Memorabilia Project

During the Spring months I was working on a large set of illustrations for creative Arts company Blazing Tales. These images were to be added to a bespoke tea set for a Dartmoor town.

All the images, words and musical scores were based from conversations with groups of older people in the town as they told us some of their stories and memories. Below are a few photos from some of the cups and saucers.  To find out a bit more about the project you can also have a look at Blazing Tales website. www.blazingtales.co.uk.  

    

I have recently been working on some large scale paintings . Here are just a few of them although it feels just the beginning of my latest body of work. 

http://blog.ted.com/2012/11/12/10-talks-about-the-beauty-and-difficulty-of-being-creative/

The above link is an interesting set of talks from TED on creativity.  Recommended.

The Catrin Mens Dia de los muertos..  

Fab day of the dead face painting tutorial ..

 Im getting my brushes out now.... 

For the past few months have been working on a set of illustrations based on the German story of Parzival.  They will be published by White Cloud Press in a book by Martin Shaw called 'Snowy Tower'. I have almost finished them .. just one left.  Here's the sneak preview. 

beautiful..

The Exeter Book Project

The 10 th century Exeter Book is the oldest collection of Anglo Saxon poetry.  Dr Emma Cayley led workshops about this book and the app that will be soon made.  Alongside myself and Sara Hurley (riddler and storyteller) http://sarahurley.org

We worked with Isca college and Sidwells School creating calligrafitti tags inspired by Niels 'Shoe' Meulman and decorated manuscripts with some great thought out riddles from the students.  There is an exhibition currently on   'From Medieval Manuscripts to 'Calligraffiti'  at Exeter Cathedral.

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/featurednews/title_238712_en.html

Here are the Rock coats and T shirts I made for the  English Riviera Global Geopark www.englishrivierageopark.org.uk. The coats went off to Japan to teach about Jurassic coast of Torbay and these photos are from when they were worn while Nowhere Island arrived in Torbay.  Sported by Musician Hugh Nankinvell & Tony LIdington http://promprom.wordpress.com/  Great making as I got to learn about the main rocks of the Torbay coastline. Grey Devonian limestones, red Permian sandstones and breccias.  You can't really see them in these photos but I also got to draw and embroider some Devonshire fossil pictures, fossils of tilobites, goniatites, crinoids and orthocones on to the coats pockets which was all rather fun. Below are some of my sketches.

Three years on and two books and a film documenting our nine month project along the River Ex is nearly completed..Hurrah.... see the Blazing Tales website for more details...

www.blazingtales.co.uk

the river exe-pedition project' was a series of weekend residentials and outside workshops held at different locations on the banks of The River Exe, from it’s source at Exford down it the estuary at Exmouth. Between February and November we worked with mixed-race families who live in Devon and looked at the landscape and history from a mixed perspective. 

Perranporth

Here are some pictures taken from 2 days work with Perranporth school in Cornwall. We worked outside for the 2 days and we were very lucky with the fantastic weather.

 Varnishing the giant fish made by the children. This was made with stones and pebbles which the children painted during the day. 

Screwing the children's paintings together so they are ready to be erected around the celtic hut (in the background of this photo) once the school have completed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

I work as a visual artist alongside a Musician and Storyteller for Blazing Tales, an expressive arts group.( www.blazingtales.co.uk )and we have just returned from two wonderful sunny days working outside with a 100+ children. The theme of the project was celtic settlers and we worked from a more creative angle rather than purely historical. It was brilliant to work alongside a school who were so clearly keen to incorporate creativity and play into the childrens education. I really recommend having a look at the schools creative blog below. it includes photos of the school's making of a celtic hut with the children in their wildlife garden. Can't wait to see it once they have finished it and the children using it. This link goes directly to photo of our day two's time with the school but you should be able to access the rest of the blog from there.

http://perranporth.j2webby.com/?p=1409

Our photos from the day to follow.....

Below is a link to some photos of another Olympic Banner in the making, this time at Doddiscombsleigh Primary School. I loved the final result. Wonderful group of artists!!

http://www.doddi.devon.sch.uk/content/olympic-banner-project

I have just spent the day with Newport Primary school in Barnstaple. The children in Class 5 both conceived and created this colourful mixed media image representing 'Determination' one of the Olympic values within the day. This will be one of the many banners from schools in the surrounding areas which will be erected around Exeter Cathedral as part of the Olympic celebrations 2012. We were inspired by James Rizzi, the American pop artist who just recently sadly passed away. We thought his eye catching colourful creations were fantastic inspiration for our Olympic and Paraolympic banner. www.jamesrizzi.com

These shadow boxes where created by KS1 children at Marldon Primary School ready for the Bear Hunt exhibition at the Northcott Theatre, Exeter. They look best in a dark spooky place.

These cave paintings were painted by reception children.... some of which were still only 4 years old. They all tried out painting and drawing with Earth Pigments, chalks and charcoal. It's so interesting to see that when you give small children little paint brushes that they can (and do) paint/draw pictures with delicate and intricate features. It is such a shame that something as simple as being able to use a small paintbrush is becoming rarer in schools today with tight budgets, because the quality of drawing even in very young children can change dramatically when given the chance to use better quality drawing tools. Here is a small selection of paintings from Bowhill Primary School in Exeter during November 2011.

These fabric paintings are inspired by the Senufo Mud Paintings from the West Coast of Africa. The children were really stimulated by the Senufo cloth which uses shapes both for pattern and form within their designs. These simple shapes helped the children generate ideas for patterns and how to draw animals using specific shapes. During the second day the children, working with the same creatures made 3D versions from clay.

These mosaics were made by KS1 children from Cyst St Mary. Each mosaic is based on an animal that they would find in the 'long wavy grass' from the book 'We're going on a bear hunt'.
Thanks to British tiles for their contribution to materials.
http://www.britishceramictile.com/blog/we-re-going-on-a-bear-hunt



Between the 8th December and 1st January 'We're going on a bear hunt' will be showing at the Northcott Theatre. On the run up to this a team of artist, myself included will be working with schools throughout Exeter to help create the scenes from the book. These will be exhibited throughout the theatre during the show. Watch this space.....