What am i seeing? Patterns and Textures- Danielle O'Connor Akiyama

As promised in my previous post, I wanted to dedicate a post to the pattern and textures I came across whilst visiting the Whitewall Gallery in the Flying Horse Walk Shopping centre. The work I found was by Danielle O'Connor Akiyama, a Toronto-based Canadian artist. As an artist, she creates paintings of coruscating, botanical floral patterns that are filled with vibrancy, life and a burst of energetic colours to present an intense image of the beauty of nature.
Using a variety of mediums to translate her imagination onto canvas, her pieces consist of either a flourishing combination of flowers or an individual beautiful blossom. This bloom of colour is complimented by the background deep, complex shades. She pays attention to the importance of every brush stroke which is loosely applied due to her soft delicate way of painting onto the multiple textures on the surface. Physically and visually she uses paint, plaster, resin, encaustic wax, etched words as materials but in terms of narrative, her work still communicates numerous messages to the audience. For instance the intensity of summer love, the magic it brings, romanticism and a combination of influences from her travels across the globe experiencing new heritages and values of life. She therefore describes her work as “sanctuaries for the soul.”
Her work also explores and communicates a vision of different cultures and the identity of certain origins which can be seen through her distinct combination of both eastern and western artistry, especially due to her study of sumi-e, Japanese brush painting. This style can be seen throughout the work I found in the Whitewall gallery but not only was I attracted to the feminine gorgeous vision of floristry; I was also immediately drawn to the intense detail of the design which could easily influence the pattern of the design of clothing, shoes and accessories. As a fashion observer I almost feel already familiarised with this Japanese-esq passionate abstract. In my opinion, I feel it is something we would definitely see being worn down the Spring Summer resort catwalk for the likes of Chloe or a Mary Katrantzou collection.




 

Obviously, these patterns I have picked out are not identical, but here are a couple of examples from Spring Summer 2016's Ready to Wear Fashion Week of designers who took on board those vivid, sensual floral patterns and gave it their own spin.   

Alexander McQueen caused a manifestation of floral on the runway this year by designing 

the pattern in three very different distinct ways and hosting a riotous party of flowers.

Gucci's reformed aesthetic took to the runway with its glitzy flower-embroidered satins, vintage illusions and 1970's geek chic.

Dolce and Gabbana explored the glories of true Italian style and culture with their SS floral collection.