Hope//Fear Exhibition

Last weekend I was part of an exhibition organised by the Leeds College of Art's Christian Union called Hope//Fear. The show was hosted at St Georges Church, Leeds, and contained work from over thirty artists studying various disciplines such as Photography, Fine Art, Printed Textiles, Illustration and Fashion.

The opening night was fantastically organised with free wine and live jazz as well as an inspiring speech from one of the church members who spoke about our relationship with the emotions of hope and fear. The whole exhibition was organised and marketed excellently with professional banners, posters, booklets and cards and it was a pleasure to have been a part of it!

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a photo of everyones work but I did get a small selection which I thought I'd share with you.

Jake Mullins (Me)

Charlotte Harvey

Zoe Barber

Yvonne Baines

Bethany Rose Salt

Shaun Daniel Wane

Christine Cheseldine

Francesca Furniss and Chloe Jayne Buckle

Paolozzi

As well as the KAWS exhibition, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park is showing some of Eduardo Paolozzi's graphic collages. The YSP isn't a stranger to the work of Paolozzi as it has been home to some of his sculptures in the past. This exhibition is quite different though as it features his post-war pop culture collages that deals with the 'ways in which our society has changed together with its evolving preoccupations'.

I really enjoyed seeing Paolozzi's exhibition and I love how he takes recognisable figures such as Michaelangelo's David and juxtaposes them against popular icons such as Mickey Mouse. It was also interesting to see his sketchbooks as it gave me an insight into how he collages together ideas for future compositions. I really wish I was able to collage with found objects; train tickets, paper bags, postcards and leaflets etc. but I have no idea where to start. Paolozzi's exhibition was very inspiring though so I might start keeping bits and bobs to collage with for a bit of fun. If you haven't already seen his work, you should definitely make a trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. You could also take a stroll to the Longside Gallery to see the KAWS exhibition!

KAWS

I've seen an abundance of photos on social media from the KAWS exhibition and I've been very jealous because it's been on my bucket list of things to see for a while now. After a few weekends of work, I finally got a day off to spend with Amy so we went on a day trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to see the show and it was fantastic!

The Longside Gallery is showing the UK's first exhibition from KAWS and demonstrates the discerning relationship between pop culture, consumerism and art history.  Huge sculptures adapted from his trademark graffiti tag are combined with recognisable cartoons and brand mascots and are shown alongside never-seen-before acrylic paintings that are meticulously created for a flawless finish.

The exhibition continues in the Lower Park with a group of huge wooden sculptures that dwarf the crowds of visitors trying to get a selfie with them. I love how the sculptures have a smooth rounded finish but I definitely prefer the raw wood over the black paint because to me the black paint connotes something different.

I really enjoyed the KAWS exhibition, especially his pantings in the Longside Gallery. I admire the flatness he has managed to capture in the application of paint and the crisp edges of the shapes. It was a super sunny day too so it was a lovely walk from the Lower Park to the gallery. If you haven't been to see the KAWS exhibition yet I would recommend you pay it a visit. It's on until June so there is plenty of time to pop over!

Throwing Clay Pots

I've always wanted to make something on a potter's wheel because it looks so cool! It's one of those things I could watch all day and the professionals who share snippets of their craft on YouTube and Instagram make it look ridiculously easy. 

Inspired by the Centre of Ceramic Art in York and The Great Pottery Throw Down that was on TV last November, I've been waiting for an opportunity to sit down and make a pot, and I finally found that opportunity. I mentioned in my last post that I was house sitting over Easter and it was an extremely pleasant surprise to me that the family own a manual potter's wheel. Upon discovering the wheel, I hurried down to Hobbycraft to buy a load of porcelain clay to give it a go. 

I cut off a slice, rounded it into a ball and threw hard onto the bat like I saw the potters do in the videos. I wet the clay and attempted to centre it on the wheel, my arms flopping around as it span because I didn't realise you had to anchor your forearms on the edge of the drip tray. I wet the clay more and more, squeezing it harder and harder, chasing it round the wheel because of my inability to steady my arms until I was left with a tiny, off-centre smudge of what used to be a good quality lump of clay. It was at this point I realised that pottery throwing is much harder than it looks on the internet and there is a reason only a select few do it as a profession, otherwise everyone would be making crockery for their kitchen.

I probably went through about 5kg of clay before I managed to centre it properly but that's okay because that 5kg of clay gave its life to teach me. After hours of perseverance, a numb foot from all the peddling and sore hands, I managed to get something that slightly resembled a pot. It was an ugly pot.

Revisiting some of the tutorials I'd watched the previous day from Ingleton Pottery and Simon Leach seemed like a good idea especially as I now had some (very limited) experience under my belt. A good night sleep and a 'Fast and Furious' marathon helped clear my mind from yesterdays failures and I got back to work. I eventually got the hang of it and experimented with manipulating the clay into different shapes until I was happy with what I'd made.

I'm really happy with the pots I've created and I've learned an extraordinary amount about ceramics. During my time at university I tend to stick with painting a lot so it was exciting to spend some time trying something new. I paint a lot of pots and vessels in my still life pieces so it could be interesting to use some of my own within the compositions. I plan do do this in the near future so keep your eyes out for that. If you ever get the chance to try pottery throwing you should definitely take it because it's super fun and you will learn a lot about something which has such a simple function that we take for granted everyday.

House Sitting

Over Easter I was house sitting for a family that went on holiday for a couple of weeks so I had a lot of free time in someone else's house. I have mentioned before that I am interested in the idea of the 'perfect home' and modern interior design so living in someone else's home for a long period of time was inspiring and led me to create this piece of work. This painting is also very different from my previous work because I approached it with a much freer style.

I was really interested in the chair, lamp and plant pot that look like something out of 'The World Of Interiors' magazine against the Indian Stone floor and plain white walls. There is no sign of domestic clutter usually found within the home and this is something I was focusing on when producing this interior painting. I love how this painting turned out because it gives off the impression of wealth and sophistication through the choice of colours and objects in the room.

I think I will do more interior themed paintings in the future and experiment with scale to see what this does compositionally. For now though I have a proposal to write for my dissertation so it could be a while yet before I have the time to work on a large painting and when I finally get chance I will be sure to share it with you.

Paintings About Painting

Remember that series of paintings I mentioned I was working on? Well here they are! I've created two triptychs based on abstracting my stencils and taking them out of the trompe l'oeil context they were in before.

I went through my sketchbook of used stencils and picked out some interesting ones that I thought would look intriguing on a larger scale. I then enlarged these onto wood panels and recreated the colours to mirror the original stencils. The edge of the wood panel becomes the edge of the stencil thus making the painting into the object rather than a painting of the object, a little like what Jasper Johns does with his 'Flag'. The colours and shapes also look similar to Matisse's cut outs, especially his more organic plant-like ones.

I really like these paintings as a series of abstract works, I think they definitely look better as a three rather than individually because they all link to each other. It says something about my processes whilst not being super literal about what they are. These six paintings are still fairly small measuring at only 30x30cm and I wonder what they would look like on a much larger scale, possibly at 100x100cm or bigger. For now though I am going to leave this series as it is as I am happy with how it has turned out.

Pewter Casting

Over Easter I was able to try out some new things that aren't necessarily related to my studying practice and Pewter casting was one of these. After watching some YouTube videos of metal casting I was fixated on being able to do it at home as I am interested in trying to do things on a low budget with equipment I can use from around me. Sure, I could easily have gone into university and used their fancy machines at zero cost but where is the fun in that? I am very conscious that when I leave university I will not have access to those things and so I want to learn how to do them with low cost materials that I can use at home. With a budget of about approximately £40 I bought the equipment I needed off eBay and started casting!

It took me a couple of attempts to get the hang of creating the moulds and pouring the metal but I eventually managed to get a successful cast of a Thierry Heny Micro Star football figure. The good thing about pewter is that it is a tin alloy and so has a melting point low enough for me to do it in the oven and if it goes wrong, I can just melt it back down and try again!

Being satisfied with the Thierry Henry figure I decided to push it a little further. Casting models is cool and all but you're just casting something that has already been cast, I wanted to cast something I'd made. I designed a small Buffalo Bills keyring out of lino and turned it into a pewter keyring for my manager at work as we both support the Bills and went to watch them live at Wembley last October. I then designed a small French Bulldog brooch for the beautiful Amy Hodkin as a gift which she loves (even though she probably wishes it was a real one!).

I really enjoyed making the French Bulldog brooch and it was incredibly rewarding to be able to hold something I'd made by hand from scratch by doing a little research online. I enjoyed it so much that I have been working on a set of Pug brooches (everyone loves a pug, right?) that I am yet to colour with enamel and will be for sale in the future. I will do a post about the Pug brooches once they are finally complete so if you are interested in one then keep your eyes open!

I hope you enjoyed this slightly different style of post and feel free to ask me questions or let me know what you think!

Tape Stencils

As mentioned in a previous post I wanted to try and push the idea of the stencils being more of a focus within my work. For this painting I took the stencils out of the context of the still life environment they have preciously been attached to. I want the stencils to look as though they are lightly stuck to a plain wall or surface so that they become individual objects in their own right. It becomes more reminiscent of the trompe l'oeil style of painting because of their realistic size and shape which helps in deceiving the eye, especially when the painting is displayed next to actual stencils stuck to my studio wall.

Iv'e also started a new series of work that you can see pictured on the left hand side of my studio wall which I will explain in a later blog post so keep your eyes peeled for that!

Thank you and I hope you like what Iv'e been up to!

Working Progress

Firstly, I want to apologise for the lack of posts recently, Iv'e been home for Easter break so Iv'e been slacking a little!

I finished these paintings before a few weeks ago now but it's better late then never to show you, right? Anyway, I told you that the white and blue pot would show up again, and it has, twice!

Creating my work involves a lot of masking tape stencils tediously cut out to layer up colours and shapes. I try to keep them as a documentation of process and now I have a sketchbook full of used stencils. In a recent assessment presentation my tutors expressed an interest in the sketchbook of stencils as an object, something I have overlooked because my focus is always on my paintings. Since then Iv'e decided to look at my work slightly differently and realised that I should try and do something with all the stencils. So, inspired by artist James Quinn and the trompe l'oeil style of painting I have made a series of work capturing the paintings in progress. The tape has been painted into the work alluding to it being there whilst also giving the viewer an insight into how the painting is constructed.

My plan is to push this idea further to see what I can do and where I can go as I believe there is a lot of mileage yet to explore with this subject.

I hope you like the different approach to my work and be sure to let me know what your thoughts are.

Also, a quick bit of good news, I was shortlisted to the second round of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition with my painting 'Show Room' and have to deliver my work to London for the second round of judging! There was 12,000 applicants and only 4,000 shortlist places. I know there is still a long way to go yet but I am super excited and happy that I have got through to the next round and with a bit of luck I will have some more good news for you in May when the next set of results are out. For now though, keep your fingers crossed for me?