'Secret London'- Serco Prize for Illustration 2012

The 2012 Association of Illustrators Serco Prize exhibition is currently on at the London Transport Museum. This year's theme was Secret London, with entries tasked with exploring hidden and lesser-known aspects of the capital's history, culture and geography. My illustration, London's Ancient Trees, can be seen there along with the other selected entries until December 10th.

Many thanks to the AOI, Serco and the LTM for putting a great show together, and a brilliant opening night. Congratulations to the winners, and look out for Finn Clark's winning design on posters throughout the tube network.

Framing

Been framing up my print for the AOI Serco Prize exhibition at the London Transport Museum, opening next month.

 

Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Exhibition

Went back down for a proper look at the Self Portrait exhibition down at Kings Place Gallery (next to Kings Cross, the building in which the Guardian and Observer are based). The show fills the huge lower floors of Kings Place, as well as the actual gallery itself. There are some cracking portraits on show, although I felt the exhibition was a little bloated at 170-odd paintings- half of that would probably be more comfortable.


The exhibition is on every day until the 25th November. And congrats to the winner of the competition, Celia Paul.


My portrait: I think the wonky board looks alright in the end:

Some of my favourite portraits from the show (links at the bottom):


Tony Noble's Self Portrait, Red Brick Mill Studio, a brilliant acrylic piece:

Andrew Whamond's frank and expressive Self Portrait Standing:

Gilly Lovegrove, Untitled:

I saw an Alison Lambert solo exhibition in Soho a few years ago. She produces stunning large-scale portraits in charcoal, pastel and layers of torn paper, giving the pieces a deep relief and wonderfully sculptural topography. It's like the portrait has actually come from within the paper. Fantastic draughtsmanship (draughtswomanship?) too. Really worth seeing in person. Self-Portrait:

 Sheena Russell's Red Portrait:

Artist links:

Tony Noble

Andrew Whamond

Gilly Lovegrove

   Alison Lambert

   Sheena Russell

Knud Baade- Norwegian Landscapes

I went to see the Forests, Rocks, Torrents exhibition of Swiss and Norwegian landscape paintings at the NG. My favourite discovery was Knud Baade, represented in the exhibition by a single seascape (the first one below). He was  known for his depicitions of a mythical Norway of warrior sagas. His dramatic moonlit seas and mountains seem to have an echo in modern fantasy painting. I like them a lot.


The exhibition's on until the 18th September, and it's free. Go see.

The Serco Prize Exhibition at London Transport Museum

The best 50 entries from the AOI's annual Serco Prize competition are currently exhibited at the London Transport Museum. I went back to show my Dad around a few days after the PV, and took my camera this time.

My entry:

There were some great responses to the 'River Thames' brief. A big favourite for me was Melvyn Evans' Thames People and Tides- brilliantly characterful tiny figures and an exquisite colour palette:

Ace characters in Matt Oxborrow's piece...

...one of whom bore a striking resemblance to my guest to the private view, www.benstrachan.co.uk:

Great textures and beautifully observed figures in Holly Stoves' image:

Congrats to the winners. The exhibition is on until the 3rd June, in case you'd like to take a peek. The museum itself has some interesting stuff too, like this chap:

Serco Prize for Illustration Exhibition

My entry for the AOI & London Transport Museum competition (HERE) has been selected to appear in the Serco Prize for Illustration exhibition next month. I've seen a couple of the other chosen pieces and it looks like the exhibition is going to be great!


I'm really looking forward to this, off to pick up my print tomorrow.


The exhibition runs from the 10th May- 3rd June at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden, so be sure to pop over and check it out yeah.

Went to the Glasgow Boys show at the RA at the weekend. T'was brilliant. Only on for a couple more days. Go see quick!


http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/glasgow-boys/

Ambit Covers

Wandering the deepest reaches of Crouch End library on monday, I stumbled across an exhibition of Ambit covers. Ambit is a long-running magazine of poetry, art, reviews and short stories that has been Art Edited by illustrator/author Michael Foreman since the 60s. The cover images are often provided by up-and-coming young artists, including the likes of David Hockney and Ralph Steadman in earlier years. 


The prints are spread out around the walls of a giant hall in a seemingly random arrangement of wonky angles. A slightly strange but interesting exhibition.

'Crucible' Sculpture at Gloucester Cathedral

Really impressed by this exhibition today.

http://www.gloucestercathedral.org.uk/index.php?page=crucible

Dozens of works by a wide variety of contemporary sculptors, dotted around the cathedral inside and out. I hadn't realised it was such a blockbuster exhibition, and wandered in blurb-free. The sculptures are only identified via numbers, and as I hadn't picked up the map on the way in, I had the pleasure of looking around without being distracted by the names of the artist, which made a refreshing change from most exhibitions. 

The setting is what makes it though. Gloucester Cathedral is a stunner at the worst of times, and the sculptures just seem to fit in, rather than fighting with the architecture. Curated with a light touch- the pieces are just placed where they seem to fit, with no fanciness or pretension. No pointless pedestals or over-the-top spotlighting. Some sculptures hide from view in alcoves or behind pillars. A big, rearing bear in the main entrance. Abstract metalwork standing next to the tomb of King Edward II.

Quite a brave undertaking I reckon, perfectly executed.

I had a flick through the comment book- only a few morally outraged remarks.

Extracurricular

I've been spending too much time doing necessary stuff on the computer lately, getting a bit annoyed at not spending enough time drawing and painting.

I have been pretty active in terms of getting out and doing things though. I caught the now-finished Christen Kobke: Danish Master of Light exhibition at the National Gallery. He's a 19th century painter virtually unknown outside Denmark, but the man was incredible. Incisive documentation of everyday street scenes, use of landscape compositions that seem daring even today, and the aforemetioned mastery of light blew me away. Best exhibition I've seen in a long time.

I'm utterly gutted to realise I've just missed the Ronald Searle exhibition at the Cartoon Museum. I even set off there twice, both occasions being on mondays when the museum's closed... Damn.

I will though be swinging by the PV of the Brighton Uni Illustration & Graphic Design exhibition in London on thursday. I caught their Brighton show last month, so I'm keen to see what they'll do for this one.

Also went with my girlfriend to the WWT London Wetlands Centre in Barnes a couple of weeks back. The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust sites are some of my favourite places in the world, and it's an organisation I'm very passionate about. The London Centre is brilliant; less developed than Slimbridge, but moreso than Arundel. The landscaping particularly is awesome. It's almost in the centre of London, but apart from the planes flying overhead you'd never know. A full-on oasis in the city.