Julie Liger-Belair

 

Some collage by Canadian artist Julie Liger-Belair I love her compositions, colour and pattern. 

Mr Pink

 

Please excuse my dirty, printy hands, I spent Sunday and Monday making a zine about Mr Pink using some Gelli printed papers, with collaged images of Mr Pink and many collaged flowers from magazines. The effect is about as vibrant as I needed to capture his character. 

Mr Brenton Somerville Pink was born in Jamaica in 1925, in 1957 he emigrated to London where he worked as a refuse collector until he retired in 1988. He admired a house in Lewisham and bought it for himself, bringing to it the colour, happiness, vibrance of Jamaica and his character. 

I am really enjoying printing images on tracing paper and having that bright translucence and layering that this brings to projects. I have to say making these tiny books about all manner of subjects and interesting people brings me great joy, it is forming an odd diary (library) of my interests, events and life.

Filmmaker and director Helen Appio has made a series of films about the Windrush generation and one of them thankfully captured the wonderful Mr Pink.  

"I was very much influenced by the fact that he had the confidence to live his life and create his own world without being worried about what

others felt or thought about him, that was an important lesson. I have spent much of my life worrying about what people think about me and Mr Pink taught me a valuable life lesson."     Helen Appio

Playing and Working II

 

More from my work for the 'Arbroath Correspondence School', I am so enjoying researching the images and then using them to collage and create. Above is the crew of the Lifeboat and below a whelk seller from the early 1950's. I have been busy working on a mural amongst other things so creative time has been very limited but I have loved making and posting these collages off to Arbroath once a week. 

Jon Carling

 

A selection of works by Jon Carling who works in pen and ink, building worlds from delicate lines.

Matthew Collings I

 

Matthew Collings is a London based artist who has recently been exploring the lives of famous artists, the latest two studies are of 'Hilma af Klint', and I am loving his drawings of her working.

Above is 'Hilma af Klint in the 1910s composing circle shapes and tendril-like lines on a canvas laid on the floor — spirits tell her what symbols to paint, but spirits don’t know anything about painting, so it’s up to her to invent the compositional containers for all the spirit meaning — the spirits look on curiously.' 

Below: Hilma af Klint in the painting studio in the 1910s studying Goethe, Buddha, Rudolf Steiner and the Fourth Dimension.                                        

                                            

María Elena Valdez I

'Poems for the Lost Children of Chile' by María José Ferrada, illustrated by María Elena Valdez, translated by Lawrence Schimel is absolutely exquisite, with deliciously delicate drawings and heart-wrenching tenderness. It imagines ordinary, precious moments in the lives of child victims of Pinochet. 

Nastya Musatenko

 

Ukrainian Nastya Musatenko, one of the Top 10 Book Design Nomination for the COW 2020 Illustration  Biennale. With a book exploring and translating language Ukrainian and English.  

Maryam Yektafar

 

"Dragon deceived me" written by Hamid Abazari, Illustrated by Maryam Yektafar's and nominated for the  Book Design Award of the COW 2020 Illustration Biennale. A rich wonderful colours and fantastic imaginative encounter between a child and her fathers' tools. 

Betye Saar II

             

Above 'Birds of a Feather' 2010, 

Here is a selection of collages by Betye Saar, Betye Saar was born in Los Angeles in 1926.

"I never had the stroke for the mainstream. But the flotsam and jetsam of tides is what I make my art from; I recycle things that I find. It’s not only materials, images, and objects, but feelings and ideas." Betye Saar

                   

Above: 'Mother and Children in Blue',1998, Below: 'The Blue Madonna's 1996. 

 "I grew up in a family with strong older women who led and inspired the rest of us to find our voices and embrace our creativity. These wise, wonderful women were the matriarchs of our family and I find myself naturally drawn toward women who fill that role in their own." Betye Saar

              

Below: Woman with Bird in Her Hair, 2010

Jade Orlando

 

Some examples of work by Jade Orlando to start the working week.

Betye Saar I

 

Two screenprint images by Betye Saar from 1963, Above, "Flight,". Below "In The Sunflower Patch". I wish these were in a children's book they are so rich and full of nature and joy.

Chris Judge

 

What's not to love? Chris Judge has been making a 'Daily Cloud' since September last year . . . a daily boost of joy.