BA(Hons) Illustration Collaborative Project in Bristol

BA(Hons) Illustration Senior Lecturers Linda Scott and Natalie Hayes recently accompanied a group of second and third year students to Bristol, for a week-long trip focused on studio visits, professional practice talks and workshops, as well as an exhibition of work produced by them during their visit in response to a brief.

Dave Bain talking about his projects

Falmouth Alumni Dave Bain, who graduated in 2006, as established himself in Bristol as a lynchpin of the thriving Illustration scene. As well as being a successful Illustrator, Dave is responsible for setting up illustration studios in Hamilton House (in the Stokes Croft area of the city) and the Illustration Collective, ‘Drawn In Bristol‘.

A good number of Falmouth Illustration alumni have relocated to Bristol, as an alternative to London; many have studio space in Hamilton House, which Dave modeled on the Falmouth course’s studio set up. Our students were given a tour of Hamilton House, and also The Island, a converted police station on Nelson Street.

At Hamilton House, Illustrators Lara Hawthorne, Paula Bowles, Freya Hartas and others talked informally about their experiences as Illustrators since graduating; at The Island, collective Sad Ghost Club talked about collaboration, the merchandise they produce and what brought them together as a group.

Coordinating the visit for us, Dave Bain booked The Square Club as a meeting space for us, and as venue for speakers Lara Hawthorne, Joe Roberts and Laurie Stansfield, who are working together and have developed a mentoring scheme suitable for graduates who are unable to work in studio spaces and who might otherwise be subject to isolation. Joe and Laurie meet monthly to support one another with projects and business, holding one another accountable for developing projects and setting schedules. Dave talked about his experience setting up the studios and working collaboratively, and spoke about his role as a ‘connector’ of people, bringing them together to develop public realm projects which directly benefit the local community.

Before their trip, students had been given a brief, focusing on themes of Regeneration and Collaboration. The culmination of their research was the formulation of visual outputs for exhibition in the Space Gallery, in the Old Market area of Bristol. Student exhibits ranged from 3D objects to customised shirts, a video and a 3D mobile.

Limbic Cinema workshop

A private view of the exhibition followed a final day of workshops, from Tom Newell of Limbic Cinema. Tom digitised drawings from students’ sketchbooks and mapped and projected these onto plinths and walls; he taught students how to do the same, with the outcome being several visual collages projected onto 2D and 3D spaces.

We commend our students for their high level of engagement throughout this intensive professional practice study visit, and for their participation even when treacherous weather threatened to impact heavily their activities.

 

A BA(Hons) Illustration study visit to snowy Bristol!

Our second and third year BA(Hons) Illustration students recently enjoyed a study visit to snowy Bristol.  The focus of the trip included studio visits to two artist/illustration studios; Hamilton House and The Island.

The students enjoyed tours of both venues, at Hamilton House they met with practicing illustrators including Lara Hawthorne, Paula Bowles and Freya Hartas who spoke with the students about their experiences as illustrators since graduating.  At The Island studios, students met with collective ‘Sad Ghost Club‘, a small team working hard to make comics, apparel and merchandise to spread positive awareness of mental health.

Students also had presentations from Lara Hawthorne, Joe Roberts and Laurie Stansfield, who have been working together to develop a mentoring scheme called ‘CAP’ which involves meeting up regularly to support one another with business, including developing projects and setting schedules.  

Falmouth alumni Dave Bain, who graduated from BA(Hons) Illustration in 2006 coordinated all the activities that students participated in whilst visiting Bristol.  Dave also gave students a presentation about his own experiences since graduating. As well as being a successful illustrator, Dave is responsible for setting up illustration studios in Hamilton House and an illustration collective ‘Drawn In Bristol‘, formed in 2011 which supports and profiles Bristol based illustrators.

Before travelling to Bristol, students were given a brief to work too, focusing on the themes of ‘regeneration and collaboration’ and the culmination of their primary research was to formulate visual outputs which were exhibited in the SPACE (Sound-Performance-Art-Community-Engagement) Gallery.

Prior to the exhibition Private View, Tom Newell of Limbic Cinema, provided workshops with the students; Tom digitized drawings from student’s sketchbooks and mapped and projected these onto plinths and walls – he also taught students how to do the same and the outcome was several visual collages projected onto 2D and 3D spaces.

For the exhibition, students created a range of work in response to the brief, from 3D objects, to customised shirts, a video and a 3D mobile.

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New commission by Gillian Wylde at Arnolfini, Bristol

The ‘Moving Targets’ summer season at Arnolfini, Bristol (29 July – 11 September 2016), celebrates the 40^th anniversary of Punk.  ‘Resist Psychic Death’ opens in Gallery 1 at the Arnolfini on Friday 12 August, an expanded exhibition inviting audiences to question and discuss the history and future of punk.

The Day The World Turned Day-Glo, Gillian Wylde, 2016

 

The exhibition includes a new commission by Falmouth School of Art Senior Lecturer in Fine Art, Gillian Wylde. The commission, ‘The Day The World Turned Day-Glo’ includes effervescently discordant video works, collaged with corrupted image and text; it takes over Arnolfini’s foyer and overflows into the Café-Bar and Bookshop.

‘The Day The World Turned Day-Glo’  is open 11am-6pm daily for the duration of the Moving Targets season, entry free, donations welcome.

The Day The World Turned Day-Glo, Gillian Wylde 2016

Gillian Wylde makes performative work for video and installation. Central to her work is a critical engagement with technologies, language and the mediated. Processes of appropriation, petty arrangement and post-production are constants through most of the work like maybe a savage smell or hairy logic. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally including; Transmodern Live Art Action Festival, Baltimore; Videotage, Hong Kong; Alytus Biennial, Lithuania; Tao Scene, Norway, Experiments in Cinema, Albuquerque and CCA Gallery, Glasgow. Recent work includes: ‘Enflamma Diagra’ a collaboration with Neil Chapman ICA, London, ‘Snakes&Funerals’ a collaboration with James S Williams and Emily Jeremiah for ‘Queer The Space’ CCC, London and ‘Inna-deno pudenda membra’ an essay published in ‘The Interior’ by Eros Press.

The Day The World Turned Day-Glo, Gillian Wylde 2016

Reflections on the Spike Island Residency

2014 BA(Hons) Fine Art graduate Ed Hill was awarded the Spike Island Residency, following his studies. Here he shares with current students of the course his reflections on the experience…

Working at Spike Island for three months allowed me to continue the momentum of working post graduation. In my case, this meant painting.

Ed Hill’s Spike Island studio space

The Residency studio was big and situated among other artists’ studios. After moving timber, paint, canvas and stretchers into my space, I shared the studio with three other recent graduates. With 24/7 access, you are free to come and go anytime, day or night. I enjoyed the access to a wood workshop – where I made stretchers, (there is also a metal workshop and plenty of room for larger scale projects).

The atmosphere was very professional, and it was a realistic and beneficial experience of a totally independent way of working outside of art school. I made paintings for a show, and without the studio, facilities and space it would have been much more challenging to do so.

‘At the beach (after Mr and Mrs Andrews)’ 100x100cm, oil on canvas

If you are hoping to carry on working on art projects after graduating, and if you are serious about being artist, the residency is something to aim for – it will provide space, facilities and an opportunity to continue momentum in an art environment at a time when it is increasingly hard to do so. I recommend applying for the residency.

Edward Hill, Standing on a Rock

Ed Hill was one of four Falmouth alumni selected for the 2014 Bloomberg New Contemporaries which, having toured to Liverpool and London, will be on display at Newlyn and the Exchange Galleries from 21 March – 30 May 2015. You can see Ed’s work as part of that exhibition. Ed was also the recipient of The Falmouth School of Art Purchase Prize 2014 for his Bloomberg-selected piece Standing on a Rock.

Brian Cheeswright and Ed Hill: Two Painters

Brian Cheeswright and Ed Hill: Two Painters

2 October – 9 November 2014
The Gallery at Idea Store Whitechapel invites you to a joint exhibition by two painters Brian Cheeswright and recent Falmouth Fine Art graduate Ed Hill.

Ed Hill aims to make atmospheric paintings, imbued with an elusive mystery and warmth. The subject matter used to inform his paintings can vary; sketches from life, personal photographs and memories and painting history can all inform an idea. Cultural phenomena such as film, music, literature and comic books also provide inspiration. A recurring theme in his work is the allusion to far-away places, perhaps a memory from childhood, a personal depiction of a place or ‘thing’ once visited or witnessed, an experience or sensation. It could be a semi-fictional invention or a borrowed story from a relative. He is drawn to images which contain strangeness, humour and a tragi-comic element.

Ed’s recent exhibitions include ‘Paint Like You Mean It’, Interview Room 11, Edinburgh and ‘Test Space Open’, Spike Island, Bristol. Upcoming Exhibitions Include ‘Bloomberg New Contemporaries’, World Museum Liverpool/ICA London (2014), and ‘Mr and Mrs Andrews’, Transition Gallery (2014). Ed was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2014.

London born painter Brian Cheeswright is taking stock of his output and pondering the curious geography of lines and marks and wrong turns he has mapped out for himself – adventures carried out in the living room of his Edinburgh flat. Cheeswright’s modest-sized figurative paintings are concerned with vulnerability, anxiety, and the idea of each man or woman as stuck on an island, tentatively sending out a message in a bottle or clambering into ramshackle rafts to try and reach each other. His cast of characters often originate in books or dreams, though increasingly he is turning towards his own childhood and adolescent biography for inspiration. Cheeswright’s style has lurched, back-stepped and stumbled between the expressive, the gestural and the romantic, the cynical and the absurd.

Brian Cheeswright (b.1978) lives and works in Edinburgh. Studied at Brighton School of Art, graduating in 2004. Recent exhibitions include, ‘Draw In’, St Margaret’s House, Edinburgh (2014), ‘Artworks Open’, Barbican Arts group Trust, London (2014), ‘Paint Like You Mean It’, Interview Room 11, Edinburgh (2014) and ‘Marmite Painting Prize IV’, various venues (2013). Cheeswright was the winner of ‘Marmite Painting Prize IV’ in 2013.

 

Illustration Alumni Visit

Students were recently visited by three of our most successful recent graduates, Emma Dibben, Owen Davey and Robert Fresson, as part of a Business Forum event. The day was a fantastic success, starting with a series of business related lectures and culminating in an afternoon of illuminating talks by by our visiting alumni.

Owen Davey is a freelance Illustrator. Well known for his children’s picture books, he has worked extensively within editorial and advertising too. In 2011, Owen won ‘Junior Magazine Most Promising New Talent Award’ for debut picture book, Foxly’s Feast. His clients include Orange, BBC, Microsoft, Persil, The Guardian, New York Times, The Times, The Telegraph and Jamie Oliver; his work has been published in every continent except Antarctica, including picture books in UK, America, Australia, France & China.

Emma Dibben has become well known for her splatters, fingerprints and splodges – you may recognize her work from a Waitrose Bag for Life! – a visual language she has carefully developed and which is now part of her trademark style. On graduating in 2004, with a First Class BA(Hons) Degree, Emma moved to Bristol. Commissions soon followed and saw her creating images for prestigious clients including Waitrose, The Guardian and the BBC. Whilst food illustration is a core element of Emma’s practice, she Emma also thrives on the challenge of editorial illustration, with commissions from the Guardian, Conde Nast and the Financial Times among others.

Flag enthusiast, artist and illustrator Robert G. Fresson has spent the last few years honing the usage of technical drawing tools and materials. He also has an inclination towards off-white papers, Ukiyo-e from Japan and CMYK colour separation. Humour is an important aspect of his work, and he has been quoted as saying (probably to himself), “while it is difficult for me to be seriously funny, I find I have an aptitude for being funnily serious”. His lifelong dream is to own a cabin in Novascotia, though conversely he currently lives on a boat on the River Avon in Bath. Robert has recently completed his MA at the Royal College of Art.