Lorraine Stylianou

ARTIST >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Lorraine Stylianou Interview by Ruby Stevens.

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espite always being a creative – painting, and making greetings cards, Lorraine Stylianou only started to take art seriously in January 2011 shortly aer leaving a full time job. All through her working career Lorraine used her weekends to complete decorative furniture projects, and private stationery commissions, but found it tricky juggling everything when her children were born. Only aer leaving her job in the West End of London and working from home was she able to focus properly on building a portfolio of work. Lorraine’s faith in her own artistic abilities strengthened aer selling some of her work at an exhibition in 2012 and she realised art offered her an interesting future. Her work is now in private collections throughout the UK and US. Her painting style is partially decorative folk art, with primitive, naïve characteristics.

Part illustration, and part primitive, it isn’t easy to label but it is her use of colour that is probably most apparent. e recurring themes in

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Lorraine’s work are flowers, birds, other animals, abstract pattern, Russian dolls, and portraits. Although you can’t probably tell from looking, Lorraine paints all her canvases in black paint first, and then paints over the first layer in whatever colour of background she chooses to work on. is technique makes sure no light can get through the canvas if held up to sunlight, avoiding distracting irregularities in the paint. Dots feature in most of Lorraine’s art – a great way of covering surfaces with detail and adding to the intensity of the work.

Upcycling is something Lorraine has always been passionate about – transforming boring old furniture into bohemian beauties and saving the planet at the same time.

Lorraine has always loved surface pattern design and has spent recent months putting many of her images into repeat. is gives her many more options as to where her art is seen since the images can be put on all kinds of items including apparel, stationery, homeware, and fabric.

Running workshops is at the heart of Lorraine’s art business. e three distinct offerings are made up of 1) practical workshops for people of all ages and abilities 2) business mentoring for artists who want to monetise fi

Using the tools normally associated with journalism is as important as putting paint on canvas

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their creativity and 3) the sale of her own greetings card range.

When I asked Lorraine to summarise why she does what she does she said this: I want to enrich and inspire lives through art, to encourage creativity through practical workshops, and to think about our environment through upcycling. My aim is to offer positive artistic learning experiences to people of all ages, to assist creatives of varying degrees of talent to flourish, and to stimulate artistic imagination. is is done through the genre of decorative folk art.

I also show aspiring or full-time creatives how to better monetise their artistic skill. I encourage micro-makers, artists and “parentrepreneurs” to embrace the latest business concepts so they can develop additional revenue streams, and to experience for themselves what a lifestyle business of their own design can be like without the usual peaks and troughs associated with self-employment.

I aim to work with creatives who are passionate about turning their hobby into a livelihood and to increase their visibility.

When not running workshops, or designing new patterns, Lorraine does all the things one normally associates with being an artist: painting commissions, entering competitions,

searching for nice frames, buying art supplies and ……. drinking endless cups of green tea. e things Lorraine emphasises artists also do to raise their profile is to write, blog, and share. Using the tools normally associated with journalism is, Lorraine emphasises, as important as putting paint on canvas.

To find out more about what Lorraine does visit www.lorrainestylianou.com