The Beast

I was honoured to be asked to participate in this year's Secret 7 project, curated by Kevin King.

If you don't know, Secret 7 involves 700 artists/designers being given a blank sleeve each. The artist picks a song from a list of 7 bands/musicians, which they can illustrate in any way they see fit. Each 7" sleeve (including vinyl) is sold for £40, every penny of which goes to Art Against Knives.

I picked to illustrate 'The Beast' by Laura Marling using the print-making technique, linocut; a process which I felt suited Laura's traditional-folk style.

The opening exhibition took place in London at Mother, 10 Redchurch Street, London, E2 7DD on Thursday 11th April, ahead of Record Store Day (Saturday 13th April).

Here's hoping that last year's £33,500 was topped!

Trouble and Strife

Here are some pictures from the second exhibition I was involved in this weekend past.

You can see more of the pictures here, c/o the venue.

Here is a video from the launch event (Saturday 2nd) with Jamie Portch's and my works at 1:16.

The month-long exhibition is being held in the SNO!Lounge at SNO!Zone, Milton Keynes, so if you're in the area why not pop in, absorb some nice art, then go snowboarding...

Pictures at an Exhibition

On Friday 1st July I travelled across the width of northern England, to Middlesbrough. The reason; my debut solo poster exhibition, which also featured collages by Graham Hutchinson.

The exhibition was curated by Henry Carden, so firstly I would like to thank him for making this all happen. And for taking me to the Empire club, wow!

Here are some pictures from the event.

A blast from the past.

Here are a few of Graham's awesome little collages.

And finally a shot of Henry at the desk on Saturday.

On the Friday launch, there was music from Algiers and Ankles, both of whom were awesome, so thanks lads! Also, thanks to all those who came down and chatted, I had a reet good time.

Here is a video of Algiers performing their hit single; 'Four Priests', Directed by Darren 'In the Woods' Topliss.

Pictures in an Exhibition

This weekend see's exhibition season taking off into full flight with not one but two exhibitions that I will be a part of.

The first being 'The debut solo poster exhibition by twoducksdisco', which will be happening in Middlesbrough at the Pop-Up Gallery.

It all kicks off at 7:30, Friday night and will have some special guest bands in the shape of Algiers and Ankles. I will also be there in person giving mini-seminars about screen-printing and the life & times of a poster artist. Plus i'll have stuff for sale, so bring your monies! Here's a Facebook event for it.

Secondly, I am also contributing a few screen-prints to 'Parkstrife'; an exhibition in the Sno!Lounge at Sno!Zone, Milton Keynes. Yes, you read that correctly, Sno!Zone.

This will be more a permanent exhibition for the lounge, where functions and other such events are held. There's a Facebook event for that too. Plus, a little interview that I did with Jibber Jabber; a snow sports blog at Sno!Zone.

Pictures from both events to follow next week.

Way Down Hadestown

Hello there.

In less than two weeks time I will be London bound for this year's first Poster Roast, taking place on Saturday 30th April and Sunday 1st May. It's co-exisiting alongside Camden Crawl and looks set to be another fun weekend of posters, music and cider (it's sponsored by Gaymers).

Like last year all the exhibiting artists have contributed a bit of artwork which is to be included on a collaborative poster. This will be printed live before the eyes of the Camden Arms (where the whole Poster Roast is going down). The brief this year was to illustrate your favourite dish of a roast dinner. I selected cauliflower cheese because I love the melted chesse seeping into the florets of the cauli... Sorry got carried away a bit there!

To keep the poster-orientated theme of this blog, here is a recent poster that I completed for Leeds folk promotion team Hide & Seek.

Being familiar with Anaïs Mitchell's album 'Hadestown', I wanted to illustrate the story that is told across the record. It's based on the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus embarking upon a quest to the underworld to rescue his wife Eurydice.

Naturally I wanted to create something a bit darker to reflect the story but also create a striking and intriguing image.

Now this is a tenuous link but in keeping with the roast theme, here is a logo that I recently completed for a friend's new film production company, Boo Said The Goose.

Roast goose?! Like I said, tenuous... Anyway, the chaps wanted a bold and colourful logo made up of simple shapes to give it a classic logo feel.

See you spoon.

Oh What A Circus

Hi there

Hope you folks all had pleasant weekends. Mine was spent experiencing the sights and sounds of Manchester's vibrant nightlife and looking for kitchens. All very nice...

At the end of last week I announced I had a couple of pieces in an exhibition in the heart of Manchester as part of the cities' week long free arts festival. Well, the exhibition was fantastic. The space was huge and lots of people came and looked around and drank free Peroni.

With the brief for exhibition being based around emerging artists who are working during the socio-economic conditions of the recession I felt I would create some motivational pieces to encourage artists and their practise. The first of these being a doormat entitled 'Welcome Failure'.

The purpose of this work being that an artist should not be afraid of trying and failing and to a certain extent, 'welcome' it. It's based upon the old as time saying that people learn from their mistakes, and failures. The piece also acts as an actual doormat where people can interact with the art and wipe their feet upon entering the gallery, therefore wiping their feet on failure. Take that!

The second of my contributions was an acrylic painting on canvas. I titled the piece 'Whole Hearted' as a representation of the effort's of an emerging artist needed to be made and in the interest of furthering themselves; giving their all. There's not really that much too it but I wanted to do something with bold colours that was striking and interesting. The circular canvas also suited the repeating 'tear drop' pattern, adding further depth to the work's aesthetic.

The rest of the exhibition was great, with a really interesting range of artists on display including; Taneesha Ahmed, who had curated the event.

Lydia Meiying's custom wallpapers and greetings card range

Gareth Brew

Sam Venables

Alex Moore and Annie Carpenter

And here is a picture of the stall where various artists had items for sale. The front of the stall was lavishly decorated with literally hundreds of Taneesha's post-it notes. Well done to Sarah (leg's pictured) for putting them up... phew.

Definitely safe to say that a good time was had by all and hopefully we can do it again soon. So, major thanks to Taneesha Ahmed, for putting it together, inviting me and making everything run like a well-lubricated machine!

And before I sign out, here is a poster for Drever McCusker Woomble's show at the Brudenell Social Club in November, which promises to be a folking good night.

Over and out.