Canvas and prints at 12 Days of Xmas show

I will have some work in the 12 Days Of Xmas group show in Bristol which opens on 12th December.

I have Giclee prints and very ltd edition screen prints available there along with the rarity that is an Andy Council original canvas - you don't get many of them to the pound. The canvas is 'Edmontractoria', a dinosaur made up of tractors (see pic above).

12 DAYS OF XMAS

Last year was the first 12 Days of Xmas exhibition, it was held in Bristol's former Bridewell Police Station, and was hugely successful, attracting over 4,000 visitors over the 12 days.

This year they've taken over an old motorcycle showroom in the heart of Bristol's Stokes Croft and once again will mixing up art from some street arts leading lights with exciting up and coming artists.

Featuring 70 of the world's most loved & loathed contemporary urban / street / graffiti artists...

Venue: 15 -19 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS1 3PY

Opening night: Friday 12th December - 7pm-10pm

Then open: Everyday from Saturday 13th December - 12pm-7pm

Painty Mammoth at Children Of The Can Jam

Painted as part of huge production at the new museum of Bristol to mark the launch of the book Children Of The Can - 25 years of Bristol Graffiti. I was asked to start the timeline with a cave painting inspired piece. The stick cave painting figures are having second thoughts about attacking the huge Painty Mammoth with their paint brush spears!

Was quite a fun piece to do as I have been wanting to evolve from Dinosaurs to giant prehistoric mammals for a while.

Wasn't sure what colours would be available, so turned out very bright. Think if to do it again would go for lots of shdes of red and orange and more spray outlines than brush. It was very cold so didn't want to experiment too much!

Very big thankyou to Felix for inviting me to paint and shout outs to all the Bristol and West Country Writers/Artists who took part in this epic jam.

Here's my line drawing I was working from which shows the whole of the beast!

Xmas Dragon illustration for Southside magazine

Yeah I know, it's still too early to be thinking about Christmas, but thought I would stick up my Xmas dragon border illustration up for the contents page of Southside magazine.

It's a very long thin dragon made of snow and fir trees that is so long that it needs 8 legs! Quite a small piece, so couldn't quite explore the trashy tinsley side of the season that I wanted to. Perhaps another pic on this theme soon then - loads of gaudy decorations, half eaten mince pies and bottles of Port etc....

Speakerstackasaurus at Inky Goodness 2

My latest Acrylic and spraypaint painting is inspired by the Saint Pauls Carnival in Bristol UK. The streets look very much like this and have huge soundsystems made up of loads of speakers...although they don't form the shape of dinosaurs.

I chose to go with a Stegasaurus this time as it is one dino that I haven't done yet. He seems quite a friendly beast and has someone patting him on the head.

The piece is also inspired by the album artwork on records by the Dub artist Scientist. They are usually cartoony and feature lots of people dancing at a party. There are coppers often in there too like in my pic. Greensleeves records also has lots of covers like this.

I kept the colour scheme very tropical, warm and Rasta. Lots of red, gold and green. The guy on the decks is alot like Jah Shakka and the guy with glasses drinking a Red Stripe was meant to be DJ Derek but looks more like a friend of mine!

The painting is on display as part of the Inkygoodness Hopes & Fears group show of 16 contemporary illustrators and image-makers based in and around the South West.

Features new work by

Lisa Hassell
Michelle Turton
DocVek
Andy Council
Ben Newman
Dave Bain
Seb Burnett
Paul Roberts (Themlot)
James Bourne (Themlot)
Couscous Kid
Vicky Newman (House of Aces)
Simon David Mills
Ainsley Knott
Louise Tyers
Mini Padam
Mike O'Shea

Opening times:
Fri 14 Nov (first day) 11am - 1pm
Sat 15 Nov - Wed 26 Nov 11am - 4pm daily
Thur 27 (last day) 11am - 1pm

Illustrations for Environment Agency magazine

I have recently done these illustrations for the Environment Agency magazine - Your Environment.

I'm particularly pleased with the double page feature illustration of London in 2050 featuring buildings covered in solar panels and trees. Big Ben with a wind turbine on top!

Screen Printing at Snap Gallery

I spent yesterday at Snap Gallery Bristol doing screen printing with the help of ace illustrator Lucie Sheridan. I had lots of fun, drank lots of tea and ate a fair few biscuits. I managed to produce these two different prints -



Very limited run three colour screen print of Tankbunny, edition of six and...



Two of these Bristolgraffasaur prints. Give me a shout if interested in purchasing either as they won't be around for long.

Cube cinema sketch show

Myself and Rowdy spent a fair bit of time covering the walls of the Cube cinema in Bristol with black and white copies of our drawing work. This Farmyardeez show features over forty of my 'Lots Of Stuff' line drawings and runs for a month. It opened last night as part of the One Foot Forward evening of art, film and music. I feel pretty worse for wear today after a few too many zywiec beers.

Thanks to Liz, Bij, Eva and everyone else who helped us.

Upfest

I took part in Upfest this weekend. There were alot of Street Artists there from around the world doing all sorts of painting for the charity event. It was good to meet lots of people and fun to paint, but was also quite hard work.

On Saturday before the main event I came along and did this window drawing in an old Saab that was painted by lots of artists and then going to be auctioned off.



The photo didn't come out that well of it due to reflections and crap camera, but it is the head part of 'Saabasaurus'. The monster is loosely based on Giganotosaurus and is made up of Saab 900's. It was difficult drawing on the inside of the window as at an angle. At one point I had to contort myself and draw up through the steering wheel!

Here's the original pencil drawing I was working from and a close up.





For the main event on Sunday I brought along a tonne of paint and paint 'Graffaceratops', similar to the 'Bristolgraffasaurus' I had exhibited there.



This was very tricky to paint as it was on the main thoroughfare from the bar to the large event area. I kept on having to move out of peoples way and contorting myself again. I managed to maintain a Zen-like composure and complete the piece in the end. I was most pleased with the colours used more than anything else.

Despite the difficulty in working I had a good time and it was great to chat to lots of people there and have a few jars afterwards!

Friend & Co

Last night saw the opening of Friend & Co - possibly the smallest Art Gallery in Bristol! I have a Ltd edition screen print of Trainerceratops Head available exclusively there - it's very nice I have to say. There are other prints and original artwork pieces by Eco, Paris, Pinky, Russell Maurice, Mike Maxwell, Faris Badwan, French... and a bunch more too. There's an online shop where you can get prints too!

Here's a few of my crap pictures from the opening night...

Oscar Niemeyer illustration for Interni magazine

This is my latest illustration I have done for Russian design magazine Interni. It is for a feature on the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and his buildings. The man himself is featured in this busy illustration along with his buildings and other places and things that are associated with Brazil. I really got into the colour scheme for this, it feels really warm. Actually, I seem to be using these colours alot in my work recently - they are just fun to work with. here's some close ups -



This close up features Corbusier in the distance next to his Centrosoyuz building in Moscow!

Brisgraffasaur

Acrylic, spraypaint and pens on canvas for exhibit at forthcoming upfest in Bristol.

Dinosaur head like shaped piece made out of Writer's art materials, spilling paint and Graffiti landmarks of Bristol. Includes Westmoreland House on Stokes Croft, a mini version of the building that has Banksy's Mild Mild West piece on the side and the Bell pub on Jamaica Street!

Pretty bad photo I'm afraid - a new camera is top of the Xmas wish list.

Here's the drawing I did for it originally. There ae a few extra details on it, but still isn't too clear that it is a dino head. The paint bucket is the eye!

Centreeosaurus

Acrylic and spraypaint. Based on dinosaur Centrosaurus. This another one of my more painterly efforts - I did say before that I wouldn't be doing more of these for a while, but this one just popped out! It's similar to the Triceratreetops - lots of trees and a few houses and towers. I like it as has a sense of space to it unlike the busy city monsters.

I think these are still more like studies really - practices for bigger more involved pieces that have whole dinos rather than just the heads.

It can't be seen in this pic, but I mix a bit of gold into some of the green paint. It gives a nice shine effect.

Volcano Head Dino at Bristol Festival

Painted at Bristol Festival 08 alongside loads of other writers and that. Ten years since walls On Fire innit - big graff event that was held around the same area of Bristol with loads of artists involved.

Based on Pachycephalosaurus. Bonehead dino that went around head butting each other. This one has a volcano and mountains for skull and spikes. The close up shows the small lake for an eye with a sail boat on it and houses.

Golden City Dragon

Dragon/Dino head made up of high rise buildings. Fall/Autumn theme, although the weather here at the moment is more grey than golden. Acrylic and spraypaint. 290mmw x 420mmh. This is going to be the last one of these type of pieces on paper I will work on for the time being. I have lots of other ones planned but will be switching over to doing canvas works next. This piece and the other ones in the series are for sale, if interested drop me an email - andrew.council@gmail.com

Farmyardeez collaboration at Project 360

Fresh from completing work on the Horfield Skatepark project, me and my mate went and did this collaborative piece down at the Project 360 Festival in the centre of Bristol. Project 360 is a two-day extravaganza featuring some of Britain's best urban artists and urban sports people. There was loads of people skating, breaking and all sorts going on when we got there.

We decided to kind of stick with the dark theme of the skate park and did a Tree with Crows in on a blood red sky background. The tree shape is kind of based around the shape of a Triceratops skull with Crows where the eyes and nose would be. Faded out the background in a kind of bloodshot eye effect where it goes to white around other persons piece.

Was good fun, if rather tiring, going on an all day painting mission.

Other artists painting down there included - Paris, FLX, Feek, Yaka, Cheo, Hine and Dan.

More pics of Skatepark Graff...

Here's some more pics from the skate park Graffiti project me and my mate did with young people in Horfield, Bristol UK.



Thought I would go for a dino skeleton this time. We were going for a kind of Horror movie, Nightmare Before Christmas vibe. It's set in a kind of Graveyard with Tomb Stones and broken skate decks.

Here's the piece with my mates 'The Graveyard Shift' piece.



Also did these Rollerblading Crows with the kids, sticking with the spooky theme. They proved quite popular. There are lots of Crows round this way on the common.



All in all the project went really well and there are some really artistically talented young people who skate there.

Chicken Head at Skatepark

I'm currently painting my local Skatepark in Horfield, Bristol with my mate and some of the kids that skate there. Will be posting a load of pics soon when it is finished, but thought that I would quickly stick this one up - Skateboard Chicken Head!

Yes Alan - I did stick this pic up on my blog at the end of the day like you said I would.

Local press for Gagged exhibition, Bath UK

Yers some local press stuff for my latest show with Ben Newman and Neil Kelly 'Gagged' in Bath, UK.

Metro....


Venue...

Window Drawing at Brick Lane Gallery

Last Sunday (17th August) I was at the Brick Lane Gallery London where I did one of my window drawings. It was part of their Free For Wall Street Art exhibition which I was part of.

The dinosaur I drew was made up of Spraypaint and other tools of the trade of a Street Artist. It was based on the plant eating Parasaurolophus.

Here's the drawing I was working from and me doing the window drawing. Will see if I can find some better photos of the piece soon.




The day went well. It was very busy with the Sunday market going on too so lots of people passed by and stopped to look and take pics.

Lockerz

Thought I would stick this youth club mural up as turned out quite good. Was a piece me and my mate Alan did with the help of young people at a Youth Club in the Lockleaze area of Bristol. The BT TV tower to the left of the piece is a major landmark of the area. We put lots of made up sky scrapers in so it's a bit like Lockleaze in 2048 or something. Decided to put some writing up in the sky shortening Lockleaze to 'Lockerz' as some of the locals call it. Lots of gold used in this piece - I'm really into metalic paints at the moment.

Autumn Townaceratops

Yet another of my Acrylic/Spraypaint dino head pieces. This is very similar to the shutter piece I did a while back on Gloucester Road in Bristol but with a more Autumnal feel. Lot's of bronzes and golds used in this. Bits of overspray in places, but want to keep it quite loose.

This piece and the other ones I have done so far like it are for sale. Contact me at andrew.council@gmail.com if you are interested.

Maggot Brain

Sketched this out the other night on a late night drawing session with Rowdy. Development from the Fever Zine Bug Caterpillar, a dino head made of creepy crawlies. Looks like the maggots are earting it's brain - eeeugh! Not sure whether to try painting this one...

Triceratreetops

Here's another one of my experimental acrylic and spraypaint pieces. This tree based dino has a few houses in it, like some kind of alpine village and a tower in one of the spikes. There is a bit of goldish green in this piece too which is quite nice but unfortunately doesn't show up in this pic.

I'm working up a few of these at the moment, perhaps doing a range of different elements - fire water etc. Flogging these too if anyone is interested drop me an email...

Dr Jazz Taps guitar

Way back in January I did some live drawing at the first Weapon of Choice night in Bristol along with FLX. There were a few bands on stage with us, one of which was Anomaly. The guitarist Dr Jazz Tap asked me to customize his guitar. Finally I have done it - 8 months later! The design features one of my dinos made of speakers and a mad scientist controlling it. The scientist is similar to ones in the student film I helped make years ago 'Science Lab'. Really pleased with how this came out in the end!

Treeasaurus Rex

I knocked this up the other day - a T Rex head made up of trees done using Acrylic and Spraypaint on paper. Nice and quick for me too which was very refreshing. Will be trying a few more of these loose type of pics in my spare moments.

Fever Mini Zine Caterpillar

Caterpillars seem to be quite popular at the moment. Following on from my recent Tree Caterpillar illustration is this beastie made up of lots of different bugs. It's a bit gross but kinda rad at the same time. It was for Fever's mini Zine sandwiches that were on sale at the V&A village Fete.



Here's some production pics. More can be seen here.