Arted States: royal

Showing posts with label royal. Show all posts

Thursday, 7 June 2012

New fossils discovered

Made some new digital work over the last couple of days, for the first time in ages. My entry for the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers "RE-Open" exhibition at the Bankside Gallery in London. Got to wait until July to find out whether anything has been accepted now.

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'!

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.

Tuesday, 5 June 2012

"Luvverly Jubilee" : New really not official portrait of the queen

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.

Friday, 24 February 2012

New drawing: My art really DOES look like a plane crash...!!

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.