A Sense Of Order

Ever since I was little and loved to arrange my felt tips in colour order - I have got great joy out of the careful placement of objects. I used to eat my coloured sweeties so that I had the same number of each colour and could lay them out in lines to nibble up in order - or sometimes I'd eat all of one colour so as to revel in the changed colour relationships of those left.
It seems to me this is as much about colour combinations as it is about placement and order of objects!

Unfortunately it has to be admitted here that our home and personal space fails to indicate this interest in any way..
Maybe it has just manifested itself in the way I make marks - lots of my doodles and little prints sit within a grid-like format:

Likewise I am attracted to things in groups and repetition. 

My photographs {from when we took the students camping a few years ago} embrace the strange placement and layout of the campsite - I love it's 'stuck in time'-ness - bit like how I feel:

 The dear old deux cheveux can be glimpsed here...pretending to be a dome tent

 Then there's my love of making patterns - some of which I have put up on my surface pattern page... and laying out images in grids - from little pets to my family heritage:

When You Can't Even Remember Taking The Photo....

I don't recall where I snapped these - but I love the old fashioned detail of the decorated ceramics:

 Pretty delicate drawing and soft colours:

 Great strong orange with just a touch of olive green:

Lovely twisty bendy honeysuckle:

Aww - like our very own whippet dog, Alf ~

Can It Be....The Generation Game....?

Hattie Newman

This fun little film is by a really interesting illustrator who works with paper in two and three dimensions.

I was looking for images of an early painted diorama I once saw - years ago in a museum somewhere - but I can't remember where!

I have been thinking about making something in a cut-out, layered up paper picture stylee...

in my research I came across Hattie Newman. More of her lovely pieces:

On a similar note - I saw these sweet paper theatres on Not On The High Street...by Kat Wheelan, they appear to have a simplicity and charm that belies the detail and hard work that probably went into them:

Kat Wheelan Illustrations

Is There Nothing That Can't Be Adorned?

The Library at the college where I teach is fast becoming undervalued - in terms of books - as youngsters default to searching screen-based media before anything else. But - being of that generation, I still LOVE books - the smell of the paper; the shine or the soft texture...each slow turn of a page revealing something new!
Every few weeks I head over there to trawl the art and design shelves for something to pour over at my leisure (being 10 minutes before my muscles give up on my heavy eyelids each night).
Yesterday I pulled out a big old weighty tome covered in an open weave and - without even flicking through - thought 'Tord Boontje - I know that name, does he design for Ikea?'

*See book details at the foot of this post

Oh boy! What an AMAZING book! I have taken some snaps which don't really do justice to its gorgeousness but will serve as a reminder:

Look at this for a work space - lovely to have the space to work at a large scale; to make pockets and installations within your own space:

Comparisons between the tough rough robust furniture Boontje makes and the delicacy of the drapes provide compliments that make for strong imagery

I get great joy from the diversity of surfaces and structures Boontje's designs adorn or become.
Almost every page offers different materials as vehicles for angular or rounded or pinchy or stylised or blousy flowers

Lovely dry white un-glazed ceramic = one of my favourite textures

How to cover any surface whatsoever with red flowers. It seems celebratory to me and I love the fluidity - the way the insistence of pattern defies demarcation. 

 It's hard to see the beginning or the end, like this barely existing typography - almost overrun by flora - becoming the twining stems...

Here he is - man and baby - and what a thoughtful serious little fella he was:

The book is called Tord Boontje - it's by Martina Margetts. The photography is by Annabel Elston and Angela Moore, published by Rizzoli, New York ISBN: 0-8478-2929-4

Right that's the pictures looked at - I'm off to read some of the words now (having got a bit wordy here meself..)