Monday 19 December 2011

A studio on loan!

A very generous friend and talented artist Sonia Blair recently offered me the use of her studio, whilst she is away for christmas.


It feels like a million years since I have been able to paint properly, partly because its been a really busy 6 months filled with exhibitions, and partly because of the upheaval of moving back to London, and no longer having a place to work. (and I guess it's also because I'm trying to balance being an artist with looking after a two year old!)


But it feels like finally I am starting to get back on track!  The studio has amazing views (and is heated!) it feels like a haven and very productive workspace, I am loving being able to at last get started on some of my new ideas.




I will be in the space working away throughout January which is a very exciting start to 2012, and by February I should have some images of a brand new piece or two if all goes to plan! 


Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year,  and the biggest of thankyous to Sonia for the loan of her beautiful studio.


Love Tinsel x

Monday 12 December 2011

London Calling at OCCCA

I am really excited about taking part in an exhibition in LA this December: ‘London Calling’ will feature the work of 30 London based artists. 


The exhibition is at ‘OCCCA’ – or The Orange County Centre for Contemporary Art.  The gallery has been presenting cutting-edge artwork since 1980, a non-profit corporation, it acts as a catalyst for self-organised initiatives with a keen focus on social engagement, intellectual and cultural exchange and endeavours to produce a forward-thinking intellectual framework.

I will be exhibiting three works, ‘Shoebox’, ‘I hope this does win the Turner Prize’ and ‘Paint Stuff'.   Funnily enough I painted Shoebox in 2008, it felt poignant then, but even more so now! I really hope that in the next few years I won't have to paint another version about people having to live in matchboxes.


'Shoebox' 
acrylic on canvas

There are 30 of us taking part in the group exhibition, we’ve all been busy fundraising to help towards costs for the show via indiegogo, and a couple of Christmas pop up shops at Debut Contemporary on Westbourne Grove and another near St Pauls.  You can see our Indiegogo profile here, we're selling lots of prints and original pieces at discounted prices to help raise funds for the group to ship their work over to LA.

The participating artists are as follows:

Abigail Box, Agnetha Sjogren, Alyona Larinova, Azadeh Fatehrad, Beth Nicholas, Carlos Burgos, Chantal Powell, Darren MacPherson, Katerina Stavrou, Katerina James, Kimi Wylde, Henry Wood, Joe Cruz, Lloyd Durling, Lyndsay Martin, Masa Suzuki, Nicola Anthony, Rachel Noble, Rosie Emerson, Robert West, Senghye Yang, Silvia Krupinska, Sylvia Morgado, Sun Ae Kim, Tinsel Edwards, Tahnee Lonsdale, Twinkle Troughton, Victoria Heald, Vikram Kushwah

London Calling opens on 21st December and runs until January 12th, The Orange County Center for Contemporary Art (OCCCA) is located in the Santa Ana Artist Village, which is home to several galleries, artist studios, restaurants, shops, and First Saturday art walks. OCCCA, 117 North Sycamore, Santa Ana, CA. 92701 USA. Visit www.occca.org

Tuesday 15 November 2011

The Other Art Fair, OCCCA and pics from the Something Borrowed exhibition...


I will be exhibiting work at The Other Art Fair next week.  This Fair is unique, the 100 emerging artists participating will be representing themselves.  A brand new concept in the art world, this will give artists the opportunity to actually meet the buyers, collectors and gallerists who attend the fair.

Myself and Twinkle Troughton are sharing a stand, we will both be exhibiting a mixture of new and older original paintings and a selection of limited edition prints.  Having been selected from hundreds of applicants, we are both really excited about this opportunity!  We've never had a stand at an art fair before, and The Other Art Fair seems like its going to be an amazing one to debut at!

There are some top names involved in the selection process, including the artist Charming Baker (who's paintings I love!), director of the BALTIC Godfrey Worsdale, Dr Anthony Downey of Sotheby's, Sophie Hastings of GQ, and Graham Fink of Ogilvy and Mather.

AND (I'm very excited about this bit.....) Harry Pye and Jasper Joffe will be selling art for 99p at their shop, giving Other Art Fair visitors the opportunity to collect art for less than a pound!
http://jasperandharry.blogspot.com/

The Other Art Fair came by to interview me about my work for the website, you can view it here  Keep checking the site as I think Twinkle will have some footage up there soon too!

Anyway, we really hope you can join us and come along to the Bargehouse on Southbank for the fair next week.  Opening night is Thursday 24th November, and the Fair is open to the public Friday - Sunday.  Our stand is on the 4th floor.  You can buy tickets from the website here  or email me at tinseledwards@hotmail.co.uk


The other massively exciting thing is that I have some work in the London Calling exhibition at OCCCA, a group of 30 London based artists will be showing work at The Orange County Centre for Contemporary Art, USA this December.  

I've got lots to prepare for The Other Art Fair, so there will be more info on this to come soon!






And last but not least: Myself and Twinkle recently co-curated 'Something Borrowed', a group show featuring the work of ten artists.  We held the exhibition at the cutting edge new gallery on Vyner street, Cultivate.gallery website here

A mentalist First Thursday opening, followed by a busy weekend on Vyner street, and most importantly the brilliant artists who took part all helped to make it a huge success.  Thankyou Sean at Cultivate for all your help with the show, and thankyou to all of the participating artists:
Iain Andrews, Liz Bailey, Wanda Bernardino, J.A. Nicholls, Holly Revell, David Storey, David Troughton and Wen Wu

There's lots more pics to see on Twinkle's flickr

Scroll down for more info about Something Borrowed, or read about it on the Fox and Squirrel blog.

Thanks for reading, hope to see you at The Other Art Fair next week! x

Monday 17 October 2011

Something Borrowed exhibition

Me and Twinkle have been busy selecting artists for our upcoming exhibition 'Something Borrowed'.

Its the second show we have curated together, opening on first Thursday in November at Cultivate Gallery on Vyner street.  We have a great line up of artists involved, and both myself and Twinkle will also be exhibiting.  I will be showcasing a brand new painting which technique-wise is quite a departure from previous work.  The artists exhibiting are as follows:

Iain Andrews, liz Bailey, Wanda Bernardino, Tinsel Edwards, J.A. Nicholls, Holly Revell, David Storey, David Troughton, Twinkle Troughton, Wen Wu

Cultivate Gallery is a new artist-led space opposite the Victory Pub on Vyner street, they have had some really good shows so far, so we are really pleased to have been given the opportunity to curate an exhibition there.

I hope you can make it along to the opening night!

You can find out more info about Cultivate gallery here

See below for the invite and press release, please contact me if you would like a PDF version of the press release.


Friday 7 October 2011

Exhibitions in October

This weekend I am exhibiting some prints with Art Rebels at their pop up at Finders Keepers in Copenhagen.  I wish I could fly over to be at the event! Next time maybe....

In the selection of prints I sent there were several new giclee editions including:


'Risk is Good for the Soul' Edition of 50, Giclee on Somerset 300gsm


'Coat of Arms' Edition of 45, Giclee on Somerset 300gsm


                           'Collecting Fossils in 2058' Edition of 25, Giclee on Somerset 300gsm

These prints have not been uploaded to my online shop or website yet so this will be the first time they have been exhibited. I am currently redesigning my website and will be uploading lots of new prints to the online shop this month, if you are interested in purchasing anything in the meantime please email me at tinseledwards@hotmail.co.uk


On October 13th I will also be exhibiting with The Lucky Dip Collective at The Islington Contemporary Art Fair.


On October 20th I have a small piece going in a group exhibition at Cultivate, Vyner street The venue where myself and Twinkle Troughton are co-curating a show for November First Thursday, more on that to follow soon!

Thanks for reading x

Monday 26 September 2011

The Social Networking DILEMA!

Having access to Facebook, twitter, linked in......and all of the other social networking sites available, is a massive help to anyone wanting to promote their music/business/creative venture.  As an artist it is amazing to promote an exhibition to 100s of people online for free.  Years and years ago I imagine it was much harder for artists to promote themselves, I feel lucky to have access to all of these websites as it is a really simple and easy way of spreading the word.

HOWEVER....I sometimes feel that it is TAKING OVER!!!

When I was a little girl, dreaming about growing up to be an artist, I imagined a wonderful life of painting all the time and exhibiting all over the world.  Now I am grown up, and living the life of an artist, I find that I spend so much of my time at the computer.  Between all the admin jobs, emailing, entering competitions, preparing proposals, tweeting, facebooking, blogging, mailouts and promotion, theres hardly any painting happening, How did this happen??!!!

To have a presence it seems that you need to be blogging once a week (at least I am up to date with this weeks!), posting on facebook at least every couple of days, tweeting regularly.  I haven't quite got into the world of twitter yet, every now and again I tell my 73 or so followers that I've got some work in an exhibition coming up, retweet something interesting, and then don't log on again for afew days.  I suddenly realise I forgot to tell them all about the wonderful painting exhibition I went to recently, the revelation I had about this or that....what a lovely time I had at that event the other day.  I think for it to work I probably need to be tweeting more and for it to be second nature.

Maybe in time I will get into it abit more.....Its not that I don't like social networking sites - I think twitter is a brilliant tool to use to let people know about what you are doing, and also as a way to catch up on news and updates, as with all the social networking sites.  As a strong believer in all things DIY - an ethos close to my heart and one that I continually promote in my art work, social networking fits.  It is an excellent tool for artists to use to promote themselves - giving them autonomy.  But it sometimes feels all consuming, and I'm always conscious that I'm not doing enough of it.

I'm wondering whether I might take 6 weeks off and see what happens.  I want to promote my work, but I also want to make my work! We'll see.....I will keep you posted.

I recently stumbled across some of Filipo Minelli's work:




The imagery struck a chord with me and started me thinking about this issue in a wider context.  We all spend so much time on computers, more so in our jobs than ever before.  But people seem nostalgic for craft/skills based work where you can use your hands, and we are all aware that the presence of computers and the internet reduces face to face contact with each other.  I wonder how things will stand in 2050?

Anyway!  My next blog will probably be about the show in Copenhagen that I'm putting some prints in at the end of the month...or the show that me and Twinkle Troughton are curating at the beginning of November on Vyner street.  And I must remember to facebook and tweet and tweet again!

Thankyou for reading, see you all on facebook!  x

Monday 12 September 2011

Pics from FLAGSTOP LA

Some pics from the exhibition in LA - The London Art Box at FLAGSTOP was a big success, and has led to many more exciting opportunities.  Including exchange exhibitions with several LA and San Francisco galleries and a now confirmed exhibition in December at Orange County Centre for Contemporary Art (OCCCA)

You can read more about FLAGSTOP here on Artweek LA

A big thankyou to Nicola Anthony, Abigail Box and Kimi Wylde who went over to LA to represent all of the artists!

We are putting on a post-exhibition press event at Debut Contemporary Gallery on September 28th, if you would like a copy of the press release for the event please email me at tinseledwards@hotmail.co.uk






Compulsory bag wearing person - a must at any artfair





Wednesday 31 August 2011

London Art Box at FLAGSTOP art fair in LA!

On Friday 2nd September FLAGSTOP opens, an alternative contemporary art fair in 
Los Angeles.


Alongside 13 other artists from Debut Contemporary, my work was selected for LAB - ' The London Art Box'.  A pod at the art fair purely dedicated to the art of London based artists.


Its been a busy couple of weeks getting everything ready for the fair! but finally all of our works have arrived safely in LA, set up is already happening, VIP opening Friday and the fair is open to the public Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th.


Here is a little info about the fair, you can also read more about FLAGSTOP on the website: http://flagstopart.com/


'FLAG STOP’s mission is to present new and emerging contemporary art to a larger audience outside the mainstream art venues. FLAG STOP is searching for alternative venues in which to present the best curated examples of what, why, and how art is becoming relevant today. Each “STOP” will feature art which has been curated with some of the best examples of contemporary art, brought to you by some of the top professional, emerging curators and artists from Southern California.'


The Art Fair will be hosted by South Bay Lexus, a MASSIVE Lexus showroom!  There are also some really high profile LA based curators involved in the fair such as Howard Fox of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Lily Siegel of MOCA.  Following the FLAGSTOP art fair, in December all of our works will be moving on to a second exhibition at OCCCA, Orange County Centre for Contemporary Art.


Its so exciting to have been selected for the show!  Although I can't be at the opening it is fantastic to have some work going over to the fair to make its US Debut.  I'm really interested to see what kind of feedback our works will get.  Afew of the Debut artists have gone over to represent us all and chat to visitors about our work.


I am showing my 'Shoebox' painting, 'Paint Stuff' and an older piece, 'I hope this does win the Turner Prize'.










Other artists selected for the exhibition include (in no particular order!): Twinkle Troughton, Chantal Powell, Nicola Anthony, Darren Macpherson, Katrina James, Robert West, Carlos Martyn Burgos, Abigail Box, Azadeh Fatehrad, Vikram Kushwah, Kimi Wylde, Sylvia Morgado.


Also I just wanted to say a big thankyou to Ryan Noble for helping to organise the event, and to everyone at Debut Contemporary.  


If you are in LA this weekend please visit the fair if you can! and anyone not in LA, I'll be posting some pics from the event as soon as I get any xxx

Tuesday 30 August 2011

Is Capitalism a Dictatorship or a Democracy: Working on a new piece!

I used to feel that I couldn't make political work because I didn't know enough about 'Politics'.  Over the past couple of years I've changed how I feel about that, I still don't know much about politics, but I do know how I feel about the observations that I make about society and life today.  These personal responses to what I see are what is expressed in my work, and now sometimes the work does end up being abit political....!


IS CAPITALISM A DICTATORSHIP OR A DEMOCRACY?  My paintings often start with a question or a slogan, and a while back I started thinking about the above question.  Capitalism is supposedly a democracy, but are we really all free to decide what we want to do?  Certain things have to happen in order for Capitalism to continue working as a model for society, mostly buying stuff...all the time.  There is a hierarchy and a growing wealth divide, everyone has their function within the big wheel of society and amongst other things we all have to keep buying to make it all keep ticking.


Aswell as pondering on this thought...I never forget how lucky we are to not live under a real 'dictatorship', I can't even begin to imagine the reality of living under a regime.  I sometimes wonder whether I really can make a painting to explore the issue I'm thinking about in Western countries - which also shows sensitivity and respect toward people living under dictatorships.


Anyhow, I thought I would attempt to tackle it, as to me its a very real issue.  I'm just at the very beginning of this process, and I think alot more research, reading and thought needs to go into the piece.



I attempted to come up with something which had just subtle visual reference to the theme I am looking at, thinking that the text would really do the work, and the title too.  Its a bold question, and simply asking it in the painting will encourage thought on the issue.  I also like the idea of making pieces where the text is a little bit removed from the image, as a way of leaving more space for thought and interpretation.


I've just been experimenting so far, and after a few days working on the painting I decided to abandon it and go back to the drawing board...


I'm still feeling that it is really important to make a piece of work to explore this issue, so hopefully I will be posting again soon with a finished piece!


x

Sunday 14 August 2011

A review of Opinionated Objects at Debut Contemporary


It’s a while ago now, but I’ve finally found the time to write a little bit about Opinionated Objects!

On Saturday July 30th me and Twinkle braved the intense sunshine and sat in the window of Debut Contemporary Gallery, painting onto people’s unwanted objects in aid of the Ubuntu Education Fund.  The project took weeks and weeks of planning, so it was brilliant to finally see it happen and to have such a good response.

The idea was that people donated an unwanted object and a hope or wish for the future. We then painted the text onto the object, transforming the unwanted object into a piece of art. In exchange we asked for a donation to The Ubuntu Education Fund.



We wanted to raise awareness about Ubuntu and the amazing work that they do for children in South Africa who’s lives have been affected by HIV and AIDS, and also raise some cash for the charity.  From an artistic point of view we wanted to do an interactive project to create a visual display of people’s thoughts, hopes and opinions, ‘upcycling’ their unwanted goods along the way!

The response was really positive, we were given some really interesting objects to paint on, including a fishbowl, a breadbin, a guitar, an old record player, a wooden sword, a toy horse, some speedos….and lots more.  People were very thoughtful with the opinions and hopes they gave us to paint onto the objects too, we were given a diverse range of really heartfelt statements such as:

‘I wish I cared enough to cry’
'Good ideas are the heartstrings of the soul'
‘May we always find nourishment in the simplest of things’
‘I hope that our relationship with technology doesn’t take over our relationship with each other’
‘I wish for all of us to work harder to protect our beautiful but threatened marine and sea life before it is lost forever’

We combined our different painting styles to collaborate on most of the objects, some lent themselves more to Twinkle’s style, some to mine, each piece was signed by both of us.








Thankyou to everyone who donated objects and opinions!  Thankyou so much for donating to Ubuntu, and thankyou to Debut Contemporary Gallery for hosting the event.

(thankyou to Sophia for being so helpful on the day!  Me and Twinkle were just about delirious from being in the direct sunlight of the gallery window on the hottest day of the year – and having to wear sunglasses to paint!)

We would love to continue this project somehow and do it on a larger scale with more time to paint more objects.

Monday 8 August 2011

The blog to review Opinionated Objects will have to wait....

This evening I was planning to sit down and finally write a blog to review mine and Twinkle's recent project: 'Opinionated Objects', as usual I'm abit late to upload the news after the event!  But after seeing the footage of the riots on the streets of Hackney I feel shocked and horrified, stunned, and worried about how things will pan out tonight.

Weirdly I am not in London this week, but so many people close to me live near to the area where the riots are going on, and I can't stop thinking about how terrifying it must be for them right now.  I lived just off Mare street for a couple of years, its awful to see what happened in Tottenham and I really feel for all of those affected, but on a personal note, seeing such familiar places being trashed to pieces feels really sad.

What is it that inspires people to cause such damage to other people's lives?


I will write about Opinionated Objects another time...All I can say about it at the moment is that it was wonderful to have had such a positive response, people were so forthcoming with honest and heartfelt hopes and opinions.

I hope that the response that me and Twinkle had to Opinionated Objects reflects how Londoners will now all pull together.
xxx

Tuesday 26 July 2011

Me and Twinkle on Resonance FM

This week artist Sean Worrall invited me and Twinkle onto his show The Organ Hour on Resonance FM.  To talk about our forthcoming project ‘Opinionated Objects’ at Debut Contemporary on July 30th.


Sean and Marina were very good hosts and made us feel at home!  I was nervous about the whole thing at first but it was quite relaxed and we ended up having a good laugh.  We managed to remember to say everything, including the address and date of the event! 

You can listen to the interview here:
http://soundcloud.com/organart/organhour24-07-11edit

Sean is live on Resonance every Sunday between 9 and 10pm, he’s always chatting to lots of different artists and playing lots of underground and alternative bands.

You can see his artwork and find out more about some of his other projects here:
http://www.organart.demon.co.uk/seanworrallart.html

Monday 4 July 2011

Opinionated Objects at Debut Contemporary

Me and Twinkle will be doing a fund raising event at Debut Contemporary Gallery on Saturday July 30th, we need lots of people to donate their unwanted objects so we can turn trash to treasure! All the info about the event is below.

Debut Contemporary Gallery, 82, Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill W2 5RT
Saturday 30th July 11am - 5pm

WHAT: What do YOU want for the future of our planet?  Politically, economically, spiritually, environmentally, in your lifetime, what do you wish to happen?

Twinkle and Tinsel’s 'up-cycling' event in the Debut Contemporary gallery will explore this question and find out what you want to happen in our world.

YOU bring us an old object you don't know what to do with anymore
WE recycle it by turning it into a piece of art.

HOW: Along with the unwanted object we want you to tell us your hopes and dreams for our planet. We will paint these opinions as text on the objects. These redundant objects will thus be transformed into unique pieces of art, old will become new and they will start to communicate your hopes for the future.

All pieces will be signed by the artists and then returned to their owners as brand new unique pieces of art.

THE DETAILS:

To have your object up-cycled we ask for a donation which will be given to our chosen charity. The charity is Ubuntu Education Fund (www.ubuntufund.org), a non-profit organisation which provides orphaned and vulnerable children affected by 
HIV/AIDS, poverty and abuse in the townships of Port Elizabeth, South Africa access to the world of higher education and work.  Ubuntu aims to transform the lives of the children they serve so that they can grow up healthy, educated, well-supported and prepared to enter university and fulfil their dreams. 10% of all gallery sales on July 30th will also go towards Ubuntu Education Fund.

Opinionated Objects at Debut Contemporary will operate on a first come first serve basis, contact us at opinionatedart@hotmail.co.uk in advance to get your name on the list and we will send you instructions. Once the list is full up we wont be able to take on any more objects.  As the event is for charity we will be asking for the donation upon delivery of the item. 

On the day, we will be sat in the window at Debut Contemporary painting the objects in view of passers by.  The completed items will then be exhibited, we will be adding each finished item to the collection in the gallery throughout the day.


Friday 1 July 2011

Painting workshop at Carshalton High School for Girls

On the 29th June, I went in to work with some Year 10 pupils at Carshalton High School in Surrey.  It was a one day painting workshop where the students were asked to create ‘An Alternative Self Portrait’ and incorporate text into the painting.







I really love working on projects like this! Its really rewarding to see the kids enjoying painting and benefiting from the experience of the workshop.  The teacher had contacted me through the LONSAS website back in April, and asked me to submit a proposal for the kind of workshop I would like to do.

I took elements of my own practice to develop the idea for the workshop.  The students were asked to find an image or take a photograph of something or a place that they felt represented who they are, they were also asked to write a slogan or find a quote that they felt represented them.  These were combined to create a painting on canvas, which they worked on throughout the day.  We also looked at examples in art history of artists who have made alternative self-portraits (Van Gogh’s chair and Emin’s bed), and artists who use text in their work.







A lot of the pupils wrote some really inspiring and interesting pieces of text for their pieces, and they produced some really good work.



Thankyou to Miss Care for inviting me to do the workshop!  And it was lovely to meet all the students in the year 10 class.