The art of flat lay with artist @5ftinf Philippa Stanton

I spent a fun day in Brighton recently with artist Philippa Stanton of @5ftinf fame, on one of her amazing flat lay workshop days along with a few other creatively minded folk who were keen, like me, to master the art of making a beautiful image come to life on a kitchen table.

Now I love Instagram as much as the next gal and find it super easy to get lost in the vortex of delightful feeds. On my @notesbyastylist feed, most of my images are all about fashion and lifestyle but there’s not much on the artsy front, so I decided it was about time to up my ‘gram-game’ and see if I could rise to the challenge of producing such aesthetically pleasing flat lays too.

Can you spot ‘the cat in the flat’?

If you haven’t scoped out Philippa’s Instagram account persona @5ftinf which she produces with an iPhone 6, a kitchen table, a keen eye and a chair to stand on, then hop on over there and prepare for a deluge of glorious colourful creativity.

Our flat lay workshop was all about gathering collections of colours in natural and manmade forms and figuring out how to place them just-so to create a pleasing vignette. Once you get started the possibilities are endless and each little nook is a delightful (and highly Instagrammable) moment in itself.

I’d last hung out with Philippa in Brighton when she’d taken me on a tour of her favourite tea shops in her local neighbourhood which you can read all about here.

My classmates were  Lilian Mackenzie from the styling and photography world who came up with this beautiful piece.

As well as jeweller Fiona Hutchinson (and her daughter) who incorporated some of her pieces into her flat lay scenes.

With thanks to Philippa for a fab day. For more on her work and future workshops take a peek at her website here.