McClaren with Rick Guest - behind the scenes

Here are a few shots from a recent McClaren job with the wonderful Rick Guest. For obvious reasons I can't put too many pictures up at this stage. When the job has been published I can expand more on what we were up too!

The funky Katie Fotis getting down and dirty with our yellow paint experiments

Steamed feathers

Tiffany for Vanity Fair

This job was an absolute history lesson. Each shot represents the desks of great men who had loving marriages .. Robert Browning the poet, Mark Twain the writer and Winston Churchill . It was fascinating to do the research and find out about their lives, interests, hobbies, personalities and read their love letters ... which a very talented calligrapher from Printed Word recreated for me. Love love love is in the air! Photography by Chris Turner.

Inspirations

Love this wine bottle illustration for M&S

Moving inspiration on the escalators

Set design at the Young Vic

I did a workshop at the Young Vic theatre where 10 designers and 10 directors worked together

for two days looking at the relationship between the body of the actor and the space on stage.

We did practical exercises, inspired by the work of the L.E.M., the experimental scenography department of the Jacques Lecoq school in Paris. As well as drawing and designing sets we did a lot of very physical work to explore how space can be used. This way of thinking about theatre and space has been very influential on several companies and practitioners, including the work of Complicite . Here is one of the sets I designed, based on the feeling of 'tension'. It has a kinetic element under the triangle that the actors would be able to use.

Mask for Rick Guest shoot

I recently did a shoot with Rick where we were exploring Blade runner type scenes and humanoid females. I made a mask for one of the shots. Here are some sketches and the mask made in paper; the end piece I soldered out of brass. These are the spooky mannequins which I found to model the mask.

Here's the final shot, I like the moody blue lighting

A life story

This is a painting I did at IATE, the Institute for Art and Therapy in Education. I am getting interested in working in this field as the experience I am getting from volunteering at Core Arts is opening my eyes to an amazing way of using the arts to help people. 

Autumn colours

 The rich autumn colours are now here so I had to take a few pictures.

Trailing lights

I'm really into trailing lights at the moment. These pictures were taken at the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the Tate this summer.

Christmas is coming ..

I did a job for Sainsbury's yesterday with the lovely Jo Metson Scott. It was a classic Christmas set up with tree, lights and balloons. I took some photos during the day which I think I may use for inspirations for paintings. I like the way they are so blurred with trails of lights.

The 23rd State ...

Have a look at these little beauties from a photoshoot I recently styled for Alex Bamford of  '23rd State'. Alex is a graphic designer and has put his skills to hand screen printing a collection of new and secondhand clothes. Photography by Robin Brigham. Check it out...

Helena Christensen for Triumph inaugural collection launch

It was amazing to be asked to do this event for the Helena Christensen new collection for Triump at London Fashion week. Held at the Brompton Club in South Kensington it had an intimate and vintage feel to it. Kindly assisted by Mary-Ann Foster who styled the job brilliantly.
Here are some photos and reviews of the event thanks to the wonderful blogs of Writer/Stylists Marian Kihogo and Sophie Eggleton...
Marian Kihogo blog
Sophie Eggleton blog

Photo by Sophie Eggleton

Photo courtesy of Marian Kihogo

Photo by Sophie Eggleton

Photo courtesy of Marian Kihogo

Photo by Sophie Eggleton

Vanity Fair On Time

I was really please to be asked to work with Vanity Fair 'On Time' again. Hours of roaming markets, shops and unexpected places finding vintage gems that I then dismantled so we had some interesting background subject matter to work with. Photographs by Chris Turner.