Tuesday 19 July 2011

Artist spotlight: Joe Snow

We all love a good snoop at other artists work spaces don't we? Well, lucky for us Joe Snow has taken this snap of his desk, for those nosey parkers out there here's a brief description of what you can see:

The books are a mix of reference and coffee table inspiration by such peoples as Jim Philips, Robert Williams, Frank Frazetta and Marvel. Some of the giblets are as follows:
Miniature Nintendo GameBoy key ring, authentic Basil Brush badge, My 10m swimming award, Vintage Picture Post magazines from 1952, loose Opal fruits and humbugs sitting on a repurposed Knight on horse back ash tray, a picture of my long dead family dog Skip in a 3D Canadian wolf picture frame, John Carter of Mars comic issue no1, Alabaster head of Poseidon from Greece, souvenir statue from The Great Buddha of Kamakura, a pot of blue paint in eggshell, a well scuffed and played with Matchbox BMW M.1 and a stars and stripes bandana that my dog hates wearing.

And here's a photo of the aforementioned dog, Joe's gorgeous puppy Bunsen.

Here are Joe's answers to our artist spotlight questions below, enjoy!

How would you describe your work?

Largely inspired by the 1950s atomic era. I like to combine bold colours with meaty ink drawings.

What is your process for coming up with new ideas?
I bounce between my sketch book and the internet quite a lot. Brainstorming and collecting inspirational images.
I keep a sketch book and rough out ideas in there that I can work on later.

Please describe a typical day:
Depending at what stage I'm at on an image I'll either sit to the computer or the drawing table while listening to music or a podcast.
I'll ping pong between these two work stations over the course of the day stopping halfway through for lunch and afternoon walkies with our new staffy pup.

What is your working environment like?
I work from home so my studio doubles up as a cluttered spare bedroom.
It's all a bit cobbled together since moving house recently but I generally like to keep things tidy and practical.
The window doesn't offer much of a view but I do get all the afternoon sun which is really great on a sunny day and the Yorkshire dales are right on our doorstep.

What are your top 5 influences / inspiration?
1950s ads, bronze age (1970s-80s) comic books, words and phrases, Food and Science Fiction.

What are your top 5 albums / soundtracks to a working day?
I've been listening to a lot of podcasts lately such as Stones Throw, Low End Theory, Groovement, Adam and Joe, IGN.
Between those I usually have itunes set to random in order to be surprised.
I like a varied mix of music but it's mainly beat or psychedelic type stuff.

What are your top 3 favourite websites / blogs?
I'm not much of an internet browser really. Aside from using the old image searches I mainly use youtube for finding new music or Facebook to speak to friends and family. I like a website called ffffound.com. It's got a ton of interesting eye candy to get lost in.

And finally, what is your favourite tea time biscuit?
C is for cookie that's good enough for me. Oh! Cookie Cookie Cookie starts with C.
Or a nice brownie.

Thanks Joe!

To view more of Joe's work click here.

Friday 15 July 2011

Welcome to new rep Kelly Angood



Very pleased to announce that the super talented and super nice Kelly Angood has joined our team as an artist representative. Having graduated from the University of Brighton with a degree in Illustration this time last year, Kelly has since been working as a freelance set and prop designer, however her understanding and background in illustration compelled her to pursue a career as an artist agent. Lucky for us!

She will be pounding the streets with our artists portfolios and drumming up all sorts of exciting work - so watch this space...

Kelly's work can be viewed here and here.