The Art of Creation: Walls and Windows

The textiles and wallpapers created by the Newton Paisley company of Whitstable, England can be appreciated and enjoyed on a purely aesthetic level, but knowing the story (or more accurately, the stories) behind the designs makes the art even more compelling. Dr. Susy Paisley, the founder and driving force behind the manufacturer, combines several of her passions into this one endeavor.

First trained as a biologist, Paisley spent years studying the spectacled bear (the inspiration for Paddington Bear) in the Bolivian Andes. Paisley deeply values endangered species and understands their dependencies and relationships to other members of their ecosystem. 

Having spent time doing scientific illustration, accuracy is important to her. "One finds flora and fauna are everywhere in textile design, but often these aren’t really put into context,” says Paisley. “Flowers are often stylised, animals appear randomly in what I call a ‘lick-and-stick’ approach to design. I think that narrative and context are key so I always try to tell a story through my designs,” she says.

Central to this accuracy are the relationships and specificity of ecosystem members. All of her work begins with diligent research which leads to realistic groupings such as are found in nature, rather than arbitrary clusters for the sole sake of design. True-life relationships between members of the ecosystem—plant to plant, animal to animal, animal to plant—are intertwined on fabric and paper.

The mission of the company is to tell the stories of endangered and neglected species and to celebrate nature and inspire people to create beautiful, biophilic home-habitats— beautiful and creative combination of these two things that are so important to Paisley.

You can trace storytelling throughout the work, such as the piece pictured above. It was created to celebrate the wedding of two conservationist friends who were married at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya, which is a former cattle ranch that has been turned into a private wildlife conservation initiative.

The Lewa print focuses on myrmecophagous species (species whose diet specializes in ants and termites), which are species that are important to the couple being honored. Featured in the design are termite mounds, the Jackson’s hornbill eating a dragonfly, a young aardwolf, a Temminck’s ground pangolin mother carrying its young on its back, a colony of naked mole rats tunneling underground, a carpenter bee about to land, a lucky beans tree, whistling thorn acacia, and the full moon setting over Mount Kenya, which localizes the piece.

Because of the importance pollinators play in nature, they are highlighted in Paisley's work. Each Newton Paisley collection comes with a print highlighting the beauty and importance of pollinators: the Monarch butterfly for the Carolina collection, the short-haired bumblebee for the English Mercia collection, hummingbirds for the Cloud Forest collection, for example.

One of her most whimsical designs, Mercia Vines, is a tribute to The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, which she considers "one of the greatest conservation parables ever told." In her design, Dr. Seuss' imaginary creatures are represented by English species suggested to her by his creatures. Thus, humming fish become crested newts and barbaloots become red squirrels, reminding us that the creatures may be imaginary, but the problems the story points out are not imaginary.

The company is intentionally and eagerly sustainable. The wallpaper lines are manufactured in Britain from a cellulose-based substrate using recycled wood pulp. The cloth is natural linen, which is more eco-friendly to produce than cotton. Paisley uses a natural scoured linen from England, Northern France, and Belgium, all of which are fairly local to Kent.

“The printing all takes place in the north of England,” Paisley says. “It is solvent-free, with minimum energy, chemical and water inputs, representing the most eco-friendly methods possible. It's a very clean, low-carbon process needing little water or fixatives. The commitment to eco friendliness is central and the company is always looking for ways to make it even more sustainable."

The designs are available in both dark or light colors to represent different times of the day and are available in both wallpaper and textiles.

Financially supporting the preservation of critical wild habitats is central to the company's mission. This is accomplished through its collaboration with World Land Trust, which works with partners around the world to help people contribute to the health of the planet through various programs.  Through the "Buy an Acre" program, for every meter of fabric and roll of wallpaper sold, 100 square meters of critical wild habitat, particularly those needed by endangered species, is preserved. Since 2016, approximately 70 acres of threatened habitat (or around 300,000 square feet) of threatened and wildlife in regions such as Argentina, Brazil, Kenya, Colombia, and South Africa has been preserved through purchases made by Newton Paisley customers, contributing toward the 3,312,183 acres in total that World Land Trust has preserved.

The work of Newton Paisley is centered on helping people see and appreciate more clearly the way the world is put together and what makes up a habitat. A single creature can be intricately beautiful in its individual design, but it cannot survive as an individual; it needs the resources of food, shelter, and relationship that are provided by the ecosystem within which it lives. This is fundamentally how the world works, a truth pointed to in Psalm 104.

Psalm 104: 10-18

He makes springs pour water into the ravines;
it flows between the mountains.
They give water to all the beasts of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
The birds of the sky nest by the waters;
they sing among the branches.
He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and plants for people to cultivate—
bringing forth food from the earth:
wine that gladdens human hearts,
oil to make their faces shine,
and bread that sustains their hearts.
The trees of the Lord are well watered,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
There the birds make their nests;
the stork has its home in the junipers.
The high mountains belong to the wild goats;
the crags are a refuge for the hyrax.

Newton Paisley's work provides an opportunity to see the world more accurately and thus, perhaps, more helpfully through its beautiful images. The wallpaper and fabric tell the story of very particular places and creatures, inviting those who see and enjoy them to think more concretely about the particular needs of endangered and overlooked species. There are ways to help, through advocacy and practical action, to make a difference in the survival of creatures who are struggling to survive in places where these relationships have been damaged or destroyed.

Are there species in your neighborhood that are under increased threat due to habitat loss? When you think of endangered species, do you consider also the bigger ecosystem that those species depend upon?

Feel free to leave a comment below (you can sign in through your email) or contact me directly at louise.conner@circlewood.online.

Louise