Spirit of Place

‘Spirit of Place’  is inspired by the ever-changing variety of British landscapes, seascapes and London scenes.

Within each carpet I have tried to put more of my emotion and personal responses to the subject, while at the same time I have occasionally discarded the actual colours as seen and replaced them with colours of the mood provoked in me on the day. Sometimes colours have been changed to evoke a physical emotion I experienced while observing and absorbing ‘The Place’.

Sometimes I have taken liberties with the actual physical place, for example in the carpet entitled ‘Scarecrow’, I have introduced one of three scarecrows I remembered photographing in a field in France. It was dressed as a woman and I thought at the time, how strange, why had she no legs, the reason being, because her dress was long and touched the field. I had never seen any scarecrow like this before!

While working on some designs I had flashes of long past visual memories, some of which I have introduced. Why are there two croquet hoops in the bluebell wood? It is not till I finish a number of the designs that I realise I have added objects that were not there. The reasons for adding them into a composition, are complex and very personal, but also visually interesting, and in obscure ways demand attention. Are they flash-back visual images of a place I have been? Are they incomplete memories, or are they simply the mind combining imaginary images giving me the feeling of the spirit of the place?

John Allen

Spirit of Place

Each carpet comes in a limited edition of three

Big Ben Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool carpet 122 cm x 90 cm

Peveril of the Peak Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool carpet 125 cm x 85 cm

Scarecrow Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool and silk carpet 109 cm x 121 cm

West Pier Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool carpet 134 cm x 94 cm

Wren Churches in Snow Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool carpet 137 cm x 100 cm

Sunset Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool carpet 102 cm x 105 cm

Birling Gap Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool and silk carpet 118 cm x 86 cm

Cerne Abbas Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool and silk carpet 142 cm x 82 cm

Railway Line Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool carpet 101 cm x 98 cm

Boats Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool carpet 91 cm x 85 cm

Red Farmhouse Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool carpet 97 cm x 108 cm

Beach Huts Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool and silk carpet 116 cm x 108 cm

Pleasure Barge Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool carpet 114 cm x 87 cm

Dales Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool carpet 89 cm x 80 cm

Hampshire Clump Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool carpet 83 cm x 83 cm

Autumn Clump Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool carpet 106 cm x 86 cm

White House Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool carpet 72 cm x 108 cm

Red Sails Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool carpet 120 cm x 128 cm

Lavender Field Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool carpet 123 cm x 133 cm

Red Boat Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool carpet 113 cm x 88 cm

Groynes Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool and silk carpet 108 cm x 90 cm

Blue Moon Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool carpet 92 cm x 82 cm

Pink Sea Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool and silk carpet 87 cm x 104 cm

Sunflower Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool and silk carpet 164 cm x 100 cm

Lightning Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool carpet 91 cm x 125 cm

Stonehenge Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool and silk carpet 119 cm x 129 cm

Lone Sailor Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool and silk carpet 104 cm x 123 cm

Bluebell Wood Hand dyed, hand spun, hand woven wool carpet 159 cm x 100 cm