Sketchbooks from V&A Jazz & World Music Series

Some pages from my sketchbooks for the V&A Jazz & World Music Series I illustrate monthly.

Isle of Wight

In October 2012 I visited the Isle of Wight for the first time, partly intrigued by an abandoned holiday camp I'd heard about several years ago. I didn't know what it was called or where on the island to find it, but it turned up after a few days (holiday camps were designed to be found easily). This is a short series of photographs I shot on an Olympus XA2 35mm camera about the island.

Studio Work / Marbles

Continuing to use chance & surprise with new materials as active tools, I've been experimenting with marbling as a method of surface design, and introducing different forms to the process so that I am not just printing onto flat sheets of paper. Some nice surprises arrising! I'm also becoming interested in images which we cannot document without a camera. ie, temporary, degradable, perishable tools etc, or in terms of surface, things which cannot be scanned flat, as a drawing might be. I'm trying to use that as direction for my choice of materials, surfaces etc.

Film 4 / Somerset House Summer Screen with Print Club London

Just a little reminder that I am taking part in the PRINT CLUB LONDON: SUMMER SCREEN PRINTS exhibition, to celebrate Film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House.

Come along to the pre-show buyers night, at Somerset House on 31 July 2013 6.30pm-10pm. rsvp@printclublondon.com.

West Wing Galleries
Somerset House
London WC2R 1LA

somersethouse.org.uk
printclublondon.com
#film4summerscreen

Dada Animation

As part of the Dancing Around Duchamp season at London's Barbican, I was lucky enough to see a programme of 10 films by directors Stan VanDerBeek & Robert Breer last week, here are some of my favourites by both.

A programme of early work by two pre-eminent directors of the American Underground, Robert Breer (1926-2011) and Black Mountain College alumnus Stan VanDerBeek (1927-84), working in the spirit of Dadaist collage and abstraction… featuring a healthy Dadaist sense of humour and the absurd.

The programme was followed by a ScreenTalk with Mark Bartlett, a Stan VanDerBeek Scholar and tutor at the University for the Creative Arts, and Suzanne Buchan, Professor of Animation Aesthetics at Middlesex University with publications such as The Quay Brothers: Into a Metaphysical Playroom (2011). Additionally, they work respectively as Associate Editor and Editor of Animation: an Interdisciplinary Journal.

Fruit & Veg for SZ Magazin

I have been doing some work for German Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, this is one of the illustrations from a recent feature on Italian beach holidays.

V&A Jazz & World Music Series

My illustration for the evening of Afro-Cuban live music on 7 June at the V&A in London.

San Francisco

Some recent drawings about a small town outside San Francisco.

Film 4 / Somerset House Summer Screen

I've designed a poster for The Red Shoes (1948 directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger) for Film4’s Summer Screen at Somerset House which opens in August. The print is currently in production but I'll put some pictures up as soon as I can.

Print Club London: Summer Screen Prints
An exhibition of editioned hand screen printed film posters to coincide with Film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House with American Express®
1–21 August 2013
Open daily 10.00–18.00 and additionally from 18.30–21.00 to Film4 Summer Screen ticket holders (8–21 August)
West Wing Galleries

Somerset House and Film4 have teamed up with Dalston based studios Print Club London to curate a screen printed poster exhibition in the newly opened West Wing Galleries.

This special collaboration will see some of the most talented and innovative illustrators from the UK, Europe and USA design and produce 16 new and original screen prints, inspired by the each of the films screened this year.

All the prints will be produced in limited editions of 200, signed by the artist and available to buy at £40 each. The exhibition will be open daily until late throughout the Film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House season.

For more information on Film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House with American Express® click here.

Laundromat

This is amongst a few new pieces of work up on my portfolio at www.hollywales.com

Face Bake

While teaching down in Falmouth this week, I met lots of interesting people & talented students. But one project which really caught my eye was Face Bake. Claire Burns and Imogen Rockley are two illustration students currently living in Cornwall who have decided to put their illustration skills to good use in a new and innovative baking venture. In their own words "the idea is simple, we create bespoke biscuits and cakes with any face on" - and its true, they do! From Elton John with glasses made of jelly beans to a shortbread version of Jedward, and romantic cupcake-duos, if it can be drawn, it can be eaten.

Here is some of their work! Be sure to check out the Face Bake site.


Having a long history of baking silly cakes for special occasions, I was really sold on this. Here are some of my own baked goodies made for friends.

I'm So Excited dir. by Pedro Almodóvar

I love how every one of Pedro Almodóvar's films looks like a series of ten thousand over-saturated vintage postcards joined together.

Inverse Black Holes

I am warming up on some new projects in my studio. Here are some inverse black holes I have made.

I am looking at shapes, spaces & their interactions. Using chance & surprise with new materials as active tools.

Lisbon II

Part of a collection of tile designs I found in Lisbon.

Azulejo (Portuguese: [ɐzuˈleʒu], from the Arabic word Zellige زليج) is a form of Portuguese painted, tin-glazed, ceramic tilework. It has become a typical aspect of Portuguese culture, having been produced without interruption for five centuries. There is also a tradition of their production in former Portuguese and Spanish colonies in Latin America and in the Philippines.

In Portugal, azulejos are found on the interior and exterior of churches, palaces, ordinary houses and even railway stations or subway stations. They constitute a major aspect of Portuguese architecture as they are applied on walls, floors and even ceilings. They were not only used as an ornamental art form, but also had a specific functional capacity like temperature control at homes. Many azulejos chronicle major historical and cultural aspects of Portuguese history.

Lisbon, Portugal

I've been living & working here for the last few weeks. New colours, shapes and places are so important.

"The Journeys I commit are nothing more than just bits of The Journey. Right from the start, I wander nomadically between more or less impermanent "encampments". I reach the summit and then descend again. I replenish myself and climb again. It matters little whether the summit is different or even which one it is; it is always 'IT'. Perhaps I climb merely to enjoy a better view, for a few moments, from a unique viewpoint. In general, when I reach the top, the overcast sky prevents me from seeing beyond my silhouette projected onto the surface of the clouds. If I believed in what I saw, I would not continue to want to see beyond what I can see, and I would give up moving. But a strange phenomenon means that I never wholly believe in what I see." Mattia Denisse



New reads.

V&A Jazz & World Music Series

"From the Russian Steppes to the Gypsy Campfires" was my brief for the illustrations for the jazz & world music promos at the V&A this month.

Spring Breakers dir. by Harmony Korine

And my all time favourite Korine film, Mister Lonely...

Venice Beach, CA

Last month I was lucky enough to be invited to speak at Semi Permanent in both Portland & Los Angeles on 13 & 22 March. I was staying at a friend's house on Venice Beach for a few days in between so I had a chance to document some of the locals who make up the boardwalk from Marina Del Ray to Santa Monica. Shot on Olympus XA2 35mm.