engedi

so... i've been working quite hard of late.

i've taken on a lot of 'proper' illustration work [ie the sort of work that pays] but on top of that i'm trying to do stuff that feeds my soul a bit too. i'll blog about a couple of things that i'm involved with locally next week, but in the meantime i've just finished a piece for an exhibition in north wales this easter.

gav mart was my co-curator on the advent show here at leftbank back in december 2010, and he's now living near llandudno and working as a pioneer bloke for the methodist church.

under the banner of engedi arts, and for his first big event there, he's curating a stations of the cross show in a disused hotel - it'll be great.

today he took delivery of my piece [sent direct from the printer, so i've not seen the printed version myself yet] and there it is on his kitchen table... [with jo, pips and alan looking on]
i'm really looking forward to seeing it in the flesh when we go down for the private view...

if you're in the area over easter, or know anyone who will be, bob in and have a look. the opening times are on the engedi website and there are loads of events and things going on during the show's run that would be well worth getting to if you can...

drawn today...

House print blog

I've set up a new blog to show the house prints here

No.3 is on the desk at the mo an should be posted up there early next week... :-)

on the desk recently...

new project thing

A couple of years ago i set myself the artistic task of documenting a year's worth of bus trips with lino prints.

it was a good thing to have undertaken, but i decided not to burden myself with anything similar in 2011... :-)

however, this year i'm itching for a bit of a challenge again, and so here's 2012's slightly obsessive project - drawing and producing a print of one local house each week.

because of a dodgy knee/general portliness issues, i'm supposed to be walking for 30mins a day, so the idea is to get out and about and try to engage with the local area a bit more and to make that part of the exercise.
also back in my college days a wise old tutor got me to drawing buildings and bits of architecture, and i'd like to get back to that.
there are some interesting houses fairly close to us here, so i'm looking forward to getting out and looking for them.

the idea is to do them in number order, so the first week's print will feature a building with the house number one, right through to a number fifty-two in the final week of the year.

each print will have some text on it too.
i bought an ipod in the autumn, and i'll be listening to that as i draw. i'll incorporate some lyrics that stand out in the finished image. it'll be interesting to see how the image and the text work alongside each other - whether the words suggest some sort of narrative [or maybe they won't...]

i'll blog each print on here with a tracklisting and some thoughts on how it's all going...



so here's number one. it's what you see as you walk up our road, and there's a bench on the corner so i sat there to draw it.
the quote is from 'to earth with love' by gay dad, and making the drawings reminded me just how out of practice i am when it comes to observational drawing - i was having to concentrate so hard that i wasn't really listening to the ipod.
i used photos on the phone to help me back in the studio, but i'm hoping that as the project goes on i'll use the camera less and rely on my drawings more.

soundtrack:
'beach party' by jonny
'will you?' by hazel o'connor
'emily kane' by art brut
'silent sigh' by badly drawn boy
'we never talked' by nina nastasia
'bros' by panda bear
'she just coukldn't stay' by trembling blue stars
'the final arrears' by mull historical society
'to earth with love' by gay dad

also, these... :-)

Paul Thomas Saunders - Silhouettes Of An English Rose by Paul Thomas Saunders

The Hands of the Wrong People - 'You're Not Singing Anymore' from The Hands of the Wrong People on Vimeo.

my favourite five tunes of 2011

[of course, by tomorrow i'll have completely changed my mind and chosen a different five...]