Colony of Artists

Colony of Artists Exhibition happening today until 6pm! Come visit me... be quick 

Verdigris

I've been super busy in the studio the last couple of weeks making work for the Porty Art Walk which is happening from 1 - 10 September.  This week I've discovered a new experimental printmaking technique using verdigris and copper.  

Dipping old electrical ceramic fuses, insulators and other found objects into various strengths of ammonia, vinegar and salt before placing them onto copper sheeting to stamp an impression of the object. The varying strengths of ammonia and vinegar create colours ranging from earthy brown, deep veridian and brightest turquoise. The objects themselves create marks reminiscent of the city from above, hinting at Portobellos' long lost buildings; the power-station, the open air pool and the Marine Gardens. Watch this space..... 

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Fossil at Hidden Door Festival 2017

Its been a delight to be a part of the visual art program at this years Hidden Door Festival.  Have you been yet? Well tonight is the last chance to head along and check out all the amazing art before it finishes.  Be sure to head backstage and down to the basement to check out my sculptural installation  where past technology becomes embedded in rock and preserved in petrified form. 'fossil'... a fossilised computer created with hundreds of casts from the remains of the StorageTek Tape Carousel 1984. 

Construction plans

With just over 6 weeks until  the start of Hidden Door festival... It's time to start planning exactly how, to combine these 400 cast forms into a structure that resembles the excavated remains of a Storagetek tape carousel....   #hiddendoor #sculpture #casting #glowinthedark #installation #lightart

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Groundwork

 #Fossil #newproject #installation #experiments #hiddendoor2017

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Travels with a sketchbook

Three weeks of my trip have already gone and it's farewell to Laos and Vietnam.  

So far... We visited family in Northern Laos then traveled down the Mekong in a slow boat to Luang Prabang, where we hung out with old friends and ate Laos BBQ pretty much every day.  In Vietnam we walked and walked and walked.... our legs ached after walking the perimeter of west lake. We stumbled across Chinese styled temples and got lost in the jumbled buildings of the old town, we ate fantastic steet foods and drank the cheapest beer ever at 25p a glass.  From Hanoi to Hoi An... where it rained for 3 days and the town flooded so much that we had to leave our hotel in a boat.  We escaped to Da Nang which is a neon city at night and has a Dragon brigde who's party trick is to breath fire.  Final destination in Vietnam, Halong Bay..  the sun didnt shine but the cloudy sky and mist added an eerie atmosphere. My sketchbook has been keeping me company and its already half full.  Still another 3 weeks left to discover and draw Thailand.  Hopefully it won't rain anymore.... 

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Behind the scenes at Hidden Door 2016

I'd forgotten about this interview by Creative Scotland with myself and a few other artists involved in Hidden Door Festival earlier this year.... 

With that in mind its worth noting that the Call for Proposals for 2017 in now live!!!

Hidden Door 2017 will take place from 26 May – 4 June 2017 in an as-yet undisclosed disused site in Edinburgh. The festival will see the empty buildings transformed into live music venues, theatre spaces, bars, a cinema, and a multitude of art exhibition and installation spaces.

Have you got an exciting project that will challenge and push boundaries within your work?  

Go to the Hidden Door website for more information, application deadline is the 1 st November.  

http://hiddendoorblog.org

Foray into Sculpture

I've been exploring new territories this week...  I've been learning to cast from some of the objects salvaged from the Storagetek computer.  I love process and casting is all about process!  I used a material called 'vinamould' which is a vinyl composition that melts when heated and is used to create a flexible mould that can capture fine details.   After filling any gaps in the objects with clay,  they were placed on raisers in the centre of make shift boxes and the liquid vinalmould poured directly over them.  The following morning the liquid had solidified and the moulds were ready to cut open.  Once the original objects had been carefully extracted... the two parts were then placed back together, masked to hold them in place and plaster of paris mixed and poured through the air holes.  I chose to cast in plaster as its easy to prepare, relatively inexpensive and has the benefit of setting really quick...  Great for really impatient people like myself and after only one hour I was able to carefully peel away the rubber moulds and reveal my newly made objects.  Wooo!!!! So now  I have to make many many many more as an exciting project is taking shape.....

Upsizing the drawings...... 

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