Art on Our Streets – An Aquatic Addition to Albert Road

I spotted this little ceramic piece at the weekend whilst putting a few bits up myself. I’d be interested to hear if anyone has spotted any more.

Artist unknown.

Bone China by Phoebe Richardson

Southsea’s own Phoebe Richardson has created the cleverly titled ‘Bone China’ range of ceramics. All are hand made in Stoke, the home of potteries.

The range features stacking skeleton coffee cups for building and breaking the skeleton, an egg cup that when you slice the egg you’re actually slicing the top of his skull and a jaw mug that makes your face look a bit Halloweeny when you drink from it. There are also plates; the skull and both hands.

Phoebe is currently a graphic designer living in London (but missing the sea). Since graduating from Epsom uni in 2009 She’s been lucky enough to work with Vaughan Oliver on music packaging for the Pixies and David Lynch, designed printed tees for ASOS and Next. You can even get hold of Phoebe’s Bone China range by visiting Flo & Stan‘s on Albert Road.

I highly recommend you take the time to view Phoebe’s blog lefthandrighteye.blogspot.com.

Man Attacked By Exhibition

From 18th November – 2nd December Paul Tinker will be exhibiting his Man Attacked By series at Bonzo in Albert Road. I personally love his work and how brutal the animals are. My personal favourite is the Stag with Garotte Wire.

You can follow Man Attacked By on Twitter.

James Porter – Bellamy’s Antiques

James Porter has been busy decorating the side of Bellamy’s Antique shop on Albert Road. The leaves can be seen on the side at Goodwood Road.

Albert Road continues to support local artists and designers

So many shops and businesses are continuing to support local artists and designers on Albert Road. It really is so refreshing to see the explosion of creative talent in the city being fully embraced. The road has always celebrated an independent and community spirit which harnesses and promotes ‘local’.

Southsea Gallery has long been promoting this creativity and has a dedicated section in their gallery selling prints by locals. Recent additions include Ken Leung, Weaver, Jodie Silsby, Mark Persaud, Kate Cooke, Alex Ings, Kingsley Nebechi and our very own Tristan Savage. Loving the Salty Old Sea Dog by Kate Cooke. Many of these also took part in the Strong Island exhibition at the Round Tower back in April when nearly 6,000 people came through the doors.

Flo & Stan’s are also wonderful at highlighting and selling local artwork. From badges, necklaces, bags, clothes, prints, canvases to postcards, books and quirky vintage objects that every home should have. A new book of photographs by Irma Rose Pettitt has just gone on sale there along with gorgeous skull necklaces by Elle Sexton.

Wallspace Gallery has recently started selling Simon Whitcomb’s ‘Zombie’s in Southsea’ print.

Bonzo Studio is the new kid on the road and fully celebrating being part of a thriving creative scene by offering workshops in screen-printing, software and business development and also selling work by local artists and designers.

Thanks to all the traders on the road and of course not forgetting Parmiters, Bored, LJR’s, Garbo’s Salon, Head Hairdressing, Dead Man’s Glory, Bellamy’s Antiques and many more who also help promote artists and designers by collaborating, advertising, exhibiting and selling their work.

Below – Southsea Gallery

Below – Irma Rose Pettitt book at Flo & Stan’s.

Below – Elle Sexton necklace at Flo & Stan’s.

Below – Bonzo Studio

Below – Local books for sale at Bellamy’s Antiques

Southsea Gallery at The Wine Vaults

Paul and Sarah Windsor from Southsea Gallery on Albert Road have recently taken over the walls in the Snug Room at The Wine Vaults. Work is featured from local artists and designers including Jodie Silsby, Tristan Savage, Kingsley Nebechi, Mark Persaud, I Love Dust, Alex Ings and Ken Leung. You can buy all the work featured at Southsea Gallery.

Wine and Design

On Thursday the 16th of June, students from BA Illustration at The University of Portsmouth are holding a fundraising event to help raise funds for their attendance to New Designers. See their degree show website here - http://www.envf.port.ac.uk/illustration/IP/2011/

New Designers is a graduate fair held in London every year. It provides an opportunity for recent graduates to display their work, and for the art industry to survey and celebrate the newest talents.

Entry is free and there will be live music from local bands, as well as a raffle with prizes donated from various Albert Road shops and establishments such as The Kings’ Theatre, Flo & Stan’s and Dead Man’s Glory. They also have a Facebook Page.

Paper Cutting Workshop at Flo & Stan’s

The workshop will look at the current popular style of paper cutting. Looking particularly at the work of contemporary illustrator/designer Rob Ryan.

TUESDAY 28th June
This session will enable you to design your paper cut(s). Planning and drawing out the image on your paper surface ready for cutting the following day. Books will be provided for inspiration and to aid stylisation of images if required.

WEDNESDAY 29th June
With your design ready drawn, this session will be spent cutting your design – revealing a stunning paper cut illustration by the close of the workshop.
Time allowing, images can be mounted onto another colour paper background, ready for you to frame at a later date.

There is a maximum of 4 adults per session to allow for more individual attention.

Each session runs from 7pm – 9pm at Flo & Stan’s, Albert Road. The total cost of £45 per person which includes all equipment.
Payment can only be made at Flo & Stan’s. Places are on a first come first served basis.

Tea and homemade cake will be served half way through each session to keep the creative energy flowing!

Image below of Rob Ryan’s work by Laura Simpson

Wedgewood Rooms Shortlisted – Britain’s Best Small Venue

I posted a few days ago about a competition that NME are running to find Britain’s best small venue.  Well, great news The Wedgewood Rooms has made the final shortlist for the South East category!

This really is a great accolade not only for them should they win, but the city also.  Get involved and cast your vote here and hopefully we will see them win the award I believe they deserve.

www.nme.com/smallvenues

Flo & Stan’s Opens on Albert Road

Friends of Strong Island Lorna and Del have finally opened their shop on Albert Road called ‘Flo & Stan’s’. I popped in over the weekend to check out the place and take some photos. The home boutique shop sells a range of quirky,  vintage and retro products including work by local artists. I bought a gorgeous old Hollywood, Los Angeles vintage tray and a New York original decal. They also had an amazing 3D Viewmaster of HMS Victory for sale. Go and check the shop out sometime soon.

PRIMARY – Extended & Improved

We have some great news about our PRIMARY phonography exhibition (find out all the details here) that we can now announce:

- The deadline for submissions has now been extended to Sunday 4th March. We have had some incredible submissions but want to set aside more time to make the exhibition something really special.

- The competition is now open to up to 10 submissions from each individual. With the ability to capture many photos on your phone over the next two months we we want you to not feel restricted to just three. The same rules apply about the photos conforming to compositions using the primary colours though. If you have already submitted feel free to send more photos over as and when you please.

- The exhibition will be hosted by Albert Road’s own Bonzo Studio who are also partnering up with us in the creation of the exhibition space. More news on this soon!

- Finally, we will be running a competition as part of the exhibition where the best three photos submitted will win some incredible prizes. We will be announcing the prizes available very soon but got to say, these will be the best prize haul we have ever offered.

- We will be putting together a poster for the exhibition that will be on sale on the opening night. The poster will feature some of the best submissions and all profits from the sales will go to a local charity (details to follow soon). Due to this we need to say that any photos submitted to PRIMARY will involve you giving us permission to use them for commercial purposes, if you do not want your photo used in this way simply let us know via email.

Well, that is it for now! We really hope to drum up as much coverage locally for PRIMARY in the next couple of months so if you could Facebook/Tweet/+1 about the exhibition we would really appreciate it. We would love this exhibition to be a real reflection of the whole population of Portsmouth with everyone taking part and feeling involved.

It’s going to be a Strong Movember – Closed at £725

Righto chaps, it’s time to clean shave your boat race and get that mighty moustache on the grow in support of Movember for The Prostate Cancer Charity and the Institute of Cancer Research. For 30 days of November you can help support and raise awareness through selflessly parading your top lip for charity.

You can sign up yourself, as I’m sure many of you already have, or you can join the Strong Island team and seek out sponsorship as a team. Through the Strong Island Movember page you can ask people to join the group, make donations, upload photos and post updates via the MoSpace page, Facebook and Twitter.

Head over to www.mobro.co/StrongIsland if you would like to get involved and grow a Strong Moustache to help raise awareness, or simply head over to www.uk.movember.com and sign up to personally raise money.

The funds raised in the UK support the number one and two male specific cancers – prostate and testicular cancer. The funds raised are directed to programmes run directly by Movember and our men’s health partners, The Prostate Cancer Charity and the Institute of Cancer Research. Together, these channels work together to ensure that Movember funds are supporting a broad range of innovative, world-class programmes in line with our strategic goals in the areas of awareness and education, survivorship and research.

Poster: Tristan Savage