AIM & CLICK - Harrogate Mayor, Day 1

Harrogate's New Mayor - May 2013

I love the tie the brand new Mayor of Harrogate chose to wear on his very first day as Mayor. A down to earth chap who was in his element at the thought of being chauffeur driven around for the next year! 

EVENT - Headline Poster Competition Winner

Andy Terrett, Ed Asquith & Karen Thompson.

The news poster competition Crescent Arts ran in conjunction with the exhibition was won by Andy Terrett. Thanks a million to Ed Asquith, editor of the Scarborough News for coming down for the Museums at Night evening to judge the entries. It was great hearing Ed talk about the content bills & also some of the near misses... everyone heartily laughed at his retelling of 'Last Chance To Enter Miss Scarborough'. Ed's also kindly arranged for me to be able to collect all the content bills which have been on display in the window of the papers HQ. This will hopefully mean that I shouldn't miss any more corkers!

EVENT - Art KO! Museums at Night Rumpus. The Bout

In the ring with Tigger Watts, Thompson The Terror of the Tyne's knockout moment

Jade the Monster Rat Vs Baxter the Barbarian

The Competitors

A couple of pics from the ART KO! MUSEUMS AT NIGHT RUMPUS event on Friday evening in the foyer of Scarborough Art Gallery. I was in the ring taking on Scarborough Museums Trusts - Tigger Watts. I won the round, yay! The overall result was a draw. A fun event which seemed to live up to its title! Thanks to Ruth Smith for the photos.

PRESS - Art KO! Museums at Night Rumpus

The hour is drawing near... For one night only I will be battling it out in the boxing ring with Scarborough Museums Trust's head of public programming 'Will Watts'. Wish me luck!

http://www.culture24.org.uk/places%20to%20go/museums%20at%20night/art434825

 

EXHIBITION - Scarborough News Posters

A selection of my collection of Scarborough News Posters

Just finished installing an exhibition of my collection of genuine Scarborough News posters from the past two years. I've been fascinated by these posters since I arrived in Scarborough, having come to Scarborough from London there was a noticeable difference in the content between a major city and a small town. The more ludicrous & everyday headlines compelled me to begin to start collecting the posters with a view to exhibiting them someday.

The exhibition runs at Crescent Arts, Scarborough. 2nd May to 18th May - Thurs, Fri, Sat, 11.00am - 4.00pm & by appointment.

Some of my favourite News Posters...

UPCOMING - Art Ko! Museums at Night Rumpus

DRAWINGS - A1 Jesus

'A1 Jesus' 21/04/13

WORKSHOPS - May/June 2013

Upcoming Workshop programme for May to June at Crescent Arts... I'm running some slab building Workshops.

WORK IN PROGRESS - Headline Sorting

Scarborough Evening News / Scarborough News Headlines

Sorting through with Stuart Cameron some of my collection of local headlines, I've collected these on and off since I've been in Scarborough. We're having an exhibition of them in Crescent Arts at the end of the month. There are some corkers!

PRESS - Scarborough News Feature

Feature on Crescent Arts in this weeks Scarborough News. My studio looks a bit messy! Oh dear, Oh well.... I've been busy, honest!

 

Feature on Crescent Arts in this weeks Scarborough News. My studio looks a bit messy! Oh dear, Oh well.... I've been busy, honest!

DRAWING - Baguette

I was asked to produce a line drawing of a baguette for the new batch of workshops... "Matisse couldn't have produced a better line drawing" said our director Stuart Cameron. I'm sure Matisse could have produced better spelling however!

I was asked to produce a line drawing of a baguette for the new batch of workshops... "Matisse couldn't have produced a better line drawing" said our director Stuart Cameron. I'm sure Matisse could have produced better spelling however!

STUDIO - Photographing Work

Spent the morning in the photography studio at Harrogate College, trying to get better photos of some of my work. It was good fun and I seem to have become a little distracted with some of the props lying around. This reminded me that I should get back to playing around with photographing different ceramic & mixed media set ups a little bit more often... I'll be back in after the Easter holidays with lots more of my work.

WORK IN PROGRESS - A Response to a Response to a Response

I've decided to make a new piece of work which is a response to a piece of work that I created in late 2009. 'The Death of Sainsburys' (part of my Trilogy of Death series) was one of my contemporary responses to the historical Staffordshire piece 'The Death of Munrow', which in turn was a response to the V&A's acquisition of 'Tipoos Tiger'. This new creation is a response to current news stories... Can you tell what it is yet? A bit more tweaking on Monday and then I'll dissect it up and make plaster moulds of the parts.

 

STUDIO - Wilf & Gordon's Debut

'Wilf' & 'Gordon' made their debut this week in Scarborough, they can be found in the upstairs Gallery at Angela & Rosie's on Bar Street. They join 'Albert' and a host of other delights by talented local artists...

WORK IN PROGRESS - Farm World

With the recent horse meat scandal amongst other things, I find my attentions recently brought back to my Farm World project. I still have to realise my drawing for 'The Human Milk Cow' in ceramic, this piece was inspired by the above news story of Chinese Scientists genetically modifying cows to produce human milk. I'm also starting work on a couple of ideas I have for a brand new piece, this time focusing on pigs.   

The Human Milk Cow, Drawing by Karen Thompson

WORK IN PROGRESS - Gordon

Today's Offering.

I've enjoyed making this chap today... it's funny seeing the changing stages within ceramics, things alter dramatically with kiln firings and each stage of the process seems to have it's own different attractive qualities and life forces. This stage, the most vulnerable and fragile always seems to hold an extra special enchantment for me.

STUDIO - Open Studios, Exhibition & Artist Talks

How Many Artists Does it Take to Draw a Light Bulb? A joint exhibition of current work from the six resident artists at Crescent Arts. I'll be giving a couple of artist talks as part of the Crescent Arts Open Studios and Exhibition this coming weekend as part of the Coastival festival. The Artist talks are at 1pm on Saturday and Sunday. Do also check out Jade Montserrat's talks at 12pm. 

OUT & ABOUT - The Charity Shop Psychic

Stephen D Bilton - The Fortune Teller.

During a rare treat to Pawz for Thought in Roker, Sunderland (one of my favourite charity Shops), I came across this little character - Stephen D Bilton. It turns out that he is a fortune teller! He asked to see my palm and then told me that the future looks very ok! He said to me "you know you'll have made it when you see a big W", he also told me that the next place that I travel to will have a volcano, although I won't know that it's there until I arrive... The mystery deepens!

AIM & CLICK - Lollipop Lady's Ban

 

Another headline that I couldn't resist this week... from the Sunderland Echo again this time. Oh how I truly love non-headline news!  

DRAWINGS - A2 Paintings

Karen Thompson 'Harry' (42 x 59.4cm)

I'm really enjoying working on some A2 Portraits at the moment. I've come back after the Christmas break to my easel with refreshed enthusiasm & vigour... it makes a change as 2012 probably saw my least productive year in terms of drawing.

AIM & CLICK - The Habits of Folks

Harrow Road, London.

Andrew Victor Wood

Just sorting through some photos on my laptop and I thought I would post these two. I lived on Harrow Road in London for a year and was fascinated with the view from the window... random things were always happening. The other photo is of Andrew Victor Wood (the singer in Ultrasound) on his doorstep, I wonder if he has some new slippers yet! 

WORKSHOPS - February/March

Upcoming Workshops at Crescent Arts, I'll be running some Ceramic Portraiture Workshops this time...

OUT & ABOUT - The Art Gallery Stores

Scarborough Art Gallery Stores

I spent a lovely afternoon yesterday in the Scarborough Art Gallery store. Very inspiring! Some little gems in there. Thanks to Karen Snowden the head of collections for talking me through the collection in depth - fascinating insight.... now what will I paint?

WORK IN PROGRESS - 3 heads are better than 1

Work in Progress Heads.

I'm busy working on three heads at the moment. The middle head is a tureen incorporating a ladle which I've disguised as a curl. I'm having fun making these... it feels like a light hearted aside. 

EXHIBITION - 108 Fine Art, Harrogate

The Death of Sainsburys and the Death of Munrow have made a little apperance at 108 Fine Art in Harrogate, along with - Qwerty Cunieform Tablet, Retro Keyboard, Curious Curiosities and PMN2 Trinket Boxes... they should be around for a month or so.

108 Fine Art, Harrogate.

108 Fine Art, Harrogate.

PRESS - Harrogate, Ripon & Wetherby

The very lovely people at Harrogate College sent my photo of the Death of Sainsbury's to the local paper. The Death of Sainsbury's will be having it's first public outing in Harrogate soon... 

 

WORK IN PROGRESS - Researching Harrogate

1923 Poster - H.G. Gawthorn.

1921 Poster.

I'm starting research on a new project. I want to respond to my time on the AA2A scheme and especially to being in a new town & environment. Harrogate is most famously known for being a Spa Town. People have flocked to the town to take the waters for generations... up until March 2012 that is, when the council responded to an EU regulation and stopped people drinking the waters and turned off the outside tap of the Pump House!