Visions of the Walworth Jumpers at Sassoon gallery

On Sunday the 5th of June, I completed the mural I had been working on for a few days at the Sassoon gallery. Titled "Holy Shit!:Visions of the Walworth Jumpers", the show was a gathering of four graphic artists under the arches of Peckham Rye.

The lovely Peter Lally, organizer of the International Alternative Press Fair. 

We were four artists committed to rebeautifying the gallery and were given just a week to do so. I started the mural quite late in the week. These 7 days were quite challenging because I was in the middle of marking/doing assessments for my 3rd year Illustration students at the university of East London and also being engaged with other smaller assignements.

The lovely daughter of the Sassoon gallery managers.

Is it a lighthouse, a candle or a...penis?!

One strand of my work is about subverting imagery taken from established mainstream strands of culture. Here the religious brief, inspired from Mary Ann Girling really suited me perfectly because I had an opportunity to play with classical iconography and apply my own modern twist on it. The arches where the gallery is situated was the location for many wacky sects in the Victorian era and to this day, the area is peppered with churches of all denominations. Philip Hoare's book on the New Forest Shakers was of particular inspiration.

Pink eyes? Is it a classical painting? They must be positively alien!

I revisited Michelangelo's sistine chapel paintings, William Blake's prints and Gustav Doré's bible woodcut engravings.

Lord Hurk's painting. one of the other three artists doing work for the show.

The Krah came in and crafted this in one day with the help of an assistant. A well oiled and  impressive business!

Kevin Ward's pastoral/ voodoo dance.

I like this little guy!

There was an advantage to having started last and using colour last also. After a little chat with the gallery owner, I decided it would serve the show and my work best to try and tie in all the other disparate murals together by taking one colour from each mural and using it in my own.

I borrowed the grey from The Krah's, the orange from Hurk and the pink form Kevin's.

I am very happy with the final result. One reason I like doing murals so much is that you can't be too precious about the process and the result. It allows you to be bold and unattached to the work as these murals are not permanent.

The Sunday zine fair and Start your Own Cult workshop in full swing.

The Editions of You stand.

Kevin Ward at work under the watchful eyes of my demoness/ priestess!

BBC Radio 5 political correspondant John Pienaar came down to interview the team behing the fair. I have to say I was not aware of the political connection when I took on this assignement and was quite surprised when I saw Pienaar come down to the gallery. So folks, any political connection here made is the fair's and not my own. I prefer to be in control of the political tags I put onto my work, if and when I chose to.  And so far, I am more interested in forms of social commentary.

That said, the interview was pretty funny!

Art Shop Collective Opening

This is the entrance of the Arthur and Albert studio where the Art Shop Collective have found a home for their twice a month contemporary artefacts sales.

The brain -and the red glasses- behind the 27 artists strong collective!

 Katie, a member of the collective and a lovely person to boot!

Taking place every 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month, last Saturday was the opening of the venture.
There was cake, tea and rose wine on offer.

 This is me posing next to a row of my watercolor portraits and trying my best expressive face. It worked? Non?

Yep, there was music on the day! And the atmosphere was really chilled and friendly. The day was sunny and the public very supportive. We sold quite a few artworks on the day!

The till with tea, business cards and other promotional materials such as artists statements.

Yum! 

My watercolors and below, one of my digital prints on display at the very bottom.

More of my watercolors and digital prints above.

As you can see the collective is a collection of very disparate styles, the only selection criteria being it must be just very good art indeed.

Above another one of my digital prints, called "Fear".

The lampshade made of sunglasses was quite popular with the crowd!

The shop was pretty busy all day. Set right next to the Regents Canal in Haggerston, we benefited from a  fair bit of footfall from all those ramblers making their way to Broadway market.

Many of the collective came along with their friends. The collective is composed of a good mix of up and coming and more established jobbing artists such as recording artists who also paint.