Ladybird By Design

We visited the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill on Sea for the free Ladybird by Design exhibition. It has lots of original illustrations on display - they are beautiful and present an idyllic version of a way of life that just doesn't exist any more. It is well worth a visit but isn't open for much longer - it ends 10th May. 

De Le Warr have made a film to accompany the exhibition about the appeal and success of Ladybird books. Check it out.

Pick Me Up 2015

At the weekend I went to Pick Me Up at Somerset House. Having been every year I was a little disappointed with the overall feel of this year's fair in comparison to previous years. Usually I spend ages looking round everything but it seemed like there was just less to see.

My favourite section, this year, was Pick Me Up Selects.

Zoë Taylor

 Jack Cunningham's dinosaurs
 

Jack Cunningham's GIF animations

Jennifer Argo

A great edition to the Selects exhibition was a display case containing sketchbooks and paper models. It is really interesting to be able to see the development and I have always loved noseying at other sketchbooks. 

 Laura Callaghan's sketchbook
 

 Hattie Newman's sketchbook
 

 Hattie Newman's paper model

Summer Exhibitions

Managed to visit most of my list of exhibitions I wanted to see, apart from one major exception. I never made it to Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs before it closed at the Tate Modern. 

A trip to the House of Illustration for the Quentin Blake exhibition is also still outstanding too - but that one is on til 2nd November.

Comics Unmasked at the British Library

 British Folk Art at Tate Britain

Primrose: Early Colour Photography in Russia at The Photographer's Gallery

In Eden

Wall paintings in the Rainforest Biome of the Eden Project. Painted by Peruvian shamanic artist, the images depict the spiritual connection between people and plants.

Remember

Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London by ceramic artist Paul Cummins and stage designer Tom Piper.

The Globe

Land of Caves and Waterfalls

Pages from my Yorkshire sketchbook.

Wastwater

Yorkshire

Visited the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District. Utterly beautiful.

 

Swag

Always planned to go to ELCAF (East London Comics and Arts Festival), finally made it this year and much money was spent.

Pick Me Up 2014

Saturday we went on a jolly to Pick Me Up, the graphic arts fair, at Somerset House. Now in its fifth year at the embankment galleries, the fair showcases work by illustrators, graphic artists and collectives. As always there was lots of beautiful and interesting work to spend some pocket money on.

 My favourite artists from the downstairs exhibition Pick Me Up Selects (16 artists selected by a panel) were Thibaud Herem's very detailed drawings of buildings including one of St Pancreas station and Andrew Groves' hand carved wooden spoons.

 Edward Cheverton collage called Choo Choo.

Two other illustrators, whose work I already loved, Julia Pott and Isabel Greenberg were also exhibiting in Pick Me Up Selects. I think Isabel Greenberg's comics are fab and I am currently midway through her book The Encyclopedia of Early Earth and I ended up buying her comic The Snow Queen too.

Isabel Greenberg's The Encyclopedia of Early Earth

Upstairs at the fair, it was work by Skull Paradise and the returning Puck Collective which caught my eye. We also overheard a little bit of the talk by the creators of Rastamouse. They were teaching the audience how to speak like an inhabitant of Mouseland. Wagwan!

It was a bit of an odd experience leaving the Fair, as outside there seemed to be some sort of protest - a never ending line of women reverends walking past the galleries. At the time we did comment that it was the quietest and well mannered protest we had ever seen; we later found out it was a celebration of 20 years of women priests. 

What Are You Like? Exhibition

Over the weekend I went to the Winchester Discovery Centre to see the What Are You Like? exhibition put on by the House of Illustration.  I absolutely loved it.

It featured the work of 45 people, each producing a piece based on the Victorian parlour game "What Are You Like?" They were asked to draw their favourite things, the only restriction was the size of the pieces.

The exhibition is continues until the 16th June. Go check it out! More info here.

Here are few pictures of my favourites. 

David Shrigley

Georgina Von Etzoorf

Joe Berger

Mary Fedden

Emma Chichester Clark

Nick Garland

Andrew Marr

Sara Fanelli

 Laura Carlin

 JacK Penate

Paul Smith

Posy Simmonds