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Raffaella explains.....
Over the years I have painted many rooms with Francesca’s colours, sending wild pleas to her such as: ‘Could I have something the colour of a bra strap?’ or ‘Here’s a squashed bunch of flowers from my garden, can we work out a match for the petals and leaves before it fades? , or ‘A room of cheerful chaos please, a place where my teenage sons can endlessly play Playstation'.

Her colours, with their ability to change in the light, to undulate through space, always seem to have a narrative, and so it felt like a story waiting to be told when we decided to work together. Francesca and I began thinking about what makes a book, and what we found, when talking about the images that words convey, is that the colour of thought is vivid.

The colour of books also turns out to be alive and realisable, and this palette captures a mood that the magical pleasure of reading can bring and turns it into colour.
Raffaella Barker is a writer and novelist whose work is imbued with the spirit of her home on the North Norfolk coast.

The collection is called Poison into Medicine, a Buddhist term meaning that we can take suffering, hardships or trauma happening in our life and use it as stimulus to create something positive, thus changing Poison into Medicine.

Francesca and artist Dillwyn Smith visited The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square together in 2018 where he introduced Francesca to some of his favourite early renaissance paintings and in particular the paintings of Piero della Francesca.

The colours in this new collection take inspiration from his painting The Nativity, painted in 1470-5 in oil on poplar wood. Dillwyn has been looking at this painting for more than 40 years and has developed a deep relationship with it.

We build relationships with particular paintings across a lifetime, sometimes they challenge us and at other times give us sustenance and courage, The Nativity is one of these for Dillwyn. Though developing this new range of colours inspired by this work, we wish to share the sense of the calm illumination, serenity and beauty that we find in Piero’s masterpiece, we believe that these colours are well balanced and reflect the humanity and strength of The Nativity.

Dillwyn and Francesca developed a respect and friendship whilst working on a project in 2014 where D found F because he wanted to use bespoke colours to create a special atmosphere at Morito Hackney Road for restaurateurs Sam & Sam Clark. They worked together again in 2018 for Dillwyn’s exhibition 'Teacher’s Pet' at Patrick Heide Gallery, London when he wanted to frame his work with colours inspired by some of his favourite early renaissance paintings, these colours would be painted directly onto the wall. Working closely together with Francesca they made the colours which were a great success. They agreed to collaborate together in the future and 'Poison into Medicine’ is the result. His love of art and colour has its roots in the art room at school where he found solace and sanctuary from a teacher who had groomed and abused him whilst at school. Through his life as an artist Dillwyn believes he is turning ‘Poison into Medicine’. Dillwyn and Francesca believe that colour touches us deeply, can affect, stimulate and always be alive within us.

We hope you will enjoy it.

Dillwyn Smith/Francesca Wezel