Art on the Hill

Tomorrow I am taking part in Art on the Hill, the Windmill Hill and Victoria Park Arts Trail. It's a great weekend showcasing local talent and a good excuse to have a nose around people's houses. So do come along, you'll find me at venue no. 43 - I'm also selling cakes so if you don't like the photography, you may like a cake instead!

A Very Belated Blog Post

I was toying with the idea just the other day to start a completely new blog, but then I thought why? Just to end up neglecting it like I have this one?! I've loved posting on this blog and it features some of my own work from the past as well as those who have inspired me, so I am going to persevere and continue to add to it.
As you may recall, last year I moved to Bristol and I'm happy to announce that I'm still here, although I have moved twice since I last posted. I've read many more books (currently on number 21, [If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino, in case you were interested] of 2015) and seen many more fantastic exhibitions since my last post about David Bailey. In fact, a couple of weekends ago I managed to get up to London to see Barbara Hepworth's awe inspiring sculptures at the Tate Britain (on until 25th October).

Another exhibition I would encourage people to see is Richard Long's at the Arnolfini in Bristol, an artist I was aware of but had never seen exhibited before. His sculptures, walking documentations and photographs of past location sculptures are almost ethereal, otherworldly, reminding me very much of ancient mystical sites, such as Stonehenge.

It's been a busy year, I've travelled to Paris for the usual Paris Photo festival, St Anton for the annual Organ ski holiday and Berlin, and will soon be off to Italy. I haven't stopped taking my own photographs, returning to black and white film, street photography that I've loved doing in the past. In fact, on the 3rd and 4th October I will be opening my house to showcase past and present work for Art on the Hill, which I am both nervous and excited about, what with it being my first exhibition since Uni. So if you are around the Windmill Hill/Victoria Park area do drop in - I'm bribing the public with cake anyway!

So with that, I PROMISE to post again and give you an update on my own work as well as with what's been inspiring me.

David Bailey's Stardust

At the weekend, I went home to London to see family and friends, but more importantly to see David Bailey's exhibition Stardust at the National Portrait Gallery. David Bailey has always been one of my favourite photographers, in fact I think it's safe to say that it was his work that first got me into photography - as Bailey himself once said, 'It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary'. So it is safe to say that my expectations were high, and I'm thrilled to report the exhibition did not disappoint. I absolutely loved the diverse range of his work and the exhibition really illustrated the extraordinary range of subjects that Bailey has captured: actors, writers, musicians, filmmakers, designers, models, artists and people encountered on his travels; many of them famous, some anonymous, all of them perfectly captured. That's the thing I love about him, he really manages to capture the individual, no matter who they are or where they're from you are shown a sense of their personality.

It is extremely rare that a leading institution allows an artist to curate his or her own retrospective, however I am so glad that they did. Featuring over 250 images, personally selected and printed by Bailey, the exhibition offers an unmissable opportunity to experience the work of one of the world’s greatest image-makers. He also designed the book (a must purchase of mine of course!) in fact Sandy Nairne, the gallery's Director, admitted that giving the artist such free rein was unusual; "We had to relax. It became very clear that he did have a vision about this show. This is Bailey through and through." But by giving Bailey free reign, we got to see all sides of his work, not just the famous shots of models and rock stars. In fact one whole room was dedicated to his wife Catherine Bailey, and featured many intensely personal shots of her and their children. As a huge fan of his work, I was wonderfully surprised at how few images in the exhibition I had actually seen before!

So, just in case you haven't got the hint, I loved the show and could not recommend it enough - I'm definitely going back whenever I'm next in London! To give you a little taste of what's on show, here's an extremely small selection of my favourites.

Happy 2014

I apologise for my lack of blogging over the past couple of months but a lot has happened. First and foremost, after a year and a half of working for free (otherwise known as interning) and working in Costa (to pay for said internships) I FINALLY landed myself a job. Not just any job, but a job in publishing! I am now a "Publishing Assistant" at Intellect Books who specialise in the fields of creative practice and popular culture. This job meant a move to Bristol, (where I know no one so if you are in Bristol please come say hi) so I am now finding my way around a new city, discovering new art galleries, music venues and most importantly tea and bookshops!

In my absence from blogging I have read many fascinating books (currently loving Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn), watched a lot of TV programs (addicted to Breaking Bad and The Bridge at the moment) and gone from the usual drinking and feasting month of December to detox and fasting January (which also meant joining a Netball club, go Bristol Storms!)
So all in all, there has been a lot of change recently, which is why I have neglected my blog so soon after promising to update it more regularly. So again, I promise to regularly update you all from my new place in Bristol with all the books, art and films that I am being influenced by. For now I leave you with my quote of the week, from one of my favourite directors:

80% of success is showing up
Woody Allen

Laura Knight Portraits

On Friday I treated myself to an evening of art at the National Portrait Gallery where I was delighted to see artist I new very little about, Laura Knight.

Dame Laura Knight was one of the most popular and successful British artists of the 20th century. Her achievements were recognised in 1936 when she became the first woman to be elected to the Royal Academy since its foundation. Knight used portraiture to capture life and culture, and her paintings are remarkable for their diverse range of subjects and settings. Her artistic career took her from Cornwall to Baltimore, and from the circus to the Nuremberg Trials. She painted dancers at the Ballet Russes and Gypsies at Epsom races, and was acclaimed for her work as an official war artist.

Knight managed to really capture all her models and the detail that went into her work was incredible. I am definitely excited for her biography Laura Knight: A Life by Barbara C. Morden to come out this October to read more about such an inspirational artist. I urge you to go see this stunning exhibition for yourselves, you have until the 13th October so there's no excuse not to, but for now, here's a few of my favourtie Laura Knight portraits.

Gypsy Splendor, 1939

Self Portrait, 1913. This self portrait was a defining work in Knight's career. The female nude was a historically male subject, and when Knight was a student, women art students were denied access to nude models, working instead from statues and plaster casts.

Joan Rhodes, 1955

Ethel Bartlett, 1926

Ruby loftus Screwing a Breech Ring, 1943

The Gypsy, 1939

Great art is never perfect; perfect art is never great

Edward Abbey

The Circus, 1870-1950

I came home to find a large box on my front door step today (is there anything better than finding a large package (pun intended) on your doorstep?!) and couldn't contain my glee. I knew exactly what was in this large, heavy box from the good people at Amazon, my eagerly anticipated The Circus, 1870-1950 from Taschen and let me tell you, it was definitely worth the wait! The book is enormous, not one for the bath, and is beautifully designed, a lot of time and thought has clearly gone into it. Stuffed full of photographs, posters and information, The Circus really manages to capture the glitz and grime of the American Circus in it's heyday. My favourtie being the incredible vintage circus photos from the 40s and 50s, many of them rare colour pictures of the circus' showgirls. I also loved the posters advertising a huge variety of world famous circus acts. The only downside to the book is that in true Taschen format, it has been published in three different languages which is a bit of a hassle as you have to flick through to find the English translation, however the stunning imagery more than makes up for a few extra pages! It is a brilliant history of the classic American circus, detailing every aspect of it, not just the nice parts!

I have chosen a VERY small selection of my favourite images to wet your appetites but if, like myself, you love looking through vintage images of a fantastic tradition that unfortunately no longer exists, then I really can't recommend this book enough!
Just what I needed, another book that shows me I was born in the wrong era!!

Confetti Death

My inspiration for the week, Confetti Death by Typoe

New Artist Crush: Shane McAdams

After only recently discovering artist Shane McAdams, I have fallen head over heels in love with his colourful Ball Point Pen paintings. McAdams states that his inspiration is from the abstract-looking Southwest desert he grew up in, which I completely understand as the beautiful images do to me resemble land formations and other natural landscapes. The best thing for me about these paintings is his process of achieving the bold colours that make the images so vibrant, the paintings have to be taken to a tanning salon as the UV light is what makes the colours pop! Personally I have never liked or agreed with tanning salons but in the name of art, UV me up baby!!
Here are a few of my favourite images of the bright burst of ball point coloured paintings. But to find out more about this artist visit www.shanemcadams.com

New Year Reading

Well Bloggers firstly a Happy New Year to all (I know it's a bit late but I have been in Morzine skiing (pictures to come soon)).

So, for Christmas Santa bought me many lovely presents as I am sure he did to you all. One such present was a book about one of my favourite artists entitled, 'A Bigger Message Conversations With David Hockney' by Martin Gayford. I recommend this book to all you Hockney fans out there as it was absolutely fascinating especially since it talks a lot about Hockney's work on the iPhone and iPad. I am going to see his exhibition at the Royal Academy on the 20th Jan and this book has made me even more excited about going to see it as well as making me want to pick up an easel and paint! So all you art lovers out there use the grandparents Christmas cheque to go buy it immediately... I insist!

London's Calling

On Friday I went up to London for the first time in a while to see some new exhibitions before they all finished. First I headed to Whitechapel Gallery to see one of my favourite photographers Paul Graham. I love his snapshot style portraits that capture the individual perfectly. His vibrant colours and great compositions make his portraits unique and inspiring in so many ways. The exhibition covered the various projects throughout his impressive photographic career. I absolutely loved it and the exhibition catalogue is definitely on my birthday list!















I then headed on down to Tate Modern, one of my favourite exhibition spaces to see some of my favourite pieces in their permanent collection as well as having a look at what they have new to show. I was pleasantly surprised to view an exhibition of Diane Arbus, one of my favourite photographers, as well as Burke + Norfolk: Photographs from the war in Afghanistan, and a piece of work by an unknown photographer to myself, Tayrn Simon.

Diane Arbus









The Burke + Norfolk exhibition was really fascinating, Simon Norfolk went back to some of the sights John Burke photographed back in the C19th, recapturing contemporary versions of Burke's original Afghanistan images. The exhbition was really thought provoking and I loved Norfolk's vibrant, beautiful images of a war torn country, avoiding directly rephotographing Burke's original images and staying away from the cliched black and white war torn images, instead showing beautiful parts of the country along with war images.









I love London, it is definitely my favourite city and I am so lucky to live so close. I always just pop up, without planning to see anything in particular and love just wandering around the art galleries all around London and finding out about new artists. So I encourage you all to just take a day out your busy schedules, head up to London and just wander around all the art galleries. Apart from the big exhibitions it's always free to do so!

Susan Hiller at the Tate Britain

A few days ago I went to the Tate Britain to see an artist who I had heard of but knew very little about, Susan Hiller. I went not knowing what to expect, only knowing her for her series called 'Rough Seas' all about her collection of British postcards from around the coast of, yes you guessed it, rough seas!
I was absolutely blown away by this exhibition and loved how provocative and thought provoking each installation was.

Susan Hiller has lived and worked in Britain for over 30 years and is one of the most influential artists of her generation. The exhibition provided a focus on a selection of her key works, from assembled postcard images made in the 1970s to her pioneering mixed-media installations and video projections. The exhibition really highlighted Hiller's interest in the subconscious or unconscious mind, whether in the form of dreams and memories or as supernatural or visionary experiences.

My favourite piece was definitely 'Monument 1980-1' which displayed forty-one photographs of memorial plaques from George Frederic Watts‘s Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice in Postman’s Park, London. Each plaque commemorates someone who died while performing an act of heroism and really got you contemplating the lives and heroics of these people depicted by their memorials.



The soundtrack, that accompanied the photographs were placed upon a park bench set in front of the series of plaques, is Hiller’s own voice, addressing heroism, death, memory and representation. Sitting on the bench to listen makes you an integral part of the installation. She talked about how a portrait will live on much longer than your body and that these plaques kept alive the people they were remembering, some decades longer than they actually were alive for. It was a really touching, thoughtful piece.

Another brilliant installation was From the Freud Museum 1191-6 where Hiller uses traditional archaeological collection boxes to display an object that she has collected with a text of her own choice to go with the object. Hiller comments on this work saying 'I deal with fragments of everyday life, and I'm suggesting that a fragmentary view is all we've got.' It was fascinating to see what objects she put with what text and why, and how this comparison created a new meaning, life and use for the object.



Witness, 2000 is an installation first seen through the frame of its entrance: an open 'forest' of silvery wires and dangling objects, which I thought to be orbs at first glance, filling the top half of a beautifully lit room. As you enter the room a dim, only faintly perceptible hum of talk emanates from the space and as you enter the room further you see that this hum of talk is coming from flat round speakers, each hanging at the end of the wire.
When you listen to an individual earphone, taking it in from the whispering ambient sound, you hear a single speaker telling a story. Each earpiece is of a different speaker from different countries and so the room is full of a great range of languages all telling a story of UFO sightings they have encountered.



The experience was beautiful. Just standing in a beautifully glistening room surrounded by just out of sound whispers each retelling a story of something they have experienced. I absolutely loved it.


So I am urging EVERYONE to go see this exhibition at the Tate Britain, you have till the 15th May, so hop to it! It's definitely worth it. But to get your taste buds tingling for it, here are a few more images of some of the other works from the exhibition that I loved and that you can go and experience for yourself!




Auras: Homage to Marcel Duchamp, 2008


Levitations: Homage to Yves Klein, 2008


The Tao of Water: Homage to Joseph Beuys, 1969-2010




10 Months, 1977-9




Self Portraits, 1982-7




Work in Progress, 1980