Cats sleeping

Image courtesy of Valerie Pezeron. Copyright protected 201o. No reproductions without permission.

10 minutes quick drawing with pen.

Sonnets from the Portuguese by Phoebe Anna Traquair

Currently working on my own book, I find myself quite inspired by the illustrations of Phoebe Anna Traquair that accompany the lovely texts of  Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese. It can be found  at the National Library of Scotland.

I love the way the text and the images work together- especially the drawn lettering combining image and letter and the way the drawings frame and invade the writing creating a fully composed artwork.   Zooming in on details, the little vignettes really draw one into the poetic narrative.
Lovely work!

http://digital.nls.uk/traquair/index.html

Philistine

Image courtesy of Valerie Pezeron. Copyright protected 2010. No reproductions without permission.

My handdrawn writing for the week.

Edmund Clarke: Guantanamo- A review

Detail of Interrogator/guard's call button in Camp Five courtesy of Edmund Clarke. Photograph by Valerie Pezeron

Where is the fire in Edmund Clark’s exhibition? Guantanamo: If the Light goes out is a photography exhibition now showing at Flowers galleries in the East End next to all those yummy Vietnamese restaurants. And I was licking my whiskers heading to the opening last Thursday, “This show has great promise to be explosive!”
Edmund Clark’s commercial work for people like Adidas is widely known. He balances advertising assignments with smaller more prestigious gallery projects that garner critical acclaim and his first book was a well-lauded affair. His specialty? Private and personal portraits conveyed through domestic settings and people’s objects.

Ex-detainee's sitting room and original handwritten child's letter courtesy of Edmund Clarke.

Photograph courtesy of Valerie Pezeron

It’s a pity those small vignettes of everyday life were not so successful this time around. What went wrong? For one thing the large scale of the photographs did not serve what should be a highly charged narrative in intimacy. The gallery had a hand in it too with crude choices such as similar frames to tie together the upstairs Clarke exhibition and Nadav Kander’s Yangtzee show downstairs.

Detail of Administrative Review Board Letter courtesy of Edmund Clarke. Photograph courtesy of Valerie Pezeron

Original, handwritten and hand-censored letter to a detainee from his daughter. Photograph courtesy of Valerie Pezeron

I learned of ex-inmates trying to cope with life after Guantanamo while talking to Clarke. These folks had no anger but seemed resigned to their fate and had formed an ex-Guantanamo old-timers community thus a support system. Very touching stuff indeed and the letters brought tears to my eyes. But I struggled to find a sense of broken domesticity in the Clark's own pictures on display and some are more suggestive than others.

Camp One, exercise cage. Camp One, Isolation Unit. Camp Six, mobile force feeding chair. Ex-detainee's sitting room. All Photographs courtesy of Edmund Clarke.

The irony in all of this is, as my fire was never lit Nadav Kander’s sweeping evocative Chinese landscapes gradually pulled me downstairs. Those beautiful pictures of Yangtzee- The Long River merge the great beauty of China with the Chinese government’s attempt at taming it.

Of the two private views at Flowers downstairs was the place to be at. Photographs courtesy of Valerie Pezeron.

This great battle I witnessed first hand when I visited Shenzhen a few years ago and saw for myself the damages on nature and the people living off the land. There the large format suits the visual conflict between the fragility of the daily domestic scenes and the imposing totems of China’s economic success. Think high towers, concrete bridges and family Sunday diners that sit uncomfortably side-by-side by the banks of the Yangtze river.

Photograph courtesy of Valerie Pezeron

Article originally published in Amelia's magazine

Drinks that never tasted so Bitter

Image courtesy of Valerie Pezeron. Copyright Valoche designs 2009. Do no t reproduce without permission

These are my best attempt at advertising art. These original drawings I made for an advertising agency's campaign I was hired to work for did not make the cut and I was asked to change the look and feel until my style was unrecognizable and very run of the mill average!

Image courtesy of Valerie Pezeron. Copyright Valoche designs 2009. Do no t reproduce without permission

Food is very challenging a subject and I feel more comfortable with people and objects. I think an illustrator needs to know what s/he is good at and stick to it! But will I ever get caught in this situation again? Nope! I learned a great deal from the experience. Basically this is what happens when account managers get involved in the creative process. These people work for the benefit of their clients and that is that. Get the contract very clear right from the beginning!  I can't complain on the money I earned from it at the time! But  I hated every minute of it and my porfolio/ reputation did not benefit from the experience. And then I got screwed on the licensing...I guess all jobbing creatives have had their fair share of these!

Réglisse

Image courtesy of Valerie Pezeron. Copyright protected 2010. No reproductions without permission.

The cat is doing his best pose... trying to charm me and it works! Réglisse means liquorice in French. And he is SO sweet!

Man on the Train

10 minutes, that's what it took me to draw this gentleman on the train home from work on the overground. When people keep on moving, well, you just keep on drawing! I think the mistakes make those drawings interesting.

Fat and drunk? girls should know better!

Image courtesy of Valerie Pezeron. Copyright protected 2010. No reproductions without permission.

Mistaking leggings and tights for trousers is SO unhygienic. Take that! fat girl at London Bridge train station!

Tanya St Val- I am in Love

Strong free spirited women are passionate women of course!

One Sketch a Day

I am currently working flat out on my book. I am at the moment finding inspiration looking back at Symbolism, Fauvism, Expressionism and the Pont-Aven schools.

Image courtesy of Valerie Pezeron. Copyright protected 2010. No reproductions without permission.

To that end, I a keeping a sketchbook solely dedicated to helping me in my investigations into colour, composition and synthesizing ideas about my dreams and the unconsciousness. Those quick sketches are done in less than five minutes each in front of the TV and using only my imagination. And they are great fun!