Celebrating Women.

messing around. trying to find a solution to whatever this project is going to be… at the moment its going pretty feminist. This is Violette Szabo who was a spy in WW2. She was killed at the age of 23 in a concentration camp after being arrested in France while on a mission. 

The other Boleyn girl

Wow... I haven't posted in a WHILE! Life has been comfortable lately. Art work has been started and not finished, work has taken up most of my time. It been really hard to fit in drawing and painting and really hard to find inspiration. It has not been easy to continue being as creative since finishing university, I didn't think it would be this hard. Enough depressing graduate talk. I'm going to an open day for Camberwell masters course next month which should help me get more motivated.

Anyway, this lovely painting I did quite a while ago back in the summer, when I also did Henry VIII. Coming back to this blog, while changing all my email addresses, I notice this picture and actually; I quite like it. Im starting to work a lot more with water colour since I don't have the resources that I did at uni. 

Im going to get scanning all the unfinished art work that I have in my small studio and see if i can make something/ actually use it as a final piece. So keep an eye out for all those masterpieces! 

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The Ginger King

Henry VIII

As seen before in my other picture but this time scanned in and edited! Based on the image by Hans Holbein the younger. Recently I've really been getting in to working with gouache and mixing it up with crayons or ink. I always go by make what you are interested in.... hence the royals. Should be no surprise since I did my whole dissertation on royal portraits. 

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Help me decide!

So these are the final screen prints I have decided upon for my 'Travel to America' project. However, i can't decide whether the images with extra type look better than the plain. All the plain images will eventually have type on them but will only have have the name of the place. I will eventually be printing these to A1 size on an undecided paper as of yet. 

Here are my tests so far on a basic roll feed printer. The colours turn out so well! I finally cut it down to just three cities instead of five; I also did a lot of New York screen prints but have decided not to use them as they don't come up to a similar quality. However, these might be sold in my shop in the future! Not long now till the end of my degree, I have three weeks left and then....the real world comes. DUN DUN DUUUUNNNNNN!!

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FEATURED.

This month I have been very lucky! Some of you may have seen me say that there may be some interesting opportunities coming up. Well this is it. I became a featured artist in the latest Pickwick magazine.

Pickwick is a local art, fashion, food and overall beautiful free magazine based in Liverpool and Manchester. This is only their second issue but their first went like hot cakes! With their super cool covers and interesting reads its no wonder. It really is a super publication and the guys and gals at Pickwick should be proud of themselves for making something this successful.

I was asked early in January this year whether I would like to be featured in the magazine as a collage artist... WHY WOULD I EVER TURN THAT DOWN! So I sent over my work and Sinead sent me questions to answer for my interview (yes there is an interview!). I'm so glad that it is finally out and i can show everyone my work! Its so nice to be recognised for the work you have worked so hard on and I'm just glad that I'm finally seeing my hard work admired.

So if your in Liverpool please take a FREE Pickwick and a quick read! 

Graphic Arts Research Project.

I've finally finished my Graphic arts research project! (Also known as a dissertation for those of you who don't know). I wrote about Royal portraiture, being a huge lover of the Queen and the Royal family it was an ideal subject for me to write about. Meaning I got to visit a lot of beautiful palaces and see a lot of beautiful paintings. I bound it as a book which took a lot of time and effort, but hopefully it will pay off in the end. I'm just glad its done now and I can focus on my other projects and actually get a life again! Here are just a few pictures I took on hand in day along with my beautifully unmade bed. 

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We're the Kids in America.

So I have just started my projects at uni, things are moving along nicely. One of my self directed projects is to create some sort of book on America. I want to eventually screen print it but at the moment I'm just planning and experimenting through photoshop. So here is a look at some I have been playing with.

I want to look more at reflective images and colour, which I can't wait to do. 

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Spiel: Football North

So Finally I can show you what I've been working on! The past few weeks have been so manic that in haven't had time to think let alone blog... but I'm going home for christmas on saturday and should have some more time to do fun stuff instead of working. YAY! 

I am finally done with the Spiel project! (see here) We have an exhibition tomorrow evening of all the posters we have made and... WE HAVE A BLOG! but then I'm finished with it. Its been a long journey and not alway been an easy one. Ive certainly learnt some lessons from this project that i will take with me for the rest of my life.

Anyway here is a picture of myself with my poster!! anndddd a sneaky fun group shot of all the people who did this project with their posters.

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Deadly Dash.

So since my last post on this project I've come a long way. Thats right folks... I've gone all weird and started sewing in to photographs of dead people. Not pleasant but i think its working well. Ive looked at enough murder scenes to scar my mind, what I do for my work ey! 

I especially like the ones where they look like they are sleeping. 

The Great Wall of Spiel

The wall of footballers today. Trying to decide which one I should exhibit for my review... Scary shit. So glad you can see how I have progressed through screen printing an how much better I have become! Fingers crossed Spiel like them now! 

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Busy doing everything.

Yet more screen printing today. My legs have turned to jelly for standing all day but it was worth it now I have a load of work done. This is one of my favourites from today!

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Football Crazy

Recently I have been working on a live brief at university for Spiel. I have to create a series of posters for a football game for design creatives. So here are a few images of the work in progress and some of the first outcomes. These are only tests but so far i'm pretty happy with most of them.

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In fine style.

On Tuesday I visited the queen's gallery at Buckingham Palace. Again I was visiting for my dissertation, I get to visit such beautiful places for it and I'm so glad that I picked what I did. Anyway I was visiting for the 'In Fine Style' exhibition which is being held till 6th October 2013. It has some truly beautiful pieces let alone its beautiful surroundings. I thoroughly recommend this exhibition I just wish  I had more time in the day to have a visit round Buckingham palace too! The photographs below are some of my favourite pieces, I was so grateful that I could photograph them as not many places allow it. So if you're in London any time soon go have a quick look and get the audio guide for some added extras!

Kensington palace and George.

So I'm going in to my third and final year of University which, as some of you may know, means that i will be writing my dissertation. The only thing is on my course it isn't a dissertation; its known as a G.A.R.P (Graphic Arts Research Project). This means that I get to write about whatever I want, within reason of course. The people who know me know that I am obsessed with history, period dramas and I'm in love with the royal family. As are most people at the moment. Anyway I was told to write about something that I like and will keep me occupied for a whole year so , of course, I chose royal portraiture. Que. amazing trips to palaces, museums and galleries. On Wednesday I visited Kensington Palace and the National Portrait Gallery.

Oh my goodness. It was so beautiful!... and super busy thanks to the royal baby being born. Loads of reporter tents were lined up outside the house so I think i was probably on TV in some country anyway, just walking in the background. I had gone to gain some more information on Queen Victoria and see a few paintings that I'm studying in real life, but of course I needed to look round the whole house too. Casually walking round the house pretending in wearing a full length dress and the house is mine... its what everyone does right?!? 

Queen Victoria grew up in this house and therefore she was a big part of what is shown within the house. The image below is of Victoria's wedding dress! How cute is that! It is also rather petite as Queen Victoria only grew to be 5 foot tall. 

The rooms of the house are truly beautiful. Everything you expect from a palace like huge halls, fire places, incredibly high ceilings and extravagant decorations. However, this palace had the most beautiful ceiling paintings. Not too over the top and the harmonious colours worked so well together. I found myself looking up most of the time. They weren't the most beautiful rooms that I have ever seen but wow; those ceilings.

The whole palace seemed to welcome art overall, with each fireplace holding a little art piece to do with something about the room. On the way to the Queen's state apartments there was a big art piece with paper cuts and bottles with ships in. So cute! Kensington is the first palace I've really seen that has embraced art like this within such a historical place and actually i think it made it a bit of cheeky fun. Kids loved all the art work and were obsessed with the clever whispering walls ( I was a bit obsessed too sitting down on every single bench.)

Overall I loved my day at Kensington Palace. The weather was beautiful and the gardens looked magnificent! Although rather packed full of tourists and people arriving because of the Royal baby, now prince George. I would seriously visiting Kensington Palace especially if you are like me and love this sort of thing. My next Palace is Buckingham Palace which will be just as packed! I cant wait to go though!

 Let me know if you enjoyed your visit to Kensington Palace and what your favourite part was!