Art Cards

This week at work we've put up the end of year art exhibition. On Tuesday night we had the private view where some of the students get awards for their work this year. The Head of Art asked me if I had some handmade cards we could give the winners, so I made these 6 especially for them. 

The starting points for most of the cards were these paint experiments that the students made throughout the year and then abandoned in the 6th room. I scooped them up and put them to good use. 

For these cards I cut out a geometric pattern using a craft knife and layered the patterned paper underneath. I stuck pieces of coloured paper on some of the triangles, picking out colours from the patterned paper.

For this card I used a Sharpie to draw mandala style doodles over patterned paper, which I spray mounted to a folded piece of red card.

This was the quickest card to make. I just made water colour paint splodges and when they dried I drew feathers using a fine liner on top.

Which card is your favourite?

Geometeric Art

Remember the geometric art posted on A Beautiful Mess almost a year ago?

Well I finally got around to making my own version.

The hardest part was figuring out how big I wanted my equilateral triangle to be and drawing it out to make sure all the sides and angles were equal. Oh maths.

Like the original, I used book pages, coloured paper and photos.

I used all pink paper so it matches my room, and I used all photos of my family and friends because I like their faces! Especially my cousin with the crazy eyes. Yeah, that's her top right.

Once everything was spray mounted and trimmed I popped my new art in a frame.

I got this frame when I was doing work experience in Year 10 at a local art shop that also did framing, and they gave it to me for free.

I think it looks lovely next to my IKEA flower lamp, plastic tiara, Lost cast photo, signed Ian Somerhalder photo and signed Joshua Radin concert ticket.

My house is my personal gallery

Some of my art that's around my house I have put there, but some has been put up by my parents on their own accord. Yay proud parents!

This triptych is hanging in the hallway right where you come in the front door.

My Dad actually commissioned me to paint it.

Another painting is hanging in the living room. Mainly because there was a spare hook there.

This painting at the top of the stairs just appeared here when I came home from uni.

In my sister's old room I've made use of the picture hooks she had in the wall.

It's also where I store some of my larger paintings.

And my other sister hasn't even moved out yet and I'm already using some of her shelves to keep my miniatures.

So I have art work in almost half of the rooms in my house. I'm slowly taking over.

Need to find some bathroom appropriate art...

Etsy update

Hi guys. Being done with my uni work means that I've had time to make some new things for my Etsy shop.

Yay!

I've listed some cute little bow necklaces.

And some new wire word necklaces.

Boom!

Take a look.

And while I'm promoting myself, here is the link to my art website (or you can just click the Art button above).

There you will find my miniatures and my paintings all in one place.

I got my business cards yesterday ready for the degree show.

I'm like a legit artist now.

Painting: Small Beaches

New paintings at last.

These are painted with oils on 13x18cm canvas board.

This is taken from a shot of Cromer when I went there a couple of months ago. 

This painting is a combination of a couple of photos taken at Wells-next-to-the-sea, with a little bit of imagination thrown in for good measure.

Being so small means that I got these paintings done in a few hours, which made a nice change compared to my guitar project which was in the works for like a month. 

Monster in the kitchen

My talented housemate Ryan has come up with these hilarious drawings throughout the year that I thought I would share with y'all.

A monster in the kitchen munching on Pringles.

A sea creature being disturbed in the bath.

A gingerbread man meeting his milky fate.

And a monster in the cupboard.

That's my food cupboard by the way.

And it was just after Christmas which is my excuse for all the chocolate!

You can see more of Ryan's work here.

Painting: On the Beach

A few weeks ago while I was still in Norwich my friends and I took a trip to the beach! Cromer to be precise.

It was a really fun day and the above painting that I just finished is from one of the photos taken.

I've never painted waves like that before but I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out.

Although it was sunny it was pretty windy which made it a tad chilly, hence all the layers. 

But some of the boys still went in the sea. Because they are insane.

We buried someone in the sand, cos it's tradition.

I'm loving it even if he wasn't.

And my friends made a stone heart.

We also had fish and chips, spent a long time on the 2p machines, and had those hot donuts where they give you four but you really only need one because they're so sugary. Delightful.

1 photo 3 ways

I took this photo when I was on holiday in France in 2007, and lately I've been using the image to be creative.

I did a small watercolour painting with pencil over the top.

I covered the original photo with sequins, which was inspired by Color Me Katie.

And then here's the failed screen print where I used the image in my Print and New Media taster during my first year at uni. In my defence it was my first time screenprinting and we had to use four different technique in the one image.

My tutor and I decided I didn't get on with screen printing because working with block colours just ain't my thing.

Art in Norwich

A few weeks ago I went to the Hubert Duprat exhibition at the Castle Museum in Norwich.

His work is sculptural and his most famous work uses caddis fly larvae which create a case around themselves using the materials in their environment.

Duprat put the larvae in tanks filled with gold spangles and precious stones, so they have no choice but to use them to build.

Exhibited in the gallery was a small tank with living larvae in it that were moving around with their blinged out cases attached. It was pretty fancy.

I like how Duprat refers to this work as a collaboration between himself and the larvae.


Another piece of his work that I liked but could not find a photo for was two large logs covered in upholstery studs. Again, way to make something natural pretty fancy.

My housemates and I also went on a walk to find this piece of art in a local park.

It was part of London Fieldworks' Spontaneous City project which you can read more about here.

I wanted to see a bird poking out of one of the wooden holes, but no.

Yay for art!

The Forgotten Miniature

I made this miniature scene somewhere between these ones and this one but I never posted it before because I didn't think it was finished.

It's a little back alley with dustbins and a gun.

I was going to add a blood splatter to the back wall and add a fourth wall to the front that would have a peephole in it, but I never got around to it. 

I guess I just lost interest.

Well that interest is back!

Hahaha, I think this little addition makes this piece tonnes better.

Don't let the sunshine spoil your rain, yo!

'The Places I Have Been' Exhibition

I currently have an exhibition up at the Letchworth Arts Centre of some of my landscape paintings.

The paintings were made between 2008 and 2010 and depict places that I've been, as the title of the exhibition suggests.

There are paintings of France, New Zealand, Australia, Budleigh Salterton, Norfolk - where I go to uni, and even a couple of my hometown.

You can see some of the paintings closer up in the landscape section of my paintings page.

And of course here's the 'artist with their work' shot.

Last night the arts centre held a private view for the current exhibitions, inlcuding mine, which focused on the sticky tape project they've been working on for a long time. You can read more about it here.

Juxtapose

As promised here are some photos from the group exhibition I was in this week called Juxtapose.

Can you spot my pieces?

The exhibition featured work from 13 art students in a wide range of mediums including photography, painting, video and sculpture.

The wonderful spread for the private view. It was a noment.

I love a good 'artist with their work' shot.

The exhibition was in an empty shop in our local shopping centre, Castle Mall.

For the private view my friend Natalie painted our friend James in the front window as part of her work which attracted a lot of attention.

Having displayed my miniatures on plinths before I wanted to try something different and exhibit them on the floor, but I wasn't sure if people would bother to bend down to get a proper look. This photo proves that they did.

See that red dot?

We all know what that means. Yay. 

The pieces I put in the exhibition were this one, this one and this one.

(Psst, Norwich folks; you've still got a day to go and see this if you haven't already!)