Art Against Knives Portrait

http://www.artagainstknives.com/

When Churchill was advised to cut funding for the arts to divert money to the war effort, he replied:

"then what are we fighting for?"

(I wish the current UK government felt the same)

Art against knives

I'm currently working on a portrait project for Art Against Knives, a charity which sets out to "reduce the root causes of knife crime through youth-led arts initiatives that provide an alternative to violent gang culture":

Lady Gaga

a competition entry for V Magazine)

Muammar Gaddafi

Elizabeth Taylor 1932 - 2011

I thought I'd do some painting today for a change.

Here's an interesting article on Elizabeth Taylor by Truman Capote
and here's another from the New Yorker

"Of all things I liked books best" - Nikola Tesla

Cosy Letterforms

Dan and I have just moved to Norwich and are settling in to our new life here (with lots of cups of tea)

Nikola Tesla

I'm making a mini book about Nikola Tesla's inner life

There's definitely definitely definitely no logic

my portrait of Björk, as featured on Illustration Rally

Van Gogh Museum & Unfold Amsterdam - Vrijdagavond Poster

Poster commission for "Picasso in Paris 1900 - 1907" - Friday Night events at the Van Gogh Museum. 

This was my dream commission, and it was a joy to work on. 

I love working with Unfold - because they give their artists so much creative freedom. As you can see from their amazing posters so far (here), there is a lot of variety, not a "house style".

I did a lot of research, and if you look closely, and you're familiar with his work from 1900-1907, you might recognise a few faces in the poster - all 20 people below Picasso are modelled on his paintings. On the lower left is Picasso's best friend Cassagemas, whose suicide supposedly led to Picasso painting in blue. On the lower right is the old guitar player. In the centre are the saltimbanques (strolling acrobats) of Cirque Medrano, which Picasso used to visit frequently with his friend Apollinaire, and which inspired his Rose Period. And Picasso himself is held up at the top by the characters from this painting, which is actually one of his self-portraits - he often liked to represent himself as a harlequin, because as an artist he identified with their position as an outsider. 

The poster represents his climb from a 19-year old unknown newly arriving in Paris to a world famous 26-year-old conquering the Parisian art world and becoming the new leader of the avant garde.

And here are Dansgroep Amsterdam rehearsing Nomade, a dance inspired by Picasso's circus paintings and part of the Friday Night Events at the Van Gogh Museum. They are wonderful to watch, and will be performing at the Van Gogh Museum every Friday - I would definitely recommend seeing them.

Hey, is that you?

Here's a little teaser portion of my poster on the front cover of the special edition "Van Gogh Museum Friday Night Programme" issue of Unfold. 

And here it is at the front desk in the Van Gogh Museum!

A huge thankyou to Russell Joyce, Steve McCarron and the rest of the very talented team at Unfold, and to the Communication Department at the Van Gogh Museum for this commission. I loved working on it, and I learnt so much.


You can find out more about the Picasso in Paris (1900-1907) exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum here, and about the Friday Night events for the exhibition here.


You can find full coverage of the exhibition in Unfold, which can be found squirrelled away in any one of these gezellig Amsterdam establishments.

(above image: another of my illustrations from inside the issue)