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Welcome to Vanda Powell Designs!

Paintings by Vanda Powell | Products Designed by Sasha | Products Handmade by Bags of Love, UK

I've used high-quality photos of my mum's beautiful original paintings to design printed canvases, cushions, bathmats, plates, jigsaws, and even designer swimwear and face masks! Use the menus to see all items.

Scroll down this page to see Vanda's explanation of her "Curious Currents" series and other paintings.

Cushions Galore!

"Curious Currents” – A Series of Paintings by Vanda Powell (in her own words...)

I was inspired by the poetry of TS Eliot and Sylvia Plath, my life-long fascination with Egyptian and Greek mythologies, and the beauty of the Adriatic coastline of Montenegro and Croatia. I painted this series in the late eighties, when my native Yugoslavia was still whole, but unrest was growing between the republics.

In the “Curious Currents” series of ten paintings, the underwater environment makes it possible for beings from different mythologies to connect in unusual ways. This is the world of imagination where anything is possible. Opposites interact and form unlikely alliances.

The oldest female of the world reaches out to the Egyptian spirit of the eternal waters. Will Ra and Proteus become allies or enemies? A call from the depths lures divers downward, and who knows if they will ever surface again? Curiosity or the longing for precious things plunge people into dangerous situations, but can also lead to unexpected breakthroughs.

Male swimmers are mesmerised by the sirens’ song, but maybe they will survive it. A girl is rising from the wrecked car, held by two men. Are they trying to rescue or drown her?

Lorelei preys on men, Galatea is betrayed, and sea-girls sleep in the sea chambers of the deep. The beautiful coral reefs and transparent pebbled shallows of the Adriatic Sea reveal ambiguities and hidden threats, but there is always hope for positive resolutions.

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“The Owl and the Pussycat” was painted just after "Curious Currents". It is a whimsical celebration of our annual holidays in Montenegro, Yugoslavia, before the civil war loomed. We sunned ourselves on pebble beaches, Michael paddled his canoe, Goran played football with his friends, and Sasha was just a kitten!

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Of the other paintings used in designs on this site... The palette-knife florals are landscapes from around Worcester in the seventies. "Cerce's Island" and "Lot's Wife" are inspired by classical mythologies and painted in the early eighties. "Regarding the Key" is a more figurative style from the nineties.