Tibor Reich exhibition

Tibor Reich workdesk

Tibor Reich? I hear you ask, who was Tibor Reich?
I thought I would share some recent photos of my trip to Manchester's Whitworth Gallery and the fascinating exhibition of his work.

The Whitworth is looking fabulous after it's 15 million pound facelift!
Although you may not have heard of Tibor Reich, if you are a 'Baby Boomer' then his textile designs will fill you with buckets of nostalgia. Even if the nostalgia is not familiar the influence his textile designs have had on contemporary design is obvious.

Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1916, Reich studied architecture and textiles in Vienna before moving to the UK in 1937. In 1946 he set up Tibor Ltd, and introduced Colour into the drab interiors of post war Britain.

Printed fabric

The bright and modern designs must have been a breath of fresh air to those used to dark and sombre furnishings and fabric.

 His fabrics were used by famous furniture designers of the 50's and 60's, G plan and Ercol.

Many moons ago I started my time at Art college with the intention to go into textile design, although I meandered down a different path I still have a love of pattern and I found it fascinating how Reich used photographs to create abstract fabric designs. This was based on a sweetcorn cob.

This fabric is based on a photograph of cracked mud. Before the world of digital manipulation the photographs he took were cut up and rearranged into pleasing patterns and then hand drawn as fabric designs.

His fabric designs were stylish and aspirational even gracing the seats of Concorde in the 1960s. Being an Architect he designed whole houses and interiors.

He also created tiles and ceramics

Little ashtrays free given to clients in the late 1960's

He drew such wonderful quirky faces.

This is an original design drawing for a ceramic piece.

I loved this patchwork of his fabrics!

 These are some original drawings for fabric designs. Beautifully drawn and painted.

This was a very well presented exhibition that brought  history to life in such a successful way!

Fishy tales

This week I thought I would do something a little different. I noticed a great challenge blog called Art journey journal and saw that orange esmeralda had come up with a great theme this month 'SEA'
I haven't done an on-line challenge for ages and fancied having a wee dabble.
 The sea is always in my work in one way or another, spending most of my life living by the sea it is hard to imagine being away from it.

 Being vegetarian I don't eat fish, but I do enjoy drawing them. I think it is their reflective, metallic look which I love. I am always using foils and gold or silver flakes in my work, I'm a magpie when it comes to glitter!
I was going to collage a fishy piece based on my drawing but instead decided to make a lino cut and repeat the pattern almost like a fabric print.

From my drawing I made a lino-cut and then used it to print onto heavy watercolour paper.

After I had printed the fish I covered them in masking fluid and ink sprayed the background with cosmic shimmer spray.


linking up for the first time to..art journey monthly Thank you Sheila for a great theme!

and as usual the wonderful paint party Friday

The sound of Raasay

 This week The Inspiration Avenue are hosting a show and tell week! I do so love show and tell as it gives me a chance to show what I have been working on outside the constraints of the themed challenges. This mixed media collage is just finished. I have been squirrelling away for the past month on it, It is a large canvas for me, the picture below on my easel gives you an idea of size. It is made up of fragments of found, printed and handmade papers along with acrylics and textured pastes.

As you can see some elements are lost along the way one being the Celtic knot which I decided wasn't working. The subject is the 'sound of Rasaay' as seen from the coastline of the Isle of Skye. Skye is an Island which is part of a group of Islands called the Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland. Skye is a relatively large Island being over 50 miles long Raasay is much smaller with a very small population.

Raasay sound

                        

a

.I have taken a few detailed photos of progress and finished work. As you can see I was a little frightened of doing the seagulls so kept putting off starting them!

 But I began by blocking them in in book pages.

The fish are collaged with metallic papers which shimmer, this doesn't show up on camera.

 And finally finished! This is one of the pieces I am submitting for the Skye annual summer exhibition. which runs throughout August.

Linking to Inspiration Avenue

And also Glue it Tuesday! ( this canvas used buckets of glue :) )

And also paint party Friday.

Also a last minute entry to Mix it Monthly and it's seaside theme. Have a look Here at all the other great seaside art!

I am away for a few days so may not be able to reply to your comments straight away but will get back to visit you as soon as possible ;)

Sea and shoreline (Adventures with Citrasolv)

 I recently discovered the delights of Citrasolv

 And its ability to transform the pages of the National Geographic, from this....

 Into this......

 WOW!!!!

A vague face shape

This one still has a vague boat shape

I have no idea how it works or why, but it dissolves the ink to make beautiful abstract shapes..
I got my Citrasolv through Amazon.I didn't seem to be able to find it locally. It is a natural citrus cleaner which contains large amounts of concentrated orange oil.

You tube has some great tutorials..

I like the Cathy Taylor series.

                                           

 Warning!!! It is a messy business, make sure you wear gloves and have plenty of newspaper to hand. The smell is pretty strong too, so don't like me do it on a freezing cold day because you really need to open all the windows. I  hung out all my national geographic papers on the washing line to dry, I think the neighbours must have thought I had finally flipped. :)

Sea and Shoreline ( Citrasolv collage)

I used the paper as an experiment in this landscape collage. I love the sky like effects the random splodges make. All I added to this were a few faint ink lines.

Links to  Inspiration avenue

              Paint Party Friday

Gelli printing

My First experiments

I received my first Gelli plate a couple of weeks ago and have been experimenting to see what it can do...

some of you may know all about Gelli printing already, but I only recently discovered this exciting way of printing.I found it quite hard to find a Gelli Plate in the UK. In the end buying one from The Craft Barn. The best place I have found for a bit of Gelli inspiration is Caroline Dube on you tube.

Very soon I was Gelli printing everything and anything..

I found that thin craft acrylics worked best..especially with the bubblewrap imprints.

With the gelli plate printing papers for collage work is so easy!

And a little addictive :)

And what to do with all the printed paper??

A background for a collage, I drew out the figure and stuck her to the gelli printed collaged background.

Added some hair...

And stencilled a little gilt leaf and added some acrylic paint. I actually think I have overworked it as I much preferred seeing the jelli printed paper more clearer. So next time I will do less, to achieve more...

Links to Paint party friday
Gelli print party