Friday 27 April 2012

An exhibition of prints at Stour Space



Hackney Wick was referred to in a 1976 episode of Dr Who as "A mudpatch in the middle of nowhere." Thirty six years later and the whole world is coming to town!
Well, they will be next-door at least, and like a snooty neighbour they seem to want to shield us from view.
Without contravening any Olympic regulations by putting the word 'LONDON' next to '2012' I have created a print 'THE WICK' which celebrates the 'unsightly industrial area' that has more going for it than any tourist or sports fan will ever get to know about.
THE WICK will be available at the show at Stour Space from next Thursday.
I hope to see you there.




Friday 6 April 2012

The Guide- 7th April 2012

My artwork for the cover of The Guardian's Guide


Wednesday 28 March 2012

THE WICK

Celebrating the area that the Olympics are keen to shield from general view, THE WICK, a new print coming soon.....

Friday 10 February 2012

Gardners'

I have designed and produce a flyer and a limited edition print for Gardner's, 'The Oldest Family Business in Spitalfields'. You can read a nice piece about my collaboration with Paul Gardner by The Gentle Author over at Spitalfields Life. You Can buy the Print from Gardners, Elphicks or my online shop.


Myself and Paul Gardner in his Shop photographed by The Gentle Author



Friday 13 January 2012

The Artist(s)

The above painting by Tamara Dubnyckyj 'Rio Repetory' is of the fabulous Rio Cinema in Dalston which is where I went last night to see the brilliant film 'The Artist' 
I am sure you have heard what a great film it is so I won't bang on about that, but what most interested me was the 4.3 format of the film. This virtually square screen size was the original movie format, but when Television came in and movie audiences started to drop, Hollywood introduced Widescreen to get one over on TV.
I have had the pleasure of watching many a brilliant film at the Rio, most of which have been in Widescreen or other modern aspect ratios but watching The Artist in a Cinema built in the 30's for 4.3 proportions was a brilliant cinematic experience. It certainly beat getting a 3D headache wearing plastic specs in multiplex.

The print below 'The End II (Widescreen)' is by artist Richard Roberts who has a great selection of prints on his website.

Thursday 3 November 2011

Big MAGIC

I have been working with Heartbreak Publishing who have produced three colourways of my MAGIC print as large scale screenprints with spot varnishes and diamond dust. I must say they look rather good, thanks to Coriander Studio.
The print will be launched at Heartbreak on Wednesday 16th November.

Magic (Blue)

Limited Edition Silkscreen Print with Diamond Dust
Paper size: 103 x 71 cm / Image size: 93 x 60 cm
Published in 2011
Paper: 410gsm Somerset Tub sized paper
Edition size: 35

Friday 28 October 2011

The Heroic Book of Failures

I was commissioned by Faber and Faber to illustrate the cover of 'The Heroic Book of Failures' by Stephen Pile. 








Sunday 23 October 2011

New ANIMAL prints

I have just completed a set of nine, 2/3 colour Lino print on Accent smooth 135gsm off white paper.
Limited edition of 100, signed, numbered and dated.
Paper size 21x21cm Image size 17x17cm
£45 each available here;http://generalpattern.bigcartel.com/









Wednesday 21 September 2011

West(Ham)field Stratford City

I am ashamed to admit I have been to the new Westfield Shopping centre three times so far. I went today after picking my son up from school because I wanted to show him the Olympic Park from the drive to the car park and from the viewing point on the third floor in John Lewis.
I also wanted to show him the amazing collection of London photographs in The Getty Images Gallery.
You can see a slide show of the photographs here but you really need to go and see them in the flesh and at large scale to truly get transported through time.
One of my favourite images was the one shown above, noticing it was missing from todays visit I asked where it had gone.
"We had to remove it due to complaints"
"Complaints?" I queried "Why?"
"Because everyone around here is a West Ham fan and they all objected."
.... Crazy eh?

Wednesday 20 July 2011

Shiny Touch Farm


The 4th August sees the publication of my second book 'Shiny Touch FARM' published by Walker Books
Shiny Touch Farm is an eye-catching book for babies that explores animals through graphic patterns in a simple, contrasting and novel way that is perfect for young babies who are just beginning to develop their visual skills. Each animal is presented boldly on its own and as a part of a fascinating pattern, introducing rich texture and quality art to the very young.

Publication details:
Format: Board Book
ISBN: 9781406320565
Published: 04 Aug 2011
Price: £4.99
Size: 180 x 180 mm
Pages: 16









Saturday 16 July 2011

iphone portraits

I have a brilliant new hobby..... drawing my friends with an app on my iphone called Artstudio.
I never thought drawing with ones finger on a tiny screen could be so much fun. The portraits are shown in order from my first to latest, I think I'm improving.






Monday 6 June 2011

New Prints at PULSE

I am showing some new prints at PULSE until 7th June. It has been good fun and I have met some really nice folk, existing customers, new customers and fellow designers. Below are some of the new prints which are available here.


Thursday 28 April 2011

Peep Through SHAPES

Next week sees the publication of my book SHAPES published by Walker Books
SHAPES- A visually stunning introduction to shapes for babies.
This bold, eye-catching board book explores shapes through graphic patterns in a simple, contrasting and novel way that is perfect for the youngest babies who are just beginning to develop their visual skills. Each shape is introduced as a part of a fascinating pattern and has holes in the pages to inspire interactivity.








Friday 22 April 2011

Down to Margate




I went down to Margate to visit the new Turner Contemporary musuem. From the outside not a great building in my ever so humble, but once inside its a fantastic space.
The current exhibition centres on Turner’s painting The Eruption of the Souffrier Mountains, in the Island of St Vincent, at Midnight, on the 30th of April, 1812. (pictured above)
The six contemporary artists in the exhibition work in the same spirit of enquiry, invention and interest in the natural world that flourished during Turner’s lifetime. Just as Turner explored nature in paint and colour, so these contemporary artists play at the borders between what we can see and know and the truly fantastic. Four of the artists have made new work for the opening of Turner Contemporary. Like Turner, their work responds to the special setting of the gallery in Margate, on the North Kent coast.
Conrad Shawcross is fascinated by science and philosophy, and his work evokes the forces governing the universe. His dramatic new installation draws together a number of threads evident in his practice. A suspended rotating light sculpture fills the gallery with shadows from a large bronze ‘tree’ sculpture, taking the form of a sound wave from a harmonic chord that appears to grow from the gallery floor.
The museum shop is pretty good too but the 14,000 visitors who attended on the first day (they were only expecting 5,000) seemed to have left gaps in the shelves. I was very pleased to see a nice selection of Art Angels cards, my ABSENCE design being one of them.
A couple of days earlier in a charity shop I was lucky enough to scoop an original box of 24 rings of PLAYPLAX so it was great to find in the Turner Contemporary shop a newly reissued box.

Invented by Patrick Rylands in 1966, PlayPlax went on to sell over a million copies. 
Patrick was an art student when he first came up with the concept of these brilliant interlocking squares. PlayPlax is in the permanent collection of the V & A and demonstrates perfectly that the best toys are the simplest.