Shades of Autumn by Seonaid Clarke

Apologies if you've answered all this: but how do you prime your tweed; and is it not a fantastically expensive surface to paint on? I'm thinking of the last time I contemplated the purchase of a tweed jacket: I didn't contemplate it for long, let us put it that way....

Hi Robert, yes the tweed is more expensive than traditional 'canvases' however it has qualities that can not be reproduced on another type of material. With regards to priming, I have developed my own method of working with the tweed, testing the stability of various paints etc to get the effects I want. As I want the tweeds own unique beauty to still be visible in the artwork I do not use a normal primer. This would mask the tweed too much and counter what I am trying to achieve:-)

Are you using predominantly acrylics, I wonder? Then you wouldn't have to worry overmuch about priming and sizing. If working with oil - well.... oil rots cloth; on the other hand, Harris Tweed is amazingly resilient, which is why in the end I WILL buy that jacket, even though it's going to wipe out my earnings for the last year and a half!

the fact that oils does this was a concern, but I am hoping that my methods will prevent that happening and yes Harris Tweed is amazingly robust, yet beautiful too. You will LOVE your jacket when you get it:-)

A beautiful idea and a beautiful result.