'Nothing To See Here'

A week ago today I finally made the trip down to London to visit Oliver Jeffers' exhibition 'Nothing To See Here' in the Lazarides Gallery on its last day of being open to the public.

This small, understated gallery situated just off Oxford Street was the perfect choice to house Jeffers' artwork in his first London-based exhibition. Its natural interior consisting of bare-brick and white walls with wooden flooring complimented the series of works beautifully; varying from large, traditionally painted canvases to a collection of scattered hammers nailed on the wall.

His still-life paintings referenced 18th & 19th century landscapes whilst featuring contrasting images of men in smart suits and objects associated with modern-life. These subjects provided the perfect contradiction to explore recurring themes of censorship and power in today's society. Through these works the artist studied society's desire to be in control, and explored the issue of social ignorance and peoples' relentless need to feel empowered.

In another set of artwork, Jeffers continued his career-long exploration of the relationship between words and pictures. In this case, by defacing the traditionally painted canvases with a contradictory statement, i.e. 'Nothing To See Here', the viewer felt conflicted over which source of information to believe.

An incredibly thought-provoking collection of works demonstrating Oliver Jeffers' differing artistic approaches to very pertinent social issues. It was humbling to be able to see these works up close and the exhibition exceeded all my expectations - a beautiful collection of artwork!

A big thank you to my beautiful, favourite red-head, Melissa, who accompanied me!

Design Juices feature

The creative blog Design Juices have featured me on their website! Its a great website which showcases emerging talent across the globe (including graphic artists, illustrators, photographers and more), and it's a fantastic platform for us newly-graduated students to proudly display our work. A big thank you to Jared Thompson for the opportunity!

Check it out, here!

Dinner break doodlings

Just a little biro sketch I did on my break at work - it helped break up the monotony!

Exciting exhibitions!

Afternoon! It's all hands on deck at the minute trying to catch up on the past few months, but I'm making steady progress! My Twitter account is up and running (@hw_illustration) and I've already gained quite a few followers, which looks promising! I've also had a wonderful opportunity come my way as a result, which I'll update you of as soon as I can.

I'm also planning one or two trips to London as there are lots of exciting exhibitions lined up over the coming months, two in particular I'm thrilled about! The first is already open; 'Nothing To See Here' held at the Lazarides Gallery in London by none other than my favourite artist & illustrator - Oliver Jeffers. It runs until Thursday 3rd October and shows a series of new works questionning human behaviour and ignorance. I've been observing the progress of the oil paintings and exhibition preparation via Jeffers' instagram & twitter accounts (@OliverJeffers) and it looks fantastic, really thought provoking! For more information, opening times and directions, click here.

Secondly is an exhibition by Rob Ryan, an outstanding papercut artist, entitled 'There Is Only Time' at the Sims Reed Gallery, London. The show runs from the 23rd October til the 8th November. I can't wait to check out the intricacy of his work first-hand! The gallery is also holding a book signing for his new book 'The Invisible Kingdom' on Saturday 26th October between 1-2pm, so I'm hoping to coincide the two. For further information and a few sneak peaks at the work to be shown, click here.

Busy and exciting times all round!

I'm now officially a graduate!

On Thursday morning I graduated from the University of Lincoln with a degree in Illustration! It was such a beautiful day, everyone looked really lovely and very dapper indeed - I felt so proud of us all. I can't wait to see what the future holds - what opportunities may arise, who I will meet, and how my work will evolve along the way - not only for myself but for everyone I shared the experience with.

'A Midsummer Night's Dream' prints

For my Negotiated Unit I selected 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' as my literary source of inspiration. I decided to focus on its strong theme of 'nature' to produce a set of three prints, to be sold as part of a limited edition, promotional pack for a re-release of the play. The script is in no short supply of quotations for which I could have chosen for these prints, however I decided upon the quote 'Out of this wood, do not desire to go' spoken by Titania (Queen of the Fairies) in Act 3, Scene 1.

To add depth to the prints, both visually and symbolically, I used my own photographs as backdrops for the printed typography. I took photos of woodland and flowers mentioned within the play, then played with the brightness/colours/opacity of the images using Photoshop so as they wouldn't distract attention from the quotation. I then lino printed directly on to these print outs. I really love the subtlety of the photographic background and its definitely a technique that I'll be exploring in my future work!

Degree Show work

I thought I'd post some samples of my work that I submitted for my final university deadlines - better late than never! I created a set of 4 greetings cards in response to a competition held by YCN for UK Greetings, whereby we were asked to produce a collection of cards for an occasion of our choosing. Since I have a fondness for old maps & used postcards and working over collaged backgrounds, I saw this as an opportunity to create a range of cards with a 'travel' theme.

Using a combination of lino print, collage, and traditional rubber letter stamps I produced these cards. Although I like the outcome, I intend on reworking these at some point in the future to try to simplify & brighten the aesthetic.

An area of illustrative design I'm going to explore in more depth over the coming months are repeat surface patterns. Using a leaf design I carved from a sheet of linoleum I created these patterned backgrounds, which I also wish to revisit in the near future to create a more complex design featuring additional leaf designs.