New designers 28th June 2012

Slightly late at updating my blog, but have been very busy in between days out. Today is Alisha's birthday so don't have much time this morning to update !!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALISHA!!

New Designers 2012: Admission: £8.50 plus a booking fee of £1.50 - £10 total. This was slightly cheaper than normal as i had a voucher code.

New designers exhibition was the first time i have ever been to see all of the newly graduates work altogether. It was very insightful i learnt alot about presentation and different disclipines, i didn't go for ideas as this would be very unfair on all the hardwork they had put in. Les is always telling us that we need to go and see it before our third year, to know how much is expected of us. I was quite suprised and didn't really know what was expected as some people had obviously gone up and beyond on  their work taking care of every little details wheras some people just had their work layed out. I know what was successful in my eyes so i will strive to (hopefully if i get the chance to exhibit) work to that level. There is no point on doing a art degree course if you don't out every effort into it, the art industry is a very competitive world, which in my opinion i hate! I hate comptiveness it can change people, and can hurt others. I feel as long as you work really hard and enjoy what you do then you have succeeded! I am competitive which is probably why i hate it, as i hate the emotions that come with it! Overall the experience was a good one (although very muggy!) it was very insightful and i had my favourites ! It has truly inspired me to keep going with the course, i know a girl who graduated recently from university and exhibited at new designers and i know how much pressure she was on, but she did fantastically and i have learnt so much from the first hand experience.

Me and Natalie-WELL DONE NATALIE!!

New Designers 2012.

There was loads to see,we saw a range of works from textiles,fashion and jewellery.What i liked was that some people had chosen to give their work a context though i don't know if this is a good idea, the whole concept of doing textiles is to develop a material not a product and to survive in the industry you have to be adaptable and commercial. I feel if you give it a purpose you're narrowing you're career options, although if you know that's what you want too do then it is a positive step in the right direction. For me i like all aspects of textiles, my interest lies with interior based textiles but working in retail and doing this course i have also come to love the fashion aspect aswell.

Margo Selby who came into univeristy to give us a seminar said that she never knew what she wanted her work to be so let the buyer/user decide and i think this is a great attitude to have as it lets the consumer connect indirectly with the product and to give it their own stamp on it! It's giving them a choice which i quite like, it's also a great learning curve as you can see how different people interpret your own design!

Fashion Space Gallery: Go Figure Exhibition- Admission: Free.

As well as going to New designers we went to the fashion space gallery which is just situated off of Oxford street which teamed in well with a spot of shopping. It is a small exhibtion in a little room in the art univeristy of London. Here it showed different artists approaches towards fashion illustration, this was very influential to me as at the moment in my spare time i have been heavily involved in portraiture. I have been doing them as presents so have adopted a typical portraiture approach but nw i have some free time (well hopefully next week!) i can adopt some more experimental approaches.

Hannah Muller was portraiture based with accent colours which was interesting, and i will bear her in mind when it comes to doing more portraiture but as i said in a previous post i quite like sabine pieper fluid loose drawings. Another artist called Rosie McGuiness also caught my eye.

Hannah Muller.

Rosie McGuinness.

Watch this Space!

'go figure' tickles my fancy.

On Thursday i am off to London with some friends to visit the new designers exhibition and along with this we wanted to get the most out of thie trip as possible along with a spot of shopping down Oxford street! Fashion Space Gallery has an interesting exhibition on at the moment called 'go figure' and the context of the work is new fashion illustration. This i think would be really useful for my textiles course as we are told to explore all different avenues of where our work could be contextualised. I think this would also be good for me to see as i have got back into my paintings of people so i could perhaps find a new medium or technique that i could incoporate into my paintings.

Cristian Grossi

Sabine Pieper

Hannah Muller.

These few artists all look very interesting, and will be an eye opener to see what else there is to them in the flesh. These i don't think are featured at the exhibition. I am also keen to get an impression on the other work as what you might not like initially normally has the deeper story for you to understand. I like that about work how you can portray one thing and mean another, i like work to have a meaning to create and provoke thoughts and feelings- you directly connect through art to the viewer.

Seven Ways Exhibition

Today has been extremely busy i only just have enough time to write this! I got up at 5:30 today to go into work, when i got home i baked a cake as my grandma was coming over for afternoon tea, planned to make polish cake for her aswell but she got here before we had finished so Jake and Beth carried it on whilst we went to the seven ways exhibition at the wymondham arts centre... and breathe.....

She lives in Suffolk so it is a rarity that she comes here as it's a long windy drive, and she works alot so it is hard to snatch some time from her. We have recently just had a courtyard made up in our garden and now that the grass seed is down (finger crossed we'll have fresh green grass in time for the summer!) we can focus on prettying up the courtyard. My step mums idea is to get lots of plants out there and as my grandma has a gorgeous garden filled with potted plants, blooming flowers, a little rustic table and chair set - she is the perfect person to get help and advice from. We took a trip out to all the local garden centres(not the best of days considering the rain and wind is out of control) to get ideas on what kind of plants and trees and flowers would suit best out there. Our house is a terracota colour so reds and natural colours have been chosen i think this will look really quirky and fun :)

After all of this we got to indulge in the exhibition. My uncle - Richard Hunter and my auntie - Dee Nickerson were exhibiting their work there and it is lovely ! Richard has gone for an abstract approach to colour and composition wheras Dee is more illustrative and has used fresh colour palettes and natural landscapes....

 Taking a look round I found that Nelly Closes' work was also very interesting and quirky in appearance.

I like how she layers up colour and media,layering up thicknesses of medium and texture!

Her work is quite abstract as it isn't life-like but has a hint at real life. The use of bold colours makes it her own, and is her own personal attachment to the subject that she therefore portrays.

I like the accent red color on this they remind me of lots of little poppie flowers! This is interesting due to the fast that she has set up a forest like landscape and has added a checquered geomteric addition to the painting and then further added these organic poppy shapes. I really think this is visually pleasing.

detail photos of some of her work. I really like anything floral whether it be abstract, or picture perfect and i love how she has combined masculine shapes and colour in with feminine structures.

I also really like her writing!

New Designers

The sun is up again, and preparations for the Summer are coming thick and fast and i have just purchased my New Designers ticket for June in London! I love going to London anyway, so it should be a lovely day and because it's in June,hopefully lovely weather too! I a very excited will have to see if there is any other nearby exhibitions!

Last time i was in London it was very sunny and that was in March so fingers crossed!

London market research day. 27th March 2012

I went to London on Tuesday with one of my friends from university. We went for a textiles market research day and set about to visit galleries and exhibitions, including the design museum, fashion and textiles museum, saatchi gallery andthe fashion space gallery. We had a very long day but i got some inspiration from it!

Design museum:

Cost: £5

He made really intricate prints, most of his work was printed onto rayon and he used similiar techniques. I really like the look of them due to the intricate and the detailed patterns coming together! I also like the use of linear lines over bold prints.

Fashion & Textiles Museum:

Cost: £5

Lucienne day designed these prints. I love how she has used layering within her work. The background unites everything together with the white creating a bold contrast to highlight the subject on each of them. The print then stands out onto the white and on top of that she has used a clear black linear line adding in intricate detail. I am keen to give this a go! It looks very clever and adds in a lot of brightness and colour!

 These printed designs were made by Mary White named 'coppice' in 1954! I love the different combinations of the same print; you can really see visually how versatile they are!

Looking down at the exhibition!

 These hankerchiefs are absolutley adorable! there was a whole room full of these printed hankerchiefs... They are a modern take on vintage artists such as Lucienne Day and Mary White. The designs were done by Nicky Albrechsten who collaborated with Oasis for their spring/summer 2012 collection. They were absolutley beautiful you wouldn't want to use them!

 Fashion Space Galley:

Cost: Free

 This was the exhibtion i was most keen in seeing as i knew Felicity Brown was exhibiting some of her work!

I love the layering & i especially love how she's blended the colours together, the use of vibrant colours onto a natural looking fabric really creates a statement and the dashes of colour are eye capturing! I want to create a sample using layering as i feel the lightness of the fabric represents birds and feathers!

Again loving the use of layering here; and the dashes of not only colour but of the bold prints.Chi chi Lou has made use of knotting and plating within her work here; she plays on the idea of the ripped silk and the stitch are a form of construction and the use of beads are a symbolic represntation of Tibet (a recent trip she had and was inspired!) Eleanor Amoroso has developed the ancient technqiue of macrame to create minimalistic sculptures.

 

Close up of the fabric & the clothes.Love the different surfaces being created here using similar materials:)