Chiara Grifantini

Textile painter

A free path to immersive textile design

Chiara is a free-hand textile painter
Her source of inspiration is nature and its unpredictability
Her artworks are turned into decor pieces for hotels and homes

Chiara Grifantini learnt the techniques of painting when she worked as assistant to the Italian sculptor Antonio Zanini in Rome. Chiara attended a short course at Central Saint Martins in London where she met an inspirational teacher, Arantza Vilas, specialised in textile research. Back in Rome, she successfully began to create giant hand-painted fabrics to decorate rooms for events all over Rome. Chiara graduated in Architecture and worked as an architect and interior designer for years. All the while, she continued to produce these large-scale pieces and, in 2016, decided to open her own atelier. "Travelling a lot, even as a child with my family, allowed me to absorb artistic traditions and crafts from all over the world," she explains.

Interview

How do you paint your fabrics?: I use the hand-painting technique and make every colour myself, by mixing paint pigments with binder. I apply masking tape all over the fabric and draw over the masking tape in pencil to create my design. Then I cut the tape along these lines with a very light hand so as not to cut the fabric. With rollers and brushes, I fill the cut parts with colour. When dry, I apply another layer to get more depth, and at the end I work a lot on the details.
Do you have a personal secret?: Every fabric I create has been washed so as to lose its raised marks. I play with different washing temperatures to achieve different intensities, shades, and vintage effects.
What is your creative process?: Every design comes from my original pencil drawings. I try to capture the beauty and lightness of nature: plants, insects, spider webs, clouds. I also depict the pain of nature with the foil painting technique with which I create branches, dunes, and sea monsters blindfolded to heal their wounds.
How did your travels influence your work?: I had the opportunity to travel a lot and I also lived in America, Australia and New Zealand, which were all stimulating experiences that have introduced me to different landscapes, with surprising colours, and to various cultures and traditions.

Chiara Grifantini is a rising star she began her career in 2016