Mixed Media Collage with Val Pettifer at the Old School Studio

Val Pettifer’s Artwork

In June I attended a very enjoyable two day mixed media collage workshop with Val Pettifer at The Old School Studio in  Whittlesford Cambridge.  It was my first attempt at this sort of art and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

The following photos take you through the progression of the picture as Val showed us step-by-step.  My picture was based on a photograph I had taken of a market while on holiday in Italy, although the people are cut from  photos I took at a 1940’s weekend:

That’s my mum and son on the bottom right of the above photo!

And this artwork below (which I did before attending Val’s course) is of a rustic cafe in France.

I learned a lot on Val’s course and she was very generous with sharing information and help as well as materials.  I’m thinking of these pictures as a starting point for my art and that I have a little way to go before I develop a style which is completely my own.  That said, it is extremely difficult to judge your own work as all you can see, when you made it yourself, are the mistakes!

I still want to experiment with linocut and collage but haven’t found the time yet so just have the ideas going around in my head at the moment!

These two paintings were exhibited at White House Arts at the Cambridge Open Studios – see my other blog for info on that.

Cambridge Open Studios – White House Arts

Last weekend I exhibited two mixed media collages at  White House Arts as part of  Cambridge Open Studios  which takes place each weekend in July.

I’d had an invitation to exhibit following a creative drawing course I did at White House Arts before Christmas.  My intention was to produce linocut prints as a result of that course but I ran out of time to perfect my techniques and wasn’t happy with the results so I exhibited the collages instead! It was a lovely day and the exhibition was buzzing!

My collages are on the right of this photo – if you would like to see close-ups please see my post about the mixed media painting course I did with Val Pettifer.

The Vauxhall Art Car Boot Fair, London 2013

I think this melon head had a point considering what we saw at the Art Car Boot Fair  on Sunday!  I suppose I half expected it to be a bit odd and I would consider myself open minded as far as art is concerned but quite frankly some of the artists just needed to grow up and learn to paint!

This lady who was doing her bit for a pet charity was giving away chocolate ganache dog poo on a stick as prizes.  I guess she thought she was being controversial.  C’mon the Boy thinks to keep saying “poo” is funny, but he’s six.  After that it’s just a bit pathetic.

Some of the stands – I just didn’t have a clue what they were about and to be honest I couldn’t be bothered to find out.  I think perhaps some of them were performance art.

      

This couple were gradually being dressed up using bits of scrap material.  They seemed to be having a laugh, and we did too – weird. NB I didn’t notice at the time but this lady has the most contorted fingers I’ve ever seen!

 

The artist who seemed to be selling the most prints produced the art above although unfortunately I can’t remember her name.  There was also a huge queue for Pure Evil original limited edition screen prints which were being producing in the back of a van for £20 a go.

I went to the fair with the expectation that Tracey Emin might be there.  But there was just an “Emin International” stall selling prints of marks she had produced on a tablet. You could even buy a raffle ticket to win a scratchy piece of art which was either a lino print or a drawing, I’m not sure.  People were buying tickets, no doubt because it might be valuable in the future, rather than because they thought it was actually any good.

I like the images of the Queen and Marilyn but I’m perfectly capable of making my own of photocopies of images freely available which is all these seemed to be.

  

On the left above a Vauxhall car with a design by Sir Peter Blake and on the right plasticine balls for sale.  No comment 🙂

The car below and tent were produced by the Binnie Sisters and although I wouldn’t want a painting of Osama Bin Laden or Myra Hindley adorning my walls, at least the art was fairly interesting to look at.  Inside the tent had the feeling of a shrine which I think was the idea.

   

We walked round the car boot twice which probably took an hour or so.  I’m glad I went to see what it was all about, and we did have a laugh, but I don’t think I would bother again!

After that we explored Brick Lane which was bustling with people – there was loads going on, and indoor food markets selling just about every kind of food you could wish for, Chinese, Indian, Lithuanian, Vegetarian, Vegan and much more.  There wasn’t much English food but why would you want it here?!

It goes without saying there were cake stalls – selling huge cakes!

 

Art/vandalism (depending on which way you look at it) in progress along a side road.

There were a couple of big indoor vintage markets along Brick Lane. As well as some selling clothes by up and coming designers.

 

 

Next to the Sunday Upmarket we also came across an end of year graduate show for one of the London universities.  There was some excellent work here by Kwan Saisomboon

 

There were also some posed mannequins which looked spookily real.

The Sunday Up Market was interesting with handmade and crafty stalls as well as vintage.  This led to another fab food market – you couldn’t possibly go hungry in Brick Lane!

Another great vintage market was Absolute Vintage.  As I collect vintage souvenir travel scarves I loved the way they had hung them on the walls for decoration. No photos allowed – oops too late!    I did however find a colourful Andalucia scarf as my own souvenir of the day out (I don’t think any for Brick Lane exist!).

  

Next we walked through Spitalfields market, packed full with eclectic stalls of handmade arts and crafts, jewellery, retro clothing etc.  It wasn’t dissimilar to when I came here in February to Judy’s Affordable Vintage (see post in February)! There were also a lot of original art prints here, in the walkway leading up to the market and running parallel to it.  Much better than we had seen earlier in the day!

We finished the day with a browse around Elemental who sell antiques and vintage furniture and whose motto is “found, restored and back again”.

Munich – Vintage Shopping and Treasure Hunting in Germany – Part 2

There are three things I’ve found the Germans are very good at; Markets, Kitsch and speaking English (thank goodness)!  The Boy and I discovered this on a day out on our own while in Munich.  I now associate the Bavarian area of Germany with images of cows and goats – they were everywhere!  They also seem quite good at graffitti as we found along Fraunhoferstr:

 

We were making our way to the Deutsche Museum but we discovered some interesting shops along the way.

We had caught the S-Bahn to Fraunhoferstr as after finding Sweet Cherry Marmalade‘s blog I decided to explore the areas she had mentioned.  I wanted to give the route we had taken as we took in some fab vintage shops, the Deutsche Museum and then the Viktualienmarkt.

It was a lovely walk but more luck than judgement (the Boy lost the map half way) but it’s proving too difficult to work it out so I will just mention the shops we went to in the order we came across them.

There are lots of junky antique shops along Fraunhoferstrasse to Baaderstrasse. Unfortunately  everything was shut, it looks like they don’t open until the afternoon.  

   

Luckily Daniela at Froschgoscherl was just opening her gorgeous shop and I had to have a peek inside.

 

She makes couture Bavarian trachten outfits which include the dirndl (dress), blouse, and apron with are traditionally worn at events such as the Oktoberfest (huge Bavarian booze up!).  Daniela was very kind and gave me a really useful notebook called Landmark notes which is about arts, crafts and coffee in Munich – right up my street!

We walked past Tricia Leonard’s vintage shop but it was also shut 😦

I rather fancied the bag in the window so it was perhaps just as well!  Her opening times are Wednesday to Friday 2 p.m. to 6p.m. and Saturdays from 12 noon to 4 p.m. (also at other times by appointment) the reason for the short hours is that she is a jazz singer the rest of the time (I wish I could sing!).  There are some good pictures of her shop here

 

Almost next door to Tricia Leonard was Cat with a Hat and (drumroll) it was open! Yay! Above is Rene (the man with a pearl earring) outside his fab shop.

The shop is run by Rene and Silvia and they were very happy to talk to me about the shop which has been open for 9 months and had a good variety of vintage clothes, bags and homewares as well as plenty of kitsch.  More about the shop here.

 

You’ve got to love the 1950’s Fish Kitsch and the “Gottle a Gear”  ventriloquist dummy!

I asked Rene if he had his clothes made for him but he told me the trousers were vintage American motorbike police, bought on Ebay, and the jacket (which matched perfectly) was from Portobello Road Market in London.  I don’t think I would get out of the house in the morning if I wanted to look this sharp, it takes a lot of thought and planning!  Rene even had a dangly pearl earring which looked very dapper.  Silvia had a bohemian look on the day we met but she said they did have “dress down days” (like me every day!)  as it wasn’t always practical to wear vintage. The shop’s website is here.

By this time the Boy was running out of patience (understandable really!) So we made our way to the Deutsche Museum (sign posted at the end of Baaderstrasse) and I had to pass up another vintage shop on the corner to avoid him having a paddy!

The museum is on its own little island which you have to cross the river to get to.  We were in here for three or four hours, the children’s area has plenty of interactive areas for the kids to enjoy.

Too right!

Children’s artwork in Kid’s Kingdom

 

And here’s a fairly random selection of photos from other areas of the museum to give you an idea.

  

From the museum we continued walking in the area of Buttermelcherstr/ Utzschneiderstr- and taking photos – at which point the Boy lost the map so we had no idea where to head next!

 

We found galleries, cake and craft shops  in this area, but heaven knows what the owners of the cake shop with the yellow sign were thinking – Back means Bake by the way.

We even found a very fancy, fancy dress shop.

 

Eventually, by chance, we found  Alexa’s Vintage along Utzschneiderstr.  Alexa was very welcoming and the Boy made friends with her dog while we chatted.

     

The shop was chock-a-block with mainly clothes and accessories including vintage dirndls in the wardrobe above. Prices were probably higher than at home but I don’t frequent vintage shops in London so perhaps the prices would be comparable.

We asked for directions to Vintage Love and came across the Viktualienmarkt in front of us.  By this time the sun was shining and the market looked like a gorgeous urban oasis! But first , Vintage Love.

Don’t trust the cute face. His bark is definitely not worse than his bite

Unfortunately the welcome at Vintage Love was not so warm and welcoming.  After the dog went for the Boy as he tried to stroke him, I was brusquely asked “Can I help you?” – Not only had we disturbed the dog but I think we had interrupted a chat the owners were having with some friends! Unfriendly owners and yappy, people- hating dog aside, the shop was very classy and had a boutique feel.  Prices here were higher than at Alexa’s.

     

The shop sold mainly clothes and accessories, from all eras as far as I could tell, but there were a few nik-naks too, though not many.

Next the Viktualienmarkt, I thought it might be closed at first, it looked fairly deserted but on walking further into the market we found all the people – underneath the steeple! They were having a beer or two in the sunshine – what a great idea!

The market sold mainly food and crafts, the stalls looked lovely – I couldn’t stop taking photos!

             

The Germans seemed to like their “hangy things!”

      

We walked through the market….

…and out the other side…

and I realised we were in the Centre of Munich! Result! A cup of tea and a small apple juice in the delightful, candle-lit Ratskeller  (and 7 euros lighter!) we were homeward bound via the S-Bahn from Marienplatz after a lovely day out.