St Leo's

I'm now halfway through my third watercolour for the design of the new gardens of St Leo's church in Basford. Hopefully I'm improving - I don't remember ever having the patience to paint the same thing so much, but it's satisfying seeing the evolution, and Adam and Joe's podcast back catalogue has been getting me through!

Thank STEPHEN! for these lovelies.

Future Artists - drawing!

Yesterday was the very first Future Artists workshop! The students seem game, and it's really quite interesting (as well as confusing) to think back to a 15 year old mindset. We showed them continous line and timed blind drawing, resulting in a collage of little drawings that form a big one.

Rain Room

We got there early. One hour wait, maybe a tad more. I got a bit wet, so did my camera. It was worth it. 

Random International, I salute. Exactly the scale of wonderful work I hope to make someday. 

Future Artists Nottingham

I have been working with fellow artists Caroline McDougall, James Politano, Rachel Fenwick and Alisia Wilkins on a project that extends unviersity art practice to secondary education. We are going to conduct a series of workshops with a Yr10 class at Nottingham Girls Academy, ending in a studio visit to do screen printing, and an exhibition. 

Follow the progress of FA Nottingham here!

Harrison and Wood studio visit

I spent a long day travelling to Bristol to see Harrison and Wood - what a fantastic opportunity, they were so lovely, and really helpful. 

I got some pricless advice about filmmaking and humour in art, and the general art community of the world. The best part was learning that their video, 10x10, was filmed on a Canon 7D! It's all in the lighting, and partly in the post production. They even gave me some of their books and exhibition publications. 

Have a look!

Drawing a day #2

For my second drawing, I started to illustrate a book influenced by my coursemate Lucy, which I had the idea for back when I was looking at what people are (and so it'll form part of the WHAT YOU ARE series). Working titles are God, You're Tall and The World's Tallest (for all those R Kelly fans). The other day she genuinely lost her cup of tea because she was so tall and couldn't see it.

Another was Count Adam Buckules sitting in a yoghurt pot, because that's what Sir Joe Cornish-Balls said he sounded like when broadcasting from Norwich tape cupboard on BBC 6 music. You can't make this stuff up. Obviously the yoghurt is peach Munch Bunch.

Analogue photography on rooftops

Yesterday I processed my very first colour photos in the darkroom - it's really hard! After hours and hours, I finally left at about 6pm, and 20 or so prints later I had good colouring on prints of old negatives I found in the loft - my mum, sister and me underneath the Explorer shuttle, and on the beach on a holiday to Florida. 

Also had a few prints I took on the rooftop of Crowne Plaza with my friend Luna, who is the subject of my next film, Escaping Greatly. 

To draw everyday

As suggested to do by my tutor, I am going to do a drawing a day. This is similar to something done by my wonderful sister Kate Rowland. It'll be very hard during the week, because I am SO BUSY ALL THE TIME, and also I like to draw in the early afternoon when the sun is streaming in. That doesn't happen much here in the midlands, so we shall have to see. 

For the first day, my theme is 'Going back to my sunshine roots' (wonderfully, the sun IS shining is this Saturday afternoon). I've drawn a house which will feature in my upcoming illustrated book Firework (featuring illustrations from Kate - watch this space!)

The Coming Community... That Never Comes

I've been asked to participate in a curated performance exhibition by Effy Harle, Chris Evitts and Beth Kettel - part of the The Coming Community curatorial series - entitled The Community That Never Comes.

For one day, along with a partner participant, I will be performing from midday to 6pm. The performance alludes to political communism and involves alternating between running around the gallery edge and reading aloud from George Orwell's 1984 every 25 minutes. 

I enjoyed the performance workshop before Christmas so I am chuffed to have been asked to take part! It should be rigorous but sounds like an insightful experience - a space to learn to discipline my mind, have time to think, and most excitingly, there are half an hour breaks every so often where we can perform however we want in the space.

Private view: 6-8pm, Tuesday 26th February 2013

Surface Gallery website
Surface Facebook event

First review

A review of my very first outside-of-university exhibition, by Lauren Jones.

Sheffield!

I finally went to Sheffield! Chuffed to bits after wanting to go for a year. It was a secret pilgrimage - I went to Coles Corner and the Boardwalk. You can literally feel the magic there.

I want to transform the day into a film - with missing frames and a dusky blue and gold colour palette. I tried to get out a 25-year old VHS camera from university but the battery wouldn't charge. 

The filming was quite one-sided, so it's less like a video diary of a trip than I hoped. I will probably end up titling it Feet got caught in the middle - we didn't make it out of the city centre, but I'm planning on going back in the spring, to the Leadmill, Lady's Bridge, Neepsend and the Frog and Parrot. 

In other news, I've sold my first piece of work! It was a paper-cut from the Classroom Gallery. 

'RollersKate'

I'm currently editing a film to be named RollersKate, after my sister and her love of skating. She protests that skating should be an Olympic sport protests months after the Games have happened. 

I hoping to have it finished and exhibit along with Vulpes Sapiens and Escaping Greatly in the Newton building of Nottingham Trent by early March.