Part Deux

So here is the follow up post to the Palace Art Fair. Before that I wanted to share with you some work from the art gallery that I've been telling you about. Below is a picture of the upstairs seating area. We are not using this scheme now but I really like it. What d'you think? Such a big fan of a monochrome palette with bright bursts of colour. I would happily have this as my living room - though with more 'stuff/mess' obviously.

I found this picture that I've kept for some time and think it links quite well to the scheme above. The yellow wall is too good for words and I love the graphic black and white poster at the back. I'm also intrigued by the corner of the plant diagram banner on the left, I love things like that! Very science lab chic.

So down to business and here are the other artists that I really enjoyed at the show. The first is Emma Franks. There is something about her paintings that I just can't get out of my head. They are quite melancholy but very sweet at the same time. They remind me of Tim Burton films (early ones) and that's no bad thing. See more at www.emmafranks.co.uk

Maria Rivans makes the most fantastic collages. In fact I'm pretty partial to a collage myself. I really like how she has used vintage collectables, hand made paper, photographs and fabrics to create the pieces.  www.mariarivans.com



So in honour of Maria I am posting one of my own collages. Its slightly less intricate and slightly more homoerotic, but hey, horses for courses.

Last but not at all least is Flora Mclachlan. Wow, I really like these pieces. It seems that I'm very much drawn to work that has a naive dreamlike quality. Flora draws inspiration from the countryside and stories. These pieces definitely remind me of half remembered stories from childhood and the strange magical

things that might happen there when the moon is shining bright.

Flora@murky.net

Now, a thing of beauty to end on. I've mentioned my 'thing' for chairs on here before. Not all chairs obviously, but I think I have found a new contender for absolute favourite. I have no idea who made this chair or what its called, so if anyone does or has one they would like to give me please get in touch. Isn't it just fantastic! It looks like it wouldn't win any awards for comfort, but like many women will say of a favourite pair of heels, its not about comfort its what they look like!



Only Fools and Peacocks and a show at the Palace

I hope that everyone has a had a really good weekend because mine was great. It was one of those perfect weekends which has the right balance of fun, randomness, though provocation, relaxation, art and offal - all will be explained!

Some of you may remember me posting about my friend Laura and her amazing house/ wardrobe/ mess before. Well Laura and her fabulous sister have decided to put all those amazing costumes - not to mention talent for styling, to use and start their own company - Only fools and Peacocks! With Halloween coming up they are the BEST people to contact if you want an amazing costume and they will style your whole look down to the hair and make-up. You can contact them through their Facebook page, search for only fools and peacocks!

So Saturday night found us heading down to the depths of Surrey to take part in a photoshoot to go on their website. We had all received an email/magnum opus of instructions that advised me that the shoot we would be taking part in was 'Grim Reaper and Sin Girls and or Dark Fairy Tales'. So far so intrigued/ confused.

I can't wait to put the photo's on here and there isn't much point trying to describe it without visual aids. What I will say is that we had to lay up a huge banquet table with a variety of props. I use the term prop here loosely as what they turned out to be frozen goats heads, hearts and a cloven hoof so large it could only have come from Beelzebub himself.



A couple of hours later found me with the thawing (yum) goats heads in my hands while I pretended to eat them. So that was the random bit of the weekend covered!

Sunday was a bit of change of pace with not a dismembered body part in sight. We went down to the Palace Art Fair in Bishops park which is down the road from us.

The event is held at Fulham Palace, which is really worth a visit in itself. We missed the fair last year so I was determined to make it this year, and it didn't disappoint. The fair has a relaxed and intimate vibe which is in nice contrast to many of the larger London Art fairs.

Here are some of my picks from the show.

Sarah Young was probably my favourite. Her work has such a whimsical nostalgia to it that I can't help but love it. I think that some of the compositions have a real feel of Chagall to them. Many of the prints that were on show were based on Greek mythology, so I don't know if it was my Greek half drawing me to them. Either way I love her work especially the relief prints. We used to make prints like that at school, creating the design on perspex and printing with it. Might be time to give it a go again.

Check out more of her work at www.sarahyoung.co.uk

We all loved Helaina Sharpley's wirework. The pieces are all so beautifully made and are quite strange to look at actually because you can tell if they have any depth or not. I was so impressed with some of the architectural pieces she had made, the attention to detail is incredible. These would make fantastic original gifts!

See more at www.helainasharpley.co.uk and www.studio-number8.blogspot.com



Having said that Sarah Young was my favourite may have been a bit premature. The paintings of Sasha Bowles were one of the first things we saw. I liked that they were large, as I prefer to work on a large canvas too. They have a fantastic use of colour and texture. As you can see the composition is slightly melancholy or creepy as my friend described it. I love this, I like seeing a real character in a painting that gets you wondering about them. Fantastic.

www.sashabowles.co.uk

I'm going to continue this tomorrow, because there are still loads of great people to tell you about, but I'm all typed out for today! TTFN

Bring on the opening credits

I was totally defeated by my entry yesterday. I wrote it and rewrote it and still wasn't happy with it so I have decided to shelve it and start a-fresh. I couldn't decide what to write but as luck would have it the answer presented itself this evening. I decided to watch one of the films we have recorded and never got round to watching - Dr Zhivago. I've heard so much about it and so have always wanted to see it. In the end I haven't paid it much attention as I was blown away by the beautiful opening credits and started writing!

I love the opening credits in old movies. Its so nice seeing something that has been made lovingly by hand. They are real works of art. Below are some stills from the opening sequence, I hope you will agree that they really are incredibly beautiful.

I can't find who the artist was who painted them, so if anyone happens to know I'd be very interested to find out. They really remind me of the 'Birch Forest' paintings by Gustav Klimt. These particular paintings are the complete antithesis to Klimt's for famous gilded and bejewelled society spectacles by the remain incredibly beautiful in their simplicity.





I'm such a fan of the incredible art that was created by the film studios before the advent of computers saw the end of many hand drawn credits and posters. I've put some of my favourites below.













The poster for the Ipcress file is particularly brilliant. There are so many more I wanted to share, I could go on forever. I think I will have to revisit these great posters another time. For me they really are some of the greatest art of the Twentieth Century. The way that image, colour, font and texture is used to create the feel of the movie is incredible.

Well back to Dr Zhivago - I missed most of it now!

Video Games

Whooaaa, I'm back. Been on a vacation which was great but its back to reality and back to work. To keep you updated, all is going well with the Rook and Raven gallery and their website is up and running at http://www.rookandraven.co.uk/.



 I have a massive back log of posts to put up here thanks to trade shows and designweek but todays post is purely indulgent. I'm totally in love with the song 'Video Games' by Lana Del Rey - I've been listening to it on loop all morning. Its so great when a song gets under your skin like that and it doesn't happen very often anymore. When I was a teenager my life was governed by the songs that defined my every moment it seemed.



I saw Lana's video a few months ago when I was working in the office so I didn't have the sound on. Its definately not like your average pop video being made up of hand held footage and vintage clips and muddled together. The overall effect is a rather dreamy, very lazy days in L.A feel which I'm sure is what they were going for. It reminded me of Crazy/Beautiful which was a Kirtsen Dunst film and Tom Ford's Single Man for its use of overlapped saturated imagery. Check it out below.

Its my favourite song of the year so far and if you haven't heard it you must. The song is hauntingly beautiful, with heaving church bells and sweeping melodies that leave you with the impression you must have heard it before.



 Lana herself is an intruiging mix of California babe, Disney princess and ghetto girl. The whole package is the perfect product of several trends that seem to have had a popstar lovechild. This has led quite a lot of internet and press negativety about Ms Rey. Which seems slightly unfair considering she hasn't even released the track yet, but then people do love to spend their time destroying others so.



Either way, its a beautiful song/video/girl combo. So in homage I have put together a few of my own images that I think could be used to make a suitably 'Video Games' style impression.



Well I'm quiet impressed with those. I think they would make a great promo. Now I have to get on and do some actual work. Be back tomorrow. Ciao