If you love the Westcountry in summer, check out a new type of wearable art. Two Falmouth-based artists, John Dyer and Joanne Short, have launched a new range of clothes sporting colourful, naive-style motifs from their paintings. You'll be pushed to find anyone else wearing the same thing.
Both John and Joanne are inspired by the landscape in Cornwall and old-fashioned family fun. Though seasoned artists in various media, neither is too proud to make wearable art; after all, they are following in the footsteps of Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin.
"We paint the space between reality and emotion," said John. "We love those small elements that people really connect to: whether it's seagulls or Scotty dogs. It's fantastic to be able to use those on clothes. We started off just doing T-shirts and found that they really made people smile.
"People know us as artists anyway and they love our paintings – it amuses them that they can wear parts of them as shoes."
The clothing is printed to order on the couple's website, www.beachytreats.co.uk; their prices range from £14 for a child's T-shirt to £27 for an adult's hoodie. "We wanted to keep it in line with High Street prices," he said. Johnnie Boden, from Boden, even gave them an official thumbs up for their ideas.
The clothes are embroidered and printed by a company in California that is owned by Google.
"We tried for a long time to keep everything made in the UK – but it is an international business," said John. "At the end of the day, we'd rather have control of it and embrace the technology ourselves."
John and Joanne met as students at the then Falmouth College of Art: now they are living in the town with their two girls, Martha-Lilly, 10, and Wilamena, 4.
They also have an Edwardian studio/gallery which is open by request.
Call 0777 339 7503 or visit www. johndyergallery.co.uk for more on art; or grab yourself a slice of summer on www.beachytreats.co.uk.
