Last Month Edward Burns Managing director of Advocate Art was in Art Source talking about inspiration and influences. Here is an extract;

“Some trends can lead back to films or big media releases like a video game, but we find art trends tend to be a collective movement inspiring fashion, homewares, fabrics and art. we monitor these trends in our resources database and themes become apparent when you see them in a collective form. This year again we have agents visiting New York, Paris and London over the Christmas season looking for trend indicators. we also repeat this through the year and collect images from all sources, which we pool into an online database that currently contains 7000 images. This is accessible by our artists and used continuously to help homogenise trends”

Three Key Trends

celebrating Britishness. “in 2011 I think we’ll see a resurgence in all things British, from flags and bunting to stags and Mini Coopers. This could be related to the success of programmes and films that celebrate British culture, such as coast, The Young Victoria and Brideshead Reavisited. In fashion world we’ve also seen the enormous success of Vivienne Westwood’s Anglomania range”

Folk Art: “The huge revival of traditional crafts such as knitting, sewing and embroidery may have informed this trends. In the new ‘age of austerity’ people are looking back to homemade comforts that are also fun,bright and quirky.”

Peacocks and Opulence. “We can see this trend emerging in fashion, homewares and greeting card design, This could be because people are looking back to the rich, exotic elegance of the 1920′s Jazz era, but could also be development of the bird trend we’ve seen in 2010″