Christmas Lights

Now that I have my new camera (thanks to my rather generous parents) I have been able to take some great photos of all the things that my previous camera was never able to focus on. I haven't done much personal work this holiday - though I do have some ideas for my next piece - but here are a couple of photos I've taken that really show off the quality of my new camera.

Click the photos for a larger view.

Print Making

I'm not the biggest fan of print making (probably because I have a tendency to injure myself with lino cutters) but I'm quite pleased with how my most recent prints have turned out. They're not anything spectacular - just something simple to experiment with - but I though it would be nice to show you anyway.

The print is based on a photo of chestnuts (to fit with my project theme of nature).

 

Two colours, two layers (left) two colours, one layer (right).

Blend of blue and purple, one layer.

Light Exposure

I will admit, this isn't a particularly artistic post. However, if you wish to interpret it as a collection displaying my - appalling - photographic skills then be my guest! It is in fact a collection of accidental photographs that I took at Waddesdon Manor with my pretty useless camera. I went to a Christmas carol and mulled wine evening held outside on the Manor grounds and there were a few baton and flame throwers there keeping everyone entertained. Anyway, I managed to get some pretty interesting photographs of the patterns their electric and flame batons made as they twirled them around.

Flame above, electric below. The electric ones came out the best. Also, I'm getting a new camera for Christmas so hopefully in future I'll be able to play around with the exposure more when taking photographs like these.

More Paper Art

After pondering about what I could potentially create using paper, pins and foam board I finally came up with an idea that also related to my project theme of gardening. I got hold of some decorative scrap book paper, cut flower shapes out of it using a stamp (not very imaginative, but I was under a time limit) and assembled it together using the pins. I also created an extra level using another layer of foam board and dusted the finished piece with a little silver glitter and voila, my own paper flower patch!

Below are some more photos taken at closer views so you can get an idea of what the final piece looks like up close. I think I'd like to do more work in this style as I feel it was successful. What do you think?

London Calling

I don't have much of my own work to post as of this moment, however I have been out in London these past couple of days visiting various places that are relevant to my project research. This week I visited Wolff Olins which although wasn't entirely useful for my Fine Art course, was a new experience and it was interesting to hear about how they designed the London 2012 logo (more information from them about that here). I also visited the Saatchi Gallery and the Design Museum - both of which I found fascinating and useful for inspiration and research relating to my various art projects. Not only that, but I enjoyed viewing different kinds of art and design that I wouldn't normally expose myself to, which is something that I definitely need to do more often.

Just a few photos from the Saatchi Gallery (above) and from the Design Museum (below).

Paper Art

I'm not one for escaping my comfort zone regarding the materials I work with, but I'm actually quite interested in my most recent task involving paper art. Inspired by the work of paper artist Rebecca J Coles, I'm currently working on creating a sort of sculpture or three dimensional image using paper shapes, dressmaking pins and foam board. The final piece will be themed to match the work of my project and will hopefully look a little better than my practice below.

Have a look at this website clickedy click click (her work is fantastic).

New Beginnings

It's been a while since I've been active on blogger hence why I'm not entirely sure how to use it or make my blog mildly presentable, but I am back! I've been on tumblr for a few years but I've never used it for anything more than re blogging photos of models and other people's artwork that I so envy. However I plan on using this blog to post my own work and hopefully gain some feedback from anyone that stumbles across it. Most of my work I've already uploaded to my Facebook (and none of it is terribly interesting) but this is just an example of free hand painting which I've practising at college on Friday afternoons. As you can see, I need to do a lot more practising.