A few images of designers work I spotted in the Yorkshire Scultpture Park shop on thursday.
How wonderful are these by Rie Taniguchi ?
Stunning papier-mâché from Julie Arkell.
Folk art from Victoria Whincup and ceramics from Vicky Hageman.
Jaume Plensa, Sophie Ryder, Dennis Oppenheim and Barbara Hepworth at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
(photo by YSP)
I had the great fortune to go with some friends last thursday to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park
in West Bretton near Wakefield. It was a scorching day weatherwise and the exciting energy of the
sculptures and the beauty of the grounds made the whole event such a worthwhile day out.
We started off with the work of Sophie Ryder. Her association with YSP began in 1986 during her
residency,immediately after graduating from the RA Schools. Her work is an exploration of the female
psyche and sexuality and frequently references the artist’ s own body as it morphs with the powerful
energy and form of the hare.
There were a couple of rather bizarre looking pieces from American Sculptor Dennis Oppenheim.
A key figure in the US Land Art movement, Dennis was an influential international artist who created
sculpture, installations, interventions, performances, actions, happenings and photographic works.
His work was characterised by a constant shifting of style and ceaseless creative output.
It’s easy to see why so many people go to the Sculpture Park as it’s not just about the work on show, the
views are equally spectacular.
For me the highlight of the whole day was the fantastic work of the Spanish born Jaume Plensa.
It has been a while since I’ve been so pleasantly surprised by one person’s work and that the scale and
beauty of it, was something to marvel at and be captivated by. It was a special feeling.
Fortunately we ended up in the Longside Gallery towards the end of the day and that’s when the whole
experience just got better and better. There’s a beautiful collection of exhibits by Jaume in there, starting
with a row of metal letters suspended on wires. You are encouraged to run your fingers along them
as you walk by and it gives off such a soothing Tibetan Prayer Drum / Wind Chime sound that you’re
tempted to just sit in the warm sun and listen to it all day long !.
Inside the four galleries were more delights. Initially some wall mounted figures depicting the phrase
See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil and then some huge heads with an eerie inner glow to them,
sitting among a sea of white pebbles.
The next gallery had a collection of alabaster heads. All facing you as you walk into the room but with
a calm stillness that at first made you both uncomfortable but also a series of questions played in
my mind. What were they made of ? Were they computerised faces ? Would they move or suddenly open
their eyes, speak or scream or turn their heads. Why were they so elongated and soulful ?
Then a room with beautiful brass gongs suspended in a circle. You were allowed to bang them and stood
captivated as the resounding boom built around you.
(photo YSP)
There were also a series of models made by Jaume to show ideas and other pieces he’d created.
Finally a few garden sculptures by Barbara Hepworth and to mention that The Hepworth Museum
is also open nearby in Wakefield as an additional place to see whilst in the local area.
More info about it here.
I can’t recommend the experience of going to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park enough.
Go and take it all in and enjoy the journey. Find the YSP here.
Friends…… a few thoughts.
Without going into the details, as I’m essentially quite a private person at times,
I’ve had a hard couple of weeks just gone. Without a doubt it’s been one of the worst times
I’ve ever had to cope with. That being said, I’d just like to acknowledge the amazing people
I have around me that are my friends. They know who they are and I keep them close.
They are my ocean island and my safe place to be.
How lucky I feel to have them and I’m ever grateful for their support.
Please send a friend you’ve not thought about for a while, a ‘ hello’ today for me.
Peter P. Plasencia Childrens’ Book Illustrator.
The wonderful Ward Jenkins has kindly scanned in some images by the equally talented artist
Peter P. Plasencia for us to appreciate. Peter is a native New Yorker.
He published quite a bit in the early 1960’s and is now married and has one daughter, Regina.
He majored in industrial design at Pratt Institute, studied at the Meschini Institute in Rome,
and at the Art Students League in New York. Mr. Plasencia is now head of his own design house.
Below are scans from the Jules Verne Book The Man Who Invented The Future.
Among the other children’s books he has illustrated are The Deep Blue Sea,
Magic Mixtures: Alloys and Plastics,The Chemistry of a Lemon and Space Alphabet (as seen below).
I love his sketchy style, it has such a sense of movement about it and I can see why it would have been
popular with kids and adults too. Education and visual pleasure, what a combination !
You can see more of this book on Ward’s site here.
Fishink in Holland.
I was lucky enough to spend a few days with some old Dutch friends in Holland last week.
They were the absolute perfect hosts and I felt very privileged to be treated so royally and very lucky to
have such lovely sunny weather to visit all the places we did.
Holland is soo beautiful and if you know where to go and visiting areas such as Vreeland,
Naarden Vesting, Volendam (very touristic place), Broek in Waterland (wooden houses)
Vorden Deventer ,Loosdrecht, Nieuwersluis, Breukelen, Haarzuilen and Loenen aan de vecht,
and you’ll be transported into another world of exclusive floating wooden homes and windmills.
These images were taken all over, the areas named above, and I hope it gives you a small flavour
of the kind of places there are to see and also the wealth of well designed and picturesque architecture
that you can sample for yourselves.
Christiane Beauregard. Canadian Illustrator.
Christiane Beauregard seems to possess limitless capacity to bring virtual images to life.
From delicate emotions to complex technological data.. she is always striving to express her passions
through her digital art. Her beginnings in the design department of the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation were important in her artistic evolution.
At the outset of the 90’s she discovered computers and a certain affinity with vectors. Seduced by these
voluptuous curves she adopted this as her principal mode of expression. Also taking an interest in
animation which let her explore the intersection of traditional and new technology.
When she is not drawing, she participates in exhibitions or she pursues workshops in theatre and
dance, which are for her, a real source of inspiration and creative motivation.
There’s wonderful movement and colour in her work, delicacy and a sense of a calmer world.
She also creates amazing childrens’ illustrations …..
… illustrates books, calendars, ceramics and advertising posters.
There’s an interview with Christiane on Design Taxi here.
Rufus the Dutch Cat. Fishink Drawings
Just back from a lovely stay in Holland with some dutch friends of mine.
Once again I was struck, by what a design conscious place it is, such strong attention to detail and
beautiful home interiors with villages that seem so picture perfect, quite inspiring.
Don’t worry there will be some images to come once I’ve had a chance to do some processing lol
In the meantime, here’s a few quick, scribbly doodles I did of their lovely cat Rufus, a most willing model.
No prizes for guessing what his favourite pastime was !
Lorraine Fox A Pioneering Artist
If I were to show you this and ask when you thought it was created, I’d guess you’d probably reply that it
felt like a contemporary illustration and could have been drawn yesterday. So would you be surprised to
learn that it was probably created some 50 odd years ago ? I certainly was.
Lorraine Fox (1922–1976) was a prolific American illustrator and commercial artist. She worked at the
Charles E. Cooper studio with a collection of well-known male illustrators of the 1950s, including
Al Parker, Coby Whitmore, Jon Whitcomb, and Joseph Bowler. Their office published in many
mainstream magazines in the 1950s, and given attitudes towards working women in the period,
(think MAD MEN ) Lorraine struggled, but managed, to carve an enduring place as a
respected illustrator. At a time when American beauty was being defined for women by men,
Lorraine managed to convince the art directors of some of the country’s most prominent
publications that her unique voice should also be heard.
In magazines of the time like Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, etc. practically all
of the illustration was created by men in that sort of ‘idealized realism’ style of painting
we nostalgically recall today as “retro”. Lorraine somehow carved her way in and survived, paving
the way for the commercial female artist.
Reflective, sometimes humorous and fun, sometimes graphical or painterly she had a great
scope of styles and managed to create emotion and dialogue through her work.
I came across her work thanks to a blog about female illustrators from the mid 20th Century here.
Thanks to Heritage Auctions for the scans of some of her work.
A smile a day …
I saw this and thought of you all ! I’m going to be taking a few days off the blog so Happy Holidays 🙂
These are the Clock and Map of Procrastination. I’m pretty sure we’ll all find use of these things from
time to time (no pun intended !). They just made me smile today so I thought I’d share.
You can see more of Fuchsia Macarees’ work.
Kobi Levi Shoe Designer
Kobi Levi graduated from Bezalel academy of art & design, Jerusalem 2001.
He specialized in footwear design and development, working as a freelance designer.
Collaborating with both Israeli and international companies, Kobi is currently working
on his women shoe line in Tel-Aviv, Israel.
He has designed commercial footwear in both Italy, China and Brazil. Presented design in various
exhibitions in Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, Tokyo, Verona, St.Etienne, Berlin etc’…
” In my artistic footwear design the shoe is my canvas. The trigger to create a new piece comes
when an idea, a concept and/or an image comes to mind. The combination of the image and
footwear creates a new hybrid and the design/concept comes to life. The piece is a
wearable sculpture. It is “alive” with/out the foot/body. Most of the inspirations are out of
the “shoe-world”, and give the footwear an extreme transformation. The result is usually
humoristic with a unique point of view about footwear. All the pieces are hand-made.
The challenging technical development is the key to bring the design to life in the best way.”
They’re not Jimmy Choos….. but they’ll also get you noticed.
Banana anyone ? ……. you must be quackers !
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