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Meet Lauren Merrick<\/a> the artist and illustrator behind Bohemian Traders<\/a> bespoke Boathouse Print. Raised on the beautiful NSW coastline and now residing in the Blue Mountains, Lauren is a creative who draws on her surroundings to create her works. We had a chat with Lauren to share with you the woman behind your favourite print. <\/p>\n Q \/\/ How would you introduce yourself, who you are and what you do?<\/strong><\/p>\n A \/\/ Hello! My name is Lauren, I work as a freelance illustrator, am a mum to a 6 month old baby boy, I love cooking and making things, I have about a thousand unfinished projects which I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll finish someday. I live in the Blue Mountains and spend lots of time walking around, rain, snow or shine getting my baby to sleep.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q \/\/ Can you remember when your love of art and illustration first began?<\/strong><\/p>\n A \/\/ I guess it all began when I was a kid and was read to a lot from beautifully illustrated picture books. I was always painting at preschool, much more interested in designing the perfect title page at school, did art and textiles for my HSC, then straight after school I went to Enmore Design Centre and completed a Design Cert IV, followed by the Advanced Diploma of Design and Illustration.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q \/\/ What is a day in the life of Lauren Merrick like?<\/strong><\/p>\n A \/\/ Day to day life is focused a lot around trying to get my baby to have enough sleep! Once he is asleep I spend a couple of hours most days creating work for my calendars, etsy store and any commission work I have. I also drink a lot of tea.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q \/\/ What are your favourite materials to use when creating works?<\/strong><\/p>\n A \/\/ When I finished TAFE I was encouraged to stick with watercolour to establish myself as an illustrator. I stayed faithful to watercolour for 4 years before feeling ready to branch out into collage, acrylic, lino cut, paper cut and stamp making. I feel when I was pregnant I started seeing things differently and feeling a lot braver in my creative practice (it could have been because I was pregnant.. or just because that\u2019s where I was up to in my creative journey). My latest calendars are an example of this featuring lots of different materials while I believe maintaining my signature whimsical style. I will always love watercolour, but at the moment my favourite materials to work with are probably collage and linocut.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q \/\/ What inspires you to create?<\/strong><\/p>\n A \/\/ In short, life. Which is probably what inspires everyone to create! In more detail, nature is a big inspiration for me. I spend a lot of time in nature and my husband and I spend time in our local activists groups trying to protect nature.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q \/\/ Can you tell us your favourite thing to illustrate?<\/strong><\/p>\n A \/\/ My favourite thing to illustrate would probably be plants and making patterns.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q \/\/ Where did you source your inspiration to create the Bohemian Traders Boathouse print?<\/strong><\/p>\n A \/\/ When I designed the pattern for the Boathouse print I had recently seen a moth with the most beautiful wings which inspired me to illustrate moths surrounded by leafy motifs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q \/\/ What goes into designing a print motif?<\/strong><\/p>\n A \/\/ Firstly I do some sketches of ideas and Em (BT Director and Designer) chooses which ones she likes, then I refine those designs by scanning in the initial sketch and tracing it in Adobe Illustrator, creating a repeat pattern and making sure the file is organised correctly. I send that off to Andy the BT graphic designer and he colours the file to suit the season. That\u2019s pretty simplistic, there are a lot of emails and chats in between.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q \/\/ In what other ways do you like to express your creativity?<\/strong><\/p>\n A \/\/ I love cooking and sewing and I am slowly teaching myself how to grow veggies.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bohemian Traders Boathouse Collection with Lauren Merrick<\/a>‘s bespoke print is available online now.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/journal.bohemiantraders.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Lauren-Merrick-19-1.jpg\")
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