OH JOY! A beautiful, historically inspired new wallpaper & fabric range for Zoffany.   Melissa White is a decorative artist who hand paints interiors, specialising in Elizabethan wall painting. Whilst studying Art History and French at Birmingham University, she undertook an apprenticeship in Tudor decoration that set White on her career path. Her tutor, David Cutmore, had been extensively researching and reproducing Elizabethan wall paintings since the seventies due to the lack of information about these fascinating designs. As a team, they continue to seek out and reintroduce these intriguing designs for private clients and for museums (i.e. Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford). White dedicates her time at her home/ studio on the Hastings coast to painting gorgeous patterns on both textiles for soft furnishings and fresco secco. For the fresco, White has developed a signature style of cracking and ageing the surface for that timeless authenticity. In 2007  The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) awarded her a grant in order to carry out further research into Elizabethan painted decoration. It is through QEST that Zoffany invited White to design ‘Arden’ an Elizabethan inspired fabric and wallpaper collection called which Is launching this month.

http://www.zoffany.com/pages/products/products_wallpapers-detail/arden-wallpapers-with-melissa-white/1/

• White also designs colourful and fun patchwork and lifestyle fabrics for Westminster Fibers. www.westminsterfibers.com