Inspirations

Wayne Pate’s Pompeii: The Artist’s New Italian-Inspired Wallpaper and Fabric from Studio Four NYC

Artist Wayne Pate roams far and wide making sketches and taking mental snapshots that become fodder for his work. When we last caught up with him, Pate had channeled his year of living in Paris into a fabric and wallpaper collection for Studio Four NYC. He and family, longtime Brooklynites, have since alighted in New Zealand, where his wife, fashion design Rebecca Taylor, hails from.

Working out of his home studio in Wellington, Pate has of late been taking inspiration from past journeys in Southern Italy, and turning architectural details, vistas, and, as he says, “feelings” into a just-launched fabric and wallpaper collection for Studio Four NYC called Pompeii. Here are some of the standouts and how they came to be.

wayne pate in pompeii photographed by one of his three daughters: “ 14
Above: Wayne Pate in Pompeii photographed by one of his three daughters: “I’ve been four times,” he says. “Pompeii is one of those places I could keep returning to with the same enthusiasm each time.” Originally from Dallas, Pate arrived in New York as a high school dropout. A friend in advertising found him a job in his firm’s art department and Pate went to on become a leading art director. He’s now a full-time artist.

a glimpse of pate’s studio in wellington, new zealand, where the co 15
Above: A glimpse of Pate’s studio in Wellington, New Zealand, where the collection came to be in collaboration with Studio Four: “To get started, I gathered sketch journals, studies, and doodles into a group and a narrative started to form.”

intarsio, a wallpaper and fabric design in progress. here, pate painted on brit 16
Above: Intarsio, a wallpaper and fabric design in progress. Here, Pate painted on British laid wrapping paper—”finer quality and more durable than what you find in America”—and used the brown background to form the lines of his pattern.

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