Live Paint Jam

The live paint jam in the garden of Little Johnny Russells went off on Saturday with a strong turnout and some awesome artwork being produced. At the same time there was also an indoor market in the bar. Below are a load of photos from the day, be sure to click on Read More link below to see them all.

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Tags: Graffiti, Indoor Market, Little Johnny Russells, Monk Jam, Portsmouth Creative Movement

6by4 – Call for Entries

To celebrate their 30th Anniversary Art Space Portsmouth is hosting ’6by4′ a secret postcard exhibition in GASP (Gallery Art Space Portsmouth). All proceeds will help support future Art Space projects and initiatives.

CALL FOR ENTRIES:
This is a great opportunity for young and emerging talent to be shown alongside mid-career and established artists. Additionally, it is a great chance for art lovers and collectors to purchase a hidden gem!

The brief is simple. All entries (up to a maximum of 3 per person) must be on card, 6 by 4 inches (15 x 10cm) and can use any medium including drawing, painting, photography and collage. There is no theme and challenging submissions are welcome. Sign and print your name on the reverse (otherwise it will not be a secret!), date it and add a title. Please include your contact details and e-mail address on a separate piece of paper, and post to:

’6by4′, Art Space Portsmouth Limited, 27 Brougham Road, Southsea, Hampshire PO5 4PA

THE CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRIES IS MONDAY 11TH OCTOBER 2010.

All details here.

Tags: art, Art Space, Artspace, exhibition, Portsmouth, postcard

Badger Press’ Summer Jamboree

You’re all invited to visit Badger Press on Saturday 28th August for their Summer Jamboree! Badger Press will be exhibiting work by Badger Press artists, offering a look round and the chance to try some taster sessions. They’re also hoping to have some live music, a prize draw with the chance to win original artwork, free courses and some lovely gifts donated by kind friends. There will be drinks and cakes, and a few surprises as always for what promises to be a special day at Badger Press.

Badger Press have also added details of Autumn courses to their website and available to
download here (PDF). Also keep an eye out for early bird offers and news at www.badgerpress.org.

Tags: Badger Press

Huge Free Art Drop at Eastney

What’s that coming over the shingle? God knows, but it’s pretty damn impressive. The PAM Crew are at it again. This time with one HELL of a drop. If any of you were lucky enough to get down the Bug Jam on the Common last weekend you may have seen FARKFK, LEX, MONK, Mimic and MyDogSighs creating this beast. Grab an ice cream and head down the beach to catch a sighting before it goes in to hibernation, or someone grabs it for themselves.

Also don’t forget it’s MONK JAM and the Indoor Market & Record Fayre this coming Bank Holiday where the above mentioned and others will be taking over the garden at Little Johnny Russells. Check out more details HERE. This will be a really good day for sure. Put it in your diary.

Tags: FARKFK, LEX, Monk Jam, MyDogSighs, PAM

Gloo Live @ The Bandstand. Get Involved.

Kill Kasper…Will McNicol…Colour Masks…The Caravan Gallery…Live Graffiti…DJs…Exhibitions…

Any of those sound good to you? Of course they do! So head down to the Bandstand for a day of artistic tomfoolery and cracking music. We’ve got everything from exhibitions in caravans to live graffiti. Here’s the line up:

Streetlight in The Caravan Gallery. Students from the second Streetlight Photography Course show their work in the Nation’s favourite mobile gallery.

Visual Vibration: Charlie Khalsi will be there all day making a 40ft graffiti wall. Get involved and have a go with the spray cans and have a stencil made of your own face (for just £3)!

ImaGen: We’ll be showing off the project – displaying the photos and stories that we’ve got so far and recruiting new participants.

Rite/Rote: Lilian Tula will be bustling around the Bandstand doing research for an art project about the way the internet’s affected the way we communicate. Look out for her quick fire questions about smileys and abbreviations!

There’ll be DJs, MCs and all sorts of other things there… watch THIS space for updates!

If you would like to get involved in any way please get in contact with Steve Bomford at steve@nebweb.co.uk and he’ll give you some more information.

WIN a FREE Website at Design Fusions

Recent University of Portsmouth graduates Design Fusions have just opened up a competition to WIN a free bespoke website worth up to £1000. Simply ‘ReTweet‘ on Twitter or ‘Like‘ on Facebook and you’re in there with a chance to WIN. Couldn’t be any easier. Unless of course you have neither of those social network accounts!

Tags: Design Fusion

Local Designer – George Crick

George recently did a Your24 for us based around his recent 20:10 exhibition. George has recently updated his website and kindly asked if we could drop our readers a little heads up. Peep Georges work at www.georgecrick.com

Tags: George Crick

Visual Libraries – Portsmouth | USA | India

Strong Island mentioned this project last year and since then it has spread internationally. The idea is simple – putting sketchbooks each with a theme into libraries around the world. You are encouraged to write, draw, rip, staple, sew etc in these books. We now have over 300 sketchbooks in Libraries across Portsmouth and have launched in Winston Salem, US and will travel to Chennai, India tomorrow. You can sign out these sketchbooks up to 4 weeks and it would be wonderful to see a vast array of different styles and ways that you can leave your mark. There is a planned book and exhibition on the horizon and one of your pages could be used. We will also be mixing up the sketchbooks so some will travel from Portsmouth to USA and India and vice versa.

To follow this project visit the website at : http://www.visuallibraries.com/ the website was designed by Paul Gonella.

Below is an example of the entries in Portsmouth so far plus some images from my recent visit to Winston Salem, US.

Tags: "visual libraries", "winston salem", chennai, india, library, Portsmouth, sketchbooks, usa, Visual Libraries Project

WhenWeWereKids T-Shirts

The clothing label WhenWeWereKids is the pet project of local graphic designer Rob Trigg (designer for Addict, Carhartt, etc – check Rob’s website www.robtrigg.co.uk for more info). WhenWeWereKids currently has five limited run designs available, all for only £20. Check a couple of the designs below and see them all and order online at whenwewerekids.bigcartel.com.

Tags: rob trigg, WhenWeWereKids

YEAH Exhibition and New Issue

YEAH Magazine’s first exhibition has it’s opening night on Monday 16th of August and will also coincide with the release of their next issue. The event will be a big celebration of everything they have achieved since the 1st issue and big thank you to everyone that has supported them so far.

The exhibition will be held at the pop up shop on the roundabout at the end of Commercial Road opposite the One Legged Jockey, just down from Sainsburys. The exhibition will be spread over three rooms which, just like YEAH, will be themed. The first room will be a time-line of what YEAH has achieved since the beginning, the second will be their favourite prints from the last 6 issues and the third will be a launch of their new issue YM007, The Scene.

Find out more at the Facebook event and keep track of updates on YEAH’s Facebook.

(Cover photo by Jak Spedding)

Tags: Yeah Magazine

FOTOsaurus Competition

So Lunar Park has arrived on Southsea Common. It really is a pretty enormous Ultrasauros and I am sure that the view from the sea is quite amazing.

Aspex are running a FOTOsaurus competition – details below. Get up close and personal.

FOTOsaurus! Visit the dinosaur sculpture and get creative with any type of kit, from camera phone to box brownie! This photography competition is open to all ages and abilities. Submit your snaps to aspex as prints, on disk or via Facebook or Flickr. Closing date 31 August 2010. If you missed the opening ceremony then view the video below.

Heather and Ivan Morison – Luna Park, 1 August 2010 from Aspex Gallery on Vimeo.

Tags: Competition, Luna Park, Portsmouth, Southsea Common, Ultrasauros

Local Image Maker – Carl Partridge

Carl is still working & studying MA Communication Design since we last mentioned his work. He’s updated www.carlpartridge.co.uk with lots of new projects including the nice 2 frame shot of the ramps under repair a while back in The Skatepark.

Keep up with Carl on Twitter

Tags: Carl Partridge

Graffiti/Art Space Available

Just a quick post on behalf of Mike Hassanyeh at Chilli Tattoo on Albert Road.  He has an approximate 20 x 7ft space on the side of his shop he is opening up to any graffiti artists to use.  Any potential artists can contct Mike by email at wanderingbrush@hotmail.com or alternatively pop by and see him at the shop at 58 Albert Road to discuss ideas.

Hopefully this will be a nice new addition to some of the great art pieces that are popping up in the Albert Road area.

Tags: Albert Road, Chilli Tattoo, Graffiti Wall

Luna Park – Ultrasauros arrives in Southsea

Now I must admit I forgot about this. Somehow. Coming soon to an area of common ground near you is the truly epic Ultrasauros. A spectacular 16 metre tall recreation of an accidental dinosaur, will graze Southsea Common. A set of giant dinosaur bones was discovered in the 1970s in the United States by Professor Jim Jensen, and was believed to be the largest dinosaur ever. However, it was later revealed that the collection of fossils came from two different dinosaur species and Ultrasauros was, in fact, a fiction. Ultrasauros is without a doubt the largest structure to of ever stood freely on the common. To my knowledge that is…

Creators Heather & Ivan Morison will also be hosting a sculptural & photographic exhibition at The Aspex Gallery. ‘An Unreachable Country. A Long Way to Go’ will explore how things may transcend their given forms to create the vehicles for humankind to journey beyond the fragile and temporal world.

There is more information on events and activities surrounding the Ultrasuros’s stay in Southsea over at www.visitportsmouth.co.uk

Image : www.visitportsmouth.co.uk

Image : Aspex

Tags: Luna Park, Ultrasauros

Deep South – Clarence Pier #2

James Weaver has put his latest illustration up online over at www.deepsouth-illustration.com. It’s the far side view of Clarence Pier to pair up with the last illustration of the Pier & Gift Shop and is available for £19 (A4) and £39 (A3). Head over to The Deep South Shop and grab one now. I can’t get enough of these illustrations. Definitely some of my favourite works this year.

“Clarence Pier was built in 1861, channeling steamboats over to the Isle of Wight. It was heavily bombed in World War II, and reopened in its present form with amusement arcades and funfair in 1961. A decline in interest to traditional British seaside attractions led to the Pier coming close to bankruptcy in recent times, and its days are surely numbered, although Pirate Pete’s, the legendary childrens indoor playground (social leprosy would be dead cert if any self-respecting primary schooler declined to hold their birthday party there in the late 80’s – early 90’s) is still in use, as is the Skyways rollercoaster, and one of the few remaining Wimpy bars can be found there.”

Tags: Clarence Pier, Deep South

Nightmares & Fairytales – Portsmouth

After their first public showing, Anna Mathewson’s chillingly beautiful drawings and Steve Bomford’s dramatic photographs are coming to Portsmouth as the next step on their tour. After dropping jaws and enchanting the crowds at the Chichester Summer Art show in the Oxmarket Arts Centre last month, the hit exhibition Nightmares & Fairytales is open for one day only (Friday 30th July from 2pm), the show will be on display at the gallery in Art Space (Brougham Road, Southsea).

Working with curators Daniel O’Neill and Jan Williams, the artists will transform the Art Space gallery into a dark fairyland peopled by twisted sprites and the ghosts of innocence. Delicate, feminine and startling, Anna’s work is taken from a treasure trove of drawings, collages, stories and poems. Steve’s photographs are an exploration of the creative world of Anna’s imagination.

Join the artists and curators on the day to see the drawings, photographs and installations, and enjoy a drink with friends.

Tags: Anna Mathewson, GASP, Steve Bomford

Miki Organic Talent Showcase & call for contributions

Last week we featured a short post about Miki Organic. Claire bounced an email back asking if it would be okay to mention something they are currently working on. Of course…

“Miki Organic is an online boutique featuring carefully picked sustainable fashion and accessories from throughout the UK. We’d now like to showcase talent closer to home with a collection on our site that shows off the best of what Southsea has to offer. We’re on the lookout for local artisans and craftspeople to contribute, it can be anything, new or vintage, clothes to furniture as long as it stays true to our core values of being sustainable and stylish. We are also keen to work with local illustrators to create a range of accessories using their designs.

If you think this would be something of interest please contact me at claire@miki.uk.com or through our Facebook page. More info available on our blog.
Images are courtesy of Jenny from ‘The Custards’, a great example of talent in Southsea. Jenny has a blog and flicker page and she makes beautiful bags, bunting and more using vintage fabrics.”

Tags: Miki Organic

The Last Resort – Student Film Wins Award

A documentary film about the decline of Portsmouth as a traditional seaside resort has won first prize for three student film-makers who graduate this week.

The University of Portsmouth students won the award for ‘best documentary’ at the Inspire Film Festival for their graduate film ‘The Last Resort’ which received critical acclaim from the judging panel including legendary film critic, Barry Norman. The film explores the decline of the Southsea as a traditional seaside resort told from the perspective of an elderly sea-swimmers group, a sea-front cafe manager and the owner of a model village.
The 16 minute film made by Russell Oastler, David Kinnaird and Lucas Way has since been picked up by the Sunday Times Short Film Community, an online showcase for the work of new film-makers which goes live in August.

The film explores the declining fortunes of The Big Wheel Cafe at Clarence Pier and Southsea’s model village, run by Mike Armet, who owns the attraction on Southsea Esplanade.
The film also introduces a group of Southsea die-hard swimmers who take a dip in the Solent’s chilly water 365 days a year. Some have been swimming there for over 30 years and even swim on Christmas Day. Sadly one of their group, 86 year old Dorothy Browning, passed away during the making of the documentary and the film has been dedicated to her memory.
Russell, who has just returned from work-experience on a professional short film, said it was never his plan to be a documentary film-maker but enjoys the unplanned nature of the medium.
“I like the idea that you don’t really know what might happen in a documentary – it could be something totally unexpected,” he said.

Tags: Award, Southsea, Students

Bored Mizzenmast Tee

Bored have updated their look book with their new Mizzenmast tee designed by our very own Tristan Savage. The tee is now available in store and online.

Photo by Tom.

Tags: Bored, T-Shirt, Tristan Savage

Southsea Rowing Club 150th Regatta

Those ever busy creative cats over at ilovedust recently finished on the branding for the Southsea Rowing Clubs 150th year. Hand screen printed posters by Jodie from I Love Dust over at Badger Press in Bishops Waltham. Always good stuff from these guys, and a lot of emphasise has been going on local projects and collaborations over the last year. Top draw.

Photos & artwork courtesy of ilovedust and prints by Badger Press

Tags: Southsea Rowing Club 150th Regatta