In 2020 we worked with the Cornish Bakery to redefine what a bakery is, does and can be. Positioning them to occupy the sweet spot between artisan independent and high street chain with a simple purpose; ‘to nourish people’. This extended into a full rebrand which is being rolled out nationwide across their fifty+ shops.
One of the key deliverables in our brand journey was to reimagine the in-store experience, avoiding clichés, and creating a platform for the product to shine. We commissioned artist Sophie Harding to bring warmth, texture and narrative into the retail spaces with a series of bold, colourful paintings and elegant monoprints.
Sophie is based in Penwith where she captures Cornwall through a lens of authenticity, focussing her practice on joy, simplicity and harmony. An apt fit for the Cornish Bakery.
We asked Sophie to talk about her experience making this body of work, where she finds inspiration, and her future plans…
My process involved going out and about with my sketchbooks to local cafés and gardens and buying a tempting selection of pastries from the Cornish Bakery to draw at home. Once I had a good selection of drawings I started making monotypes. This is a form of printing making where a thin layer of ink is rollered onto glass and paper placed on top of the ink which is then drawn on. When the paper is lifted from the glass a lovely line has been impressed on the other side. Once I’d made the monotypes I moved onto the paintings which were essentially inspired by previous works, with a bit of tweaking to fit the brief. I used acrylic paint on canvas and created them in my tiny home studio.
My work is inspired by various artists; Matisse, Etel Adnan, William Scott, Klass Gubbels, to name a few. I’m inspired by everyday objects; fruit, flowers, gardens, beaches and living in Cornwall. My work celebrates life’s simple joys and the power of colour to evoke positive feelings.
Yes, the Cornish Bakery project! I loved making the prints and creating the paintings. The brief covered themes which already exist in my work, so the work was coming from my heart.
I see myself continuing to paint and make prints. I’d like to find a couple more galleries to stock my work including a gallery in the USA to show my work as I’ve made quite a few private sales there. I’d love the chance to create book covers, wine labels, and I’d like a solo show of my monotypes, monoprints and etchings.
