Them Lot show - Urban Outfitters Birmingham

I have just got back from a flying visit to Birmingham where I added my Seaside Octopus to a collaborative mural in Urban Outfitters with the Them Lot collective.



I hope to get some pics from James Bourne of the finished mural and of the opening party - shame I can't be there. Check it out if you can, here's some more info -

THEMLOT and Urban Outfitters have teamed up and will be presenting the newest works from the Art Collective THEMLOT. The opening will include live painting inside the store, and an after party to be announced.
Where: Urban Outfitters in Birmingham, UK : 5 Corporation street in the city center.
Opens: Thursday 7th August.

About Themlot:
THEMLOT is a collective of artists hailing from Bristol to Birmingham. Gathered and put together by James Bourne. Within the collective you will find examples of illustration, photography, fine art, filmmakers, muralists and monster makers.

14 different artist featured on their website, representing a wide range or works and styles.
They are James Bourne, Katie Mallon, David Shillinglaw, Andy Council, Joanne Conlon, Mark Long, Gareth Barnett, Oda Valle, Paul Roberts, Joel Peers, Bot Notley, Daniel Noon, Laurie Richardson and Nathan Chan.

Gallery 37+ and Museum Of Bristol Mural

I have recently finished four weeks of work being one of the lead artists on the Design and Graffiti strand of Gallery 37+. The title of the Museum mural project is 'My Perfect Bristol'. here's the blurb which explains more -

"Our new city history museum will tell the fascinating story of Bristol through many people's voices and experiences.

This artwork you see here on the hoardings has been created by a group of young Bristolians who have painted their perfect Bristol. They have worked closely with Museum staff to create images which they hope will become a real talking point.

The young artists are all part of a Gallery 37 Plus project which seeks to engage young people in the arts, giving them te opportunity to learn new artistic skills and to develop existing talents. They have been helped by two Bristol artists - Andy Council and Daniele Delmonte.

Working with the young people on the artwork is part of the new museum's commitment to work with many people across Bristol to develop a museum for everyone to enjoy.

For more information on the new city history museum for Bristol see www.bristol.gov.uk/museums

For more informaiton on Gallery 37 Plus see www.youthmusic.org.uk "

There is a pic of the piece here and here's the feature that Bristol Evening Post did!



I haven't had too much time to do my own work of late as the course was full time and I was helping the Young People as much as I could with their design work. I did learn quite a few things myself along the way and got in plenty of practice with spraypaint. I did come up with a couple of sketches while doing the project that I might get up on a wall when I have time in the future. The dino lettering was inspired by guest speaker FLX's expert teaching.

WOMADness

Do excuse the crap title to this post - had to do it. I recently went to WOMAD where I helped to run Graffiti workshops for young people with DAN and 3RD EYE.

It was boiling hot and the demand was high from kids wanting to have a go with the spraypaint. It was pretty hard going but good fun too. This dinosaur piece that the kids helped me to colour was my favourite from the weekend.

Text

Here's a couple of examples of text work I did a while back for various clients. The lettering in each piece of work is made up of lots of objects that relate in someway to the text.

This one you may have seen already a while ago. I it did for the Big Issue for a feature on Consumerism and Corporatism. I think it works the best out of the bunch - bigger letters to put all the little objects in.




This a logo I did for my friend Abi who sells hand made, unique jewellery and accessories that have a vintage rock feel. The objects that make up the lettering are similar to the jewellery that she makes.



This final piece of work is a sketch that I did for a window drawing piece that was filmed as an intro sequence for a short film about Graffiti. The film featured the work of different Street Artists including Sick Boy and Inkie and was narrated by Goldie. I think the piece is OK, but to be honest with you I don't understand why they didn't get a proper Writer to do it. I still haven't seen the whole film - when it was on ITV I was in a caravan in Wales with no reception!

Caterpillar

This is my Tree Caterpillar that I recently did for Cimex's magazine. The article is about companies green policies and whether they will be keeping them on in the current economic climate. They wanted a green beastie to go with it and a Caterpillar made of trees eating an industrial plant seemed good to me.



I like the Caterpillar and how happy it seems to be on the rampage destroying things and leaving a trail of trees behind it. I liked it so much that I had a go at doing it in spraypaint eating the new Cabot Circus at The Glos-tunbury festival. This was The Golden Lion pubs alternative to Glastonbury on the Gloucester Road in Bristol. It was a weekend of music, skateboarding on a temporary ramp and lots of Graff from Bristol artists - FLX, Dicey, Soker, 45 RPM, Rich T, Mr Jago, Cheo, Sepr, Hine and others.

American Airlines Illustration

Here's my illustration I recently did for American Airlines in flight magazine. The bottom bit reminds me a lot of Cybertron.

Live Drawing at Bristol Design Festival

Back in June I did some live drawing on the opening night of The Bristol Design Festival along with other Bristol artists.

Here's my piece - Designasaurus.



And here are the pieces by the other three artists.....


Cheo.


Cheba.


China Mike.

Here's a pic of my work next to Mikes to give some idea of scale. The boards were roughly four foot square.