Pick Me Up Somerset House 2012 Review!

I took a visit with one half of the Inkygoodness girls to the always excellent illustration, design and screen printing exhibition Pick Me Up at Somerset House in London. As always the exhibition was packed to the rafters with the interesting, quirky, odd-ball, hilarious, and just down right good pieces of art! I would certainly recommend a visit (and in this lovely weather a walk along the river) the show is on until 1st April.

Here are a couple of stand out pieces of artwork that I particularly enjoyed!

This beautiful collage piece by Kristjana S Williams -certainly appeals to the magpie in me as the background is created with gold leaf. (something I have always loved using in the past with my work as I just love the eye-catching quality if it!) Creating pieces with a modern vintage feel.

Paul X Johnson’s work has a stillness to the illustration that I really like, it is as if he has captured a moment in time or a still from a film, each artwork has a depth of detail paused containing a wealth of information. (I particularly liked this piece with the Blade Runner inspiration.)

This caged humming bird created by Zim & Zou with the creature made entirely out of paper did pull in quite a crowd! -The intricacy and colour use were the elements that stole my heart, with all the pieces being so full of life.

Tom Frost from SOMA created wonderful pieces inspired by vintage screen prints and products from the 1940s/50s and even had a few of his designs made up into wooden pull-a-long toys packaged in bespoke boxes -the perfect gift for the most discerning toddler (or perhaps artistic parents!)

The wonderful gallery Nelly Duff (from Columbia Road) had a room of wonders, I loved their neon sign and the work of Jessica Albarn who creates detailed pencil drawings.

-The drawings are somehow very fluid and expressive and filled with movement. I would love to have one on my wall!

Finally this urban fox relief print wall paper characterises the confidence and cunning shown by London’s growing fox population created by Luke Best. Perhaps one for the wall of the skyscraper dwelling of this fellow!

Frieze Art Fair Review

I took some time out to take a visit through the Frieze Art Fair in London yesterday, -some excellent works on the whole but quite a few that would fit handily into the categories The Good, The Bad and The Ugly! -here is a selection of some of the pieces that were highlights for me…

Grayson Perry’s stunning tapestry, -a really beautiful piece of work with his characteristic illustrative style of blended folk art, nostalgia and personal histories woven into an epic wall sized fairy tale.

I loved this bold installation piece by Doug Aitken, a multifaceted mirrored ‘Now’ which entices the viewer into its depths, staring into its reflected, distorted view of reality.

The beautifully illustrated works of Charles Avery, I love the economy of line and how he creates emotions in his drawings with his characters hunched against the outside with the weight of the world on their shoulders. Although the figures are often exaggerated and elegant in line, they can sum up the entire range of human nature in a couple of swift brush and pen strokes.

This Tara Donovan sculpture really caught my eye as it is really beautiful and reminds me of  something other-worldly or perhaps evolved in the unexplored depths under the sea. It feels alive and almost half a creature. Beautiful, ethereal  and catching the light as well as the eye!

Illustration at the London Design Festival!

The London Design Festival is looking grand! I took some time out to explore some of the excellent illustration related exhibitions and had to marvel at the wonderful Outline Editions Gallery showcasing the King of Negative Space -Mr Noma Bar. His work is minimalistic and clean and often with a sense of humour or even a political slant and using his wonderful dog-shapped hole punch you can even create one of your very own! (showing until 30th September)

Fifi’s Market

Louise Brangwin and myself of House of Aces (http://www.houseofaces.net) will be selling a selection of screen prints, cards, badges, and other illustrated goodness at Fifi’s Market at the Stag Theatre in Sevenoaks this Saturday 17th September. (http://www.fifismarkets.com/#!17th-sept-2011) Come down and say hello!

Untitled Space Exhibition

Some of my screen prints will be part of Untitled Space pop up exhibition “Under Construction” held at 3-5 Whitechapel Road, yeses! come along on the opening night this Thursday 14th April from 6.30pm for a Dutch Auction of awesome artworks, live music and ping pong -the perfect set of ingredients for any good Thursday evening and bag yourself some tasty art goodies! More info here http://untitledspace.co.uk/

Falmouth Alumni Illustration Exhibition!

My work is going to be on show at The Illustration Cupboard in London from this week as part of an exhibition of Falmouth Illustration Alumni (Falmouth Illustration: The Retrospective) showing from 3rd – 12th February. Works were selected from commercially commissioned pieces with mine featuring the illustrations I created for “Wherever Nina Lies” published by Scholastic. Come along and check it out y’all-there should be a real mix of styles on show!

Inkygoodness Artwork

This is my piece for the recent Inkygoodness exhibition in Brick Lane – the theme was ‘Play’ and I was looking at the play of reflection by painting on a mirror and where the central image is constantly changing depending on who is looking into the piece at the time! – a constantly changing piece of art! The painting is gouache with lacquer and gold leaf. Mirror mirror on the wall….

Painted Queen of Diamonds

This is my work for The Decked Project (thedeckedproject.blogspot.com) based on my Lady Luck series. It was great to be able to paint a version as well as the screen prints. -The work was created in gouache on wood and was really great to work on, and as far as you can be in love with a painting medium, gouache gets my valentine!- I love the almost china like quality that the finished result produces. The entire set of painted boards that were in the Decked Project can be seen on my Flickr page here…

Vans for The Decked Project!

A process thread on how I created my illustrated Vans Chukka Boot for The Decked Project…

I played around with some sketches, I wanted to create a girl with flowing hair that can sweep round the sides of each shoe. I started with my trusty blue Karisma pencil, and then defined with a B propelling pencil.

Then when I was happy with the design I drew a rough onto the Vans and went over the line with a super fine 0.4 Pilot Liner.

Both the shoes drawn out and toe to toe!

Then I painted the colour work with gouache paint (I love the matt texture it provides) tidied up the line and added a touch of gold leaf! When finished these became part of the Decked Project show at the Coningsby Gallery London on display from 16th to 28th August and are hung in the gallery window!

A shot of all the artist painted Vans in the window before they were hung by the laces. If you can make the show I would recommend it as all the artworks are amazing! (http://thedeckedproject.blogspot.com/)

UPFUSSED! Results from Upfest!

An amazing weekend in Bristol live painting with UPFEST! the weekend was a blast and we met so many amazing people -cheers to all! A few photos and action shots from the day with Louise Brangwin and myself representing Decked painting in true Art Nouveau style in black and gold! Our boards were based on mythology, Medusa, Leda and the Swan and butterflies and bees representing the afterlife.