I love this

Magritte is my favourite artist, so you can understand why this appeals so much!

http://www.incidentalcomics.com/2013/12/my-neighbor-magritte.html

Herself comes to visit

So as I mentioned a while ago, a local street artist who's work I really admire agreed to paint my patio wall - and he's now done it.

I'm so chuffed with it - my very own piece of original street art.

'Herself' was actually named by me when Colorquix first started painting her and her 'Evil cat' (also named by me, after mum's cat, Tiggy), and of all the art that I've followed in Sheffield and further afield, Herself is the only art I'd want on my patio wall.

Colorquix came over to paint tonight, and we mainly left him to it, except for setting up a camera to film the whole thing - which we hope to make into a speeded up version - I hope it works.

Of course now I wish there were more walls available at my house, or better still that I'd paid the extra to have the house rendered instead of pebbledashed!

Art

I'm so excited by this piece of art!  It's by Phlegm, who is based here in Sheffield but is now internationally known.  He's a lovely guy (I met him about 8 years ago), and deserves all the attention he's now getting.

This appeared in the last few days and I saw it online and immediately knew where it was - I had to go and have a look.  So before work this morning (at 6.30am) I took a walk down to the river - and it was SO worth the effort, it's amazing.

I'm gutted that I recently missed out on one of his prints, he did a 100 limited edition prints of a new piece but I'm so broke at the moment there was no way I could even consider it - so upset.

My favourite artist

As you'll know if you've been round here before, I'm a big fan of the artist Tom Gauld. I have a number of his books and often cut his pieces out of the Guardian and whereever I see them - you'll have seen me post them on here on occasion.

So when my friend Jen (from my course), said she was going down to London for a Small Publishers Fair and that Tom Gauld would be there, I really wanted to go as well....but for various reasons I didn't make it.

However, Jen really made my Monday - she bought me a small book by Tom Gauld - Hunter & Painter (chosen due to my background in archaeology!) - but more importantly than that......it's signed personally to me!!

I LOVE IT!

What?

Okay, so I'm a reasonable photographer - I like to think that there are some things I can capture well.  But I'm really not sure about the world of mega expensive photography.

I understand the collecting value of early photographs, or rare images.....but I don't understand why someone would pay £2.7 million for a photograph of a bit of river by a modern photographer?

Visually it's arresting and interesting (I really do like it) - but I really can't see why it's worth so much?! Why this image above others by other photographers?

Making Penguins

The Guardian newspaper have a 'how to draw' section sometimes with different children's authors giving a step by step guide to drawing a character or animal.

I was particularly taken with Oliver Jeffers tutorial on how to draw a penguin - I love his books, especially 'Lost and Found'.

So, I thought I'd have a go, I followed the instructions -

This is my little penguin.  I have to admit that his eyes are a little be scary, but otherwise I think he's cute.  The Guardian were asking people to send in their drawings, and mine got chosen and is on the website!!

Alice is such a slut, she really get's about

Complete illustration of Alice from Alice Through the Looking Glass, 1945, Peake Estate
Originally uploaded by eyemagazine.

It seems that Alice is really en vogue at the moment, what with the film, the play and yesterday I discovered that Sheffield University Library have an exhibition of Mervyn Peake's drawings from the two Alice books (yes, Mervyn Peake of Gormenghast fame).

So, since it's the summer holidays for the kids (West Yorkshire seem to finish a week earlier than everyone else) and they are staying we went off to the Uni to have a look.

It seems that the collection of drawings have been acquired by the British Library, and wonderfully have been loaned to Sheffield Uni.

I love them! Not just because I like the story and the characters, but as Peake's interpretation of them is slightly dark (as should be the case, I hated all that 'cute' Disney Alice stuff), and I also love simple pen and ink drawings.

The exhibition is free to all (after negotiating the building works to find your way into the main library on Western Bank!), and runs until September 29th - I highly recommend taking a look if you are in that part of town.

The Crevasse

This is an amazing piece of 3D art - imagine the possibilities for doing something like this!

Art in Birmingham

My job often takes me to different parts of the country, different cities and landscapes- this can be a bloody nightmare with all the traveling, the long days and the nights away from home. But it can also be wonderful as I get the opportunity to see new places and visit new things.

At the last minute I was asked to attend a meeting in Birmingham today, starting quite early but potentially finishing before 4 pm. Obviously I could have got a train straight home, getting in at about 6.30 pm, or I could do something in the city and get home a bit later – my train ticket was valid for any time.

Unlike some, I didn’t take the time to visit the Christmas market (I don’t have the money and I hate shopping anyway), but John had mentioned that Birmingham art gallery has a very good collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings.

And he wasn’t wrong, there are some amazing paintings on display. I’m only sorry that I couldn’t spend the time studying them.

As is my usual when visiting a gallery or museum, I bought a small notepad knowing that I'd want to take note of the paintings that I like. But with the wonder of the internet I can now show you some of the paintings I particularly liked. I'm glad I took John's advice and visited the gallery.

Henry Wallis (1830-1916) The Death of Chatterton 1855-56

John Byam Liston-Shaw (1872-1919) Boer War 1900-1901
'Last summer green things were greener, brambles fewer, the blue sky bluer'
(extract from 'A Bird Song' by Christina Rossetti)

Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) Lady Windsor 1893-95
Burne-Jones' only full-length portrait, this is probably my favourite.

Another favourite artist

Tonight I've been wandering around the internet looking at some of my favourite artists' websites - it's been a while since I did this, and I thought I'd share some with you.

Years ago when I was still at school I did a French exchange to Annecy, as is my way I spent a lot of time in bookshops - it didn't matter that my French was (and remains) terrible, the French are very good at graphic novels which I love.

I happened across Enki Bilal and I've been a fan ever since. The first book I bought was in French (La Femme peige - The woman trap) and it's only in the last couple of years that I've managed to get some in English (the Nikpol Trilogy).

There is something about the dystopia portrayed in many of the stories, it really speaks to me - don't ask me why!

One thing I will say is that I've always wanted blue hair!!

Brilliant

This illustration is by Tom Gauld, I absolutely love his artwork. Go to his website - buy stuff - you must!!

In a room full of fog

Antony Gormley is one of my favourite sculptors (along with Andy Goldsworthy), and so the chance to see a number of his new works at The Hayward Gallery in London was too good to miss.

Charlie in the office booked for a small group of us to visit (thanks Charlie), mainly to go inside the installation called 'blind light' - basically a glass room filled with fog. As you walk into the doorway within a couple of seconds the doorway is completely lost in the fog, and you can barely see your hand in front of you.


Gormley 2
Originally uploaded by TabascoKid.

I understand that a lot of people feel really disorientated, lost and don't like it at all; but I really liked it and didn't feel lost at all as I seemed to always know which direction the door was. But the feeling was really interesting, and people seemed to loom out of the fog at you!

The other works are great too, Event Horizon has over 30 casts of his body on the tops of buildings across the nearby area of London; and then there was the Allotment II which I saw at Baltic in Gateshead a couple of years ago.


Antony Gormley -Allotment (1997)
Originally uploaded by puffin11uk.

If you visit make sure you go in Blind Light, but upstairs there is another room that you can go in - but only 2 at a time so you'll need to queue for it. My favourite piece has to be 'Mother's Pride III', made from pieces of bread.


Bitten bread.JPG
Originally uploaded by Millieh.