Seagull with Cig Pattern

This pattern came from an existing painting of mine called Seagull with Cig - a portrait of a rather mad-looking seagull eating a cigarette.

After visiting the Andy Warhol Museum, I was inspired by the simplicity and boldness of his work, particularly pieces like his Marilyn Monroe and Mao portraits. I love the way he could take a recognizable image, reduce it to strong shapes and colors using colors that had nothing to do with reality.

I decided to try that with my own work. I broke the original painting down to a simple, block-print-like image, using the shapes and details of the original painting but stripping it down to something much more graphic. I then repeated that image in different colors to create the pattern.

That pattern has since been used on fabric, wallpaper and several FLYN products.

It was an interesting way of taking a painting that already existed and seeing what could happen when I completely changed the way it was presented.