Great Upcyclers #3: Stephanie Kilgast

Stephanie produces beautiful, unique artworks combining objets trouvés (found items), household trash and air-drying clay. As she says in her artist's statement: 

'My work is an ode to life. Humans are a part of nature, which we often like to forget, creating an artificial barrier of tar between us and the mud. Unfortunately, by destroying our environment so radically, we are destroying ourselves. It is up to us to find an equilibrium between our activities, and our desire to thrive intellectually and culturally, without completely eradicating our very home. With my choice of bold and vibrant colours, I offer a cheerful post-apocalyptic world. While I talk about a heavy subject, the disastrous impact of human activities, I also wish that people leave my work with a feeling of happiness and hope, and keep fighting. In the end, through my work, I would like to provoke wonder of the living while questioning the status quo of our current societies.' 

Here is some of her beautiful work:

 

Her website is here. 

Her Youtube channel is here.

Monsters attack Bristol!

A couple of evenings ago I drove down to the westcountry for the private view of Grayson's Art Club - The Exhibition Part 2 at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.

I'm not going to write too much here; I'm just going to post some pictures from the night. It was wonderful to chat to Grayson and Philippa but also to people like Martin Parr, Anneka Rice, Johnny Vegas and many of the artists featured on the show. Rumour has it that Banksy was among the crowd but, as half of them were masked, who knows?

(His original stencil for his artwork at Reading Gaol - featured on Art Club Series 2 episode 2 - was on display and he has since stated that he will auction it off as an original artwork and put the money towards turning the old prison into an arts centre. isn't that great?)

(Incidentally - sorry about my unkempt beard. I was doing a photographer friend a favour by posing as Father Christmas for some shoots at the time!)

Originally I was set to send four monsters to the exhibition. However, the organisers chose to use just one as part of a kind of 'treasure trail' that weaves through the museum, which is nice as I'm included among some VERY big names. But, more importantly, they also suggested setting up a rolling slide show of ALL the monsters built for the zoo too. So now every single child who contributed is represented there.

I think that's fantastic.
 

And then there's the art itself - diverse, creative, brilliant. Enjoy!

The last thing to mention is that, like the Series 1 exhibition in Manchester, they have produced a book/catalogue for the Series 2 collection and it's rather lovely to see that the Monster Zoo and I have been given four whole pages. Wow. That's humbling. 

What a fantastic thing to have been part of. And they announced this evening that Art Club is back in March for a third series.

Great news!

Painting techniques #1 - Grime

Here's an absolute masterclass in miniature painting techniques by the team at Laser Creation World. They take a standard VW camper model kit and turn it into an epic post-apocalyptic shelter through extraordinary detailing and use of paint. 

Watching these kinds of videos is how I've learned the techniques I use on my models. Learn from the best!