Kit Kemp's favourite makers – meet the key artists in her design address book

Look at any trademark Kit Kemp room scheme and you will find artwork at its heart. We were eager to discover the names she most reveres, and who inspires her decorative journeys, and Kit was happy to oblige.

Below are three of Kit's favourite makers, and the reasons why she loves to work with them.

ANNA RAYMOND

Anna Raymond creates vivid one off textile print canvases that spark the imagination. We love her zesty, vibrant works and have amassed a large collection, which brighten up our walls in London, New York and Barbados.

She is an obsessive collector of familiar images and icons such as offcuts of fabrics, unusual hand-printing paraphernalia, notes of poignant conversations and textures found anywhere and everywhere. Anna strives to create fabric prints that are at the same time both gritty and vibrant.

Her work blurs the boundaries between traditional printing techniques and new technologies, merging digital printing with more traditional techniques such as screen-printing, dyeing, flocking, foiling, embroidery, and vinyl cutting.

I often display her smaller work like a storyboard. We love that the smaller pieces can be displayed in different ways, to accommodate awkward or small spaces, or switched to refresh their overall impact.

See more of Anna's work at annaraymond.co.uk

SUE LAWTY

Sue Lawty’s work is created by a specific and visceral understanding gained through her immersion in the natural world. Lawty lives inHebden Bridge, West Yorkshire,and is a keen mountain trekker and fell runner.

Inspired by landscapes, ancient textiles and her many travels, Sue’s work includes abstracts, drawing, assemblages and weaving.

I won’t forget the time we were installing a piece of her work at Haymarket Hotel in 2005. Sue was meticulously positioning small stones on the wall of the lobby amongst all the hustle and bustle of wall painting, furniture arranging and lighting installation.

I took a moment to admire her quiet composure and concentration as the stones seemingly became woven across the 6 metre wall. Each delicate piece has its own story, washed and moulded by the sea and collectively they became a sort of pixilated cloth.

Her controlled and patient acts of weaving, or positioning stones gives a sense that her work conjures up what Lawty has experienced on her adventures for us all to enjoy.

Lawty held a yearlong Residency at the V&A in London and instigated the World Beach Project, a global online community art project devised in association with the V&A.

Now, she is looking at theatre and dance, intrigued with the possibilities that shadow and light may create in a dynamic setting and expressing this intangible material. We can’t wait to see what she does next.

Find Sue on Instagram @suelawty and @lawty.landscape

SANAA GATEJA

I discovered Sanaa Gateja at Collect 2020, The International Art Fair for Modern Craft and Design at Somerset House.

Sanaa Gateja is a Uganda-based artist, designer, innovator and social entrepreneur. In his practice, he uses unconventional materials and a sophisticated process that is community-based.

He is interested in notions of African nature and culture, and how to reconcile them with creativity and innovation.

Trained in jewellery design in Florence and London, Gateja founded Kwetu Africa Art and Development Centre in Jampala twenty years ago with the remit to research and create using easily available materials, and to train rural communities in skills that would enable them to generate income for their families.

His idea to make and use paper beads came from finding, when at art school in London, a piece of jewellery made from paper from the first World War.

Through active social entrepreneurship, Gateja went on to train and organise communities of paper bead makers. This has spread through East Africa and has become a signature craft, providing livelihoods to as many as 50,000 people, especially young women.

Discover Sanaa's work at sanaa-gateja.com

Kit Kemp is Guest Editor of the June 2020 edition of Homes & Gardens – the first in our 101-year history.Discover more of her work at kitkemp.com