Project #34 Althea McNish, Color and Pattern

McNish was an artist from Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. She moved to London with her parents when she was 27 years old. She chose to study printed textile design at London School of Printing and Graphic Arts instead of architecture, where she had been accepted to the program at Architecture Association School of Architecture.  

Her bright colors and fresh designs were a welcome departure from the greys and subdued colors of postwar Europe.  She designed for Eduardo Paolozzi and Zika Ascher, Dior, Liberty of London and others. Her designs were worn by the Queen of England and photographed in many fashion publications such as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.  They also appeared on murals in ocean liners and on wall hangings in railway offices.  

McNish often printed 2,3 or more colors as the base of her designs with a black line motif on top of the colors.  Other designs are all over color and pattern with a bit of black line or "noise" thrown in for depth and detail.  Noise refers to a splotchy undefined texture in graphic design.  

Above: McNish in her studio. McNish designing a mural for an ocean liner.

McNish's exuberant use of color and bold pattern are wonderful inspiration for creating handpainted textiles or colorful patterned prints on paper.  

We used some print blocks made in Project #29  and a few new blocks inspired by McNish's motifs.  Many of her motifs were nature oriented: fruits, flowers, the sun.  Some were repeat geometric patterns.  

While McNish's designs may not seem unusual today, at the time they were bold, bright and fresh.  Be inspired by Althea McNish's ideas and make your own bold and bright patterns.  

Below are some PreK and High School student examples.