Illuminating Illustrators

Thomas Wood

2008-04-21T08:21:00.001-07:00

Behind the eyes, deep into the pulsing viscera of the brain, lives a small man who has an extensive library of old science textbooks, nature books and magazines which he lends me as reference for my paintings.

As well as painting on canvas, I like to work with vectors and computer aided design, animation and also paint large-scale outdoor murals.

Danguole Slaughter

2008-04-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

Danquella was born in Ukraine then moved to Lithuania. Educated in Siauliai and Telsiai, she worked as clothes designer before becoming a school teacher, specialising, of course, in art and design.

In 1997 she decided to seek new challenges, choosing to visit New York. There she sold a few paintings. However, due to her visa expiry she was forced to return to Lithuania. After seven months, in a bid to enhance her career further, she was to finally come to England.

Various jobs allowed Danquella to save money to finance her dream to become an artist and in April 2006 she decided to become a self-sufficient professional artist. In eight months she has developed a unique method of etching, using a mixture of acrylic and oil on canvas. The originals are back-lit using LEDs and photographer David Pratt from Derby backlights the originals for reproducing the prints.

The range of subjects in Danquella’s pictures vary from imaginative and space creatures and planets, to Blackpool Tower, the Liver Building (Mersey) and Spinacher Tower – all using the same creative technique.

Gary Davies

2008-04-21T08:17:00.000-07:00

Gary works in a variety of different media including graphite, charcoal, pen and ink, pastels, watercolour, gouache, acrylics and oil.

His work incorporates traditional drawing and painting, double action airbrush and computer graphics.

Gary’s main strengths are portrait, natural history, fantasy, science fiction and horror. Gary’s portfolio is available for inspection by arrangement and is available for commission.

Charlotte Thomson

2008-04-21T08:10:00.000-07:00

Charlotte Thomson is a Nottingham based artist & illustrator well known for creating retro and vintage inspired art and design for the UK burlesque scene. She specialises in creating evocative images of the female form, especially portraiture, & is highly influenced by the fashions of eras such as the 1940s & 50s & the ‘Belle Epoch’.

Charlotte is also known for her exhibition organisation with a year spent as gallery coordinator at View from the Top Gallery and ongoing projects such as 'Ooh La La!' and 'Danse Macabre'.

Charlotte's work has been exhibited internationally and has been featured in publications such as Artists & Illustrators Magazine, 'All Allure' a book of contemporary erotic art and is a regular contributor to Scarlet Magazine.

www.charlottethomson.co.uk

Jenna Finch

2008-04-21T08:07:00.000-07:00

Andrew Spriggs

2008-04-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

I have been producing illustrations for fun for about 35 years, and I trained as an illustrator at Humberside College of Further Education between 1982 and 1985, graduating with a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design, specialising in illustration.

I worked in the graphic design industry for about thirteen years and I work currently in Environmental Services at Derbyshire County Council as a clerk, producing artwork for booklets occasionally for Health & Safety purposes, as well as one-off poster designs and cartoons.

My particular interest is in maps of imaginary countries (not the Tolkein type) and I believe that I have got this down to a ‘fine art’. The idea is to make an image that certainly looks like a map from a distance, but which finally, on closer inspection, appears to have been drawn by hand. As an illustrator, I can turn my hand to any style or medium.

Ideally, I would like to be able to produce illustrations for websites, books or other publications, and I would like to be able to produce these either traditionally or on computer.

Hollie Brown

2008-04-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

I am a First Class Honours Surface Pattern Design graduate, based in Leicestershire. I am currently working as a Freelance Designer for leading companies such as Tigerprint, Marks and Spencers Division, Hallmark Cards and Gibson Hanson Graphics. I am represented by Black Olive Studios. I also work on my own personal briefs showing in local exhibitions. I am currently working on a collection, a development from the award-winning collection ‘Betty Loves Tea’.

My portfolio has a decorative, illustrative style demonstrating strong drawing skills with a lively imagination. My work is often humorous, quirky with a good eye for colour and composition.

I find inspiration from every day life observing the people around me, trend predictions inspire my use of colour keeping my work fresh and current.

The Project titled ‘Betty Loves Tea’ explores the quirky habits of the elderly through lively illustrations, painterly backgrounds and a skilful use of silk screen printing and dyes.

I have a passion for drawing, especially amusing characters that make me smile.
I love to tell stories through artwork.
I hope that my work will appeal to people who also appreciate the small humble things in life.

I am a passionate and highly motivated person, I have a love for my work and a determination to succeed in a career I feel so passionate about. I look forward to and welcome any exciting opportunities that may come my way.

Glen Millington

2008-04-21T07:56:00.000-07:00

"I'm a graphic designer and digital artist but feel to be a better designer I need to have experience or an understanding of illustration and photography techniques as they are, I believe, intrinsically linked.

"Digital art can be undervalued and misunderstood; some people feel that as it is made using a computer that it's made by the computer. The work I produce often has hand drawn elements which are scanned in, then manipulated or I use a drawing tablet – a replacement for a mouse, which is the nearest thing available to actually drawing directly on to a computer. I see a computer as simply another medium that still requires the knowledge and experience that traditional illustration, design, art and photography need. Digital work is also often thought of as cheap as any number can be printed easily, so I limit each piece of work to 50 prints."
The triptych, 'Glamorising War and Violence' was originally intended as illustrations for t-shirts but stands alone as prints.

'Hip hop culture' was created for the background of a poster for a music festival; this is a reworking of the original illustration. 'Bent keyboard' is an illustration that was created for a digital tutorial explaining the process of 'circuit bending' or modifying electronic musical instruments.

www.pictographik.co.uk
pictographik@googlemail.com

Dale Simpson

2008-04-21T07:52:00.000-07:00

I have always had a passion for drawing, which led me to a degree in illustration in 2006. I use a wide range of media to create my images, pen and ink, printmaking painting and collage. The main influence for my work is the forever evolving culture that we live in and the way it is expressed in media and art. I have produced work for Derby Social Services and I was recently commissioned to do illustrations for the front covers of the first two Tripod magazines produced by Fox graphics. I am a keen artist as well as an illustrator and have had artwork exhibited in various exhibitions.

www.dalesimpsonillustrator.co.uk
ardaghstudio21@yahoo.co.uk

Nicki Bennett

2008-04-21T07:47:00.000-07:00

The origin of my work comes from a love of drawing life around me, capturing fleeting moments of the passer-by going about their daily lives and routines. My work evolves through a series of stages transforming the rough sketches into distinctive collagraph prints with rich velvety tones contrasting with fine drypoint lines. To satisfy my own curiosity I constantly seek for information and inspiration by researching subjects and gathering ephemera. I endeavour to create of something where the viewer becomes involved and curious. The plate from which the images are printed from is re-used and re-worked in a final voyage of experimentation until each image is finally exhausted.

Charlotte Salomon’s ‘Life or Theatre?’ in which the text and pictures are read like a diary and ‘The Diary of Frida Kahlo’ both play an active role in influencing my work particularly the narrative and sequential elements.

For my series of Healthy Eating illustrations, from which the ones on show are part of, I created a storyboard about the journey of one person struggling with the psychological aspects of food and diet. The central character, a girl who opts for an idyllic countryside life, falls into the comfort zone of junk foods, online shopping and the consequential health problem. Through a stomach operation preventing weight gain and with wired teeth, the change for a better lifestyle begins. She grows her own organic produce, exercises and uses eating as an enjoyable social experience.

Prizes and Awards
2006 Tony Wilkinson Award,Thoresby Open
2006 Daler and Rowney Award, Patchings Open
2005 Solo Exhibition Prize, Nottingham Annual Open
2005 St Cuthberts Award, Patchings Open
2004 East Midlands Contemporary Art Award, Thoresby Open
Solo Exhibitions
2006/7 New Collagraphs, Nottingham Castle, South Hall Gallery
2006 The Earth Makes Food, Makes You, Soul, Derby
November 1st - 30 2008 New Work, Derby Cathedral Centre, Iron Gate, Derby
www.nickidennett.co.uk info@nickidennett.co.uk 01332 590163 07944028880

Caroline Pratt

2008-04-21T07:43:00.000-07:00

As a Leeds based printmaker and illustrator I have in the past worked with screen print and various intaglio processes to create designs for different projects, but my current work uses hand carved lino blocks combined with cut and collaged vintage papers and the drawn line.

Influenced by my interest in 1960s illustration and 1950s domestic textile design, these prints explore visual narrative through images inspired by the English countryside - in particular birdlife - and by combining quirky characters with stylised motifs I create conversation prints with a sense of fun - exploring the interaction between different motifs with a delicate sense of colour.

Kate Smith

2008-04-21T07:37:00.000-07:00

‘Just Curly’
‘I wish to make someone smile for a moment!’

Award winning freelance Illustrator/Designer, with over 10 years experience working for Orchard Toys, a children’s toy manufacturing company. There I illustrated and designed jigsaws, games, activities and craft packs for well known high street names such as Early Learning Centre, Boots, Mothercare and many others!

My greatest achievement while at Orchard Toys was receiving a Practical Pre-School Gold Award, for a game concept of mine: ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ After chatting to a friend, who commented that my illustrations were worthy of a frame, I’m pleased to present ‘Just Curly’, my very first framed print – how exciting!

Bethan Matthews

2008-04-21T07:32:00.000-07:00

Studied at Design and Illustration at Lincoln College of Art and Cambridge College of Art and Technology from 1986 to 1990.

She specialises in children’s illustrations and works mainly with educational publishers. Bethan uses pen and ink with watercolour, gouache and coloured pencil. The illustrations exhibited are from a personal project entitled ‘Dora the Dancer’.

She has illustrated artwork for authors such as Jacqueline Wilson, Judy Bloom and Terence Dicks. Bethan’s work is published by Macmillan Press. Bethan Matthews is represented by the Slyvie Poggio Artist Agency.

Juliet May

2008-04-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

Our Fantasy Life.

This work is unashamedly feminine. Its decorative embellishments and folk art type characters are used as ambiguous representatives of sexual desire, the need to escape or ownership. The pattern is not regular or meticulous but is instinctive, often joyful and is a natural response to the challenges of blank paper.

Juliet May is a painter, Co-Director of Touring Art Projects, an experienced art educator and community based artist.

Vivien Steels

2008-04-21T07:21:00.001-07:00

People often say to me – “Oh, how lovely to be able to paint. Isn’t it relaxing?” And I say, “No, it actually makes me feel quite tense staring at a white, blank sheet of paper, until I’ve finished a painting, then I can relax.” But then I see all the faults in the work, begin the next picture and the process starts all over again!

Really I am a poet, who likes to paint to combine two creative mediums to illustrate my poems. I use mainly watercolours, but also acrylics, black pen and ink and coloured inks. As a sufferer of M.E., I find being creative links me to the Creator and creation. I feel that I am trying to make something beautiful, sometimes out of illness and despair. This is an extract from an article I wrote entitled ‘Why I write and paint’, which was published in WRITE-AWAY magazine in Spring 2001.

“Ultimately I believe wordcraft and paintcraft are spiritual gifts from God and although I must have faith in my ability to use words and paint in the best possible way that I can, I am thankful for loving the use of words and colour when trying to interpret and convey how I see, hear, smell, taste and feel the world around me, as well as the mystery of that which is unseen.”

It is important that we use and develop the gifts given us in our own unique way. We are all different, but the arts – painting, poetry, music – can touch the soul and reveal that deep part, which is within all of us.

I am very drawn to Native American culture. Some of my illustrations depict their costume and the natural world around them.

Phil Moss

2008-04-21T07:18:00.000-07:00

Phil chose to study for a Higher National Diploma in Graphic Design & Illustration and during his studies, and a little to the surprise of his tutors, developed a skill base in traditional mediums, working in oils, inks and fine detail pencil. His choice of traditional mediums stems from his strongly held view that they allow an artist to portray real expression and spontaneity within a piece of work

During his development as an artist Phil expanded his battlefield interest to include the soldier 'away from the field' - that is to say, the real person behind the shield wall. This focus on the reality of the individual has remained with him throughout his career development and is the driving force behind his artwork.

Phil’s aim is to breathe life into subjects long dead, to show the historic soldier in his element, both on the field and off. With history as the motivating subject behind his work, each project is taken as an opportunity to explore the rich past of our ancestors and offer up a glimpse of how these individuals really behaved.
Inspired by this rich history and the study of the figure, Phil works strongly out of his sketchbooks both in the studio & on location, with the belief that his artwork should be supported by an ongoing study of life in general that never stops. As a result of this, his canvases encompass a sensible mix of artifact reference coupled with drawings undertaken down at the local pub!

To date, Phil has produced commissions ranging from line studies of soldiers to oil portraiture and his work has been exhibited in a number of galleries and shows
Although his main focus is illustration, Phil often appears at art shows and in collaboration with other artists presenting work available in print and he is always looking for new ideas and challenges.

Helen Entwistle

2008-04-21T07:14:00.001-07:00

My ideas come mainly from words, stories, poems, articles etc. In one aspect of my work I use found, drawn and hand built, objects and figures which I collage together to create a kind of theatrical scene. My interest in animation and film inspires me to look at lighting to create the right atmospheres. My finished pieces are then digitally photographed to complete the look and can be printed to any size.

The other aspect of my work is quite illustrative, using acrylic to apply bold colours onto canvas and again using text, stories etc for my ideas. I like my work to be educational as well as visually intriguing. I am currently writing and illustrating a children’s book. I have had numerous pieces published and have exhibited at various venues.

BA Hons Illustration
h-entwistle@ntlworld.com
www.nottinghamstudios.org.uk/eggerton

Nicola Stuart

2008-04-21T07:10:00.000-07:00

Since leaving university I’ve been trying to get into the children’s illustration side of work, I’ve been very influenced by the works of Tom Biskup, Mary Blair and Lauren Child.

I use a range of materials for my illustrations but over the past year I’ve been using a ranged of mixed media collage’s to produce images, these range from very cute creatures, to scary monsters to sci-fi based imagery.

At present I’ve been working on a series of comic books on and off line, but you can also find my works in Issue 1 of Fat Chunk, Bomblizzrd and Submarinecoat 64.
Feel free to visit my website at www.nikkistu.co.uk.

Rosemary Wels

2008-04-21T06:55:00.000-07:00

A lot of my work is divided into series, or collections, and is undertaken much like a ‘project’. It is most often inspired by the visible world, often affected by transitory conditions such as weather or times of day, or seen through glass, condensations or rain.

Work based on night has been exhibited in solo shows entitled: Night Works, Nightscapes, and Drawing the Moon (December 2006). One body of work shown in my exhibition Nightboxes could be termed ‘Box Art’, since the images whether photographs, drawings, or mixed media in origin, are housed in boxes or various sorts. Voyeuristic apertures in the boxes or light boxes are intended to emphasize the viewing experience.

Work submitted for this Exhibition:

• Demerara River: Demerara River from the Prairie Hotel + exotic bird.
• Aligator Creek: Aligator Creek, near Arrowpoint and Amerindian settlements.
• Breadfruit Tree Leaf: Breadfruit tree leaf, sugar plantation, coconut trees.
• Rough Seas, Barbados: Wind, waves, palms; Barbados coast, evening.

These are new works inspired by the Caribbean. Despite having been born in British Guiana, now Guyana, I had not worked with this imagery except in attempts at poetry, but I’d always thought that one day I’d start on the environment from my childhood and a trip to revisit enabled me to do these drawings, one of which was done from a canoe as I insisted someone else row. This tentative start may well lead to a new ‘collection’ as I trawl my visual memory for the images which first inspired me as a child, the tropical vegetation, the rough sea crossings.
I also have large woodcuts for sale entitled Applewhaites Plantation, Barbados 1 & 2, based on a section of a sketchbook drawing, done in the back garden of my cousin’s house in Barbados.

I am a member of Nottingham Contemporary Artists Network, and Nottingham Artists’ Group on Carrington Street, Nottingham.

Lucy Rivers

2008-04-21T06:52:00.000-07:00

I have been painting and drawing for over 20 years. At the beginning of 2007 I began to exhibit and sell my work for the first time. I currently work in watercolour which I mix with aquarelle, chalk pastel, ink and gouache. Branching into printmaking this year, I will soon be exhibiting some of my linocut prints at the Nottingham Society of Artists.

My paintings reflect my keen interest in environmental issues and the natural world. I have completed a series of nine woodland paintings over the past year. Woods have a magical quality which can change one’s emotions and perceptions and three of these illustrate Haiku created by poet Dave Wood.

I have supplied illustrative work for the environmental charity Global Action Plan and created educational and promotional materials for their EcoTeams project. My aim is to develop the illustrative side of my work further, working with Dave Wood to produce a collection of children’s poems over the ensuing months. I will develop the printmaking side of my work during this collaboration as well as continuing to work with watercolour and mixed media.

Geoff Sims

2008-04-21T06:49:00.001-07:00

Working with brush, pen and Indian ink with influences such as Aubrey Beardsley, 1920s German expressionist cinema, and Marvel comics of the 1960s, the 5 pieces on exhibition represent part of an ongoing project to create a non-narrative large scale work.

Neil Duckmanton

2008-04-21T06:21:00.000-07:00

Neil Duckmanton studied Theatre and Visual Arts at the University of Brighton. He currently provides illustrations for Nottingham based ‘DIY Poets’ magazine and is working on an anthology of poems.

Illuminating Illustrators 16th April-3rd May

2008-04-17T09:54:00.000-07:00

Our brand new Illustration Show is now open to the public and we've already had a great response from viewers. The exhibition combines varied methods, mediums and narratives to create an overall eclectic view of Illustration today.

Highlights in the show include Andrew Spriggs' painstakingly detailed imaginary place maps, and Sarah McConnell's published pirate original artworks.

Keep accessing this blog as more artist info should arrive shortly, and please comment upon the exhibition if you've seen it!

Don't forget the reception to meet the Illustrators this coming Saturday 19th April 2-5pm!!!