Back on the sketchbooks. It’s wheatpaste season!

croppano, originally uploaded by AllOfUsAreLost.

Well, i made it!
Degree show works are all assembled, and have been standing for a few weeks now, so i guess they’re stable..

Also, i finally got myself into the dot-com portfolio game:

WWW.EXTRAORDINARITY.COM

or click the image.

UCLAN Fine Art Degree Show opens at 5.30 TOMORROW (Friday, 10th June) and runs for an entire week after that. But if you want to come gaze at my beaming smile, or invest in my future, it’d be swell if you made it to the opening.

UCLAN Degree show soon, i’ve barely had 5 minutes without tools and such in my hands, it’s been non-stop. So very excited for all the upcoming work i have on the go, and everyone else’s work is off the hook!

Can’t wait to drop a big update, once i’ve sorted the beasts from the chaff, and started installing the work. Stay tuned.

Here’s an image of a concept miniature, for an idea of what’s going on. About 10″ tall, so the scale is maybe 1:12. Woah.

Spare time has been consumed by reading Game of Thrones. So very hooked into that world already. Can’t wait to see the Stark’s in the (celluloid) flesh this week!

Gonna figure out my Uni schedule this week.
Hopefully get a decent amount of updates rattled off each month this year, Gods know i’ve been making enough work!

Also, i’ve got a new tea mug, and a stack of books/movies/TV as long as my arm to get through. Plenty of opinionated fanboyism to scatter through some blog posts, too.

So say we all!

It’s been a sort’ve slow month this month, i gutted my studio, and spent some intense evenings trying to decide what needed to go in bin bags. As a hoarder, it was tough, but i pulled through.

I traded my old rowboat for a huge old transit van, pulled that up right next to my studio, and as such now have a massive wood-van to store all my large dumpster-treasures in. So that’s been a massive help!

Besides the organising, this past week or so i’ve made the leap to oil paints, finally. Gotta say, they’ve really REALLY freed me up, creatively. Think i’ve hit my stride, and found a currently very satisfying way of conveying all the ideas packed into my sketchbooks.

I’ll be uploading a bunch of images as i paint them, in the lead up to starting my 3rd year of University in oh… 3 weeks! Very excited, but at that point i’ll probably hit a wall blog/update wise, as i spend my time flitting between Preston and Southport spaces.

UCLAN massive, here i come!

Images!: http://www.flickr.com/photos/allofusarelost/

Blog post header Jul 10., originally uploaded by AllOfUsAreLost.

(Decided to make a sort’ve mega-post, instead of a few smaller posts, apologies if there’s rambling ahead…)

Hello, one and all!

I’m trying my best to keep posting updates, hell, i’ve certainly been busy enough to fill some space once in a while, so here’s to a higher frequency of blogging hence forth. I start Uni again in September, so hopefully there’ll be a lot of crazy stuff going on that i feel the need to tell everyone about, hah.

The Headspace 5th Birthday event went great, so many people there and all in high spirits! Plenty of artists roaming around The Egg, plenty of appreciators, plenty of tea, too. Couldn’t ask for a better art show, huh!? Can’t think what i was doing 5 years ago, probably drawing wrestlers and skateboarders in the back of my jotter, so the gallery being around since then is pretty impressive, who knows what we’ll all be painting in another 5 years!!!

Onto my recent comings and goings…
If you’ll direct your attention to the attached image:

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Top left – “Lostalgia” sculptures!

I found a big bag of old action figures that had all been smashed up, probably back when i was too cool for toys and cartoons. Before i was into skip-diving and found objects, i was more keen on smashing things up with a mallet, i guess. Anyway, i found this bag, and i guess my inner sculptor/frankenstein cast it’s gaze, next thing i’ve banged together a small army of new action figure-hybrids, most of which i really, really had fun making. Hot glue guns are the SHIT!

Check out the whole set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/allofusarelost/sets/72157624572020756/
Eventually, i’ll get round to making some figure boxes up so that they can be displayed how nature/hasbro intended. Boxes, accessories, and cool ass names!

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Top right – New drawings!

In between hot glue burns, and watching old 80s cartoons, i’ve been working on an old Moleskine i found. Turns out that soaking a page in strong tea, then working into it wet with charcoal is pretty much the greatest way to draw since i tried drawing with a sauce-bottle full of ink! I normally ain’t so keen on charcoal, but wet paper + tea + charcoal pencils is my new favourite way to do quick, messy drawings.
Started out just trying to loosen up, but i’m actually quite proud of some of these drawings, bonus!

Check out the set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/allofusarelost/sets/72157624572005574/
There’ll be many more to come, and i think a few of them could be nice for a show some time, make a change from displaying clean, illustrative paintings.

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Bottom left/right – Misc. photos!

Not including the figures and drawings, i also uploaded about 40 photographs of misc. stuff over the last few weeks that i thought looked interesting. Lots of bike rides, nature walks and whatnot. So if you’ve a couple minutes spare to peruse at your leisure, my Flickr photostream is backed up to the 4th page with images to look at! Here’s a handy link to the 4th page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/allofusarelost/page4/

The next month is going to be Dissertation / Final year work intensive for me, i’m very excited to be getting back to experimenting with my art practices, and hanging around with a class full of like-minded people, in a University studio that encourages creativity instead of deeming it a secondary skill to business!
Anyway, no doubt all the researching i have to do (woo!) will spring up some odd pieces that have been darting around my brain / sketchbooks and just needed time to brew, so i’ll still be hammering the updates.

Congrats if you made it this far!
If not… Well, start using “Instapaper” for your Mac / iPhone / iPad / probs Windows too, it’s pretty handy for saving lengthy reads until later, hah.

Thanks for reading, internet peoples, see you next time!

Headspace 5th., originally uploaded by AllOfUsAreLost.

Birthday show tomorrow! Details here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=132875140086514&index=1

These guys have been awesome since way back, and super accomodating to me this past year or so. Blazing a trail for how indie galleries should be set up these days, for serious.

Plenty of great local talent’ll be up tomorrow, anyways, check out the link for a list of artists, i’ll add a number of them to my bloglinks when i get chance, too. Noteably Ashlea Haynes (http://www.ashleahaynes.com/) who’s work is really great, and i think, raw as hell.

Big new update this week, i’ve been getting really messy, should be some interesting images darting around.

Woah, it’s been a busy month or so!
Had a few of my ‘blues’ paintings up in The Egg / Headspace gallery in Liverpool, and sold all 3! First official sale in my relatively young career as a struggling artist, and i’ve been going full-speed since then, super psyched.

The attached image is 3 new pieces in the series, for which I’ve sketched up a 12-strong run of crazy blues-infused paintings. These 3 will be hopefully up for another Headspace show this month, along with another 7 or 8 paintings that I’ve been working on fornthe past few weeks. I’ve a literal stack of work that I’m ultra pleased with, so it should be good times to see it all displayed in all it’s surrealustrative glory! Surrealustrative is a new word, just came to me.

Anywho, enough self promotion, in other news I went to the Southport college end of year art show, and it was FULL of great art, I love going back each year and seeing what fresh talent is lurking around those studio spaces. Of course, the after party doesn’t hurt either, plenty of familiar faces and old friends, everyone game for a great night, good vibes etc.
I’ll try get back into college at some point and take some photos of the awesome work on display, so keep your eyes peeled if you fancy!

Right, back to work I go. Plenty of paint left, and a sketchbook almost at critical mass!

Ps. Typed on my iPad, yeah, I caved. Totally worth it though.

Mid-paintrush studio pano!
Starting a new, new, new uni course this September. Heading into the Fine Art 3rd year at UCLAN, i’m very psyched.

Just about ducking in for the 1-post-per-month, it’d seem! Cutting it close, hah.

We’ve seen considerably hopeful amounts of sunshine of recent, which makes me absolutely elated. Be nice to ride down meditate in the forest, sit on my roof reading, actually head the skatepark again! Summer is amazing. This time next year i’ll be saying similar things, but perhaps thinking seriously about skipping town for warmer climates, maybe. Who knows!? My soul needs to be warm, of this i’m sure.

Not much to report workwise, i’ve been working on a series of character driven illustration/paintings all centered around this idea i’ve had for a year or so. Hopefully getting a few of them up in Headspace@Eggspace in Liverpool. Basically anthropomorphizing the notion of “having the blues” into a race of time-travelling creatures that have bright blue skin, plain masks.. and almost zero methods for clothing themselves (clothes do not time travel well, see: Desmond from Lost.) Anyway, a couple of these images are up on my Flickr photostream, mostly in sketch form and whatnot, so as not to subject them to internet thievery, maybe.

Also: UCAS form sent off this week, i’ll hopefully be heading to UCLAN, Preston for my 3rd year of University. The place has an amazing atmosphere, and all the students i’ve met are always making zines, screenprints and drawing drawing DRAWING pretty consistently, so it seems like the place for me. LJMU’s Fine Art department is an absolute charade, which is a shame because my class from last year are there. Might recruit a few of them over to my ship-jumpery, haha.

Anywho. More to come, along with the sun. New gallery opening in Southport, too, called “The R gallery” which seems interesting. Wouldn’t mind getting involved, considering i’ve 6 months to keep myself busy!

See you next month, maybe sooner!
As always, check the Flickr.