The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers Decorative Surfaces Fellowship

 

Polly was awarded the Decorative Surfaces Fellowship from The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers in 2018, after graduating from City & Guilds of London Art School. The fellowship celebrated historical craft and introduced Polly to a range of techniques, including japanning, oil and water gilding, inlay, penwork, chinoiserie, stoneblocking, and trompe l’oeil.

 

Under the guidance of Rian Kanduth and Hugi Hicyilmaz, Polly experimented with a range of water and oil gilding techniques, including pastiglia, punchwork, sgraffito, verre églomisé and Japanning. Through Japanning, she developed an interest in the traditional uses of shellac, and also learned techniques such as pen-work and inlay.

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Working alongside decorative painter Lauren Minchington, Polly explored various painterly glaze techniques including ragging, dragging, stippling, marbling, stoneblocking, woodgraining and chinoiserie. Of these, her favourites, stoneblocking, woodgraining and chinoiserie, became integral to her continued practice, particularly in her trompe l'oeil and wallpaper work.

"The fellowship provided me with a great opportunity to be in control of my learning, and after much research I focused on crafts that I felt combined my art practice with my curiosity for bespoke decorative interiors. As my practice has always put making and practical skills first, I also wanted to learn important skills - important because they are endangered or rarely seen - in order to bring them to the forefront of contemporary art."