The story behind "Anemones"

I'm doing a series of blogs with a little bit of background information about some of the Harris Tweed "paintings" in my exhibition. at the Bakehouse Gallery in Alnwick this summer.

This is "Anemones", created primarily because they are my Mam's favourite flower and also one of my favourites too. I love the velvet-like texture and really intense colour of the petals, especially the blue flowers. You don't get many flowers that are such a true blue. The inky purple, black stamens provide a great contrast with the bright colour of the petals too. They are also a spring flower and spring is my favourite time of year. The starting point for this picture was the background Harris Tweed as I knew it would provide a really good contrast with the flower colours.

​The background tweed is an amazing turquoise blue herringbone woven by Heather Macleod of Handmade by Heather. Heather is one of a growing number of female weavers of Harris Tweed, a fabric traditionally woven by men. I think it's fantastic that women are weaving now. They also seem to be quite a creative lot who like experimenting with new patterns and produce some very interesting and unusual Harris Tweeds.

Heather is one of several weavers I follow who post about their latest Harris Tweeds on facebook. I think this is really great as it makes it so easy to pick up new exciting tweeds for my work. But you do have to be on the ball as they can sell out really quickly. Sometimes a tweed can sell out before it's even woven, just based on a photo of the yarns they'll be using! 

"Anemones" has been professionally framed in a plain wooden frame with an opaque white finish. It measures 19.5 inches square (inc. frame) and costs £625. It is also available as a greetings card or a giclee print in 2 sizes (£25 & £75) from the Bakehouse Gallery or our online shop.