Paolozzi Exhibition Inspires Sketchbook Explorations

 

In anticipation of the screen printing workshop I attended on Saturday I worked on some ideas and designs for the screen-print design in my sketchbook.

I was inspired by a recent visit to the Eduardo Paolozzi exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery two weekends ago. It was full of amazing art, prints, collages and sculptures.

Paolozzi Tapestry

Paolozzi Screen Prints

Paolozzi printed dress, 1970's with Wedgewood Plates 

Paolozzi Screen Prints, 1960's

1953 Cocktail Dress in Paolozzi designed fabric

Screen Printed Designs 1950 - 52

1950's Screen Printed Fabric

I love Paolozzi's use of abstract shapes, blocked colours and contrasting lines. Using these ideas as a starting point for my designs I developed a range of ideas in my sketchbook.

Collage and scrap-booking in my sketchbook

Mixed media design using acrylic, marker pens and washi tape

Detail of scrap-book collage

Mixed media piece with watercolours and marker pens

I ended up choosing something completely different from the images above for my screen-print design, but I had a lot of fun creating these art works.

Which is your favourite design?

Screen Printing at Print Club London

I attended a screen printing workshop at Print Club London in Dalston today. It was brilliant! The team (Oli, Beks & Sophia) at the studios are so friendly and experienced. They explain the whole process of screen printing from design to print with a bit of banter thrown in for good measure.

I selected a design that I have etched a couple of years ago because I love the texture and pattern.

There were about 13 people on the course and we split into groups to help each other print our designs as the process is quite labour intensive and required speedy change overs so we all got a chance to print.

Designs laid out on the paper to help aline the screen onto the paper

Gorgeous coloured printing inks!

Preparing the screen with brown tape to seal any exposed silk-screen before printing

My screen ready to print!

Cleaned screens drying outside

To test the screen you use up discarded / rejected prints from the studio. I really love the layering of screen prints so I selected some cool rejects and cut them to size. Here is a selection of my prints.

It has been a long time since I did screen printing at art college and I had forgotten how much fun it is! I would definitely like to get back into screen-printing and would love to return to the Print Club London again.

Check out lots of other cool crafty blogs at #handmademonday organised by Julia of Sum of their Stories.

Art Exhibition Adventures

Joseph Frank at the Fashion and Textiles Museum, Bermondsey until 7th May 2017

I visited the Joseph Frank exhibition last week and enjoyed the bold and beautiful prints created by this artist and designer. The work is displayed brilliantly with the original textile prints artworks alongside floor to ceiling lengths of printed fabric. A fun interactive touch is there are several pieces of furniture upholstered in the prints for visitors to sit on.

Upstairs hangs a wide collection of still life and landscape paintings produced by Frank throughout his career. They are bold watercolours that showcase his interest in colour, pattern and texture.
I would highly recommend a visit to see this exhibition before it closes on the 7th May.

Teheran 1943-45

Himalaya 1950

Window 1943-45

Alternative Facts by Fatherless at Stour Space, Hackney Wick until 1st May

This exhibition at the Stour Space Gallery involved a little adventure to get there starting at Hackney Wick station and a walk down the canal towpath next to the Olympic Park. I really wanted to see this show by the Fatherless print collective as I already own one of their prints (below) that I bought from the Pick me Up exhibition in 2013.

They have an interesting approach to making art. As a collective they all add to each piece of work they do layering screen-prints over the top of each other using bright and bold imagery and colours. The artists in the Fatherless collective are Jarrod Hennis, Javier Jimenez, Greg Lang, Dave Menard and Londoner Ben Rider.