Artswipe and Atom Printing News

Busy in the Cold

2012-02-02T14:54:00.000-08:00

Things have got properly moving in the New Year now, many more screens to prepare for the Hit & Run crew and another print edition for Nick Smith to do. Doing some of my own work too, will post pics in a bit but not just yet as it is in very early stages.

The messy bit of doing the Hit & Run screens, they come to me covered in Plastisol ink which is weird in that it doesn't dry unless it is heat cured, so it can remain wet and nasty for weeks..

A beautifully hand crafted knob for one of the x y adujstment screws on the bed, you just don't see this level of workmanship very often these days..

And here is the refurbished screen bed all shiny and finished, works a treat too.

Mixing up a delicious pink to Nick's specifications, necessary cup of tea for this sort of work. Good fun actually, nice when you can get it pretty damn spot on.

Screens for Hit & Run

2012-01-23T15:00:00.000-08:00

The first batch of the year, this time for Gilles Peterson's bash at Koko where the Hit & Run crew will be doing their printing on any of your clothing that they can hold down under a screen. I have been preparing their screens for over a year now and it is always interesting to see what they are up to, busier in the summer with lots of festivals but stuff going on all the time.

Very Little Helper

2012-01-06T11:45:00.000-08:00

Rather late in getting this blogged but here it is anyway. The story is JBoy made this image around the time Banksy's Weapon of Choice image was 'leaked' and were quickly told to forget about selling it, not sure if it was Fox or POW/Pest Control's lawyers or both but anyway..So the sneaky blighters offered it as a free download (for a limited time) in many colourways and the first fifty people to get it printed and sent back would have it signed for a few quid and cash donated to a dog charity. Over the next six months JBoy got regular emails from people asking how they could get a copy, so he decided to print it properly and offer it to those who had emailed. In steps Atom Printing.. very slightly daunted by the size(70x70cm) and edition (130) and also varnish which I had not done before..off we went. I was ably assisted by Ashton who used to be a street urchin but is now a proper human, he has a degree from St Martins actually and a pair of very sharp eyes. The only real difficulty we had was the varnish on white paper, any tiny speck of dust shows up like the bollocks on a dog, so we were armed with his keen eyes and a couple of scalpel blades hooking out any bits of crap that landed, the varnish closed up afterwards so it worked well even if it was a little slow.

New Digital Printer

2012-01-06T10:42:00.000-08:00

A little while ago I upgraded the digital printer to one that will print A1. It also takes roll paper and will print on acetate so I can now prepare screen positives in house which is a big plus. The rolls are 610mm wide so I can now print that width by up to almost anything, well 12M in theory... for those interested it is an Epson 7890 which takes 9 UltraChrome K3 inks and features the new Vivid Magenta. I got it from Chau Digital on Roseberry Ave who were very helpful indeed. They didn't have a display one so I had never seen that model before it was delivered. The packing case was the size of a small car and it took two of us much sweating and swearing to manoeuvre the actual machine in through the basement window. When I read the set up instructions I was informed.'do not attempt to lift with less than four people.' I think I would agree with that. Below are two A2 prints I did recently for Dale Edwin Murray who has been using me quite a bit, and he is very particular about his prints!

Glow in the Dark

2012-01-06T10:07:00.000-08:00

I have got behind with my posting recently and it looks like I had a quiet end to 2011 which was not how it happened at all. I had three really nice commissions from JBoy, Mistah and Nick Smith. Starting here with Nicks, these were printed in four different colourways one of which was gold, then a phosphorescent ink and then black. (Two things you cant do with digital.) No picture of them glowing in the dark I am afraid but they really do! I think Nick was giving the majority of these to Art Republic in Brighton.

New Screenbed

2012-01-05T15:50:00.000-08:00

You may or may not know, but the wonderful screenbed that I had been using was rented from Jealous Gallery in Crouch End. It was perfect, big enough but not too big, and had a nice action if I may be a bit rock and roll with guitar speak. I had had it since I think Feb last year, so it was a bit of a shock when Matthew rang and apologetically asked for it back. Fair dos, they gave me plenty of warning. So I hit Ebay frantically and within a few days one turned up in Sheffield. I chatted to the vendor on the phone for a few minutes before I realised I knew him from Print Club, and he was coming back down to London at Christmas, so I bung in a few more squids for transport and I'm sorted, except I haven't actually seen it. Martin delivered as promised and I had a happy time trying to put it together. It looked really good, size perfect, fitted all my frames with a couple of cms to spare, and a serious mothersucker of a vacuum pump. I reckoned the printing surface could do with replacing, it was as Martin described, no complaints, but I had the time and the inclination...

The top pic shows the original surface with lots of masking tape.. then I ripped if off and you can see the inside with the core to support the surface but allow the air to flow from above into the pump, I had no idea it would look like this... And finally some of the 4,332 holes I had to drill in a piece of perspex for the new surface.

East Pop West

2011-09-30T05:32:00.000-07:00

The Artswipe space in the ex innocent smoothy office warehouse that is East Pop West until Sunday. Will post more pictures but have to deal with a crawling dongle here. The opening party on Thursday night went well, I think the turnout was very good, difficult to tell in such a cavernous space. Sold some stuff, drank some beers and then some nasty sweet cider because the beer had run out, sorry Mistah!

Comfort Blanket

2011-09-08T11:13:00.000-07:00

A tricky one to do, very fine registration and the area of flat colour, but worth it as I think it looks great. This pink version is one of only 2, the olive green is the normal colour edition, that's only 10 though! I think Mrs Provocateur doesn't like to have unsold prints cluttering up the flat. I sure these will go quick. I think in time there will be two more of this series....

New Agent Provocateur Print

2011-09-05T05:58:00.000-07:00

Here's the master printer mixing the colours for the print that he is going to make of AP's picture....if you look carefully you might be able to see a can of inspiration in the foreground.

Mr P. came over to the print shed to oversee the mixing and make sure I was going to get the Burberry colours just right. Will post pics when finished of course.

New Suzko Print

2011-08-31T14:25:00.000-07:00

I talked about the possibility of making a print with Suzko right after Upfest and finally it is here! One of her armed animal series in two colourways. They are both approximately 40x50cm on the normal Southbank 310gsm paper. The blue one is in two shades of blue and is in an edition of 25 and the pink is pink and black and is in a tiny few of only ten. They will be on sale soon from the Artswipe website for a typically affordable sum. A few A1 paste up versions on walls too.

Choose Your Weapons!

2011-08-19T04:23:00.000-07:00

Look vaguely familiar? And yet different in so many ways....just printed these two versions for a client and very pleased with how they look. Very difficult to get a flat colour perfect, I changed ink recently to a more expensive brand and it has done the trick. Before I was getting a bit too much texture, now super flat.

New JBoy Prints

2011-08-10T11:56:00.000-07:00

Two brand new offerings from the mysterious and rather twisted JBoy. Just finished printing them today and had to do a great deal of tearing the final edge by hand, so now they have all four edges deckled or torn. A tad smaller than A3 on a nice slightly textured paper stock, Somerset I think. Not on sale yet but will be v soon from JBoyprints.com and Artswipe may have one or two proofs for sale too...

David Shillinglaw

2011-07-25T11:47:00.000-07:00

Went up to meet David today in his northern (London predudice here) atelier. Had a very lively and fun chat about his work and what he is up to. He has a show with Cement http://www.cement-gallery.com coming up at the East Gallery on Brick Lane at the end of August and then all over the place, better check his site for details of that. The point of meeting was of course to discuss an Artswipe screenprint and we agreed on what is to be done. The print is going to be a version of a brand new painting which David is doing on a big piece of rusty metal. Going to be trying out some new techniques and am pretty excited about it I must admit. If all goes well it will be ready for the East Gallery show.

Urban Art Fair '11

2011-07-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

The railings in Josephine Avenue and several surrounding streets in Brixton become covered in a very wide variety of art for a weekend in July every year. The fair has been very good for Mr Perronet for the past two years, but this year I was pretty sure the weather would put paid to that. It did rain a lot, and we all got rather wet and depressed at times. (Apparently it's the first serious rain in the fair's ten years.) But in the end it was well worth it and amoung other things I sold two of the new one off screenprint/monoprint/spraypaint cowboy heroes, which will encourange me to do more. They will go up on the Perronet site soon.

Are You Looking At My Bird?

2011-07-19T11:32:00.000-07:00

The opening of AYLAMB? at the Ben Oakley Gallery in Greenwich market last Thursday evening. Ben's stuffed the space with all sorts of things from the obvious and crude (but funny) to the delightful. It was a lovely evening and lots of people showed up and drank and were pretty merry.

My Bird

2011-07-11T07:32:00.000-07:00

Just finished this on Saturday for Agent Provocateur who came over to Artswipe Towers to supervise the printing process, with cold cans of lunch in our hands. Made specially for the 'Are You Looking at My Bird?' show at the Ben Oakley Gallery (BOG) opening this Thursday. AP has done a few in black, I think only one in blue and a couple in orange and a few hand finished, like so....

The Last Hero

2011-06-25T04:21:00.000-07:00

A brand new piece in the East Sussex Art Fair in Rye. this is one of two new pics that are one offs, screen print, monoprint and a dash of spray paint. The yellow ochre smudgey background is the monoprint put there to add a bit of texture to offset the very flat screen printed colours. It is an oil relief printing ink, water based inks just dont work, and boy it takes a long time to dry! It still wasn't dry when I did the final screen over the top and put it in the frame,

I am Cinema, Love me

2011-06-23T02:29:00.000-07:00

Just finished this rather nice three colour print by Mistah. Made to raise money for the Sustainability Institute, it will be on sale for £30 at the Kensal Flea, Kensal Rise this Saturday 25th from 12-5. Any left will probably be available from his website, www.mistah.co.uk

Opening Night at Old Boots

2011-06-18T11:26:00.000-07:00

A good turnout at the Vibe Bar for Ben Oakley's Old Boots New Laces, despite horrible weather. I chatted with the 20/20 boys and we agreed that they would do an Artswipe screenprint which I am pleased about. It may be a while in coming as they are very busy at the moment contributing to a show at the Go Gallery in Amsterdam among other things.

Old Boots New Laces

2011-06-17T04:34:00.000-07:00

Old Boots New Laces title of show Ben Oakley is putting on at the Vibe Bar on Brick Lane, opens tonight and runs til 26th 11am-6pm. Lots of interesting stuff from, amoung others, Ben himself, Agent Provocateur, Gonny Van Hulst, Pam Glew, Absoluv....and what do you know... Mark Perronet. New stuff from him, one offs on plywood with acrylic, spray and screen print.
Oh and Schnulli's new print is now for sale on the website....

Another Gnarly

2011-06-11T06:19:00.000-07:00

Now there's two! Schnulli's Checkpoint Gnarly is available in two colourways for your delectation. Grey is in an edition of 25 and the red is a special edition of 10, both 5 colour prints. Price to be confirmed, but will be normal fabulous Artswipe value!

Checkpoint Gnarly

2011-06-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

Just finished today this little (30x40cm) print by Schnulli. Five colours laid down nice and thick with pretty coarse screens. The edition is only 25 and they will on sale soon from the Artswipe site.

New Perronet Prints

2011-06-09T02:30:00.000-07:00

Just finished doing a couple of my ones for a change after printing a lot of other peoples work. Very relaxing, if something is not exactly right I can decide if its a big deal or not. There are only 6 each of these, I got bored of doing lots of the same thing! A bit silly really, but if they sell I will do some more different ones. Will try and get some more new stuff together for Old Boots New Laces. http://www.artrabbit.com/uk/events/event/25723/old_boots_new_lace

Upfest '11

2011-06-05T11:51:00.000-07:00

The sweet scent of aerosol propellants and ganja are in the air it must be Upfest!
Fabulous weather on Saturday, shame about Sunday.

Saw friends, met new people and generally had a great time.

Susie Lowe at work, Artswipe hopes to publish a print with her in the near future.

Artswipe also would very much like to work with the Twenty Twenty boys on something soon too.

Jo Peel, working on a beautiful piece in a sunny pub beer garden. Already a print of hers in the Remasters section of the Prints for Sale section of the website.

Ben Oakley's handiwork, I missed him in full Jusus costume as he painted it in the sweltering heat of Saturday morning. Ben did a version of this image for Artswipe and there are a few left on the site.

Bungle puts the finishing touches to his collaboration with Agent Provocateur (Remasters print) and Matti.

What can I say?

Stars in Her Eyes

2011-06-03T10:02:00.000-07:00

An A1 screenprint produced from a collage that Margaret Nolan made from photographs taken of her in the 60s.

Maggie launched her acting career by being the dancing figure in the title sequence of Goldfinger. Although very young she was canny enough to ask for a speaking part, she appears as Dink, who gives James a massage. http://www.margaretnolan.co.uk/

The print will be in the Kemistry Gallery, Charlotte Rd, Shoreditch

100 Boxes

2011-06-02T11:47:00.000-07:00

100 boxes for those Rise Art guys, nice and simple to do and they look good. Ha digital! Try printing onto corrugated cardboard, I don't think so.

Launch of Rise Art

2011-05-27T11:10:00.001-07:00

Outside Luna & Curious on Calvert Avenue on Thursday night. Rise Art held their launch party with beer and gin & tonic being graciously served, and they had some of their prints on the walls too. Artswipe has done all the screenprints for Rise Art and in the window are two by Eric Bendix who is standing second from the right. I shall go back and take some more as there are some nice prints by Dai Roberts who has painted up a little room in the shop to create an environment for his work.

http://www.riseart.com/ an interesting concept and nicely put together..