Painter Kitty Rice has created a collection using The Paint & Paper Library’s colours as inspiration. She creates effects including murals, washes, trompe l’oeil, textures and motifs in paint.
She works in both expressive and applied approaches to painting and her projects include a balance of oil paintings for exhibitions and paint finishes for interior design. She started assisting specialist painters in 2019 and has since worked on a mixture of mural and decorative projects, mostly focusing on washes as seen on this background wall here in the Paint Library London Showroom. She learnt these techniques from various specialist painters and is more recently taking on projects of her own.
“I have found that clients really love having an alternative addition to flat walls with gentle calming textures which means they can still have the colours they’re drawn to but with a bespoke texture.
Pale colours as wash effects work particularly well in Bedrooms where having a calming movement on the walls can really work well with a minimal design scheme. Darker colours in Studies, Bathrooms, Halls and Living rooms can add a movement which paintings and furniture look great against.”
She has chosen these colours from The Paint & Paper Library Collection for their rich intensity. She was inspired by the recently excavated rooms at Pompeii last year and has made a selection of friezes paired with emulsion washes in response to those motifs and colour combinations. She was particularly drawn to the squid and the aged fresco effect.
For these designs she has used the colours Beetlenut, The Long Room, Soumak, Blue’s Blue, Tarlatan, Caddie and Ilex from the Paint & Paper Library Original Collection.
The other samples created with The Paint & Paper Library colours are from the Archive and Architectural Collections.
She is interested in how The Paint & Paper Library breaks colours into a tonal scale through their Architectural Collection; “this is how I often look at colour whilst painting”. Two of the sample boards currently displayed in the pop-up are made from Ice and Plaster,two colours which are available in five gradients of tone. A more subtle effect can be achieved staying within one colour. “They made me think about light hitting architectural features.” There are influences of Mexican and Venetian architectural details in her designs shown on these sample boards.
If you are interested in discussing future projects, please contact Kitty through @studiokittyrice on instagram or kittyricedesign@gmail.com .
For Colour Consultations, sample pots, charts, paint orders and advice please contact Paint Library London 0207 823 7755