Mike Edwards: painting

Showing posts with label painting. Show all posts

Tuesday, 11 August 2015

Painteractive ®

Creative interactive colouring...

Enabling YOU to make real pictures from YOUR OWN PHOTOS...

Created and developed by artist Mike Edwards - it's a simple App that works with your own photos and off-the-shelf art materials.

Enabling YOU to make real pictures from YOUR OWN PHOTOS...

It's now well established that creative expression has positive personal, social and societal benefits. The huge increase in the adult colouring book trend over the last 18 months is evidence of this - with much written about the positive effects creative activity can have on personal development, mindfulness and relaxation.

But rather than simply colouring patterned designs as an activity - wouldn't it be fantastic if you could make pictures from your own photos!?

Painteractive ® is the simple yet powerful tool that enables people to do this.

Painteractive ® enables anyone of any ability to make a real painting from any photo. It provides a straightforward framework for people to create artworks with real personal resonance - not only the emotional connection with the image by using their own photo - but also the physical connection of making a unique picture by hand.

As an artist myself - I’m fully aware of how the blank canvas offers the exciting potential for limitless possibilities. To many, however, who aren’t so sure of their artistic abilities - but would like to make the first step in making a picture - a blank canvas can be terrifying! The Painteractive ® app - used with specific art materials - provides a structure and process to enable the creation of a satisfying picture that can really add to a person’s sense of achievement, well-being and development - and as a result can only encourage that person to create more.

So, with the trend increasing to make art ever more accessible - Painteractive ® offers a greater engagement with the physical practise of creating artworks - to a greater amount of people.

The fundamental point is that Painteractive ® is a simple system to aid the creation of a painting. Michelangelo used a similar number-based tonal system when mixing the fresco colours for the Sistine Chapel..

So, if it’s good enough for Michelangelo!…

Here are some links to recent articles that provide context:

The Guardian: http://bit.ly/1abAJMl
New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1UCbmUu
The Telegraph: http://bit.ly/1DT59it
Stuart Semple: http://bit.ly/1NpA9vX

In addition to his art career - Mike Edwards has successfully created products for Urban Outfitters and Mars M&M's.

For more information please contact Mike Edwards:

E: mike@mikeedwards.co.uk T: +44 [0]7976 580 707

Thursday, 23 January 2014

Artist Releases Pussy Riot Image

Pioneer of contemporary typographic art - Brighton artist Mike Edwards - has released a striking new image featuring Nadia from Pussy Riot made from a redacted version of William Wordsworth’s famous poem ‘I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud’.

The artist, best known for his depiction of David Bowie made from Bowie song titles - which was signed by Bowie and sold in aid of Cancer Research for £22,000 - creates ‘readable’ visual images from text.

The text in this artwork - Wordsworth’s poem expressing a sense of freedom and joy elicited by his gazing at the beauty of nature - is symbolically redacted in places - reflecting current issues of censorship, secrecy and political oppression by various governments - with particular relevance to the cases of Snowden, Manning and Assange.

Adding to this, the beautiful face of Nadia is also ‘covered-up’ by the ‘de-terrorised’ yellow balaclava - simultaneously ‘redacting’ beauty - but also visually representing the daffodils in the poem.

The artwork is entitled ‘Article 10’ - a reference to the Geneva Convention For Human Rights. It also hints at the artist's awareness that as well as creating a work of art - he's also created a commodity. The image of Nadia comes from an original photograph by Igor Mukhin. The composition echoes the early 20th century Russian Constructivist poster ‘Books’ by Aleksandr Rodchenko - more recently re-created by Mathew Cooper for Franz Ferdinand’s album ‘You Can Have It So Much Better’.

The stormy, semi-abstract painted sky - over which Wordsworth’s poem is written symbolizes the storm of controversy surrounding Pussy Riot’s challenge to Putin’s government and their subsequent incarceration. It also echoes the dramatic English Lake District scenery around which Wordsworth ‘wandered lonely as a cloud’ - and where the artist Mike Edwards grew up.

‘Article 10’ is released as a signed Limited Edition giclee print of only 50 - available from 21st January 2014. Visit www.mikeedwards.co.uk for more details.