PAINTER IN RESIDENCE
I am honoured to have been invited to be Annie Sloan’s most recent ‘Painter in Residence’. Annie Sloan set up her ‘Painters in Residence’ programme to collaborate with like-minded people and showcase the innovative and inspiring ways you can use Chalk Paint™. Founded in 2014, the Painters in Residence concept is loosely based on the way an art gallery or museum will have an ‘artist in residence’, to live in the gallery as a way to get inspired to create art inside or outside the venue. Each Painter in Residence is carefully selected and invited by Annie based on their skill as furniture painters and the pieces they create. They won’t be taking up residence at Annie Sloan HQ, but they will be exploring the boundaries of decorative furniture painting from their home studios. They are all different in approach, colour, tone, textures and style, and have been chosen from all around the world.
Project One: Hand-painted 1920s French Theatre Seats
FROM THE ANNIE SLOAN WEBSITE:
Tristan is from Bristol in the UK and first discovered Chalk Paint in 2019 when he was working as a Primary School Headteacher. His wife booked him on to an Annie Sloan Workshop; he had never used the paint before or even painted furniture but the spark was immediately ignited and he decided to submit his resignation and start his own business painting furniture following the workshop…a risk that so far has paid off despite being hugely daunting at the time!
He now is a Brand Ambassador for Annie and a Stockist with his shop, Doghead Designs, located in Clevedon, North Somerset. Tristan enjoys working with colour, texture and pattern and creates statement, hand-painted designs in a wide variety of styles, drawing upon inspiration from everything and anything. Annie once gave Tristan the advice to ‘paint every day’ and he has held that tightly since his journey began, honing his skills, exploring different techniques and widening his creative repertoire.
He would like to dedicate his Residency to his late father, an artist for most of his life, who sadly never got to see Tristan’s painting career begin.
The backs of the seats were inspired by my local independent cinema, The Cursor, in Clevedon.
Stay tuned for the remaining five projects which will be showcased during the first half of 2025!