Poster Art 150

Last week I went to the London Transport Museum where there is currently a really fun exhibition celebrating London Underground's greatest designs. I made my way through all the families and busses onto the mezzanine floor (forgetting it was half term) to where the posters were nicely displayed in a maze of shapes and colour. The first graphic poster commission was in 1908 and the exhibition displays 150 of the greatest posters that have been developed since. I enjoyed wandering around the various styles and reading the descriptions and stories behind the designs. The trip was really worthwhile and I managed to take some photographs that I will refer to during my current printing project as I will be developing geometric shaped, collaged designs.

 Kew Gardens

 Something different at every turn

Theatre by Underground

The summer sales by Underground

I have my work review this Thursday.

Fingers crossed.

X 

Anna Parkina's Collages

On Friday I had this feeling where I needed to get out of the studio and inspire myself. The fruit and vegetables printed collection I have been working on for the last few weeks is coming to a close and I am preparing myself for the next set of designs. I have decided I would like to illustrate my next collection using the process of collage. It honestly looks like fun and I really enjoy working with textures too. I collected some bits from the garden whilst I was at home to include feathers to design from, along with hay from the stables and bark from the tree to print textures with... following on from my harvest theme. Below is a bespoke screen printed design that I hand stitched into.

I decided to go to the Saatchi Gallery and there is currently a really good Moscow Art Show featuring new art from Russia. I particularly liked Anna Parkina's collaged pieces that explore past and present Russia. The abstract imagery and geometric shapes were beautiful and the way the materials were unevenly stuck down highlighted the ordinary materials she had used for the processes made me decide I might be able to give it a go.

This week I will be practicing the art of collage.

X

Walcot Project

Just lately I have been really busy and have sadly neglected my blog, which I have missed! In the mean time I have been inspired of course but I have not been able to share all my recent experiences with the land of blog spots. Monday evening I went to the Walcot Project private view. This is an exhibition by textiles students at my university studying in their second year, last April my year did a similar project where we got to organize our own exhibition and I got to show the mayor around. This time I was really impressed with the student's work and they had better wine and beautiful music. Here are some photographs I took of my favourite pieces and of course there was lots of other beautiful work but my camera did not do it justice!

Jake Chappel-Kelly. A beautiful part of nature.

 Jasmine Horton. Drawing with sewing machine.

 Chelsea Richardson. Visual Woven Surfaces.

 Louise Smales-Cresswell. Manipulated surface.

Reina Matsubara. Spring makes footsteps.

You might have noticed I have instagram now, which has really improved my documenting ability/ laziness... X

Happy Valentines Day

To all my lovely followers, wishing you a very happy valentines day X

Frizz

This weekend I went home to fulfil my sisterly duties. This involved sitting in the 'hot seat' at Toni & Guy. My long locks of red hair were styled into a gigantic mass of complete frizz by my youngest sister (I am 1 of 4). Caroline has been entered into a hair styling competition which is rather exciting for her and scary for me! 

When I came back to Bath Monday morning I looked at my project with fresh eyes. Sometimes it is helpful to step back and look upon the bigger picture. Sometimes I seem to accumulate random pieces of art work and then when I begin lay things out and group things together it can make sense once again.

This week I have been printing with fruit and vegetables. Firstly I chop them up and then I paint them and print by using a stamping technique. 

It is lots of fun.

X

Party Celebrations

This weekend it is my friend Polly's birthday. Last night we had friends over to celebrate with a Mexican theme because we felt like we needed some colour to brighten our drab February. We made a batch of sangria and wore Aztec prints along with our sombreros. One of our friends even brought over a cactus cake! We decorated the flat and everything was pretty and fun. I am also excited to say this is my first post using my iPhone (although I do prefer the big screen).

Shopping: Furniture

I love discovering new places. Last week I went on a day trip to London with the girls. It was a busy day. We started off in this store Squint, South Kensington. All the colours attracted us in from the street and the staff were really friendly. They spoke to us about their projects and let us have a look around. Lisa Whatmough is the founder of the company which produces richly colourful and well made hand-crafted furniture. Lots of the products are made to order but there is an online shop. I like the commode. 

If you are in the area, you should also pop into interior design store mint, which is right next door to Squint. It is pretty stylish and the latest collections in contemporary design can be found there. If you are particularly interested in trends this is a great place to start.

We also popped into Skandium where you can find basically all the best Scandinavian design and furniture in one place. I fell in love with this Home desk by Vitra. It has lots of compartments underneath for storing stationary and I liked all the coloured sections on top too. After this we headed to Chelsea and had a look around more shops between our ladies lunch.

It was a great day.

Marimekko

I have started to look at Marimekko fabrics. I like the hand drawn style of the designs which I have been practicing with the wacom pen and touch tool. I like the colour combinations and of course some of the themes are very relevant to my current project. It is great having a blog because now I can have this page open on my tabs to look at with all my Marimekko inspiration, like a page in my sketchbook. It is important to take note of the changing scale of the designs as well as the mark making. 

Soon to be a new chapter....

I try not to think about it too much (although I think about it all the time)... what am I going to do with my life?!!! By the 20th May I will have my final printed textiles collections nicely displayed in my work space to form our degree show. After this I would really like to work for a studio designing prints. I would probably like to do my own thing on the side, give the etsy shop a go as I think that would be lots of fun. But I really do not want to feel isolated from my design friends when I leave... perhaps moving to London would be a solution? For the time being I will spend some time feeling very proud of my wonderful boyfriend Matt who has commenced the next chapter in his career. He has started his new job today and I wish I was there to see him off, but I am looking forward to hearing all about it tonight x