From her garden studio on the edge of the Thames Valley, Fay is showing a collection of original artwork, limited edition prints, illustrated maps and her signature printed wallhangings and cushions.

 

The work draws on the world right outside her studio door — the River Thames winding through the fields, the birds and wildflowers of the Oxfordshire countryside, and the creatures she encounters on her daily walks with Yogi, her Labradoodle studio assistant.

 

Fay has always been drawn to the decorative: the patterns hidden in a handful of pebbles, the way a kingfisher sits for just a second before it’s gone, the flowers along the riverbank and in the garden. After studying Printed Textile Design at Central Saint Martins and spending years in studio teams at Designers Guild and Diane Harrison Designs, she eventually found her way down the garden path to her favourite place, her garden studio in Oxfordshire.

 

Her process is reassuringly analogue: she paints by hand using pretty much anything — gouache, watercolour, inks, acrylics, coloured pencils — before using digital tools to finish things off, always keeping that hand-made warmth. When she’s not in the studio she’s out on the Thames Path with the dogs, getting distracted by junk shops, or losing track of time entirely in her garden. Which, she’ll admit, happens more than it should.