1. Something [Brand New] For The Weekend Guns of the Magnificent Seven, by Craig Davison From the newly launched Summer 2013 collection at CastleGalleries.com

    Something [Brand New] For The Weekend

    Guns of the Magnificent Seven, by Craig Davison

    From the newly launched Summer 2013 collection at CastleGalleries.com

  2. A SCULPTURAL SURFACE We’ve fallen in lust with the work of Solomon & Wu, a London based company who have turned traditional plaster mouldings for the home on their head. These architectural elements add a unique and artistic touch to otherwise unremarkable features.  Solomon & Wu’s aim is to create extraordinary living environments and all of their pieces are handmade. “We want to create beautiful, interesting objects that you won’t find anywhere else,” their website explains. You can take a look at their different collections here. A SCULPTURAL SURFACE We’ve fallen in lust with the work of Solomon & Wu, a London based company who have turned traditional plaster mouldings for the home on their head. These architectural elements add a unique and artistic touch to otherwise unremarkable features.  Solomon & Wu’s aim is to create extraordinary living environments and all of their pieces are handmade. “We want to create beautiful, interesting objects that you won’t find anywhere else,” their website explains. You can take a look at their different collections here. A SCULPTURAL SURFACE We’ve fallen in lust with the work of Solomon & Wu, a London based company who have turned traditional plaster mouldings for the home on their head. These architectural elements add a unique and artistic touch to otherwise unremarkable features.  Solomon & Wu’s aim is to create extraordinary living environments and all of their pieces are handmade. “We want to create beautiful, interesting objects that you won’t find anywhere else,” their website explains. You can take a look at their different collections here. A SCULPTURAL SURFACE We’ve fallen in lust with the work of Solomon & Wu, a London based company who have turned traditional plaster mouldings for the home on their head. These architectural elements add a unique and artistic touch to otherwise unremarkable features.  Solomon & Wu’s aim is to create extraordinary living environments and all of their pieces are handmade. “We want to create beautiful, interesting objects that you won’t find anywhere else,” their website explains. You can take a look at their different collections here. A SCULPTURAL SURFACE We’ve fallen in lust with the work of Solomon & Wu, a London based company who have turned traditional plaster mouldings for the home on their head. These architectural elements add a unique and artistic touch to otherwise unremarkable features.  Solomon & Wu’s aim is to create extraordinary living environments and all of their pieces are handmade. “We want to create beautiful, interesting objects that you won’t find anywhere else,” their website explains. You can take a look at their different collections here.

    A SCULPTURAL SURFACE

    We’ve fallen in lust with the work of Solomon & Wu, a London based company who have turned traditional plaster mouldings for the home on their head. These architectural elements add a unique and artistic touch to otherwise unremarkable features. 

    Solomon & Wu’s aim is to create extraordinary living environments and all of their pieces are handmade. “We want to create beautiful, interesting objects that you won’t find anywhere else,” their website explains.

    You can take a look at their different collections here.

  3. ACROSS THE BUILDINGS How do you turn an art school into a work of art? You call in the Swiss artist Felice Varini, give him a vast amount of weatherproof silver adhesive vinyl, and let him do his thing. And that’s why the surfaces of the buildings at Central St Martins new campus at Granary Square, King’s Cross, London are glinting with a 542-metre- long artwork. What’s fascinating about the artwork, titled ‘Across the Buildings’, is how it was created. The image of the design was projected across the buildings at night; Varini’s team, using cherry-picker lifts, physically traced around the edges of the shapes with chinagraph pencils; cut-to-shape stencils were created, followed by matching sheets of vinyl, which were then bonded to the facades.

    ACROSS THE BUILDINGS

    How do you turn an art school into a work of art? You call in the Swiss artist Felice Varini, give him a vast amount of weatherproof silver adhesive vinyl, and let him do his thing. And that’s why the surfaces of the buildings at Central St Martins new campus at Granary Square, King’s Cross, London are glinting with a 542-metre- long artwork.

    What’s fascinating about the artwork, titled ‘Across the Buildings’, is how it was created. The image of the design was projected across the buildings at night; Varini’s team, using cherry-picker lifts, physically traced around the edges of the shapes with chinagraph pencils; cut-to-shape stencils were created, followed by matching sheets of vinyl, which were then bonded to the facades.

  4. Something For The Weekend Time & Tide, by Alexander Millar Millar’s new collection, entitled ‘Impressions of London’, marks a juncture for him and his artistic style. He is able to successfully combine a delicate mix of nostalgia and sensitivity, capturing the spirit of a bygone age, through atmospheric scenes of our capital city and its workers. Find out more about Alexander Millar.

    Something For The Weekend

    Time & Tide, by Alexander Millar

    Millar’s new collection, entitled ‘Impressions of London’, marks a juncture for him and his artistic style. He is able to successfully combine a delicate mix of nostalgia and sensitivity, capturing the spirit of a bygone age, through atmospheric scenes of our capital city and its workers.

    Find out more about Alexander Millar.

  5. FIRST CUT IS THE DEEPEST   Bovey Lee is a cut paper artist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Born in Hong Kong, Lee has practised Chinese calligraphy from the age of ten, and completed a BA degree in Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Subsequently, she relocated to America and created her first cut paper work in 2005. Lee’s narrative-based cut paper aim to explore the tension between man and the environment in the context of power, sacrifice, and survival. Lee hand cuts each work on a single sheet of Chinese rice paper backed with silk, both of which are renewable and eco-friendly materials. The tools she uses are simple: cutting mat, X-acto knife and blades, staples, clips, and paperweights.  Before the final hand cutting process, Lee composes the images using computer software and then prints out the digital images and uses them to cut with. Lee explains how, “My work is like drawing with a knife and is rooted in my study of Chinese calligraphy and pencil drawing”. Find out more about Lee Bovey’s work. FIRST CUT IS THE DEEPEST   Bovey Lee is a cut paper artist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Born in Hong Kong, Lee has practised Chinese calligraphy from the age of ten, and completed a BA degree in Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Subsequently, she relocated to America and created her first cut paper work in 2005. Lee’s narrative-based cut paper aim to explore the tension between man and the environment in the context of power, sacrifice, and survival. Lee hand cuts each work on a single sheet of Chinese rice paper backed with silk, both of which are renewable and eco-friendly materials. The tools she uses are simple: cutting mat, X-acto knife and blades, staples, clips, and paperweights.  Before the final hand cutting process, Lee composes the images using computer software and then prints out the digital images and uses them to cut with. Lee explains how, “My work is like drawing with a knife and is rooted in my study of Chinese calligraphy and pencil drawing”. Find out more about Lee Bovey’s work. FIRST CUT IS THE DEEPEST   Bovey Lee is a cut paper artist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Born in Hong Kong, Lee has practised Chinese calligraphy from the age of ten, and completed a BA degree in Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Subsequently, she relocated to America and created her first cut paper work in 2005. Lee’s narrative-based cut paper aim to explore the tension between man and the environment in the context of power, sacrifice, and survival. Lee hand cuts each work on a single sheet of Chinese rice paper backed with silk, both of which are renewable and eco-friendly materials. The tools she uses are simple: cutting mat, X-acto knife and blades, staples, clips, and paperweights.  Before the final hand cutting process, Lee composes the images using computer software and then prints out the digital images and uses them to cut with. Lee explains how, “My work is like drawing with a knife and is rooted in my study of Chinese calligraphy and pencil drawing”. Find out more about Lee Bovey’s work. FIRST CUT IS THE DEEPEST   Bovey Lee is a cut paper artist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Born in Hong Kong, Lee has practised Chinese calligraphy from the age of ten, and completed a BA degree in Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Subsequently, she relocated to America and created her first cut paper work in 2005. Lee’s narrative-based cut paper aim to explore the tension between man and the environment in the context of power, sacrifice, and survival. Lee hand cuts each work on a single sheet of Chinese rice paper backed with silk, both of which are renewable and eco-friendly materials. The tools she uses are simple: cutting mat, X-acto knife and blades, staples, clips, and paperweights.  Before the final hand cutting process, Lee composes the images using computer software and then prints out the digital images and uses them to cut with. Lee explains how, “My work is like drawing with a knife and is rooted in my study of Chinese calligraphy and pencil drawing”. Find out more about Lee Bovey’s work.

    FIRST CUT IS THE DEEPEST

     

    Bovey Lee is a cut paper artist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Born in Hong Kong, Lee has practised Chinese calligraphy from the age of ten, and completed a BA degree in Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

    Subsequently, she relocated to America and created her first cut paper work in 2005.

    Lee’s narrative-based cut paper aim to explore the tension between man and the environment in the context of power, sacrifice, and survival.

    Lee hand cuts each work on a single sheet of Chinese rice paper backed with silk, both of which are renewable and eco-friendly materials. The tools she uses are simple: cutting mat, X-acto knife and blades, staples, clips, and paperweights. 

    Before the final hand cutting process, Lee composes the images using computer software and then prints out the digital images and uses them to cut with.

    Lee explains how, “My work is like drawing with a knife and is rooted in my study of Chinese calligraphy and pencil drawing”.

    Find out more about Lee Bovey’s work.

  6. A RAINBOW OF LEGS For our 200th post, we wanted to find something a little unusual… John Breed has been creating works of art for over twenty years. Following adventurous travels, he returns home full of inspiration, craftsmanship, indigenous techniques and combines these to make his own new artworks. He learned to draw calligraphy from a Japanese master in Kyoto, graffiti in New York, painted frescoes in Rome, got in touch with icon painting in Russia and learned to paint traditional landscapes during his trip through China.  This installation entitled ‘Shoe Salon, Breuninger’ by John, was created in conjunction with German department store Breuninger last year. The piece involved 145 multi-coloured shoes and legs that were eventually placed near the store. A RAINBOW OF LEGS For our 200th post, we wanted to find something a little unusual… John Breed has been creating works of art for over twenty years. Following adventurous travels, he returns home full of inspiration, craftsmanship, indigenous techniques and combines these to make his own new artworks. He learned to draw calligraphy from a Japanese master in Kyoto, graffiti in New York, painted frescoes in Rome, got in touch with icon painting in Russia and learned to paint traditional landscapes during his trip through China.  This installation entitled ‘Shoe Salon, Breuninger’ by John, was created in conjunction with German department store Breuninger last year. The piece involved 145 multi-coloured shoes and legs that were eventually placed near the store. A RAINBOW OF LEGS For our 200th post, we wanted to find something a little unusual… John Breed has been creating works of art for over twenty years. Following adventurous travels, he returns home full of inspiration, craftsmanship, indigenous techniques and combines these to make his own new artworks. He learned to draw calligraphy from a Japanese master in Kyoto, graffiti in New York, painted frescoes in Rome, got in touch with icon painting in Russia and learned to paint traditional landscapes during his trip through China.  This installation entitled ‘Shoe Salon, Breuninger’ by John, was created in conjunction with German department store Breuninger last year. The piece involved 145 multi-coloured shoes and legs that were eventually placed near the store. A RAINBOW OF LEGS For our 200th post, we wanted to find something a little unusual… John Breed has been creating works of art for over twenty years. Following adventurous travels, he returns home full of inspiration, craftsmanship, indigenous techniques and combines these to make his own new artworks. He learned to draw calligraphy from a Japanese master in Kyoto, graffiti in New York, painted frescoes in Rome, got in touch with icon painting in Russia and learned to paint traditional landscapes during his trip through China.  This installation entitled ‘Shoe Salon, Breuninger’ by John, was created in conjunction with German department store Breuninger last year. The piece involved 145 multi-coloured shoes and legs that were eventually placed near the store. A RAINBOW OF LEGS For our 200th post, we wanted to find something a little unusual… John Breed has been creating works of art for over twenty years. Following adventurous travels, he returns home full of inspiration, craftsmanship, indigenous techniques and combines these to make his own new artworks. He learned to draw calligraphy from a Japanese master in Kyoto, graffiti in New York, painted frescoes in Rome, got in touch with icon painting in Russia and learned to paint traditional landscapes during his trip through China.  This installation entitled ‘Shoe Salon, Breuninger’ by John, was created in conjunction with German department store Breuninger last year. The piece involved 145 multi-coloured shoes and legs that were eventually placed near the store.

    A RAINBOW OF LEGS

    For our 200th post, we wanted to find something a little unusual…

    John Breed has been creating works of art for over twenty years. Following adventurous travels, he returns home full of inspiration, craftsmanship, indigenous techniques and combines these to make his own new artworks.

    He learned to draw calligraphy from a Japanese master in Kyoto, graffiti in New York, painted frescoes in Rome, got in touch with icon painting in Russia and learned to paint traditional landscapes during his trip through China. 

    This installation entitled ‘Shoe Salon, Breuninger’ by John, was created in conjunction with German department store Breuninger last year. The piece involved 145 multi-coloured shoes and legs that were eventually placed near the store.

    (via itscolossal)

  7. FASCINATED BY ANATOMY Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988), was one of the first African-American artists to reach international stature and wealth in the art world. He had a short but prolific career, rising to fame early for his fusion of multicultural symbols, biting social commentary, distinctive graphic style, and often temperamental personality. Basquiat was, in fact, fascinated by anatomy from a young age (his mother gave him a copy of Gray’s Anatomy when he was seven years old). Heads and skulls became recurring images in his work in the early 1980s. Above: ‘Untitled (Head)’, 1983

    FASCINATED BY ANATOMY

    Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988), was one of the first African-American artists to reach international stature and wealth in the art world. He had a short but prolific career, rising to fame early for his fusion of multicultural symbols, biting social commentary, distinctive graphic style, and often temperamental personality.

    Basquiat was, in fact, fascinated by anatomy from a young age (his mother gave him a copy of Gray’s Anatomy when he was seven years old). Heads and skulls became recurring images in his work in the early 1980s.

    Above: ‘Untitled (Head)’, 1983

    (via artnet)

  8. Something For The Weekend Coastal Breeze III, by Stephen Simpson

    Something For The Weekend

    Coastal Breeze III, by Stephen Simpson

  9. ARTS MUST MAKE ECONOMIC CASE ACCORDING TO CULTURE SECRETARY Culture Secretary Maria Miller has said the arts world must make the case for public funding by focusing on its economic, not artistic, value. She told arts executives in a speech that, “when times are tough and money is tight, our focus must be on culture’s economic impact.” Arts organisations are facing big challenges as a result of austerity measures from central and local governments. Former Arts Council England chair Dame Liz Forgan told BBC Radio 4’s World at One: “The danger in what she is saying is that people actually start to believe that because art produces huge economic benefits, we should start directing our investment in culture for its commercial potential. “That’s not only philistine, it’s self-defeating, because then you get accountants making artistic decisions, which is as silly as having artists making accounting ones. “If you start to invest in art because of an identified commercial outcome, you will get worse art and therefore we will get a worse commercial outcome.” > Watch Maria Miller’s speech. (Above: ‘Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows’, by John Constable).

    ARTS MUST MAKE ECONOMIC CASE ACCORDING TO CULTURE SECRETARY

    Culture Secretary Maria Miller has said the arts world must make the case for public funding by focusing on its economic, not artistic, value.

    She told arts executives in a speech that, “when times are tough and money is tight, our focus must be on culture’s economic impact.”

    Arts organisations are facing big challenges as a result of austerity measures from central and local governments.

    Former Arts Council England chair Dame Liz Forgan told BBC Radio 4’s World at One: “The danger in what she is saying is that people actually start to believe that because art produces huge economic benefits, we should start directing our investment in culture for its commercial potential.

    “That’s not only philistine, it’s self-defeating, because then you get accountants making artistic decisions, which is as silly as having artists making accounting ones.

    “If you start to invest in art because of an identified commercial outcome, you will get worse art and therefore we will get a worse commercial outcome.”

    > Watch Maria Miller’s speech.

    (Above: ‘Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows’, by John Constable).

  10. THE EFFECTS OF LIGHT ON ART Following the University of Antwerp’s investigation into the discolouration of one of the world’s most recognisable pieces of art, van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’, we thought we’d look into how art is effected by light. Unfortunately, all natural light can cause irreversible damage to artworks. The extent of the deterioration depends on the type of light source, its intensity and the length of exposure. Natural light is an extremely intense source of energy and contains ultra-violet (UV) radiation. Most artworks are composed of organic materials and when they are consistently subject to a light source chemical reactions occur that can cause discolouration. The effect of artificial light is less severe, but fluorescent lighting tends to emit UV light, which also causes reactions within the components of an artwork. Although it is not usually possible to prevent discolouration completely, modifying the environment where your art hangs will help to slow down these processes. What to do: Restrict the amount of light the piece of art is exposed to. Maybe hang your art elsewhere during summer when we have more hours of sunlight. Windows can be coated with a clear UV film. Use low-wattage incandescent bulbs.

    THE EFFECTS OF LIGHT ON ART

    Following the University of Antwerp’s investigation into the discolouration of one of the world’s most recognisable pieces of art, van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’, we thought we’d look into how art is effected by light.

    Unfortunately, all natural light can cause irreversible damage to artworks. The extent of the deterioration depends on the type of light source, its intensity and the length of exposure.

    Natural light is an extremely intense source of energy and contains ultra-violet (UV) radiation. Most artworks are composed of organic materials and when they are consistently subject to a light source chemical reactions occur that can cause discolouration.

    The effect of artificial light is less severe, but fluorescent lighting tends to emit UV light, which also causes reactions within the components of an artwork.

    Although it is not usually possible to prevent discolouration completely, modifying the environment where your art hangs will help to slow down these processes.

    What to do:

    • Restrict the amount of light the piece of art is exposed to. Maybe hang your art elsewhere during summer when we have more hours of sunlight.
    • Windows can be coated with a clear UV film.
    • Use low-wattage incandescent bulbs.

  • Blogroll