Paint By Number Issue 3 Launch Exhibition

I know it's late but I really wanted to share some images from the launch of Paint By Number's third issue. The launch night was fantastic and the turnout was amazing. I am honoured to have been featured in the magazine and it was lovely to meet and talk to new people at the exhibition. Because the night was so well attended I didn't manage to take photos of all the work but here is a small selection of what was on show. If you like what you see and you haven't already purchased a copy of Issue 3, don't worry, you can still get your hands on one here!

Laurie Vincent

Andy Welland

Jake Mullins

Songnyeo Lyoo

Chya Hsu

Jenny Beard

Aidan Quinn

Paint By Number Issue 3 Launch

Issue 3 of Paint By Number launches this coming Friday (11th November) with a one-night exhibition at Studio 24, Leeds, and I can't wait! Alongside 24 other emerging artists, my work will be featured in the 52 page, full colour magazine which is really exciting for me as it will be the first time my work will be published as a physical paper form. The exhibition will showcase work of a selection of the featured artists and will officially mark the launch of Issue 3. It will be the first opportunity to purchase a copy of the limited edition magazine so if you are in leeds then get yourself down to Studio 24 on the 11th November. It would be awesome to see some of you there and your support would be greatly appreciated!

For more info, please click here to view the Facebook event page.

Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2016

Kate Fahey - Cumulative Loss

As well as visiting the John Moores Painting Prize 2016 on my day trip to Liverpool I also managed to see the Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2016 exhibited at The Bluecoat. The Bloomberg New Contemporaries features 46 artists chosen by guest selectors Anya Gallaccio, Alan Kane and Haroon Mirza. The exhibition showcases artists working in a wide range of disciplines from painting and drawing to new media such as image manipulation and animation. I found the show very interesting and I felt particularly inspired by the work of Jack Bodimeade and James Berrington which has given me a few ideas for my own practice so it was definitely worth the  visit.

Here are a few photos from the exhibition.

Anna Bunting-Branch - W.I.T.C.H

Jack Bodimeade - Plug 1.1, Plug 2.2

Jack Bodimeade - Plug 7, Plug 8

Seungjo Jeong - Interface L3

Sebastian Jefford - Salvaged Gore

George Ridgeway - Tides

Zsofia Schweger - Sandorfalva, Hungary #18

James Berrington - Smeed Dean Islington yellow Rustica, Whitburn Orange Multi

John Moores Painting Prize 2016

On Tuesday I went to Liverpool to see what events were happening in conjunction with the Liverpool Biennale and while I was there I took the opportunity to see the John Moores Painting Prize 2016. I submitted a painting to the John Moores Painting Prize last year but I was unsuccessful so it was really interesting to see the standard of work I was up against in the exhibition. While I didn't like or resonate with some of the artwork I understand why my work was not selected. I don't think I'm quite on the same level as some of the artists in terms of painting and concept but I hope to get there by the end of my final year at University. The John Moores Painting Prize is definitely something to aim for and I won't be put off from applying.

Here are some images of the work selected for the exhibition.

Michael Simpson - Squint (19)

Christopher Hanlon - Untitled

Selma Parlour - One, The Side-ness of In-out

Gabriella Boyd - Birthyard

Tristan Barlow - Truck Stop Swamp

Ben Cove - Freeloader

Graham Crowley - Blue Drift 4

Zhang Yang - OLD NEWS

Wang Wang - Corrupted Land

New Beginnings

Silson Contemporary has officially opened! Friday 7th October saw the launch of Silson Contemporary, a new independent art gallery located in Harrogate, with its first exhibition 'New Beginnings' that is currently showing a few of my selected artworks. The private view was fantastic as I was able to meet some of the other exhibiting artists and the buyers of my two paintings; "White and Blue Pot" and "Handmade Pots on Indian Stone".

It was a very exciting occasion for me because it marked the first time my work had been selected to be shown in a commercial art gallery. It was amazing to be able to meet and talk to so many different people involved in the gallery and enjoy the delicious nibbles generously provided.

There is an incredible mix of artworks for sale at the gallery including encaustic paintings, devoré, bronze sculptures and charcoal drawings. You can check out the Silson Contemporary website here for more details on each exhibiting artist and their available work.

Here are a few photos from the private view (photos courtesy of Amy because I forgot to take some!)

Thank you to Sarah at Silson Contemporary for putting in so much hard work and for believing in my paintings enough to have chosen them to be exhibited in the gallery! Also, thank you to Terry who kindly provided both Amy and I with a lift to the private view!

If you have a spare moment you should check out everyone else's artwork. Here is a list of all the artists and links to their websites (or other relevent pages):

• Gina Bean
• Cath Brooke
• Peter Clough
• Gary Crowder
• Claude Frere-Smith
• Richard Gray
• Marcus Hammond
• Bali Kaur
• Suman Kaur
• Moz Khokhar
• Gill Kirk
• Terry Lister
• Julia Poulton
• Pietro Sanna
• Freya Stockford
• Dionne Swift
• Gary Thomas
• Tim Tudor
• Anna Whitehouse

Silson Contemporary

This October is particularly exciting for me as it marks the first time I will be showing selected works in an official, commercial, contemporary art gallery. Located within fifteen walking minutes of Harrogate city centre, Silson Contemporary is a new independent art gallery exhibiting the work of emerging and established artists from Yorkshire. With over twenty gallery artists the work on show covers a diverse range of disciplines from painting and printmaking, drawing and textiles and ceramics and sculpture.

This amazing opportunity was a result of hard work and a case of being 'in the right place at the right time'. During my second year at university I spent a lot of time (and money) submitting my paintings to exhibitions and competitions and it proved pretty successful. I had also been working non-stop on my website as part of a university module to get it looking as professional and streamlined as possible with the aim of getting it to  appear high on the search engine results. 

After a bout of exhibition rejections I was finally accepted to display a painting at "Fresh", an exhibition showcasing the work of thirteen emerging artists from the North of England. My painting was exhibited in the two-week show alongside fellow Leeds College of Art students Terry Lister and Mia Allonby. It was because of the show that Silson Contemporary had discovered my work and had then proceeded to contact me about it through my website. 

It's a good job I sent off those applications and put in the hours on my website!

Summer

As summer draws to an end and enrollment day creeps closer I'm left reflecting on what I've achieved over the past three months. Admittedly I've not been the most active on social media recently but that does not mean to say I stopped making things over the summer break; in fact I've got some exciting stuff lined up for the next few months!

This summer has been amazing for me as I've been able to have a little break, earn some extra money and I also managed to fit in some art related stuff too. Here is a little update on what I've been getting up to.

The biggest piece of news is that in October I will be represented by Silson Contemporary, a new independent contemporary art gallery in Harrogate that is showcasing the work of selected emerging and established artists from Yorkshire. This is extremely exciting for me as it's the first time my work will be represented by a gallery and I can't wait to attend the opening night of the first show. I will be writing a separate post later this week that goes into this in a little more detail so look out for that.

I've also had a short feature on the online gallery, Isthisit?, for their 17th weekly exhibition (which you can find here). Curated by siteTitle, Isthisit? is a platform showcasing the work of emerging artists with a new exhibition each week focusing on different themes and concepts. It was amazing to be featured on this online gallery and a somewhat new approach to getting my work out there.

Paint By Number Issue 2 Cover

I am also pleased to announce that in late October I will be featured in the third issue of Paint By Number, a full-colour artist magazine showcasing the work of emerging creatives. I was really happy to find out my painting had been selected for the next issue as it's the first time my work will be published in print. As a huge fan of art magazines such as Parterre de Rois I am eager to be featured in a new independent art publication like Paint By Number.

I've had a couple of paintings selected to be part of the 2016 Art For Youth North exhibition in October. Art For Youth is an exhibition that displays the work of Northern artists where 33% commission of sold artworks is donated to the charity UK Youth in the aims of improving the lives of young people through support, encouragement and new opportunities.

Lastly, I have finally made some small tweaks to my blog and website to give them a more professional image. I'm trying to make my online profile appear as streamlined and polished as possible which meant adjusting my layouts and updating my information. My website is now on one platform (Cargo) and I have bought my own website domain, jakemullins.com. I now also have the necessary information in my CV and Biography and my social media platforms link to one another making it much easier to navigate; let me know what you think!

At the start of September I spent an amazing ten days in Cornwall and managed to fill up two rolls of film. Since returning I've been working full time at the cafe so I haven't had the time to get them developed yet. Now I'm back to my normal shifts I will hopefully be getting them developed very soon so I'll be sharing them in a future post!

Essence of Gender

Curated and organised by Exhibit.Leeds 'Essence of Gender' showcased the work of Bobbi Rae, Romily Alice, Megan Helyer and Michael Pittman who represent gender within their individual art practice. The exhibition explored the cultural and social gender norms, celebrating the model human body through the work of local artists utilising different disciplines. As a fellow student at Leeds College of Art I was really keen to get down to Munro House and find out what Romily has been getting up too since the end of second year and it's safe to say she's been busy! I love her neon drawings and it was awesome to see them in an exhibition environment alongside work of similar themes. Here are some images from the exhibition.

Romily Alice

Romily Alice

Romily Alice

Michael Pittman

Michael Pittman

Megan Helyer

Megan Helyer

Bobbi Rae

Bibbi Rae

Bobbi Rae

Patrick Hughes - Forwards to Backwards

I was extremely excited to hear that Leeds College of Art are holding a month-long exhibition by Patrick Hughes, a Pop Artist and inventor of the optical illusion he named 'reverspectives'. As part of the colleges 170th birthday, Patrick Hughes has been invited back to Leeds College of Art (Hughes taught at LCA between 1964-69) to show a selection of his works in an exhibition entitled 'Forwards to Backwards'. 

The reason I was so excited to see the show was because I came across Hughes' work back in 2011 while studying AS Art where I was focusing on perspective. Out of all the artists I was looking at during that year, the paintings by Patrick Hughes are by far the most interesting. His work is half way between painting and sculpture where he uses reverse perspective to create illusions that fool the eye into thinking the paintings are moving. Murray McDonald (a critic of Patrick Hughes) explains the work in a couple of sentences: 

'By making his art conform to a perspective design, forcing his imagery of doors and books and artworks and Venice and rooms and boxes into his simple system, and always constructing back-to-front, inside-out, he baffles the see-er. As we walk past there structures, or bob up and down, they move, we say, although actually the movement is not real but surreal, it is created in our minds'.

I managed to get to the opening of the exhibition which was awesome as I was able to meet Patrick Hughes and listen to his speech which thanked all those who had attended and summarized some of his memories at Leeds College of Art. Here are some images of a few paintings currently on show at the Vernon Street site until the 9th September. Hughes' work is amazing and is best seen 'in the flesh' because you really only understand the work as you physically dance around them; images don't give the work much justice so if you're free in Leeds make sure you don't miss out and give it a visit!