kate shields. a mood board.

Im working on an 8m x 4m version of this image from Romeo and Juliet, for a Baz Luhrmann cabaret/music/club night Im involved with:

Have been spending a few hours in a studio drawing the lettering…with a giant pencil! Ingenious? Hmm…

Looking to get a load of people involved with painting it upon my return from a short European tour with my band.

Speak of which, heres the tshirt I designed for us to sell on tour, kindly by my good friend Chris at Backstreet:

And some nice pictures of my live mannequin exploits:

Should be loads of exciting events/exhibitions coming up in the run up to the Fringe at the shop: www.cubculture.com for more info!

Update upon my return! Hoping to get loads of inspiration from my travels, as well as loads of sketching done. Will also be getting headlong into creating experimental life drawing at the Brighton Life Drawing Sessions…lots of ideas in my head waiting to be realised! More news on that soon :)

xo

I was a Valentine-themed living shop mannequin on Saturday at York Place Studios, which has been taken over for a couple of months by my good friends Steph and Fox at cubculture. These mighty talented young ladies have really made up the place, with ambitions of turning it into a real new art hotspot of Brighton. Click here for a map.

Come visit them! As well as lots of my art there, there’s loads of awesome stuff by other artists, as well as lovely limited screen prints by cubculture themselves. Theyll be looking to have loads of art in there, so do drop by and speak to them if youre an artist looking for somewhere to show/sell work!

Quite enjoyed the experience of sitting still for a whole day, maybe something I start doing more often…it was certainly fun convincing members of the public that I was a real mannequin!

In other news, finally finished the Lady Gwendolines club night poster:

The first nights on the 11th March, at the opulent Hanbury Club in Kemp Town, Im sure I shall be there, sketching lovely 20s-inspired people!

Getting my bands tshirts printed soon….a friend has kindly offered to print them for us cheap, so heres the design I came up with. Hopefully will sell them all on our tour, which is coming up soon!

Some random photos:

Profile of a friend I took whilst he was watching a band, unaware of his weirdo friend zooming in from across the room ;)

My cabaret band, poncing around:

kate

xo

Stumbled across a new technique, where I rub a dry cloth over freshly painted oil.

Like many of my techniques, it was discovered purely by accident. I got cross with a painting not working out how I wanted, and ended up with this.

My first attempt was on this painting:

Interesting how it almost has a renaissance look about it….

Quite interested to do more portraits in this way of people. :)

Some quick oil sketches of my good friend Jimmy. He spends so much time in my house, reading and playing the ukulele, that I thought I should paint him.

Illustrations:

Have completed the 2 images below for Erotic Knave magazine & an upcoming Brighton club night:

Death By Burlesque is selling well….but Id love to sell more!

Buy it here:

My Etsy Little Shop Of Horrors

kate

xo

Sundays Art Junky stall at the Phoenix Gallery, Brighton was great fun, and a success too. Here’s my humble ‘little shop of horrors’:

Managed to sell a few of the first copies of death by burlesque, plus some hair accessories and valentines cards. Met lots of lovely people, as well as many talented artists of all varied styles and walks of life. The whole event had a real community feel, with everyone helping everyone else out- lending blu tac, masking tape, watching each others stalls whilst popping out to get tea and wine top ups. Love it.

In addition to my handmade things, I also put a donations box on my stall, inspired by this very well written blog online. Have a read!

Quite a few people donated change, in return for badges and postcards and I was really touched. I think once you get over the ‘shame’ of asking people for money for what you do, and start being confident that youre working hard at something youre good at, it becomes a little easier. So thanks to everyone who donated something, however big or little…youre keeping me in art materials, inspiration, food and heating!

As I mentioned in my last update, my book ‘Death By Burlesque’ is finally finished, and Ive just put up the limited edition copies online on etsy: click here to buy a copy!

There are currently less than 10 limited edition leather copies, (unless I can find more vintage leather somewhere!) and I will be putting up paper and card copies very soon.

Im also putting up some more hair peices and fascinators, so do take a look!

The next week Ive got so much planned: screenprinting tshirts and posters for the upcoming European tour with my band, designing and sourcing materials for the Trailer Trash clubnight set design, rehearsals for various performances, not to mention coming up with ideas for the Brighton Life Drawing experimental Sessions.

Phew…I wonder if Ill ever have time for friends or even a boyfriend again! Hahaha

On a non-art related note, I managed to pick up this rather lovely vintage glass Poison bottle at the stall. Im a bit of a collector of strange things, especially bottles so I had to have this!

Kate

xo