Cambridge Contemporary Art: Christmas Show

I was delighted to be invited to show again at Cambridge Contemporary Arts' Christmas showcase which opened at the weekend, and the CCA team have done a fantastic job again this year. The above image is of the work that I am exhibiting in the show. I have found myself increasingly using more gold leaf in my pieces for some reason this year, and have also been encouraged to work on a larger scale. As you can see the work selected for the CCA Christmas Show incorporates both of these elements. I have also included the new experimental piece entitled Cummar (below).  I wrote about this piece earlier this year (here), where I was playing in the studio and trying out something new. It was also a response to the great Matisse: The Paper-Cuts exhibition at Tate Modern last year, and is one of four representations of the different seasons.

Also included and hot from the studio is a new large-scale piece entitled Drift, (below), which is over a metre long.

Aureole, in gold leaf is also new for this year.

And lastly there is a gold leaf Lineate.

Christmas Show

until 31st December 

Cambridge Contemporary Art

6 Trinity Street Cambridge

01223 324 222 

info@cambridgegallery.co.uk

Hallowe'en

Phenakistoscope - Joseph Plateau

E A Seguy: Butterflies Through Others Eyes #13

These beautiful butterfly designs are the work of E A (Eugene Alain) Seguy (1889-1985), who was a designer working in France at the beginning of the 20th century. Seguy's style incorporated elements of both the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements, which you will know I am a big fan of if you regularly read this blog. 

Seguy's artwork utilised a technique known as pochoir, which was a printing process that used a series of stencils to produce dense layers of vivid colour. The pochoir process sees the artist/designer applying pigment to paper by using stencils. The image was first created by the artist in watercolour or gouache. This would then determine the number of colours and stencils needed. Once the number of stencils was decided they would be cut from materials such as copper, zinc or cardboard and the paint would be applied through the stencil by brushes. Although it is a simple concept, the pochoir technique could be complex with some images requiring as many as 100 stencils to produce just one print. The pochoir technique fell out of fashion due to the expense, as well as labour intensity in producing the prints. The pochoir technique was replaced by the popularity of the lithographic process. 

The repeat pattern designs above, demonstrate the vibrancy of Seguy's palette, and also the vividness and accuracy of colours produced when the pochoir technique was employed. They are also a good demonstration of Seguy's understanding of how repeat patterns work. Like Sonia Delauney's work in my previous post, I could see these used as wallpaper/fabric/fashion designs. Seguy took his inspiration from nature and produced 11 albums of  illustrations and textile pattern designs that featured crystals, flowers and animals. It was his Papillon album though, which was to become the most popular and the focus for this post, the latest in my Butterflies Through Others Eyes series. Further examples from Seguy's wonderfully inspirational Papillons folio can be seen below.

Homage a Sonia Delauney

My visit to the Sonia Delauney exhibition at Tate Modern earlier this year (here), was very inspirational. As much as I loved the colour and rhythm of her paintings, it was her work in typography/graphics and fashion and textiles that I liked the most. 

I really do feel that her relocation to Spain at the onset of the First World War, and her having to adapt and apply her work to the fields of fashion and textiles, for financial reasons was actually the making of her. 

                                       

I did some research and looked at the impact that her work in fashion and textiles had on other designers in this field and these are the results.  

A Delauney simultaneous textile design scarf for Liberty's (above).

Delauney's black and white textile designs (above), could be seen as forerunners of Op-art and Bridget Riley's work from the 1960s. I love the way Christian La Croix has fractured his similar monochromatic Riviera design further (below), and given it a kaleidoscopic effect.

How fantastic are these embroidered shoes! It was great to see the actual things in the Delauney exhibition at Tate Modern.

This photograph is from Italian Vogue 1969. I do not know who the designer of the fabrics and clothes are but Delauney's influence is clearly all over it.

A 1923 Delauney fashion sketch with a Celine jumper from their AW 2010 collection.

A coat from Celine's AW 2012 collection compared with a 1925 Delauney design.

Striking patterns  from Ferragamo's AW 2015 collection which could be a Delauney simultaneous designs.

More Ferragamo for AW15 compared to Delauney's coat designed for Gloria Swanson.

These Junya Watanabe designs for SS15 are suitably fun, colourful and outrageous in their channelling of the spirit of Sonia.

Valentino Resort collection designs for SS15, embrace strong block colours and chevrons.

Model Laura Whitmore in Dsquared SS15.

These designs for Dsquared are brilliant! Loud and colourful, and an obvious homage to Sonia's paintings. I bet the movement, colour and pattern are really striking when they are worn.

Love these lively, rhythmic designs above by Ila Malomane who is apparently a relative of Delauney's.

And finally, above, my very own homage to Delauney - the first of a series of life-size Scissorhands Simultaneous dresses inspired by her wonderful paintings, fashion and textiles.