The life and works of contemporary British artist Martin Herbert. Symbolic paintings, philosophical musings, and occasional whimsically altered junkshop finds.
The new project is proceeding apace, and wowlookwhatigot.com is on course to launch in the new year. "And what is that?", I hear you ask .... well ... if you're not already receiving the wowlookwhatigot.com newsletter, just nip along to wowlookwhatigot.com, fill in your email address in the space indicated, and press the large, friendly 'Subscribe' button. We will then keep you informed with all major developments as they happen. It promises to be an exciting New Year, and you wouldn't want to miss out, would you ?
By the way, we promise not to 1) Bombard you with too much stuff, or 2) Pass on your email address to anyone else for any reason whatever, etc. etc. etc......
In the meantime, have a happy Christmas and a very prosperous New Year, and keep watching wowlookwhatigot.com !!
Until Monday 26th Nov. only - time to order your Yule/alternative holiday cards etc....
I'm having a Thanksgiving weekend sale at etsy.com. Enter the promotion code:
TURKEY2012
.. during checkout for 20% off everything in my Etsy shop (originals, prints, greetings cards - everything!) for this weekend only. Please note - everything ships form the UK, so please order NOW!
These are normally only done as large (60cm) prints through the unlikely realms website, but some time in the dim and distant past, I made some small versions to use in catalogues for galleries ... there's still one floating around in Dubai somewhere as far as I recall - not that it generated any sales!
So - there are a couple of copies of some of the prints, all signed and dated, up for sale in the etsy.com shop. These are shipping directly from me in the UK so no problem getting gifts in time for Christmas :-) Please go take a browse ....
I printed this for Steve some time ago - there were 2 copies, and he paid for one by signing the other for me so it's a pretty exclusive item, especially as he's no longer working in this style. Full details on ebay here, and more about Steve here.
Last few prints just wrapped and ready for delivery. The curator at the Radnorshire Museum, Will Adams, has been busy hanging things for the last 2 days, and (fingers crossed), everything is ready for tomorrow night's opening ... after which I will be taking a very well deserved week off before starting up the new business! (Of which more later, etc. etc. etc..... :-)
So remember - private view of the Project Synthesis exhibition at the Radnorshire Museum, Temple Street, Llandrindod Wells, Wales, LD1 5DL at 6:30PM tomorrow, Thursday 1st November! Fourteen new large-scale works on paper, plus some of the older work which formed the original starting point for the project, and a video installation .... All work is for sale.
If you can't make the opening, the exhibition continues until Sat. 12th Jan. For a map and opening hours, especially over the holiday period, please check out the Radnorshire Museum website.
The project I've been working on all summer is entitled “Synthesis”.
I received a grant earlier in the year from the Arts Council of Wales to
support the development of a new body of work, which is now going on
show in a one-man exhibition at the Radnorshire Museum in Llandrindod
Wells.
Exhibition details:
“Synthesis: New works on paper by Martin Herbert”
at the Radnorshire Museum, Temple Street, Llandrindod Wells, Powys,
LD1 5DL
Friday 2nd November 2012 – Saturday 12th
January 2013
Open Tues-Fri 10:00 – 4:00, Sat 10:00 – 1:00
For more information, mail me, or call the museum on 01597 824 513
Private View:
Thurs. 1st Nov. 2012 - 6:30 - 8:00 - all welcome
About the Project:
The “Synthesis”
project has two distinct strands with one theme in common – they
both concern the relationship between digital 'new media' and
traditional drawing and painting techniques. My goal is to explore
ways in which computers and the internet can be used to source
material which inspires illustrations and innovative new work to be
carried out using traditional materials and techniques.
The
first strand concerns the production of new organisms, machines and
organic constructs using 3D computer modelling technology, which I
then use as inspiration for new drawings done using the earthiest and
most organic of materials – sepia ink, clay pencils, earth pigments
etc.
The
second strand involves sourcing written material from the internet -
I am using these texts as the basis for new illustrated editions of
neglected or beloved books which have now passed into the public
domain through expiry of copyright and are now available to anyone
who cares to download them from web archives. The illustrated
editions will then be uploaded back to the internet as e-books,
completing the cycle. The first book to receive this treatment is
Irish author James Stephen's 'fairy tale for grownups', The
Crock of Gold (Reviews here).
The illustrations are a work in progress, leading up to publication
of a new illustrated edition in 2013.
A
selection of work from the “unlikely
realms”
series of digital organic abstract prints, which were part of the
original inspiration for the Synthesis
project “organic construct” strand.
Project
Synthesis
has been made possible with the support of:
I've just
finished this new video entitled “Synthesis”. It presents a lot
of organic digital abstract work made a while ago which helped to inspire my current project (also called Synthesis ).
View directly on YouTube here: http://youtu.be/2jIFhP6g1mY. In full HD (1080i) if your broadband is fast enough - it seems to work best at 720p over our link.
The video
installation will be part of the Synthesis Project exhibition ….
starting on Fri 2nd Nov 2012 at the Radnorshire Museum,
Temple Street, Llandrindod Wells, Powys LD1 5DL. The exhibition of
new works on paper, mainly large scale drawings, will run until 12th
January 2013.
There will
be a private view on Thurs 1st Nov. At 6PM … all are
welcome to attend (which I guess technically speaking just makes it a
'view'!).
More
details about the project and the exhibition coming very shortly ….
watch this space!
First of all many thanks and congratulations to Roger, who secured the Welsh Grand Slam print on ebay at an advantageous price ... time for another Thing I Found in a Corner...
"Double Running" : Giclee : 2006 : 96 x 46 cm : Original unique monoprint : Copyright 2006-2012 by Martin Herbert
"Double Running" is a one-off print which I made for an exhibition at the Welsh Quilt Association gallery in Mid-Wales in 2006. It depicts a male/female couple in running posture under a large sheet of draped gauze-like material. The printed area is almost a metre high and half a metre wide. The predominant colours are sepia, pink, and light turquoise and there is an overall 'grainy film'-like texture.
It symbolises concealed courtship, coyness, misunderstandings, misdirection, coupled with an optimism that it will all turn out in the end - the couple are madly pursuing one-another, but somehow keep going round in circles and never quite making connection ... their understanding is clouded by the gauze which lies over them. They will make it in the end ... but they're going to have to learn to stop both trying to make the running and figure things out together.
It's an unusual piece ... not really like anything else I've done, and is unique. The original digital file no longer exists - only these web-resolution images, so it is impossible to ever print another copy - I'm offering it at a very knock-down price as part of my studio-clearout series ... things I found in dusty corners that I'd forgotten I had!
Hi all, just a brief update this time, to say I'm having a bit of a search around the studio for neglected things in dusty corners. Having rummaged through the large pile of mailing tubes I've accumulated over the years, one or two surprises turned up. There are a few prints which I'd stashed away and forgotten about, so I figured I wouldn't be losing anything if I offer them at a knock-down price...
So a few things to put up on ebay ... starting with a copy of the Welsh Grand Slam rugby print "Mine" which I think the printers gave me in a '2 for 1' offer, and which I'd completely forgotten about ...
Regular price £150 ... now up on ebay at a starting price of £35, with free postage in the UK! Please feel free to go and bid - more offers coming soon.
Just a quick snapshot of the latest drawing for the "Crock of Gold" project - just to prove I am actually working, and that's why I really don't have time to post much ... for which everyone is no doubt profoundly grateful.
So - a drawing of Pan in Ireland - one of the illustrations for the new centenary edition of James Stephen's wonderful book "The Crock of Gold". As always, more details coming soon, because I just haven't had time to put together a newsletter etc, and the crowd-funding video is way behind, and there aren't enough hours in the day, etc. etc.....
My entry for this year's Jerwood Drawing Prize. Delivered last weekend to the Cardiff School of Art and Design, and now en-route to London. The Jerwood prize is held every 2 years, and is one of the things I´d most like to win as it actually carries a certain amount of ´street cred´ in the art world! Well - winning is highly unlikely, judging by the usual number and quality of entries, but it would certainly do no harm to be shortlisted. The shortlisted entries are all exhibited in a touring exhibition, and it's a good chance to get something into some decent galleries .... Announcement of selections next Friday 6th of July - watch this space - if it doesn't get selected it's going up for sale on Saatchi in the near future ...
This is one of the 'organic abstract' (note to self - must think of a better name) pictures which I'm producing as part of the Synthesis project - a six month Arts Council of Wales funded development project in which I'm exploring the fusion of digital 'new media' (in this case the digital construction of 3D fractal objects), with classic drawing techniques to create 'portraits' of entities and machines which exist only in potentiality.
My fiddle playing on the instrumental remix of 'Squanasie' from Sally Hope's album 'Medicine', featured in the new video made by the Forestry Stewardship Council ....
Cool! Catch up on Sally and Jezz's musical doings here. Coincidentally, I just got permission from Sally to use a clip from 'Squanasie' for my pitch video for indiegogo.com to raise funds for my current project 'Synthesis', so you'll be hearing it again soon ... as soon as I can find time between drawings to actually put together the video, that is ...!
To produce the new prints, I reworked some of the unlikely realms images by using them to make 3D 'relief sculptures' which I then lit to look like they were engraved on various surfaces. The original idea was to have them on a stone surface to make them look more fossil-like, but I found the lack of colour wasn't quite working so I ended up, after some trial and error, with something that I think looks more like a hammered copper sheet... Whatever, they're still called 'fossils'!
"Fossil Xenopelagica 6" : Digital painting, 30 x 30 cm at 300dpi : Copyright 2012 by Martin Herbert
The premise behind unlikely realms is that there is a whole collection of 'virtual' fauna and flora, both macroscopic and microscopic, to be documented. They exist only within the computer, but can be drawn and photographed just the same as real natural organisms. More coming soon as part of my ongoing project Synthesis.
One last one with a different surface - I decided at the last minute to do something a bit more colourful. During experimentation I also found a process which makes the 'fossils' look as a if they are engraved on slate - will try to do some if I have time.
For the techies, no - they are not just made using the 'emboss' filter in Photoshop / these are actual 3D models lit using XenoDream from Stirling-Thornton.
A little drawing I was just inspired to do for the Royal Jubberly - now up for sale on ebay - bidding starts at a mere tenner. A bargain, I´d say ... where else are you going to get a unique Royal souvenir for that price, eh? I reckon this should be in that there exhibition of queenly portraits wot's on at the National Portrait Gallery. Dunno why I always get overlooked when they´re putting this sort of thing together ... sigh.
Ideal purchase for the rabid royalist on your life. Go on, 'ave a punt, guv.
A 'paraphrase' of Leonardo Da Vinci - I've been wanting to do something like his machine designs for ages...
I'm continuing with a trend of pricing new drawings according to the principle "To each according to their needs" which I began with "that tracey emin says my art looks like a plane crash". Thus prices are no longer directly related to the size of the drawing, its complexity, or the amount of time I spent working on it (in this case, many days). Instead the price is determined by what the drawing represents, related to my needs at the time...
So.... "Design for a Flying Machine to Escape the Bank Manager" is priced at exactly the amount of my bank overdraft at the time of uploading. The buyer will have the personal satisfaction of knowing that they did indeed enable an artist to escape the bank manager :-) The original is for sale in my shop at etsy.com.
Original drawing using original Renaissance drawing materials and techniques, blended with modern touches; sepia ink, red chalk pencil with white gouache highlights, and transfer-printed lettering (and bank manager) on handmade Khadi paper prepared with an egg-tempera wash. Paper size 28" x 20" (70 x 50 cm).
Still getting on well with the Khadi paper - I've just ordered 25 sheets to use for the "Crock of Gold" illustrations. I've 2 drawings on the easel at the moment - one being the first project illustration, "The Spinning Philosopher" for "Crock of Gold", and the other my entry for the Ruskin Drawing Prize .... it's all go! At the same time I'm doing a time-lapse video of the process of creating "The Spinning Philosopher", to be used as part of a promo video for the indiegogo.com crowd-funding site... more details soon (well, as soon as the video is edited....)
I'd be much obliged if you'd share this page (and/or the etsy.com entry) with your chums using facebook, twitter, etc. etc. by clicking on those little icon thingies below... The more the merrier!
My biggest drawing to date, just completed. Connoisseurs of 'Arted States' will immediately recognise this as being based on one of the BA 'Great Britons' designs. You can read the whole story of last year's bid for fame and glory starting here.
For those with less patience, this drawing is based on my original design for the 2011 British Airways "Great Britons" art competition. The brief was to create a design to be painted on BA's aircraft during the 2012 Olympic Games in London, and this one was based on the Olympic rings - somewhat extrapolated!
I was one of only 10 artists shortlisted for the prize and was interviewed at the Royal Academy of Arts on London by an illustrious panel including artist Tracey Emin, and RA curator Eliza Bonham-Carter. Sadly I didn't win in the end, but it was all an interesting experience.
The title of the piece is based on Ms. Emin's comment during the interview when she was looking at this particular design :-¦ You can read the full story behind the title here.
It's currently for sale on etsy.com priced at £8,000 - the value of the commission I didn't quite win. Some higher resolution pics there.
Original drawing in sepia ink, clay pencil with white gouache highlights, and transfer-printed lettering on handmade Khadi paper prepared with a red egg-tempera wash. Paper size 40" x 28" (102 x 70 cm). As with all the drawings I'm doing at the moment, this is a one-off unique original and will not be reproduced as a print.
Me, I think it would be an ideal addition to the walls of some big national company's corporate HQ. Hint. Hint.
