Embroidery artist Emily Tull made it to the top three artists in the regional final for Sky Arts Portrait of the year series which was filmed earlier this month.
Emily had to produce an embroidered portrait of her model Melvyn Bragg within the time limit of 4 hours - quite an achievement in such a small space of time. Emily worked at the Wallace Collection - here is her finished piece, and another more finished and detailed piece which she finished at home ...... Emily's work will appear within the book that Sky Arts have also produced which accompanies the series....
Joint London commission Ruth Palmer for these retro portraits for Dave's Crackanory.
Currently splashed over the underground, the 48 sheet posters of six celebrities were painted in the style of 60's and 70's children's book illustrations. And to promote Dave's new Crackanory series, the portraits include David Mitchell, Vic Reeves, Johnny Vegas and Ruby Wax. Ruth says "I love the painting styles of the old picture books and so this was a really enjoyable project to work on."
Phosphor Art are very pleased to welcome Edinburgh College of Art graduate Alexander Jackson. His quirky portraits featuring an interesting use of line and pattern really caught our eye. We can't wait to see who he draws next!
Chrissy Lau works with La La Land to design a unique range of packaging for their new scarf range.
Each fashionable lady was created with a distinct style and personality to complement each scarf design. The ladies were immortalised as cardboard hangers making them a striking point of sale display and keepsakes for customers to hang their scarf. Chrissy says "It was really exciting to see my illustrations as unique packaging that the customer can keep as a piece of artwork but also function as a hanger. I am over the moon with how striking they look in real-life. I'm currently working with La La Land on a scarf design which is top secret so stay tuned for an update!" The client was pretty happy too, Ludi Chu of La La Land says "Chrissy was the best on the Scarf Hangers project! It was a last minute idea to introduce four extra scarves to our range and we needed the scarf hangers completed in just a few days. Chrissy was so prompt at meeting to discuss the project, working to the brief and delivering the final images on time. Throughout the process it was a pleasure, as always, to work with the brilliant and cheerful Chrissy".
Very exciting news! A long awaited and comprehensive and retrospective exhibition is being held at The Williamson Art Gallery and Museum in Birkenhead.
Gary Blythe the renowned children's book illustrator and Kate Greenaway award winning artist will be showing just some of his many famously beautiful oil paintings from The Whales Song and other award winning and best selling books - Book covers, quirky paintings, and personal paintings, and text illustrations will adorn the walls of two rooms.
The exhibition being held next door is that of Henry Moore's ... Well worth a visit.
Anna Hymas was thrilled to be invited to illustrate the Family Trail for The National Portrait Gallery's BP Portrait Award 2013. As a rising star in the world of children's publishing Anna was asked to design a family guide to engage Children with the exhibition.
This month we welcome new artist Zachary Walsh at the Art Market. Zachary, an RCA graduate was commissioned for Opera Holland Park 2013 and created this painting for the Opera "Cavelleria Rusticana "
Zacs work was preselected for the royal Society of Portrait painters 2013 open exhibition
Award winning scraper board artist Bill Sanderson recently completed a commission from Pentagram in New York for Atlantic Magazine. The working title of the article was The myth of a Black President. Bill is one of the few artists still working in scraper board and is a master of his art.
We are proud to announce that Oscar Wilson’s illustration for Canongate Books Gil Scott Heron Memoir: ‘The Last Holiday’ won the Best Jacket Design category at last night’s British Book Awards.
The judges commented on the work: “This arresting design evokes 60s counter-culture art in a contemporary and well-realised concept, with front/rear covers and spine working together to create a powerful and effective image.”
Oscar worked closely with Art Director Rafi Romaya to deliver this winning piece of work. As a massive fan of soul / funk / jazz music; Oscar was delighted to be involved with the project, and very proud that his first ever typographic portrait was of such a great as Gil Scott Heron.
Rafi explains the project and why she commissioned Oscar: “The plan was to create a bespoke and personalised jacket befitting for Gil’s memoir, The Last Holiday. Taking inspiration from Gil's landmark collection 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised', we wanted to create an image as iconic as photographer Chuck Stewart's album cover shot whilst also representing Gil's poetic lyricism and artful use of language throughout his music, poetry and books.
Having seen Oscar Wilson's 'street-art style' visual work, which we felt might complement Gil's poetry, we approached him to attempt a typographic portrait using a mixture of Gil's album titles, song titles and most iconic phrases.
It was a gift of a book to work on and I hope we have a created a jacket Gil himself would have liked, had he seen it, and that winning Best Jacket Design Award at the British Book Awards 2012 would have made him smile!”
We definitely think Gil is smiling at the news, as are we. Well done to Oscar, Rafi and all at Canongate Books.
