Blues run the game

Had an idea of illustrating songs while listening to a fav song, 'Blues run the game'. I'd only heard the Simon & Garfunkel and the Counting Crows version and it came as a surprise to find out that it was originally written by Jackson C. Frank (who I hadn't heard of and now love).

Here's the lyrics that inspired the illustrations:

Boat & Maps: 'Take a boat to England baby, maybe to Spain'

Whiskey & Gin Bottles: 'Send out for whiskey baby, send out for gin'

Sleeping person: 'When I ain't sleeping you know you'll find me crying'

Dice: 'Wherever I have played, wherever I throw those dice'.

Blue sea creatures

I'm really loving drawing animals at the moment, and here's my sea creatures series. I like the simplicity of having them all in a base colour but I'm going to paint them so they can show their true colours. These didn't take very long, which I love but there seems to be a stereotype or a mindset where something good has to take a long time to complete. I found that while doing my abstract art, but I think the freshness and beauty that you can capture in just a few seconds sometimes is all you need to convey what you want and take your breath away. I heart simplicity.

Great news! My poster won!:)

I had some great news this week my gig poster won and is being used to advertise it on the band's myspace page, black cab sessions twitter and facebook pages and it will be printed for the venue on the night!!! I'm well excited, it was a really fun project for the great black cab sessions and a great band Dry the River.

If you want to know whats going on, alright then I'll try to explain, I love drawing bison ever since seeing a documentary on Yellowstone last year, they're quite amazing animals and since Dry the River had a bison on their myspace page it just clicked. Then we have a book, my fave Dry the River song is 'History Book' so we just had to have one, next are glasses, one of the band wears glasses, simple. A hand is up next, its supposed to be a plaster cast of one, you need a hand to play guitar right? unless your bob from (early) idlewild! These are then all piled onto a swirly river for Dry the River! phew, not that that explains much...

p.s the little man is for Whole Schebang, support bands are always left out on posters.

I Can Hear The Universe!

I've been finding and entering a lot of competitions lately and here's another, for Don't Panic with the theme being TV. I ended up remembering the science bit about how the static on your TV is leftover radiation from the Big Bang. How cool is that? You can literally hear the universe, past, present and future?!

Strand Totebag Contest

Here's my entry into the Strand Bookstore Totebag contest. It's an extension of my Dry the River Poster. I'm liking random objects just throw together at the moment and you can't go wrong with black and white.

Wish I was going to SXSW!

SXSW Music Festival starts today in Austin, Texas I so wish I was going, I think that every year. Just looked at the schedule and it's insane, so many bands not enough time, even though things start at 9 with 1am as the last start time! Here's who I'd go see:-

Balmorhea, Miranda Lee Richards, The Unthanks, Fanfarlo, Anais Mitchell, Gin Wigmore, Matthew Mayfield, First Aid Kit, The Daylights, VV Brown, The Low Anthem, She & Him, Joe Purdy, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Maps & Atlases, Band of Horses, Justin Townes Earle,

Shearwater, Alphabeat, Dengue Fever, Mayer Hawthorne & The County and Cate le Bon.

USA Map Drawing + Bookmooch

Here's a sneak peek of a map drawing I'm working on, my largest one to date so it's taking a while. It's off the Central States of the USA and I'm blacking out alternate sections of land so it takes on a checkboard feel. I love finding maps randomly and spontaneously and this one was no exception found in a clearance sale. There was lots of this map and I wonder where the rest will end up? Maybe they'll travel the world, sit on a bookshelf or end up in the bin, not mine it's destined to be a drawing & sail the open sea!

That reminds me of Bookmooch which I've just joined it's an online book swap where you send books to get points which then allow you to request books, plus it lets your books have adventures and see new places and meet new people!

Dry the River Poster Competition

Heard of the Black Cab Sessions? It's One Song. One Take. One Cab. They've had some amazing people my faves include Ryan Adams, Left with Pictures, Martha Waiwright, Benjamin Zephaniah, Lambchop and now Dry the River. There's a competition goin on to design a poster for their upcoming gig so here's my entry. Details here.

Abstract Photos

We've had a gorgeous few sunny days and spring is on its way, blimey its been a long winter this year. I've been out taking some pictures looking for abstract inspiration for a new series of paintings, but I'm liking the photos as an end result at the moment so might wait a while for paintings to emerge from them. Dots have been present in my work for a long time, the simplest mark you can make but one of the most intriguing, I found these on a run down shed that had been abandoned, also liking the red of the rust and green of the moss/mould together. You can find dots/colour/beauty in the most random places.

Light & Dark with Balka & Mapplethorpe

 

I was in London over the weekend and managed to see 'How it is' by Miroslaw Balka in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. Experiencing a physical environment in art is intirguing, how questions can be asked and answered through the simple experience of being forced into darkness and then faced with lightness, it was an exciting uplifting experience. Catch it before 5th April 2010.

I also saw the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition in Sheffield a few weeks ago at the Graves Gallery which quietly surprised me, beautiful compositions in black and white of famous faces seen through a different angle. Catch it before 27th March 2010.