Design Inspiration. Planet Stencil Library.

Pinning the jewels on the crown

Late last night I stencilled two pinboards.

I was on a deadline to finish one for our village's  Portrait of The Queen Exhibition.  I thought I would make my portrait useful.

by using the pins to hang things from.  I tried two similar styles,

one with a border and contrast frame

 

and the other without.  I liked the industrial look of the plain frame but friends preferred the contrast so I repainted it, what is your verdict?

They are prototypes for a new collection created for For Queen and Corgi.

They started life as a plain cork pin board from IKEA. Very soon I shall post a project on stencilling an IKEA pinboard. I used our SIB14-S Dogs stencil from the Stencil It book. Tomorrow I will visit the Portrait of The Queen exhibition in Stocksfield.  I'm dying to show you what my For Queen and Corgi partner Sabina painted.

For Queen and Corgi now has a Facebook page, we have had some lovely press recently and you will find it there.

Til then, 

Helen.

Pearl Earring painting gets a new home

Pearl Earring was painted by Michael Chippendale for Art Tour 2010.

She was one of four celebrity portraits that he created for the occasion.  Many people admired her. Pearl was bought from us last week and I went to hang the painting in it's new home.

She now looks totally comfortable at the foot of a staircase at the end of a long gallery.   I'm not sure who was happier with the result, the new owner or I.

The painting is my husband's interpretation of the famous Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer. Vermeer's portrait inspired the book and more than one film of the same name.  Chip's version is painted in uniformly sized dots that resolve themselves into the recognisable image as the distance from it increases. The new location allows Pearl Earring the space to be appreciated, she can be viewed close up and at distance. Her new residence is stunning, it is the home of an accomplished artist and features a lot of the artist's own work.

I think Pearl looks very much at home there. For a while she leaned  against the wall in Chip's studio watching him paint.  You probably would not guess from this picture that the face that he is working on is Muhammad Ali.  The other two portraits in the collection were Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn.  Since then he has added George Washington, me and Queen Elizabeth to the collection.  Some have been featured at the Chippendale and Morris site and I'll get the others on there soon.

 

 

Sex and pugs and rock 'n' roll

I don't think they were quite the words that Ian Drury and the Blockheads sang.

A similar title ran across the cover of Country Life this week. It featured delicious Bertie the pug...more of him later. 

One day I shall make a dance skirt featuring pugs, it will be similar to my stencilled Elvis skirt.

 

 

It will have this pug face stencilled all around it and the words 'sex and pugs and rock n roll' swirling between them. Classy? Well no but since when has that ever stopped me?

 

 

Recently, I posted that Chips was painting a pug portrait as part of his Modern Mosaic series.    It is now finished and hanging in the gallery space at The Stencil Library.

It is for sale but I am coveting it.  Our painted pug is similar colouring to the afore mentioned cover star, Bertie.  When Bertie is not modelling he works with Ruthie Burgess and the team at Nicky Haslam Design. Visit Bertie on the NHD blog.

In the 1970's I read about an illustrated book called Pugnalia or similar, I have never found it but searching for it just now I found this...

 A pug cup cake baked by the writer of Arliss The Pug blog   Isn't it joyous? I laughed so hard, I love it!

Other delightfully daft pug ephemera should include the velvet pugs in glass dome that my Aunt Sandra made for me,

and my pug purses. I have another pug bag stencilled for me by Rachel Morris but I'll save that for another pug related post.

I will leave you with an image of a pug inspired print room,

You can find other stencilled print rooms on this blog and stencils of pugs here and here.

I would sign off with 'pugs and kisses' but that would just be too corny, now wouldn't it?

Helen.

 

I've been spotted!

Whilst I was away last month Chips painted a portrait of me.  

Can you tell that it's me?  Not yet, I hope.

Am I getting clearer?

Here I am 'hanging' in the studio.

The painting of is the latest in the series of Modern Mosaics that Chips has been creating for our Chippendale & Morris collection.   The choice of using my face instead of the usual bright young things that he selects was not just a romantic gesture, no, the pug dog face that Chips painted last month was the romantic gesture.  This was a test to make sure that he could make portraits from customer's photographs.  He said it was tough to find the right photo and he had to view quite a lot before he saw a picture strong enough to disassemble into dots then reconstruct as a recognisable image. 

This may not have been the actual photo that he used but it's pretty close. I am wearing one of my favourite hats, I bought it at Subiaco Hatters,West Australia and it has travelled the world with me.

The dot painting of the pug dog deserves a post of it's own...it's coming soon.

Helen. 

 

Rena Holford and the glass horses

Artist Rena Holford was one of the very first people I met when I moved to the North East of England in the late 1970's.

We were in our teens. We both worked in fashion, both modelled and a few years later we pursued different careers in the decorative arts.  I stencilled, she did faux painting. We both appeared on  television programmes showing how to transform homes with paint and imagination. We were brought together occasionally to present live shows about the decorative arts.  Rena is now a world renowned glass artist and our paths crossed again at a recent meeting for The Art Tour. I have mentioned Art Tour before, it is an open studio event across Northumberland. Over the years I have followed her career with interest she has been involved in some interesting, varied and high profile projects

 

Rena's glass art is based on images from cave paintings and of her own horses, she creates equine figures in kiln formed glass which are given colour and texture using various techniques. She sculpts other animals too but her passion is horses.

When her daughter's beloved horse Silver died Rena created a glass portrait which incorporated the animal's cremation ashes.  She has made similar artworks for other bereaved animal lovers. Rena uses photographs to get the likeness of the animal then adds the ashes which glisten and glow when fired into the glass.

Rena's studio, Hagg Hill Glass is open this weekend and next.  Her work is shown at various galleries and venues, visit her site for details of them.

Rena is an accomplished horse woman with a riding centre and livery business which is run with her family.  She tells me that she has bought some 'quiet' horses so that riders that have lapsed through lack of confidence (me) can regain their nerve. I could be tempted.

Helen.

 

Chippendale & Morris Modern Mosaics

My husband Chips (Michael Chippendale) has named his new collection of paintings 'Modern Mosaics'.

I have had little to do with the latest art works, mine has been a supervisory (nagging) and supporting role.  I have watched these pictures evolve and they are quite fascinating.

Each painting is based on a regular grid of dots. When viewed up close the Modern Mosaic paintings appear to be a pleasing but abstract pattern, viewed from the side, at a distance or whilst squinting the dots merge to reveal a recognisable scene, object or person.

Chips was not happy with the final result of this one and is repainting her. She looked brilliant to everyone else. He repainted his images of Cassius Clay and Audrey Hepburn several times until he was satisfied that they were good enough to offer for sale.

Would you know what this is?

A pugs nose!

Chips painted the pug knowing that if it did not find a buyer I would give it a good home.  If I had the room I would have them all but I can not resist paintings of pug dogs.  This one is not finished yet. In future posts I'll show you more Modern Mosaics in progress and completed. 

Chip's paintings including the Modern Mosaics Collection can be seen at The Stencil Library, Stocksfield, Northumberland.

Helen.

Bywell Arts Festival

Bywell Arts Festival 2010

I have just delivered finished the stencilled signage for the 12th annual Bywell Arts Festival.  The tents are being erected, both of Bywell’s churches are being cleaned, flowers are being arranged and boards are being put into position to take the two hundred artworks submitted for this years festival.

The festival takes place this weekend.   Both churches, St Andrews and St Peters will display art from amateur and professional artists from all over the area. On Friday at 7pm there will be a preview evening I will be singing old time and bluegrass harmonies with my duet partner..but don't let that put you off.

There will be wine and soft drinks and the event is free and open to all.  On Saturday and Sunday the exhibition and sale of work opens at 10am and runs until 4.30. There will be a grand raffle, refreshments, stalls and ample free parking.  On Saturday evening Prudhoe Community High school presents a concert at 7.30 in St Peters. You'll need a ticket for the concert but I can tell you how to get them.  The festival takes place at Bywell on Tyne,Northumberland. It is a fifteen minute walk from Stocksfield Rail Station and bus stop.

  I did not get organised to submit any paintings for the festival this year but their event is running at the same time as Art Tour 2011 and I am part of that. Three Art Tour artists are exhibiting at The Stencil Library on the Saturday and Sunday.

The stencil shop is a short and picturesque walk from Bywell. So, you could visit both events and enjoy an arty day out.

Last year I submitted the two stamp pictures shown in the top photo. Both were bought,which boosted my morale and added a little to the festival funds.

Helen.

Chippendale & Morris

Artists Michael Chippendale and Helen Morris welcome you to their new venture.

 
The Art Tour 2011 is rapidly approaching and I need to set up a blog/web site to show and sell our paintings.   Visitors to the new Chippendale & Morris blog will be able to view, commission and purchase our artworks.  Chips (husband and the Chippendale half of Chippendale and Morris) has been working for the past couple of months on these four paintings.  They are large canvases. When viewed up close the paintings appear to be an abstract pattern of dots.  When viewed from a distance the dots disappear and become recognisable faces or scenes. I took some 'work in progress' pics.

 
I'll show more soon.

Helen

 

More from the Art Tour 2010

This time last week I was undecided.

It was our Art Tour preview night.  I had cleared our shop to make a gallery for the visiting artists.

Flowers were arranged drink and nibbles were laid out. Chips had finished his paintings, they were labelled and hung. I liked all of his work but my fave is 'some like it dot' shown below.  Up close it appears to be random dots and the image gets clearer with distance.  Because it is made with a stencil similar ones can be made in other sizes.  I want a large one for the house...I just need to shift a few things around first.

The sunflower is a detail from a non-stencilled painting from Chips. We do have a stencil on our site which creates a large and vibrant sunflower.

Between the cleaning and the shopping for the preview I'd not had time to finish my paintings.  I hung them unfinished along with the stencils that I was using to create them.

They remained that way when the tour officially opened on Saturday.  Actually if I had received a pound from everyone who asked if I was copying Damien Hirst I would have been around seventy pounds richer today. For the record no, I am not. Now that it is finished does it even look like one of Mr Hirst's?

By the way if you want to create one your own versions of my 'wonky dot' you need MD33L stencil. If you want stamps they are CO7 on our web site. 

One visitor observed me working for a few minutes then asked  'Where is the proper art'.  By that they meant the other artists....what a cheek.  Only I am allowed to denegrate my efforts. I pointed to the space next door where my husband and the visiting artists were featured.

This sounds like a rant but it is not meant to be.  I can take it on the chin...I remind myself that I now have many chins to take it on.

I stencilled demotivational 'give up and run away' canvases and was asked if I was copying Barter Books' 'keep calm and carry on' poster. Well yes a bit... but I had their permission.  I was also quizzed about whether I had the right to make pictures of other peoples faces. I am not sure whether they were questioning moral or legal rights.  'Give up' was becoming much more appealing  than 'keep calm'.

Despite my whining it wasn't all bad. I've enjoyed it so far. I met some really fun people at the preview and the first weekend. They watched and learned about stencilling and they bought home furnishings that Rachel and I had made over the years. 

We display these pieces in the stencil shop to demonstatrate what one can acheive with our products.  When I make the temporary gallery back into a shop I want to fill it with new stencilled creations so have put clearance prices on just about everything.

The Art Tour is open throughout Northumberland every weekend in June.

 Thank you to the man who admired my multi stamp pictures (too big for his home) then commissioned me to paint a wonky dot canvas in colours to suit his home.

 I should have you framed and hung on my wall.

Helen

Take a look at the Art Tour 2010

Art Tour 2010 kicks off in June.

Chips and I will be exhibiting our paintings and stencillings in our show room at The Stencil Library. We have named our new partnership Chippendale & Morris.

Joining us for the month will be four artists from all over our region. I shall clear everything from the stencil shop and hang plain paper over it's stencilled walls.  This is how it looks now...

Goodness knows where I shall store all the stock until July when the month long Art Tour will be over.

The Art Tour is an open studio event.  Visitors are encouraged to spend the weekend touring and visiting artists. It is a big deal in the Northumberland tourism calender and involves artists all over our county. Sharing my studio are Jill Stewart 

and Dave Pickard

  
Wendy Parkin

and Kathy Geater

I shall include my stenciled canvases such as Psycho Pugs on Damask

Chips' flower collection

and stencilled portraits by Chippendale & Morris.

It is the first time that we have participated.  I am hoping that it is a success for all.

Art Tour info here.

Helen