Hi all!

Well, what with the damp squib of a spring we're in the middle of, a somewhat unpredictable working pattern and lots of word based assignments, I've found that recently I've not had much time for art or, when I get the time, not much inclination. Very frustrating as a good painting session would be quite therapeutic! I think very soon I'm going to sit myself down in front of a massive blank canvas, crank some music up, and see what happens.

However, in the meantime, two purposes to this blog: Apologies for the radio silence. Hopefully it won't continue for much longer. Secondly I'd like to show you the critter that did manage to squirm its way out of my brain and onto paper - The Irritating Snarl!

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An Irritating Snarl - A most annoying little critter that loves nothing more than messing up you hair, or dancing in your eardrums and distracting you when you're in the midst of a complicated train of thought.
See you all soon!

Alex
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Sometimes websurfing and flicking through old art books can provide great inspiration. Here are some random bitsnbobs I've come across today and feel the urge to share with you all :P

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Théophile Steinlen's 'Le Chat Noir' - this was a poster for a cabaret troupe in the 1890s. I LOVE this image and we're selling it as a fridge magnet at work at the moment (I will be buying it :D)
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John Heartfield - what an amazing artist and important social commentator. 'the father of photomontage'. I wrote a huge chunk of my dissertation on his work. If you do nothing else this year, google him and find out more....(The title translates to 'Hurrah, the Butter is All Gone!')
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William Blake is a long time favorite of mine, words and image.
                                    And who doesn't love Bowie dressed up all sparkly singing to puppet goblins?

Proper arty update soon :) x
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After a brilliant week of seeing my artist friend Liz Worley, and discussing plans for our  celtic proverbs and Scottish poetry project, I felt suitably inspired and bought myself a new sketchbook! Having watched her work on her drawing a day project while she was staying with me, I felt I needed something like that, a sketchbook where I could just draw as I felt like it, not tied down to any project in particular…

There's nothing better than a brand new sketchbook. The feel and the smell of the paper (yes I sniff paper, I'm a weirdo) is fresh and encouraging, and the pages just look so shiny and inviting.  There's a wonderful sense of anticipation at the prospect of a whole book just sitting there waiting to be filled up with doodles and wild imagination.

There is a flip side to this; after all that build up the moment you finally bring pen/pencil/paintbrush to paper is incredibly intimidating. If my first page goes wrong or is a bit of a flop idea I always experience a terrible crash of confidence. I’m not normally one for superstition, but afterwards I feel like the rest of the book is cursed…

Well, maybe because I was surrounded by people using sketchbooks (on Thursday we had a mass drawathon, a reunion between a huge group of uni friends), or maybe I’m feeling generally very positive about my art these days, but I’m already onto page 5 of my nice new book and have produced some images I’m pleased with! (click to view)
I think after my Ovid drawings I realised that as well as the bigger projects I’ve got on the go I also need an outlet for random ideas and drawings to keep my brain’s creative quarter fresh and feeling like it wants to play ball.

I’m very excited about my Celtic poetry collaboration with Liz, and will be posting about that in the near future (as well as bringing out more releases and drawings from my other projects) but expect more frequent mini updates of work from the new sketchbook of random…
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Following on from Mondays blog, during my days off this week I've been parked in front of a table full of paper, drawing implements and spent my time trying to crack out some quick, not overly fussy reaction drawings to Ted Hughes 'Tales from Ovid'. This has all been in aid of giving my creative brain a bit of a kickstart after hitting a wall on my more long term projects.

And it's worked somewhat! I've really enjoyed just playing around, not worrying too much about the results, and reminding myself why I enjoy art - experimentation, bringing together different mediums and styles for weird and wonderful results, the joy of seeing imagery emerge from a blank sheet... all fuelled by excessive tea drinking!

Most of the results are a bit sparse looking - but I'm keeping them all as good source material to maybe make more 'finished' pieces from next time I need a break from my heavier projects. Here's a couple of the drawings I've made this week....Click to have a closer look!
‘Arethusa’ Arethusa is a nymph who is pursued by river god Alpheus. While hiding from his unwanted attentions she is so overcome with fear that she begins to sweat and she becomes a stream - only for him to realise this and pour himself into her...

'Response to Procne and Tereus' - The story of king Tereus, his wife Procne and her sister Philomena is a rather horrific one, involving kidnap, rape, infanticide and inadvertent cannibalism (all in a days work for Greek mythology!), however it is a striking story and some of the imagery in it is just amazing. Ovid's Metamorphosis as a whole portrays that point when human entanglement, emotions and stife reach a climax so extreme that the subject of the tale can no longer remain as they have always been... The point of metamorphosis in the tale is the tormented, howling crescendo and as such is the most intriguing part to draw. Eventually in this dark story the three characters become birds. NOTE - I drew this after a dream about the story - the bird she is becoming is not actually any of the correct ones from the tale, but how it came to me - hence why I called it a 'response' rather than a direct illustration.

I really do recommend reading this book - it is fantastic, and Ted Hughes does in my opinion bring Greek mythology to life in the way it deserves.
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Just a quick one today!

I've had a touch of the old Artist Block recently. This is very very frustrating, as I currently have 2 projects I'm excited about and enjoying doing, but at the moment I just can't make any art for either of them! Not one to be defeated by the Block, on Saturday I decided I would forget all about my big ideas and my deadlines for the weekend, and focus on something completely different!

I re-read Ted Hughes 'Tales from Ovid' (A stunning retelling of Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses - go read it!) and remembered why I loved it so much the first time - it's so packed with imagery and beautifully written. As such I've decided to try and get out of the artistic rut I've become stuck in by spending this week making a series of a quick fire response drawings and paintings and illustrations inspired by the book! I'll be uploading as and when I get them done. I'm setting no goals or targets, I just want to have some fun playing around with art. Hopefuly this will kickstart the creative juices a bit!

Also, to celebrate my awesome mum's birthday I made her a card! She recently rescued a dormouse that our cat was about to eat, so I followed that theme...
This got me thinking - I've made so many cards for people over the years and it's something I really enjoy doing - as such I'm thinking this week I might set up a 'greetings cards' section on this site! Keep your eyes peeled for more news on that front.


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I've had enough of the snow - it's official!

The first day it came down was awesome! It looked so pretty and everyone on the streets started talking to each other - people laughing and chatting about having the day off, saying hi as they took their kids sledging and neighbours helping each other out. There were hardly any cars on the road and the world looked like it was wrapped in a snowy blanket. I didn't get to make a snowman this year, but I saw plenty being built out and about.

That was the fun side of the snow, and it stopped about 3 days ago. Now we're stuck in a cold, damp and grey-coloured stasis. It warmed up a bit and everything started to melt. Then it dropped back below 0 degrees and it all froze again. The roads are pretty clear, the cars back out, but the pavements are covered in horrible, frictionless ice sheets, and just walking down the road takes about half an hour! I'm bored of the sky being white and having to wear 5 jumpers just to stay comfortable. Spring, please!!!!

About a year ago I had similar feelings after weeks of snow - and I drew this chappy. 'The Annoyed Sunbeam' - He's a sunbeam daemon who hasn't been out for a while.  He captures all my fed-upness then and now, so It seems appropriate to re-introduce him again...

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'Warhol is Here' 02/01/2012
 
_Last Friday I was lucky enough to go see the ‘Warhol is Here’ show at the De La Warr Pavillion at Bexhill - It was a lovely  exhibition space, beautiful tall rooms, in a wonderful building - and it really did suit Warhol’s work.

I have to say that up until now I’ve not been much of a Warhol fan - and though I’ve always felt and understood the draw of pop art it’s never really connected with me. This show has definitely altered my perception somewhat.

I’ve now seen some of the famous iconic pieces in the flesh ( The Electric Chair prints were amazingly ominous and striking) - and the scale of them, presented together as they should be really does maximise their impact. It was also very interesting to see some early sketchbook drawings, and to  read about Warhol’s influences; the thoughts behind his work, and how his mindset changed after an assassination attempt.  To longstanding Warhol fans this will all be very obvious, but shamefully I made up my mind quite early in my art education that I didn’t like him and have chosen over the years to keep the blinkers on and find out next to nothing about him and his work. I suppose this is partly the reason I decided to go along to 'Warhol is Here' - It’s great when a well thought out and brilliantly put together show changes your opinion on an artist and inspires you…and that’s exactly what has happened here. I’ve gone from being neutral-negative about Warhol to having designs on a few prints of his work for my living room…(though how a great big bright red print of an electric chair would go down with my housies I don't know :D)
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'Electric Chair' - An amazing iconic piece, full of dark undertone and meaning.,.. Would look great above my fireplace
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The show is on until the 26th February and admission is free, so if you have means of getting to Bexhill I recommend it. Unfortunately I wasn’t sneaky enough to get any photos of the show itself! However the day I went was a stunning, crisp wintery day, so the light was fantastic and really did show off the De La Warr building and the area very well! Here are some piccys.
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Here we have poor Violet.

She is the latest illustrated addition to my 'Fox in a Box' saga.

She is the poor enslaved niece of two of the badduns in my last post (the ones on the left- Fenella and Davis Sidson).  

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So it’s finally happened: Winter has landed here in old Kent, and it’s left us all shivering in our boots! There had been talk of how we might have got off lucky and skipped winter altogether this time round, and I’ve even had sighting of little spring flowers poking shoots out of the ground. But here we are 3 mornings of deep frost later and about 5 day into actually seeing the minus symbol on the car thermometer.

I for one am quite glad! The heavy frosts we’ve woken up to over the past few days might have killed off my poor optimistic garlic bulbs and will very possibly destroy half my herbs at the allotment, but the LIGHT - it’s worth it for the light… I’ve been getting up super early this week and going for wanders into town, just to appreciate the colour of everything, and the crisp yet ethereal look the freezing air casts.

It’s certainly got my creative side going. Yesterday I was on one such walk, the way a certain group of people looked when they were walking towards me as silhouettes gave me an exciting idea for a painting. Not only that - in that instant I felt like I could paint a house-sized canvas, illustrate a book, sculpt something life changing… It’s weird how something as subtle as a change in the light and the air can lead to so much inspiration.

Any way enough ramblings; In the next couple of days I might get out there with my camera and try and capture some of that wistful and beautiful essence, but for now you’ll just have to settle with looking at my latest Fox in a Box illustrations! 
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Another short update!

After getting some good news yesterday I've been inspired to get on with some art! Spent the morning brainstorming and writing for the my 'big' project - the  "Fox in a Box" fable (read more about Fox in a Box here) - now have a rough idea of each drawing I want to go with the text. After coming up with that and doing lots of tea drinking, I started drafting out ideas for the jealous neighbours - the 'bad guys' of the tale, as it were. Here are the final characters I've come up with...


Looking forward to fleshing these guys out and drawing them in a narrative setting over the next couple of weeks.

That's all for now - but don't forget to look at the prints I have for sale!

xXx
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