no email, phone, Facebook, comfy seat or twitter to distract me from my painting.

So now I can paint uninterrupted for between 5-6 hours, four days a week. One day a week I do stay at home for meetings and to beat back the relentless email mountain.

I find it important to paint for longer periods as often it is not until the third or fourth hour that I get anywhere.  I tend to paint either in oils or pastels, flitting between the two.  I have many things unfinished all the time as usually I get to a point when I just have to look at a piece for often months, in order to work out what to do next.  I now use the computer sometimes as a tool to solve problems of composition and also colour, which often sparks off other ideas.  I take a digital shot most days of a painting so that I can see how it is evolving. 

Do you have any upcoming projects you would like to tell us about and how can we keep up to date with your news?

You can find my blog here  and the website is www.nelwhatmore.com, they are the best places to see my originals, keep up with free giveaways and collection news. There are pictures of Hazel Williams finishing off the Sleeping Beauty quilt on my blog at the moment.

Finally what are you plans/hopes for the future?

I have a big exhibition coming up in April of next year to celebrate 25 years of being an artist. So I hope that the sun shines on that day.  

Collection cat

There is always a Collection Cat with each new range.  Happy Go Lucky Cat is currently on the site , please go to www.nelwhatmore.com/merchandise/ and click on the cat to get your free downloadable pattern.  I will shortly be putting more patterns on the site and revealing the Sleeping Beauty Cat soon.

Both of Nel's collections are available for purchase in the UK here.