Published! Drawings from Van Harskamp exhibition at Kunstraum Gallery, September ’14

art, drawing, Exhibition, Illustration, location drawing, press, Quotes, reportage

In September I had the chance to work an a very interesting project created by Nicoline Van Harskamp. A reading of Pygmalion. It was live-translated back from over 14 different languages back into English and recorded. My drawings capture the reading in progress.

My drawings were then published along with the script in a limited edition book by Onomatopee.

Some of my reportage drawings from Nicoline Van Harskamp’s exhibition are showcased by the publishers Onomatopee. A fuller set of my drawings from the days events have been published by Onomatopee in the book which resulted from the reading Nicoline set up at Kunstraum Gallery in Hoxton, London.

I really enjoy reportage drawing and capturing the mood of the participants and how the marks of the drawings echoed the varied marks of the many written languages in the open books.

There was a great humour in some of the phrases as they were re-translated, the process also showed up some fascinating cultural assumptions and differences.

I hope to have the chance to work with this project further as I find the links between text and images and the cultural crossover and divergence fascinating.

First Sketchbook Update for 2015

art, drawing, portrait, sketchbook, Underground Portraits

I’ve been puzzling out the space between work and play recently, and racing through my sketchbooks…. here’s the last of the last one….

Old sketchbook – new sketchbook – they started out the same .

Sketchbook – Music – Istanbul

art, drawing, Festival, Illustration, sketchbook

Jam at Arsen Lupen – Istanbul

Well it’s been a little while since making a post. Largely because I’ve been busy making music which has resulted in lots of drawings of musicians and talented friends who I’ve seen or shared stages with throughout the summer…… I have just finished a sketchbook between August and October and thought I would share some images.

I also had a wonderful trip to Istanbul in October, a city I would like to re-visit for longer, and have a collection of sketches from there – about half of which come from a fun and whiskey fulled night spent in a lovely little hideaway bar which we found 4 floors up, in a two man lift, from the back of an old hotel, down a side street – and where we found a beautiful jam. Always music.

Some of the music I have been making can be found via the links below…. naturally I have been unable to sketch myself in the act so recordings and videos will have to suffice !

Solo: soundcloud or Facebook or Youtube

Various Guises on Soundcloud or Facebook

Samantha Crain – End of the Road Festival

Overground sketch and track list for recording session.

View from Topkapi Palace over lunch – Istanbul

Obsession – This Friday !

art, drawing, Exhibition

Looking forward to the opening of the Obsession Exhibition this Friday 27th 6:30-9:30 at the Embassy Tea Gallery near Southwark station, London – do come along, we set up yesterday and it it was exciting to see such a mix of different styles around the theme.

See more information here.

Download the catalogue of exhibition

Map of gallery. See you there !

Obsession – June 24th – 29th

art, drawing, Exhibition, metamorphosis, press

Upcoming exhibition…….

How to reach the gallery – Map

Further information about the theme and curator can be found here.

Obsession: Love, Ritual, Collection

art, drawing, Exhibition

I’m happy to say I’ll be taking part in a group exhibition Obsession: Love, Ritual, Collection at the Embassy Tea Gallery in June.

My work for this exhibition is based in the art of letter-writing, as a certain ritual that embodies love, collection and, sometimes, obsession. I find that there is a spill over from words into images and vice versa…… subtle links between our verbal and image-based languages that can be very powerful.

Letters are a subject I have been exploring for a long time both in personal and in community work: Painted Veils

Further details of the upcoming exhibition below:

Obsession, Love, Ritual, Collection

OBSESSION: Love, Ritual, Collection

EMBASSY TEA GALLERY

195 – 205 Union Street London SE1 0LN

Exhibition open by appointment only 24th June – 27th June

PRIVATE VIEW FRIDAY 27TH JUNE 6PM – 9PM

Exhibition continues 28th – 29th JUNE

A group show in aid of OCD UK

curated by

Charlotte Meddings

www.charlottemeddings.com

http://www.facebook.com/TheCuratorLondon

Exhibition this Saturday in Canning Town

architecture, art, drawing, Exhibition, location drawing, location painting, Painting

This Project 21 exhibition on Saturday 30th November is part of the Night Light Canning Town event.

Project 21

Project 21 – Collaboration between 21 different artists and disciplines at the caravanserai space in Canning Town.

My part in the exhibition will be based on large-scale drawings inspired the local architecture, urban environment and population. For me this is quite a new way of working. I am used to making small fast drawings. Research has been done in this way, by cycling around and drawing the local area, and the work itself will be started the day before and completed on the day of the exhibition. In scale and rapid completion of an entire composition this is experimental for me but I think this approach will lend itself to the work.

The idea:

Title: Structure, Shift, Lift and Lay.

Medium: Ink, Acrylic & Paper

Size: The inside of big box. Three walls and a ceiling roughly 8 ft square.

Structure, Shift, Lift and Lay is a landscape piece drawn from the developing urban area of Canning Town. The piece allows the viewer to stand back and get an overview of the area’s many layers, structures and environments existing side by side; the residential, the docks, industry, modern monoliths, old buildings, fast trains and roads, the hovering cable cars and the river. The changes taking place are vast and structural and in their wake is the cultural shift of the area with all its social and commercial potential for both creation and destruction. These changes can be seen in both negative and positive ways by different people; residents, investors, contractors, and local businesses. This piece offers for contemplation a compacted glimpse of the vast structural systems within which, and through which, all these people relate.

Return to the market Sundays from November

art, Camden Market, Design, drawing, Illustration, Market Stall, Painting

Hello All,

I’m back on the market!! I’ll be down there every Sunday (and some Fridays) until Christmas – and probably more days – look here, or call/email me to find out when i’ll next be down:

– blancheellis@gmail.com –

I will be selling prints like last year – with a whole years worth of new material including the ‘Musicians, Writers & Philosophers’ project and a peak into a new series I’m beginning – ‘Whimsy’ yes, whimsy – until I find a better name for my playful little figures.

I will also be selling framed work and prints in frames that I have handmade for each individual work. – small selection of prints below!

‘Dots and Dashes – Dance’ – ’13

‘Kicking Up the Leaves’ – ’13

Devendra Banhart – Old Folk Song 2013

Mississippi John Hurt – I’m Satisfied – 2013

Love Knot ’13

Autumn Spring IV ’13

Autumn Spring – ’13 – Full Series

Joni In Green

Karen Dalton

Camden View from Bridge 2.

Camden View from Bridge 1.

Curl ’13

Bertrand Russell and Eccentricity “Do not fear to be eccentric… every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”

look forward to seeing some friendly faces down the market!

Love Knot

art, Design, drawing, Illustration, Painting

This is a short series of two. A couplet, if you will.

Love Knot ’13

If Our Life Were a Leaf-Boat ’13

for prints email bb_blanche@hotmail.com

Camden Market Stall

art, Camden Market, Design, folktale, Illustration, Market Stall

Camden Lock Market – West Yard

Next Saturday (December 9th) if all goes to plan I will be running my own market stall in Camden Lock (West Yard probably) for the first time. I’ll be selling my artwork in the form of cards, prints and originals (and probably singing to myself with or without my guitar).

Well, to start, here are some of the cards I am making. I’m deciding on numbers just now so let me know which ones you like by comment or email and I will make lots of them! Having never taken my work far outside the circle of family and friends I haven’t much of a clue how my work will fall. They don’t have particular themes (i.e. Christmas) they are designs and illustrations some new and some taken from other parts my work and sketchbooks. It’s interesting for me to return to the work I’ve been making and see the themes, birds and leaves keep coming up, and though there’s only one with fish in here it seems there was a time there were a lot of fish floating around in my work. So here they are, perhaps an oddball set of cards, given the lady with the fish, the pop-up puppet theatre and the pregnant gathering but hopefully they will live well, leave the stall and travel on.

The colours come up so bright on the computer, the cards will emerge looking more calm I do believe, but here is the gist.

If you’d like to come visit me next weekend that would be lovely, tea and a chat will probably make the day less chilly.

very best from the start of a new adventure!

Blanche

bb_blanche@hotmail.com

Blanche Ellis

Multidisciplinary Artist

arts