Tarporley Art Gallery

Some playful images I did for Tarporley Art Gallery's website.

 http://www.tarporleyartgallery.co.uk/

Tarporley Art Gallery is a fine art and applied art exhibition centre that has recently opened in Cheshire, with a wonderful range of workshops on offer. I was commissioned to provide branding images and lettering, promoting their workshops and shop supplies, which was great fun. Here was a chance to have a badger frolicking through buttons, a packhorse carrying workshop supplies and a fox sniffing a thread trail. 

Cornerhouse sketch-o-matic

I will be sitting in the sketch-o-matic box again this year for a couple of slots this wed 17th Oct (1-2pm) and this sun 21st Oct (1-2pm) at the Cornerhouse, doing 5 min sketches of sitters. It's like sitting in a photo-booth, but you get a sketch at the end. I'd love to sketch you if you can make it those times.

Also other artists and poets throughout the week Fri 12 Oct 2012 – Sun 21 Oct 2012
Here's some info from Cornerhouse
http://www.cornerhouse.org/david-shrigley/david-shrigley-events/sketch-o-matic#

"Following on from the huge success of the first Sketch-O-Matic last year, when 40+ artists, illustrators, poets, doodle-makers and pensmiths created instant-ish portraits of almost 1,000 sitters, we are happy to announce that the booth is coming back! It will launch for the Manchester Weekender on Fri 12 October for a 10 day residency. You are invited to sit inside the booth as if for a photograph and make a minimum donation of £1 to an artist through an anonymous slot in return for a self-portrait. But where the machinery should be is a tiny, fully equipped artist studio. Wait five minutes (give or take) and the image will appear. It may be a pencil drawing, doodle, cartoon, collage or even a word-poem. Take it, frame it, consider it. Now you are both patron and muse!"

Dancing on Chorlton Green

Mazazik  (www.mazazik.co.uk) Egyptian dancing on Chorlton Green last June in a blaze of oranges and purples - a wonderful sight. Lots of people came to watch and join in the dance, part of the summer solstice celebrations organised by Horse and Jockey.
I can't decide if they work better with or without the green colour!

Party sketches

Some fast-sketching for a friend's 50th birthday party, with band, ceildh, card tricks, roll-a-pound-at-the-whisky, singing, candles, bar, cake and good company. What a wonderful evening!

The fox, the crow and the old smelly cheese

Here are some winter scenes for the reworking of the Aesops fable I started a while ago. I've been experimenting with pencils and tie-dyeing for the backgrounds. I do think the tie-dye textures add a bit of extra atmostphere and light/dark.
Adding that extra eye to profile views seems to add more character, too.

Twitch the harvest mouse

I am working on a new story about a harvest mouse called Twitch. Here are some of the character studies. I am fascinated how these mice use their tails like an extra limb to keep them balanced in the grass. I remember as a child being entranced watching them in a field.

Indigo tie-dyeing inspiration

I went on an inspirational tie-dyeing workshop last week, run by Beetlefelt textile artist Carol Mowl ( http://www.beetlefelt.co.uk/) in her wonderful studio. After tying-up, pleating, pegging and stitching pieces of fabric in a variety of ways, we dipped them in the dye-bucket for 5 minutes. The colour was green when we took the samples out, but as the dye oxidised, the colour turned indigo. The real fun bit was untying the fabric to see where the dye had taken. Won't some of these patterns look just great in children's book illustrations....