Eastern Europe : Week 1

So it's been a week today since I flew out to Berlin to embark on my 5 week expedition of all things good in Eastern Europe. I've taken hundreds of photo's so far and I'll make sure I put a sly few up on here when I get the chance.


Berlin is without doubt one of the best cities I've visited so far. Some of the graffiti was absolutely amazing and incredible how some artists had painted such huge pieces. The remains of the Berlin wall was pretty sweet as well but had some really crappy mural pieces where the general public had been let loose with permanent markers. Spoilt it in my opinion.

Next was Budapest in Hungary. Even though the weather wasn't the best the city really stood out to me as a place I want to go back to and explore much more. The mixture of both modern and classical architecture was pretty spectacular and sort of reminded me of the docks in Liverpool but more elegant.

After that the next stop was Cluj Napoca in Romania. Literally just think of Borat and that's the sort or scenery we saw on the 9hour train ride. The main city was actually quite built up but still incredibly basic which I much prefer in comparison to more touristy places.

Next stop is Burgas in Bulgaria where we're hoping for some hot sunny weather please.

Las Meninas : Part Dos

Feels like ages since I've posted anything on the progress of the summer group work me,Matt and Jord have been doing. On a whole I'm dead pleased with how its all looking and seems to be really pulling together and you can without a doubt tell who did what art. Everyone's own style is become more apparent as I'm seeing more and more work. Looking really professional as well.

I was a bit stuck with the actual editing process and got slightly confused as to what it was we were actually meant to be doing. It seemed to me like the rest of the group were re-doing their own version of what the person had sent them whilst I was physically working on top giving it my personal touch.


When I received Matt's interpretation of Picasso's War and Peace I hit a bit of a wall and was a bit brain dead for a few days in what I was going to make it my own. In the end I decided to stick with using hand painted typography like I did in my previous and make it a completely typographical piece. I'd been looking at old American billboards and shop signs from the 60's/70's that really inspired me to push my typographic boundaries to the limits.


On a whole I'm pretty pleased with it however it looked so much better before I scanned it in. It looses the hand drawn element to it and seems to make it look a lot more sketchy. With my final piece I think again I'm going to stick to the same working method but try and incorporate Matt's image with my own so that they compliment each other rather then covering it up completely.

London town

Whilst staying at my dad's recently I had a little wonder into London to have a look at what the galleries had to offer me. I was gutted to find out that the Saatchi gallery was closed this week for private viewings which was a dead loss as there's a New Speak exhibition on at the moment that looks pretty sick. Instead of Saatchi I went to the National History Museum in South Kensington and the National Portrait Gallery just off Trafalgar Square. Again to my disappointment the giant robotic T-rex was under the knife and not well enough to come and play so I amused myself with other various carnivores. I must admit that the stuffed animals in Manchester's Museum seem a lot more realistic in comparison to the ones in London. They look a little haggered and worn out.

I'd definitely recommend the National Portrait to everyone and anyone. At the moment they're showing the BP Portrait Awards 2010 and a small collection of Alex Katz portraits that were pretty sweet.

One piece in particular that really stood out to me from the rest was an oil painting by Sir George Hayter entitled The Reformed House of Commons 1833.



The intense amount of detail about everything in this piece was insane. The picture above really doesn't do it any justice whatsoever but literally everything was perfect. Seeing it in the flesh made me appreciate so much more then looking at pictures in a book or on the web. I can't imagine how long it'd have taken people to paint images like this, really mind blowing.

In the BP Awards 2010 there were so many amazing contemporary Portraits that have a broad range of styles. The overall winner of the awards was and oil and acrylic painting by Michal Ozibko called iDeath. At first glance I instantly presumed it was a photograph but at closer inspection I couldn't believe it wasn't. The portrait is of Ozibko's classmate, Jana. He got her to pose with iPod earphones to create a representation of how young people often appear closed off to the world. Apparently Ozibko and Jana aren't very close friends so this gave him the opportunity to create a new persona to depict.



Another one of my favorites was a hairy piece by Jason Butler called The Rubbish Bin Men. The two men in the painting are Rob Greene and Paul Lawford, friends of Butler. The portrait was made from a series of sittings in Butler's Jersey studio. He wanted to capture the dynamic between the two men, one of a series of double portraits exploring particular relationships. I one day aspire to have a cracking beard like these two chaps.



I've come to realise that I definitely prefer photorealism paintings even though it has been totally obsolete since the camera was invented. I think I just appreciate the skill and dedication someone must have to make their work look so life like. Ona whole dead inspiring.

Stephanie Davies

Stephanie Davies is post grad student at LJMU studying Graphic Arts and an good friend of mine. During my foundation last year at York I saw a few of Steph's paintings and was pretty blown away by them. I remember thinking she was able to paint these incredible portraits so effortlessly and definitely had a nack for doing it. Was just having a cheeky look around her blog and caught sight of these beauty's.



I especially like the choice of cropped composition of these two. It really gives them both a sense of tension and drama and the use of subtle tones and dim lighting add to this as well.





As with most of Steph's work I'm dead inspired by it and It's pushed me to paint more over summer.

Las Meninas : Part Uno

This is my first version of Picasso's War and Peace 4. As per usual I don't make things easy for myself and was determined to try a media I don't particularly excel in: acrylic paints. I'm pretty stoked about how it looks now I've finished it and layered it together but there's little bits still annoying me. I think that if I keep using paints more frequently, like anything I should gradually get more accustomed to it and understand how to use the paint to its advantages. I tried to focus on the themes of mechanics and struggle but neither are that evident. It seems forever since I did any work like this but feels dead good to be back in the flow.

1st Year Uni Work

Liverpool Tate: Peace and Freedom

Last Monday myself, Jord and Matt ventured over to not so sunny Liverpool to set are eyes upon the current Picasso exhibition at the Tate: Peace and Freedom as part of our summer brief Las Menias: Exchange & Re-interpret. Usually the thought of Picasso doesn't really get me overly excited but for this instance I was in a surprisingly open minded mood towards his work especially the fact that the brief was set around his work.

Once arriving outside the docks we headed up to the top floor in what can only be described as a huge,industrial metal box capable of fitting at least 4 large male African Elephants in. Having had a quick glance through the first room we were instantly intrigued by a piece entitled 'The Charnel House' (1944-1945). The huge 199.8 x 250.1 cm oil and charcoal canvas was based on a short film Picasso had seen about a Spanish Republican family that were murdered in their kitchen. It really appealed to us as a strong image we could use communicating heavy themes of death, betrayal and sadness.

The Charnel House (1944-1945)

After looking at the whole of the exhibition I definitely decided that I was much more drawn towards Picasso's quicker sketchbook work as appose to his more recognised, glamorised pieces. I really liked the portraits drawn in ink that were very loose and rough inspiring me to draw more in my sketchbook on the bus/train.

As a group we came to a decision to use one of these images called "War and Peace 4" (1951). We all liked the simplicity of how it communicated the themes of war and peace through a basic line drawing and felt we could really get our teeth stuck into it and expand it in our own stylised way.

War and Peace 4 (1951)

On a whole I enjoyed the Picasso exhibition a lot more then I thought I would and appreciated his work much more seeing it in the flesh. We had a look round the other rooms and had a good laugh in the DLA Piper Series: This is Sculpture room. It had a massive illuminated,flashing dance floor running down the centre of the room accompanied by mirrored walls either side. They had headphones to listen to some funky electro beats (which I downloaded when I got home) to pop some moves out to but unfortunately neither myself, Matt or Jord were brave enough to strut.

The gift shop was also a treat as I got my hands on a cheeky limited edition copy of Very Nearly Almost with a hand drawn cover by Insa. It had some insane work by Mike Giant, one of my all time favorite artists and gave me some good ideas for the Las Meninas brief itself.








£43 down and slightly wet it was time to return to Yorkshire. Overall I'd had a most pleasant day with the lads and can't wait to get my head stuck into the work.