Made Here - Foundation Exhibition

It's hard to believe that it's been over a year since I went to see the Leeds College of Art Foundation exhibition, Going Going Gone, which showcased the work of the 2015 students. This year a fresh set of students undertook the Foundation Diploma and recently concluded it with their own exhibition; Made Here, featuring work spanning disciplines from Fine Art, Illustration and Textiles. Although the foundation students attend Leeds College of Art they are located in a different building to the undergraduates meaning we never really cross paths. I am always interested in what our fellow students get up to at Vernon Street and the private view is a perfect opportunity to see what they have been working on over the past year. The show has now finished but I got photos of some of the work so you can get a flavour of what it was all about.

Bonnie Jackson

Megan Curtis

Esther Pearce

Mia Symonds

Shannon Hamilton

(I accidentally misplaced the handout for the Fine Art block so I unfortunately don't know who made the next pieces of work, sorry!)

Second Year Highlights

As my second year of university is now officially over I thought I'd create a post highlighting some of the things I've achieved over the past twelve months. I've worked extremely hard over the course of the year and my efforts seem to have paid off so I just want to reflect and brag a little. I can do that, right? Here are the top five highlights from my year in no particular order: 

1.) This month marks the one year anniversary of Masking Paint! Before May 2015, blogging was a mystery to me, something I only heard people talk about. Amy introduced me to the world of blogging and helped me establish what is now a place I update you on my practice, share artists that inspire me and review exhibitions I've seen or been a part of. I've tried really hard to maintain consistency and share interesting content with you and I believe I've succeeded to a certain extent (although there has been a couple of times where I've struggled to post anything, sorry!). Masking Paint may also be undergoing a slight makeover in the next few weeks which is really exciting so make sure you keep your eyes out for that! I want to thank all of you who give up a small part of your day to read my posts, especially those who comment and the eighteen of you who follow me on Bloglovin, it is much appreciated!

2.) I know 'it's not all about grades' but its nice to know that the time and effort I've put into my work and the small sacrifices I've made along the way have been reflected in the grades I've been awarded. Being an art student is hard and it takes a lot of self discipline to get up and research, make and write about art from 9:30 in the morning until sometimes 7:00 in the evening, five days a week. It's a full time job and it's not something you can easily leave behind once you pack up for the day. So far I've received grades for three out of five modules and I'm currently averaging 74% which I am delighted with! I'm waiting for two more results and I'm a little nervous but I've got my fingers crossed that they too will be a handsome reward for my hard work.

3.) This year I believe I've found my style. Over the course of the year I've focused on two main concepts; Still Life and Interiors. I've taken inspiration from artists such as Caroline Walker, Anna Valdez, Elizabeth Barnett, Guy Yanai and Dexter Dalwood as well as elements from Home Style Magazines such as 'The World Of Interiors' and 'Real Homes'. I've sought to create abstracted compositions of still life pieces and interiors to communicate the idea of wealth and sophistication. My painting style has become the use of bold colours, superimposed shapes and clean lines to play with notions of the artificiality of what we see and read about in television and advertising. These themes and styles have become the centre of my practice and I am going to expand on them next year during my dissertation. I'm pleased to note that I've been given the go-ahead on my dissertation as my proposal received a 'green light'. My task over the summer is to do a large amount of reading and research so that when I return to university in September I have an extensive bibliography ready to hit the ground running.

4.) I've been involved in a lot of external exhibitions as well as being one of the project managers of the second year Exhibition, XOXO. Engaging with the art world outside of the university environment is extremely important because it is the best way to gain experience, contacts and accolades for your artist CV. I've spent lots of money and countless hours filling out application/submission forms to be part of exhibitions and I've had plenty of success. I've been part of six exhibitions; I'll Show You Mine; A Happy Medium; Disposable Society; XOXO; Fresh and Hope//Fear as well as having a feature in the Seagulls Resuse Pop-Up Room. I've also been shortlisted to the second round of judging for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London and for a group exhibition in the University of Syracuse, New York. I was also one of three project managers for the XOXO exhibition which was a huge achievement having drawn in hundreds of visitors with positive feedback. I've worked really hard and have taken rejection on the chin; it's reassuring to know that my work fits into the art world and is gaining recognition.

5.) Last but not least, I've experimented with a lot of other mediums. Although I'm primarily a painter and have been placed firmly within the painting and printmaking strand, I've made sure to expand on my field of practice. Ceramics, metal casting and screen printing has been fantastic in increasing my knowledge of other two and three dimensional methods of working. Last year I was a little scared to investigate other workshop areas which meant I was almost exclusively a painter. This year I've tried to push the boat out and play with other disciplines as it would be a shame not to utilize the equipment university has to offer- I am pleased with my efforts to experiment and I want to continue to do so. 

This concludes my five 'second year highlights' and I hope there will be many more to come. Thank you for joining me on my artistic journey!

City Of Cake!!!

Last weekend The Gallery at Munro House, Tattooed Bakers and Leeds Indie Food built an immersive, edible instillation in the centre of Trinity Leeds named the City Of Cake to celebrate the unique culture of Leeds. Made entirely out of cake and ganache the edible exhibition invited the public to walk through the buildings that give Leeds its individuality such as the Town Hall, the Broadcasting Tower and the Hyde Park Picture House. The best part? you could take a bite of it with you!

After an intense Gym session Amy and I queued up on the second floor of the Trinity centre to walk through the exhibition and take with us a piece of the Kirkgate Market. It was a super cool experience and I could really appreciate the effort put into creating the wonderful masterpieces. I loved the colours of all the buildings and the detail was amazing! For those who didn't manage to see the exhibition I took some photos and I thought I'd share them with you, I hope you like it!

Chris Huen Sin-Kan

All images taken from the Pilar Corrias website (here)

As you may know, I had a piece of work shortlisted for the second round of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition which meant Amy and I took a trip down to London to hand it over for judging. Whilst visiting the capital we spent a lot of time walking around enjoying the lovely weather when we stumbled across an exhibition opening at Pilar Corrias on our way back to the train station. We pressed our noses to the huge glass window for a couple of minutes wondering if it was open to the public before deciding that we would regret not going in if we didn't. We walked into the contemporary gallery probably looking very suspicious as we attempted to blend in trying to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible but I'm glad we did because it was fantastic! Unfortunately, because I was so worried about the fact I was unsure if we were suppose to be there, I didn't take any photos in case someone noticed me. Therefore the images in this post are taken from the Pillar Corrias website, I hope they don't mind!

It was an opening for two emerging artists; Elizabeth Neel's 'Vulture and Chicks' and Chris Huan Sin-Kan's 'Re-Fresh'. Elizabeth Neel's work is very much interested 'in the theme of the psychological undercurrent and friction between the individual and the "landscape", be it natural, urban, ideological or emotional' which is represented by her huge abstract paintings on raw canvas. I loved Neel's  exhibition because of the organic textures captured in the process of her paintings which reminded me of the work by San Francisco based artist Heather Day. However, it was Chris Huan Sin-Kan's work that really caught my eye.

Interested in observing personal, commonplace occurrences in the domestic space, he captures the details and minutiae of everyday life. I admire his use of quick, gestural brush strokes to catch the moments of his dog Doodood or the reality of human nature before they pass, a technique far from my own but has given me some inspiration to loosen up a little when it comes to painting. Chris Huan Sin-Kan captures typical scenes from his studio/home focusing on potted plants in the corner of his room or his dog sleeping on a bed or sofa. These are the types of themes that I am becoming more interested in and concentrating on whole interior scenes of domestic spaces is something I would like to try and materialise in future paintings.

Stumbling upon this exhibition was a great way to end the day in London and it was fantastic to discover such an inspiring artist. If you also like the work of Chris Huen Sin-Kan be sure to visit his website and also check out the Pilar Corrias gallery, they have shown and are likely to show more amazing artists!

Eat Me - Exhibition

Three level five Fine Art students from Leeds College of Art put together a three-day exhibition entitled 'Eat Me' which explored themes of food, sex and gender. Artists Rachel South, Romily Alice and Abigail Richards hired out the gallery space of The Brunswick, a three-story pub on North Street, Leeds, showcasing work from instillation and sculpture to neon art and video. The open night kicked off on the 6th May with guests enjoying the art, beer-in-hand and taking advantage of the free nipple cakes and penis biscuits generously provided. 

For those of you who didn't manage to attend the exhibition, I snapped photos of a few pieces so you can still see some of their work.

Rachel South

Romily Alice

Abigail Richards

If you would like to see more work from the exhibiting artists, clicking their names will take you to their website.

Hand-crafted Pewter Pug Pins

Now that my second year of university is pretty much over, I've been looking for things to keep me occupied over the long summer ahead. Earlier this year I posted about some pewter casting I was doing at home and stated I was working on a set of handcrafted pug brooches. Well, here they are! Over the past few weeks I've been slowly casting and colouring 20 pewter pug brooches in two colours; pink and black, in the hopes of selling them on this years Degree Show Art market, the same one I took part in twelve months ago. 

Last years Art Market was a huge success for all the artists selling work (for a quick reminder, click here) and so this year I am keen to be able to partake again. This year, I'm coming armed with a small army of coloured canines in the hopes of spreading some pug love whilst making some pocket money for future painting projects. I've poured a lot of time into making them (it would have been better to work a part time job for the relative wage I'll make if they sell) but I've loved the challenge and have gained a significant amount of knowledge about metal casting from doing it, something way more important than money any day. I'm really pleased with how they all turned out to say that I made them from scratch in my kitchen!

If all goes well and my little friends are accepted into the market then they will be for sale at the Blenheim Walk Leeds College of Art site from 11th-16th June. After this date (and if there is any left over), I will be putting them onto my online shop so they will be available to purchase if you cannot make it to the market. I'll probably do another post closer to the time so if you're interested, keep your eyes peeled!

Handmade Pots on Indian Stone

It's been a while since I last posted anything and that's because the past couple of weeks have been a little busy with deadlines and presentations capping off my second year at uni. I've finally handed in all my work for assessment, emptied my studio space and sent off my dissertation proposal for next year so I have a little bit of breathing space for the time being.

In April I posted about some ceramic pots I'd made over Easter and mentioned I wanted to use them in my paintings (here). 'Handmade Pots on Indian Stone' is the first painting to feature my ceramic vessels and captures them sat on Indian stone tiles inspired by images of interiors photographed in home design magazines. I wanted to try and capture the surface texture of the pots to depict the unfired and unglazed aesthetic they have through the use of varied shades of grey and gestural brushwork. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and I found it refreshing to work from three dimensional source material rather than sketches or photographs. This is something I want to try and incorporate into my practice more frequently as it helps give a different perspective on the subject.

The next few weeks are exiting for me; I'm going to London on Thursday to drop off a painting for the second round of judging for the RA Summer Exhibition, I've started a few more paintings and I will hopefully be selling some pewter pug pins in the degree show art market (a separate post about that is to come).

As it's moving towards summer I'm hoping to be able to blog a little more consistently, especially as there are a few degree shows on the horizon so keep your eyes out for those! For now though, thanks for stopping by and I'll see you in the next one!