For nearly 20 years leading designer Karen Walker has applied her fashion sensibility to the serious business of selecting paints with Resene. Now with Karen Walker Chalk Colour paints for Resene — a series of dusty, tonal colours — the relationship continues.
“It’s the same selection of colours but with new pigments and new techniques,” Walker says. “In some ways the chalkiness is always where the range has been.”
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While Walker says the latest range offers comfort, creating an atmosphere of homeliness in our not-so-glossy present times, the collection also harkens back to some treasured memories of family seaside escapes.
“My grandfather had a property that my mother used to visit as a girl and I spent time at in my twenties,” Walker remembers. “It was so close to the water that on most full moons the water reflection would come inside. But I was always enchanted by the weathered nature of the corrugated iron walls. There was a delightful patchwork nature to them and there was nothing shiny about them.”
With Walker having worked on seven palettes for Resene, there are now 42 colours as part of the curated collection, all available in the chalk execution.
Walker has also taken inspiration from legendary wartime photographer Lee Miller. Having recently visited Farleys Farm House in Sussex where Miller lived with artist Sir Roland Penrose, she was struck by the dusty nature of the coloured walls.
“Not many people have that amount of gumption but we should,” Walker says. Thankfully she’s made it easy for us to follow her cues with her new edit for Resene. “Each of the colours is talking back to the others. Sometimes it’s just easier to intrinsically trust the collection in front of you.”
