This rather innocuous image represents the initial development of something I have thus far unexplored; selling perfume commercially.
This perfume sample – outsourced to fragrance suppliers Carvansons to my specifications – will be sold at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery from May 2020, to coincide with their upcoming Pre-Raphaelite exhibition.
While this unisex fragrance is designed with an element of mass appeal, it still contains a certain conceptual weight, as it acts as an olfactory depiction of the Pre-Raphaelites and their nostalgic interpretation of medieval life. The fragrance is filled will abundant fruits and florals, representing a bountiful and quintessentially English existence. The perfume finishes with exotic spices and musks, which reference human endeavour and conquest.
Look out for my perfume if you’re in Bristol this summer!
I spent the last few days embarking upon that most arduous of tasks – sorting out my studio space.
It was a curiously cathartic process which saw me tidy away my array of pencils, pens and paintbrushes; making way instead for a vat of perfumers alcohol, carrier oils and perfumers scales.
And yet it’s not as if I’ve just embarked on my perfume making journey; I’ve been doing it for 5 years. I think this last month has seen me drift further away from my other practiced art forms because of the nature of the opportunities I am presented with, which include devising scented experiences at Leeds International Festival and Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.
Previous perfume exhibitions have incorporated painting. This was done in part to ‘keep my hand in’ as I still enjoy the process. However, the above two opportunities, by design, will not involve any other art form; only perfumery. This actually takes me out of my comfort zone a little, and makes me want to refine, develop and improve my perfume making process in order to engage, inspire and delight an audience purely through scent design. That, and my Bristol opportunity also includes a commercial element which will see a perfume I have designed being sold in their shop. The perfume making process is certainly going to take priority over the next few months.
At least my studio is ready for it.
