Lois A Pawson is an Illustrator, Designer and Consultant living in Sussex, United Kingdom. Her internationally focused art practice is inspired by antiquities, ancient crafts in a modern world context and the threads that connect the distant past to the present day.  Her working methods include intaglio, chine collé and relief printing techniques, ink, oil, gouache, metal-point, gilding, model-making, textile design, digital illustration, graphic design, stop motion and frame-by-frame animation. Lois graduated with an MBA from University of Sussex (2002) and is a Member of the Association of Illustrators.

A re-visualisation of the eleventh century Rubaiyat poems attributed to Persian poet and polymath Omar Khayyam, as rendered into English verse by writer Edward FitzGerald in 1859.  A quest to capture what remains of Omar Khayyam’s world in modern-day Iran and surviving ancient Persian artefacts.  These humanistic poems about seizing the day and making the best of life are as relevant to our troubled world now as they were one thousand years ago.  Timeless words about human existence reach across ancient and modern worlds, east and west; re-imagined for today as an illustrated book, headscarf-hijab and original artwork.

ILLUSTRATED BOOK : RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM

Coptic-bound book with foil-blocked vegan leather cover.  Illustrations in intaglio, chine collé and relief printing techniques combined with digital graphics and applied gold leaf.  Page layouts, fonts and grammatical format inspired by the 1859 first English language version of the Rubaiyat published as a pamphlet by Edward FitzGerald.   See the digital book at the PDF viewer below.

FRAMED ORIGINAL ARTWORKS

Illustrations in drypoint intaglio printing and chine collé with Japanese paper, Nori paste and French ink.

HEADSCARF-HIJAB : WEST MEETS EAST

Silken textile digital print scarf representing a cultural and artistic journey.  Images representing research into understanding the poems’ meanings, modern Iranian and ancient Persian craft and culture (including over 40 virtual tours of Iran), and development of artistic response to the Rubaiyat text.  Omar Khayyam’s family were tent makers, and the design is inspired by antique Persian silk tent panels.

READ WRITE & DRAW RUBAIYAT POEMS

A creative workshop for adults – engaging with poetry through reading, writing and drawing.

VERSE BENEATH THE BOUGH

A poetry engagement project – inspired by the Rubaiyat poem:

Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,

A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse – and Thou

Beside me singing in the Wilderness –

And Wilderness is Paradise enow.