Storytelling

Here are some spot illustrations I did for a magazine called  RAAK  a few weeks ago. The theme was storytelling, and how it has evolved through the ages. RAAK is an in house magazine for the Dutch company Arboned. Nice little job!

Ariadne's Thread

Here's a painting i just finished. It's for yet another Peix calendar (unorthodox format as usual). Nice to do a bit of painting again after a looong break. The theme for this one is Ariadne's Thread. I'm basically illustrating the myth, with Theseus  just about to enter the labyrinth. I've added a few geometric puzzles and stuff here and there, relating to the problem solving method named after the legend (the solving of a problem with multiple apparent means of proceeding-such as a physical maze, a logic puzzle or an ethical dilemma- through an exhaustive application of logic to all available routes...Phew!) 

Work has been a bit sluggish this summer. Lost a couple of big jobs too, so the morale isn't on top at the moment. Going on holiday soon though. Woohoo!

Industrial Estate

Go to sleep, you weary hobo

Augusta Heritage Center

Julie from Yee Haw asked me a while back if I fancied collaborating on a poster. She wanted to support a place called  the Augusta Heritage Center in West Virginia, which is a non-profit organisation dedicated to preserving traditional music and folk arts. Seems like a brilliant place!  I'm really looking forward to seeing how it'll look with some Julie Belcher typography on it! 

Old Time Music!

I've been in holiday mode the last few weeks, but I've been working on and off on a new range of cards/t-shirts for Yee Haw Industries. Animals playing old time instruments is the theme!

Zine A

I've got a piece in a brand new fanzine called "Zine A", which is just out. It's printed in black and white, but looks really nice. It features one of my favourite artists, Marcus Oakley, so it must be good! Head on over to Tor Press and get yourself a copy! (£7 including postage)

Play it again Sam!

Phew! As soon as the "Take it to the hills" exhibition came down, Lindsey and I put the work straight back up for Jamaica St. Open Studios. Good to get some extra mileage out of all the hard work we put into it, right? The Opening Night was super busy and I was really flustered because I wasn't ready on time with prices etc. But a great night after all. Rest of the weekend was pretty busy too, and I sold quite a lot of t-shirts, cards and books, but also a a few pictures! 

Thanks to everyone for coming down and for all the great comments we received. Hope to see y'all again soon!

Lindsey put up this wall in about one hour! Great idea, which I can't take any credit for, I'm afraid.  Just some bits and bobs we've gathered over the years, but it's nice to see a direct link between our inspiration and our artwork like that. 

Pretty Boy Floyd

Heres my contribution to the "Mini Canvas Auction" at  Jamaica Street Open Studios. All the artists in the building did a picture each, and thanks to the amazing auctioneering skills of Louise Gardiner we raised over £4000!!  

I went a bit off the rails with this one. I've been meaning to do something in a hexagon shape for ages, plus I fancied a strange, chunky, decorative border. A bit art deco perhaps, without using any references or anything. I overheard a conversation where this guy was going over board about how much he hated every aspect of it. When he realized  the artist was standing next to him he got extremely embarrassed. I really didn't mind though...You can't please all the people all the time...

Open Studios

The annual Jamaica Street Artists' Open Studios Bonanza  is suddenly just a week away! As has been the tradition the last few years, a bunch of us get together for a big ol' mural-painting session to advertise the event. Every year I swear I'm gonna start doing more "street art" stuff, because it's loads of fun and everyone who walks by seem to love it; junkies, kids, mums, businessmen, hipsters, punks, crusties etc,etc...

So yes. Come along for the big art hoe down Friday 5th of June from 6pm. There'll be cakes, beer, an  auction, etc, etc...Then theres a big party at the Croft later, with heaps of DJ's and bands playing your favourite tunes. 

New work on the old web site!

I've put some new work on my web site...Hurrah!  Here's an image I've done recently called Not In My Airforce. I'd been wanting to make a picture featuring old war planes for ages, but didn't know how to do it until now. 

Nobrow Magazine

The first issue of Nobrow magazine is out at last! It's a beautifully printed, limited edition magazine in which a range of artists have interpreted the theme "Gods and Monsters". The price is very reasonable, only £9, so get yourself a copy immediately!

My contribution is based on Norse mythology and features a showdown between Odin and the horrible Fenrir!  According to the myth, Odin would get killed by Fenrir at the battle of Ragnarokk and the world would go under. Kinda like Armageddon I guess. All this stuff is normally the property of black metal folks who take it all very seriously... I thought I'd make it a bit more light hearted. 

A  limited edition screen print of the image is currently for sale from Nobrow Smallpress. It's an edition 50, all signed by the artist (me!) and can be yours for a mere £75.00 

There's also an exhibition on in the bar/gallery Jaguar Shoes in London, where all the images in the magazine is on prime display. My image was chosen to be blown up real big, covering a whole wall! I'm super chuffed, because I must say it looks pretty damn cool!

The show is running until the end of June I think, so check it out. 

Thanks to Alex and Sam for the hard work!

Take it to the hills! (opening night)

Here are some photos from me and girlfriend  Lindsey Stainer's show, "Take it to the hills!" We both worked super hard to get it together, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out, especially how well our work sat together  when we mixed it up (thanks Ben!) Check out the Here Gallery's website for more pictures. It's running for another couple of weeks, so it's still a chance to catch it if you are in the Bristol area. 

Bachelorboka

Finally finished the Bachelorboka project last week. Despite ending up doing quite a lot of work for not very much pay, it was a nice project all in all. Sometimes getting a lot of good and positive feedback from the client can be worth more than a little bit more money...

I got to fool around with old style packaging, make up ridiculous products and just really cut loose with 1940's style Norwegian copy writing... Even my most far fetched ideas went straight home with the editors! The only compromise for me was the colour...I would've liked a different colour scheme, but the client asked about 20 people what they preferred and they all said red...It's all right I guess.

I've got an image in a magazine/book called "Gods and Monsters" published by a small London based publisher/art studio called Nobrow. It features work by lots of cool artists (like Ben Newman and Stuart Kolacovic for instance) and its all printed in just two colours, blue and black. Really lookin forward to seeing it! There's a release party/ exhibition in London in mid May. Please come on down!

Private View: Thursday 14th May, 2009

Exhibition: 15th May-28th June 2009

DreamBagsJaguarShoes,

32 Kingsland Road, E2

Back to school

Just finished this here peace for Futurelab. It's a cover image for a "Teacher's handbook".

I was trying out some new techniques, but it's too busy an image to really see it. I'm fairly pleased with it, but my girlfriend said it reminded her of  Marc Boutavant (...) And damn it, I guess she's right!! I'm a massive fan of his obviously, but I was hoping it would turn out more graphic and not look so much like him, but oh well...Hopefully there's some of Me in there too though.. 

Turkey Leg

Here's the last in the Carnival food series for Yee Haw...a high striking turkey leg! 

Pretzel boy

Finally getting around to finishing the carnival food series. Here's one I did yesterday! 

Take it to the hills!

Me and and my girlfriend  are having an exhibition together in a couple of months time, in the brilliant Here Gallery in Bristol.  The show is called entitled "Take it to the hills" after a beautiful song on a record I bought in a charity shop in Falmouth back in the day.

Heres a sneak preview of a couple of pieces. Lindsey's vigorously cutting up salvaged paper to put together her peculiar collages . I'm using this exhibition to focus on pure drawing and just to experiment and have fun. Better crack on really! If I had a schedule, I would be behind it...

Balaclava bonanza!

I came across these amazing balaclava pictures yesterday, and I couldn't resist posting them!

The BA handbook

Working on a project for Universitetsforlaget (university press, Oslo) at the mo..Doing the cover and some inside illustrations for a book called Bachelorboka, a handbook for budding BA students.. Here's on I did the other day. Quite nice to work in black and white for a change. So easy not having to worry about colours!

Hillary and Tenzing

I finished this piece last week. It's another calendar image for Peix Pharma (here it is along with two previous ones). The theme his time round was "Miracles of the World" or "Extraordinary Performances". After a few cups of coffee in a cosy cafe, far from bottomless crevasses and frostbitten toes,  Ed Hillary's ascent of Everest in 1953 came to mind. For some reason I'm really fascinated by polar expeditions and adventures that involve extremely low temperatures...Especially when they go wrong, like the Italia airship in the arctic in 1928. Anyway... The british expedition, led by John Hunt, seemed to go swimmingly however...No hiccups, non of the crew falling out, no threat of mutiny or anything...Not even any casualties! Nevertheless, a really amazing achievement, realised thanks to careful planning, good leadership and excellent team spirt! Oh yes!

Corn dog + candy apple

Here's another one in the Carnival Food series. Careless love!

Carnival Food

Working on some new designs for Yee Haw at the moment. The theme is Carnival Food. Or stick food if you like. Just finished this  Cotton Candy woman! Stay tuned for more.

Monobird 7"

Happy New Year!

New years resolution: Update blog more frequently!

Oh well..I've been busy. Here's some pictures of an extremely rare and exclusive Monobird 7" which I've done the cover for. Monobird is the solo project of Jørn Åleskjær of the Loch Ness Mouse, and boy does he have an ear for melodies! He's recorded hundreds of songs the last couple of  years, normally recording all instruments himself at home. Very Lo-Fi, of course, but I love that stuff. Check out Oslo Grammofon for more details. 

When I say exclusive, I mean exclusive! Only 30 copies have been pressed, and the cover is screen printed by me, as is a small booklet containing lyrics and credits etc.. Even though it's a small print run, it takes ages to cut, fold and staple. It's a labour of love!

Board game

Here's an illustration I just did for Vision magazine/ Futurelab. I wanted to do something graphic and simple, inspired by some old books I've got from the 60's. Dispite tryng to do something simple, I ended up with more photoshop layers than ever before. My old  computer was on the brink of collapse! I am my own worst enemy some times. The client loved it though!

HARRY MC 1977

I just love the quality of 70's snapshot photographs. They have this warm glow to them, and people and things just look so amazing. I find them really, really inspiring. 

These ones I stumbled across on the internet while I was researching something boring i can't remember. They were taken by some guy who used to be part of a  biker gang in northern Norway back in the seventies. Their parties look pretty wild, but man they must have had a lot of fun! 

Boy scout series

I've just done these two greetings card designs for Yee-Haw Industries. The theme is Boy Scouts/ Camping (obviously)... A bit cuter than my earlier stuff. I must be getting soft in my old age! I feel like a bit of a novice when it comes to animal characters, but hopefully these don't look too much like other people's stuff. 

SLAPSEFJELL

My new book has finally arrived from the printers! It's really quite amazing to see the final product after having worked on it for almost a year. I was really struggling at times, to keep the momentum, the quality and the enthusiasm up, but now that it's done and dusted I think it was all worth it. 

The story is not really a story as such. It's "a day in the life" of a made up mountain village in Norway called Slapsefjell (Slush Mountain), where you are taken on a tour around the town centre and ski slopes, get a chance to meet some of the local characters and see what's going on. It's a "homage" to the Norwegian winter,  the culture of cabin trips, skiing and the great outdoors (Something I really miss during the wet winters in Bristol!).

It's published by MAGIKON, a tiny publishing business set up by my friends and ex-colleagues Svein Størksen and Kristin Roskifte, who are both brilliant illustrators. This autumn they are publishing two other picture books ( one by Roskifte and Jan Kjærstad, and another by the fabulous Yokoland crew) as well as a nice little book on the super-amazing norwegian "pop artist",  Hariton Pushwagner. 

My (new and improved) studio

This is my studio! I have only just painted the floor white and changed the whole layout around. It's so much better now! It's in a big old building with amazing views over half of Bristol. My windows face the wrong way though, but it's really nice anyway. The building is full of lovely and talented people. See for yourself at www.jamaicastreetartists.com.