Sunday 20 December 2009

Words in Nature...Glaciers of ice.

Its now officially sub-zero in the UK! Which can only mean kicking off the winter outdoor season of painting with a beauty. The theme of this is "Glaciers of ice", a classic rap track by Raekwon the chef from Wu-Tang Clan, this was the only thing going through my head as I rushed to finish before the wind picked up.
Hopefully it will snow soon as I really want to get out and beat last years painting record of -5 when the can actually stuck to my hand.

Hooray for winter!

Something is looking at you

more winter blues

I love Brixton Market!

Brixton Village is an indoor market located in the heart of Brixton.
I was approached to paint out an empty store as part of a project to inject new ideas and energy into the market.

What makes Brixton stand out from a lot of indoor markets is its diversity of food stores and some great eateries. I have recently learnt that there are 3 Colombian restaurants in there which means that I may as well not have a kitchen at home!

For the store painting I pulled in Tizer and Bonzai to add to the flavour. We were painting what used to be a Rastafari restaurant.
The project was organised by Spacemakers agency and thanks to Katrina for hooking it up. It was short notice, 2 days, but that's how I roll.
Hope you enjoy the results:

Also check out www.friendsofbrixtonmarket.org and www.spacemakers.org.uk

The beginning....

We go all out LIME

Tizer and Bonzai work the magic

Outside looking in

Love the trees

Inside the mince pies flow

Detail of the piece

The suns out for once

Previously painted fruit I had to leave in, just had too.

Half Solo, Half Bonzai

Classic Tizer

Paradise in the market

Once upon a time...a toolshop

Haircut Sir?

Flesh coloured Polo necks were the rage....in the 80's

Brixton Market is the place, come and support!

Friday 27 November 2009

Shooting stars.

Recently friend and photographer Anthony Saint James paid us a visit from the US to take part in a exhibition called 'The Witches'. This show was a collaboration with Inkymole, Tom Hare and Ed Garland.
During his visit to Brixton I managed to get to shoot a sequence of pictures while I painted.
What I like about Anthony's work is he captures a unique but interesting look in what he shoots. I had a Busta Rhymes photo of his from XXL magazine which I'd ripped out of the mag unknown to me that it was Anthony that shot it. Happens to be one of my faves.
I managed to snap a shot of Anthony on my Canon, not sure I got the exposure levels correct but if Blue Peter had been down there that day I reckon i would have scored a few badges for my efforts. I'll let you decide whether you think I need to stick to painting....

Portrait shot of Anthony taken on my Canon powershot A1100 is

Its November, wrap up!

Love this city.

Close up of heart mural.

More detail.

Love, up close.

Tuesday 10 November 2009

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix kicked off in October at the Yas Marina circuit and I was asked if I could paint a series of pictures to coincide with this event at Abu Dhabi International Airport.
The project was to paint and encourage travelers to interact with the paintings and also do some drawing themselves. Having a studio in the departure lounge in one of the richest cities in the world didn't seem like a bad idea and top that off with people from all over the world passing by to do outlines I felt like this could be the beginning of something new.

The highlights of this project were discussing art and poetry with a delegation of Pakistan Government officials and a great Russian family who missed their flight and joined me for 2 nights in a row.

The paintings I made were fast productions. I had one day on them and they all could have done with some major tweaking but on the plus side, the Abu Dhabi International Airport Company liked them so much they now want to display them around the airport for the world to see!

The Race.

Heat.

Circuit break.

Speed.

Faith.

Deserted.

Love speed.

The seed.

The circuit.

Burnout.

The Formula.

The flower.

Company representatives take a closer look.

Back-up support for the fill-in.

Betty and Feiruza join in.

Sinan helps out on drips.

Serene and Ines worked overtime in overdrive to make it happen!

Great drawing! Get the blu-tack out and stick it up.

Ines worked too hard.

Serene brought tranquility to this project.

Customer services were great!

Olga, Marina and Nina from Moscow.

Olga and her squeezy flower.

The tallest mobile phone mast palm tree in Abu Dhabi!