Copy link Copied Copy link Copied Subscribe to gift this article Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Already a subscriber? Login As Fiona Spence hung pieces from her inaugural collection of bathroom towels on a clothesline in a field on the northern tip of Bruny Island over-looking the Tasman Sea, it was as if she was raising a flag for a new Australian design aesthetic. The homewares brand, titled Innate, features richly woven textiles abstractly patterned in a plethora of earthy hues and watery blues with judicious daubings of inky black.
Pieces from the ‘Territory’ component of the Innate textile collection sway in a maritime breeze on Bruny Island. Prue Ruscoe “They’re colours that are innate to the Australian landscape,” says Spence, who for some 25 years was the creative force behind Sydney-based furniture and home accessories importer, Spence & Lyda. Black? “Yes, black is really important in our landscape because things regularly burn.
” In any case, we’re far from the sunny coastal palette of a Ken Done or a Brett Whiteley. Instead, Spence drew inspiration from two landmark paintings by award-winning artist Luke Sciberras who lives in a rustic mud and corrugated iron cottage in the bohemian enclave of Hill End, west of the Blue Mountains. (Bushfires raged in the area for 27 days at the start of 2023.
) Fiona Spence and Wanda Jelmini knew each other for many years before creating Innate. Carlo Magnoli The loose, gestural br.