I saw this wonderful street art by Liz Clayton (Instagram lizc_illustration) at The Tobacco Factory on North Street in Bristol where I live, and I felt a painting coming along in my head. Upfest is an urban paint festival that is held every year on said North Street. Street art artists and graffiti artists from all over the world descend on my street with their aerosol cans and create individual and magnificent art on every available blank wall or hoarding available. I feel it is a great shame that these works get painted over so quickly or abandoned. Street art by its nature is ephemeral. I decided I would like to preserve some of these works in my own paintings with my trademark woman in the foreground somewhere. I tag in the artist and ask for their blessing beforehand. With this piece, still in its early stages, I have changed the eyes to be looking slyly at the young woman just checking on her shoes, hence the title. I am looking forward to adding in all the detail of the skull without making it overpower the muted tones of the young woman. I may have to add a…
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This is a quicker, looser work I completed yesterday. I originally took a cropped shot of part of ‘Voices Of The People’ (See last week’s blog for details), put it up on Instagram and generated lots of interest. The result is this work. I have called it ‘Untitled’ because I don’t think it needs a title. As the viewer can’t see the phone the girl was holding in the original piece, I can’t call it ‘Voices Of The People, part 2’ or whatever; it wouldn’t make sense. I like the abstract quality to this painting and enjoyed painting in a looser style with bigger brushes for a change. With any future street art inspired paintings, I think I will do an extra smaller, more abstract cropped piece alongside it. Always like trying something new. If you would like to be kept up to date with what I am doing in the next few months please sign up to my Newsletter at the top of the Home page. I am also on Twitter, Instagram and have a Facebook page called Miche Artist. This work is 20 x 16″, 50 x 40 cm and is oil on canvas, not deep…
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‘Voices Of The People’ finished and available. 21/09/17
This piece is now finished and is 24 x 24″, 60 x 60cm, oil on deep cotton canvas. Like a lot of people, I think we are all obsessed with social media, and our smartphones in particular. I would like to say it is only the young who are so obsessed, but it is definitely crossing over into my generation, the older market. Sometimes this is a good thing, as we can, as artists, get our work seen across the world at a touch of a button without having to pay for an expensive marketing campaign. Sometimes not so good, when we spend more time looking at our phones than at each other. Hence this painting. Upfest (Urban Paint Festival) takes place on the street where I live in Bristol each year and this particular artist’s work struck a chord with me. He’s on Instagram as stefano_chies and his ad logo is ‘Sign’, as in my work. I have placed my trademark woman in front of the hoarding, completely oblivious of this wonderful art, as she is of course, totally engrossed on her phone. I am interested in preserving street art and graffiti in my paintings as they…
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