Secousse Illustration for Plan B

Illustration for the October issue of Plan B. The image will be used for a playlist selected by the Secousse club. If you would like to find out more about Secousse then head over to www.myspace.com/secousseclub.

'Gagged' in Bath

This past week I have been in an exhibition called 'Gagged!' with Andy Council and Neil Kelly at the Walcot Street Chapel in Bath. 'Gagged' was put together by my good friends Dunstan Baker and Kath Cockshaw better known as the Fine Art Print Company. Dunstan has been printing and proofing my Gilcee prints for about two years now so it's always a pleasure to be involved in his and Kath's shows.

HOOT-HOOT

The Third screenprint design. Hopefully these should be available from the beginning of October. I'll keep you posted. Ta-ra!

Howdy-do-di!

The second new print that will be available this autumn is called 'Howdy-do-di' and features a bird on a unicycle. 

Holy Totems!

A friend rang me today and asked what I was doing. I told him I was drawing a totem pole playing a gameboy. He sighed at me. So I told him about a bird on a unicycle.

This is the first of a bunch of new screen prints that will be available this autumn.

Printing at SNAP

I had a fantastic time screenprinting at SNAP studios today. Tom Frost and I spent the day under the watchful eye and handy hands of Lucie Sheridan. It was such a great change from being cooped up at home by myself. We even managed to break for a pub lunch. Purrfeck!

Heres my bulbous body printing my reds.

Lucie's first layer of her robot card.

A row of my red layers.

Tom and his finished print.

Heres a close up.

A row of 'celebrity squares'.

The finished 'celebrity squares' print.

If you wish to see more of Lucie's work then check out www.luciesheridan.co.uk and www.snapstudio.org.uk/artists/index.php. To see Tom's work go to www.gumboillustration.co.uk. Thanks for reading!

SNAP, CRACKLE, PRINT

Here is a preview of a screen print that I'll be printing next week with the help of Lucie Sheridan at the Snap gallery and studios in Bristol. My print will be one of 24 prints by 24 different artists to celebrate Snap's first birthday. All the prints will be editions of 40. I'll post up some more details as soon as I have them.

I'm thinking of developing a print with this celebrity squares idea. Basically the idea is........... loads more squares!

Eat Your Heart Out!

This is the first time I have painted in almost two years so this could have looked much worse. The painting is for an exhibition called "Joyful Bewilderment" that will be held at Truman Brewery in London sometime in September and is curated by Marcus Oakley, Si Peplow and Holly Wales. I've been waiting to photograph this when the sun is out but the sun is on holiday so I had to make do with the bad lighting from my lamps. 

Shitakiri Susume (The Sparrow Whose Tongue Was Cut Out)

This image is my interpretation of a nishiki-e print by Utagawa Yoshimori from 1864 and is based on an old Japanese fairy tale. It depicts the story of a old man and his mean old wife. The old man befriends a wounded little sparrow and nurses the bird back to health. One day the old man goes out and his jealous wife gets angry and cuts the sparrow's tongue out. The bird flies back to his parents and when the old man returns and finds out what his wife has done he travels to find the bird and beg forgiveness for his wife's cruelty. Once the old man finds the sparrow he apologises and they make him dinner. Then the sparrow offers the old man two trunks, one large and one small. "I'm very old, so I am not strong. I will take the small trunk". The old man takes the small trunk and when he returns home and opens it, it is full of treasure. The old lady curses her husband for not picking the biggest trunk and goes in search of the sparrow. When she finds the sparrow they make her dinner. "I must be going now. Bring me my treasure" said the old lady. She chooses the big trunk and says "I'm also old, but I'm strong". She returns home with the trunk and her spite is justly punished because demons and ghosts pour out of the trunk when she opens it. Each one more terrifying than the last, forcing the old lady to repent her ways and be kind.

The samurai sparrows are the treasure. This print will be exhibited sometime in the autumn.