Sunday 27 November 2011

hello! #5




Hello! Another quick telephone post to brighten up your Sundays. I saw in a magazine last week that telephones are everywhere in interior design supposedly - looks like I accidentally hit a trend! Soon I plan on making some of these little phones available as postcards or greetings - please comment or get in touch if you think that's a good idea or something you'd be interested in! 

This little baby has a kind of 40s Gatsby kinda kick. Enjoy.

Thursday 17 November 2011

hello! #4


I thought that I might as well post this seeing as I had finished it. My fourth lovely telephone. This time I went for a lovely retro Trimphone in an elegant khaki style green. Complete with matching wallpaper. Lovely.

hello! #3


I thought my last blog post was uncharacteristically wordy so I wanted to publish some more illustration. 
So here it is: a third little illustration for my mini series of telephones. This time I opted for an old fashioned edwardian-ish phone complete with eau de nile colour and gold coloured finishings. Fancy. 

Wednesday 16 November 2011

Pre-Raphaelites - Manchester Gallery & Lady Lever Gallery

Yesterday I went on a Pre-Raphaelite tour of the north - Manchester Art Gallery and Lady Lever gallery at Port Sunlight. It was a fantastic (though long!) day and I ended up getting much more out of the day than I had expected! Here's my potted review of the galleries...

The first stop was Manchester, for the Manchester Art Gallery and in particular their exhibition "Ford Madox Brown - Pre-Raphaelite Pioneer". I had no idea how central the gallery was when we drove through to the heart of the city, and it is a very impressive sight even though it is stuck in amongst more modern buildings.

Their permanent collection of Pre-Raphaelites is an impressive one, displaying some of the finest examples of the movement ranging from The Light of the World by William Holman Hunt to Arthur Hughes' Ophelia. These paintings are definitely worth visiting and seeing face to face, as the vibrancy of colour used particularly by Hunt must be seen to be believed.


The Light of the World  by William Holman Hunt. You can see here why you need to see it in the flesh -this does it no justice! 


Arthur Hughes' Ophelia. This also has a lovely frame that is worth seeing (!)


I was only just getting over the brilliance of the collection in the room I was in, only to go through and see an even more impressive selection. I had not anticipated walking into a room and being met by Waterhouse's Hylas and the Nymphs, as well as Rossetti's The Bower Meadow - it was a fantastic surprise! These two images are two of my all-time favourite paintings, and it was amazing to see them in the flesh, particularly to appreciate the level of detail that goes into the works. (If you like me are a fan of Waterhouse's Nymphs and Rossetti in general, similar paintings including Dante's Dream by Rossetti and Narcissus by Waterhouse are at the Walker Gallery in Liverpool).



The Bower Meadow by Dante Gabriel Rossetti


Hylas and the Nymphs by John William Waterhouse


We then went to look at the main event exhibition, devoted to the artist Ford Madox Brown. It was a fascinating exhibit (appropriately sponsored by Farrow & Ball, which for some reason entertained me greatly when glancing around at the muted exhibition wall colours) and had an impressive collection of his pieces including the astoundingly detailed piece Work, painted between 1852-63. The painting is supported by a collection of preliminary sketches and roughs which really help the viewer to understand the painstaking work that goes into such an elaborate painting. Also in this exhibition were sketches from other famous paintings, designs for stained glass windows produced alongside William Morriss and a number of other famous works including Pretty Baa Lambs and The Last of England.

I myself wasn't as impressed with the Ford Madox Brown exhibition as others, not because it was an unsatisfactory exhibit at all, but because I had seen one or two of the works before. As a Birmingham girl, I have visited the BM&AG (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) many times, which is where many of the pieces for the exhibit had been borrowed from, so it felt a little familiar at times. However, this doesn't take away the impact that pieces like Work and The Last of England have on the viewer, and it made me even more enthusiastic about enjoying the pieces that were not from the BM&AG including the window designs, family sketches (his sketches of his sons as babies are amazing, don't walk past them they're right in the corner!) and Brown's entry to a commission competition to paint a patriotic mural in London.



The Last of England by Ford Madox Brown


Work by Ford Madox Brown


The Manchester Gallery also houses a fine collection of paintings by one of Manchester's pioneer artists, L.S. Lowry, as well as collections of paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries, including works by renowned artists Gainsborough, Reynolds and Stubbs.



Our next stop was a little drive to Port Sunlight, the purpose built village that housed the factories and workers of the Sunlight Soap company. Inside this spectacular village is housed the Lady Lever Gallery, a memorial gallery to the wife of William Hesketh Lever, founder of the Sunlight Soap company. This gallery houses another collection of PreRaphaelite painting, which is arguably even more impressive than those in Manchester. There was one painting in particular I knew that was here, which I had determined to see ever since first seeing a copy of it in print - The Scapegoat, by Holman Hunt.

I was not disappointed. On entry to the first room, it is just to the right and has all the dazzling impact I had expected. Ok, so it's a painting of a goat, but still! It's what is behind the goat that I am interested in - the amazing colours of the far eastern landscape that were so truthfully captured by Hunt, and the incredible attention to detail.


The Scapegoat by William Holman Hunt. This definitely needs to be viewed in the flesh, just look at his little face...  but seriously, this does it no justice!


After this initial viewing I thought it wouldn't get much better, and for a while it didn't - Bubbles is on the wall in the area to the right of The Scapegoat, an image that is impressive but that I am not overly fond of. However, in the room on the opposite side of the building there are so many of my favourite paintings it was hard to decide which one to stare at for the longest! Rosetti's The Blessed Damozel needs to be visited in person just so that you can behold the incredible frame it is housed in; The Beguiling of Merlin by Edward Burne Jones is so beautiful that no print image can truly do it justice; equally The Tree of Forgiveness by Edward Burne Jones is quite breathtaking; and the attention to detail in May Morning on Magdalen Tower by Holman Hunt, a painting I had not even seen in print before, was incredibly rich and full of bright light.

 
The Blessed Damozel by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a work that was completed in sync with this poem also by DG Rossetti.


The Beguiling of Merlin by Edward Burne Jones

                                                     

The Tree of Forgiveness by Edward Burne Jones. It is worth going to gallery to read the beautiful story behind this painting alone, let alone to see it in real life.


May Morning on Magdalen Tower by William Holman Hunt


By this point I was all Pre-Raphaelited out - it truly was a brilliant collection. Also housed in the gallery are (what I would call less interesting but equally awe-inspiring) other collections, including a small collection of pieces by Reynolds, an entire collection of pottery by Josiah Wedgwood including an imposing Wedgwood fireplace, and a large collection of (apparently historically important) Greek urns.

All in all, I did not go home disappointed, and I highly recommend a visit to these galleries if like me you are a Pre-Raphaelite fan. I also feel it is worth mentioning that both of the art galleries are free entry, so even if you are a bit poor like I am at the moment you can be inspired by art.


Manchester Art Gallery is open Tuesday - Sunday, 10am - 5pm. Free entry.
"Ford Madox Brown - Pre-Raphaelite Pioneer" is now closed.
The Lady Lever Gallery is open daily, 10am - 5pm. Free entry. 


(Copyright of images to their respective galleries and owners, of course, as they are clearly not mine!)

Sunday 13 November 2011

hello! #2


Second instalment of my new mini series of illustrations. I really did enjoy drawing this Hamburger phone.

hello!



Just a quick post to share one of the things I have been working on recently. I have always loved drawing little random objects, and since one of my meetings in New York when I was advised that this is one of my strong points, I decided to stick with it. I've started working on a short series of spot illustrations (can you guess the theme?) and this is the first in the set. I might use these for a more constructive purpose in the future but for now...

hello!

Thursday 3 November 2011

festive


Hand drawn Christmas holly themed typography

Continuing on the theme of being way too prepared for Christmas, I wanted to share with you a little of the work I've been doing on my own gifts ready for the big festive season. I designed a Christmas-themed font for all of the different elements of my gifts, and have been busy designing labels for different things just to give my gifts a more personal edge. I can never get away from my love of Typography so this was the perfect chance to get some festive designs ready.

 (Anyone reading this who I will be giving the following gift to - I hope this doesn't spoil the fun when you receive yours! it tastes good, trust me I've tried it!)


Handmade Mincemeat in personalised jars


This year I decided to make my own mincemeat, as I have often wondered if it would be really that difficult. Turns out it's not, at all! I opted for our national treasure Delia Smith's recipe which can be found here. Then I simply customised the jars with Christmassy fabric, print out labels and festive ribbon.  


Wednesday 2 November 2011

Skull



Recently I have been working on a submission for 'The Big Skull Collab' over at this blog. I found out about the project through twitter (of which mine you can follow here should you want to) from the good people at Illustration Rally who shared the link a few weeks ago. I sent my entry in yesterday and so I thought I would share it with you here (hoping I'm not sharing it with you too early!). The skull itself was illustrated by James Fenwick, the illustrator who started the collaboration, and the rest was all me - I wanted to go with the whole candy-land gingerbread theme I have been painting recently (you may notice a recognisable gingerbread man has snuck his way into this piece) as I found that it had been inspiring me. It's kind of crazy and a little bit overwhelming but I wanted it to be crazy detailed! and I think it'll be pretty different to all the other entries. If you are interested in submitting something for this collaboration there is still 9 days left before it closes and you can get more information from the Dead Fuzz blog.

 Will continue with this theme for another few projects hopefully, and I will soon be starting something type-based that will hopefully be very exciting, so keep your eyes peeled!

*edit 9th Nov* Just a quick addition to this post - if you'd like to see my fabulous friend Natasha Aldred's submission to this competition go here, it's a wonderful blog!