From Mash to Art

Just a short bit showing the two different sized pictures created using the moulded paper plaques

 The above used the postcard sized plaques.

these are the bigger plaques. The overall zize of picture is 21in by 33in.


And to speed up production of the paper mash, I soak torn up paper for at least a day then use a cheap liquidizer to mash it up. This is not only quicker but also produces a wetter, finer mixture. This is better for detail, but harder to squeeze out as much water as possible

Banners in the market

On Wednesday 13th July banners produced by school children were unveiled in the market as part of Accrington Pride.

Events in the Market

On Tuesday Steve Davis came into market as part of North Lancs Training event. Snooker table set up and Steve was there for 2 hours.

It took less than an hour to take the table apart!
Event did bring people into market, but not many came upstairs where the view was better

A new day, a new week, 11 July 2011

I intend to post something about new art work when it is being worked on.
Over past 4 weeks I have completed more than over past couple of years.
Mostly small postcard based, but start with one I did 5 years ago for 90th anniversary of Battle of the Somme

 This was created my making enlarging an image of the Accrington Pals East Lancashire Regiment, and tracing it onto some soft display board, and indenting the image using a blunt tool. An attempt to represent stone. Anyway it was my tribute 5 years ago. 
Now for the present
I mentioned that the exhibition at the Haworth in the Bell corridor led me to some new ideas, mounting a moulded paper plaque on a picture backboard.
Here are some examples

These single one are on sale for £21 each
I also experimented with double sized ones, here

These are priced at £30 each

The basic postcards are approximately 6in by 4in, but I thought why not try using some bigger mouldings, based on 12in by 8in approximately.
I recreated the garage doors in the bigger size, mounted on a larger picture frame(a bit expensive and in future I will make my own)

This is overall about 20in by 14in approximately, and I have priced this at £120.
I had previously done a similar garage door picture but more in my older style,

I had already experimented with creating a whole building by using a number of separate plaques on a bigger frame

This was an experiment but I think it works. Price around about £120.

Using the bigger plaques I created a backboard in the style of a window shutter, which makes it a bit heavy

This is 33in tall by 21in wide, and I fitted 4 plaques

I like this a lot, and the price reflects the increaed size and visial impact, £300.
I intend to either submit this or something similat for the 2011 Haworth Open.

Now for something different. I like wall clocks, and either paint them  or redecorate them in my style

 

I am also experimenting with various name signs, and the open/close sign is one I originally created for the One Planet shop, but has now found a home in my art workshop. I created another for Heather who also has a unit in the market.

I needed a sign to tell people when I would be back(after lunch) here

This has aenough numbers to cope with more than I need. Lunch time is never that long, but just in case I need to go out at other times.
I am currently working on a calendar, to display current day and month. This requires 21 individual numbers, so will have to see if it works. Storing the spare numbers is the real problem.
Enough for one day(well actually 4 weeks work!)

New art workshop in Accrington market hall

On 13th June 2011, I moved into W7 a unit in Accrington indoor market, upstairs on the balcony. This has given me both space to work and show off my art work.
It followed on from as part of local art group Cotton Brick, I exhibited some of my work in an exhibition in the market.
An exhibition at Haworth Gallery, challenged me to create some artwork postcard sized, but after creating some moulds to produce the basic art piece, the rules were changed to A5 size. Initially this concerned me, but then I decided to mount my moulded pieces onto the A5 sized backing piece from some photo frames. This meant that not only could the artwork be wall mounted but also could be placed on a shelf or desk. This one simple idea has changed my approach to my art .

I intend to update this blog with anything new I create. I intended to start earlier, but just been too busy.
To start here are some pictures of the art workshop.