Allistair Covell is an award-winning Bedfordshire-based artist turned rug designer, whose highly colourful and painterly rugs were a striking feature of the Campaign for Wool’s London Woolly BnB (in October 2016). Allistair says, “Music is my biggest inspiration and as a synaesthete my work is heavily inspired by my sensory responses to sound and colour. My current practice is centred on the exploration of how music can be interpreted and illustrated on to a surface.
“The paintings I create on canvas and paper are visually recording the rhythms, movements and characteristics found within music; described through the use of expressive brush strokes, vibrant colours and ambiguous shapes. I then start the process of selecting which painting, whether drawn by hand or on the iPad, will be developed into hand-knotted rugs and carpets, finely crafted in Afghanistan and Nepal by master weavers.”
The rugs are all individually hand-knotted by these expert weavers in fine Afghan and New Zealand wool, their centuries-old techniques brought completely up to date by Allistair’s very contemporary and striking mark-making.
Allistair Covell was a member of the Design-Nation portfolio between 2017 and 2020.