Famous Artists (You've Probably Never Heard of) - No.2 'Painters of the Night'

The second in a very occasional series

In the world of classical music nocturnes are relatively common – good old 'Fred' Chopin alone composed 21 for solo piano...

These were originally pieces composed for evening soirées but have now come to be associated with music that represents the mood and 'feel' of the night.

It was the charismatic American painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler who first applied the term nocturne to a painting.

Night is not the most obvious subject matter for a visual artist (what with there being little light and all that) but in the right hands, images of real intensity, magic and mystery can be created.

Here are just a few by five artists including Grillust's™ very own, 'Mr Tony' Peart (33).

No.1, Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847–1917)










No.2, John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836–1893)










No.3, Henri Le Sidaner (1862–1939)













No.4, Xavier Mellery (1845–1921)










No.5, Tony Peart (19 something – present)

Jill Calder pops in for the day

Bright colours, inky lines, painterly texture, playful attitude and bags of humour. All things present and correct in the work of illustrator, Jill Calder. As an ex-foundation student of The University of Cumbria (though known as Cumbria College of Art & Design in Jill's day) Jill positively leapt at the chance to pop in for a day to regale the students with tales of her career and experiences in the world of professional illustration.



A quick google search gives you an ideas of the scope of Jill's vast output


So what are Jill's secrets to success? Simple.
1 - Spell check and be polite.
2 - Understand what you know and learn what you don't.
3 - Draw.



A sneaky spy shot of some upcoming top secret work that Jill let us in on. Very exciting.


Some work from Jill's many many (many many many) sketchbooks

As well as an informative and entertaining talk and a Q&A session students (and staff) also got the chance to explore Jill's work in the flesh.


Jill Calder, Grillust salutes you. We were informed. We were entertained. We made a new friend.

Question of the week...

Friday 4 April 2014

Student "When do the clocks go forward?"

Tutor "Last weekend."

Student "Ah! I thought I was getting everywhere an hour late"

And the 'Cherry Manchester' skate-deck design winner is...

...our very own 3rd year Graphic Designer, Luci Ormrod (21). So, if you're a 'hipster' skateboardin' type who, like, frequents Cherry then you owe it to yourself to purchase Luci's 'cool / sick / rad / fetching*' design.

* Delete as appropriate

Year 1 Life Class - Have a look at these painters...

Walter Richard Sickert

Ken Currie

Andre Derain

Harold Gilman

Bernard Dunstan

Lucian Freud

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Pierre Bonnard

Scenes from the Life Room

This week we’ve got added colour!…

Mmmm… paint, lovely paint!

Hayley Newell (21)

Amy Jackson (21)

Sophie Taylor (21)

Ben Newboult (21)

Amy Jackson (still 21)

Catt Fearnley (we think…) (21)

Hayley Newell (we think…) (who’s still 21)

Year 1 Typography, Seconds Out, Round Two!

Round two of the first year’s typography tuition was even harder than round one.

Given a piece of ‘naked’ copy (which included spelling mistakes and incorrect punctuation) the students were given a limited format and various font and colour restrictions to work around.

As usual, these challenges brought out the best in them as you can see below…

Megan Brown (21)

 
Vincent Walden (21)



Katie Lock (21)


Shona Lett (21)

James Reay (21)


     
Shona Lett (who remains, resolutely, 21)

Decisions, Decisions…

What’s best? A Snickers bar, Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer Biscuit or a ‘generic’ Chunky chocolate biscuit. A tough question you’ll all agree…

Happily, the question was answered for us a little while ago. How so?

Well, these three tasty treats were offered as the top prizes (no expense spent here) in our annual first year typography exam. This rather serious and challenging exam comes on the back of two blocks of hard-core typography tuition, delivered by our very own Queen of the Font, Dame Rhiannon Robinson (33).


 To the victor the spoils…

As you can see from the above exam papers, the victor on the day, with an impressive 43 correct answers (out of 50) was graphic design student Mollie Barker (21).

Here she is (below) proving that in the world of graphic design the Snickers Bar will always be the top chocolate-based tasty treat.


Snapping at Mollie’s heels with a nearly as impressive 39 out of 50 was illustration student Rachel Tunstall (also 21).

Interestingly Rachel (below) wasn’t remotely interested in the Snickers bar but leapt on the Tunnock’s with glee, thereby proving that in the cut ‘n’ thrust world of contemporary illustration, Tunnock’s will always be champ!



What became of the 'generic' bar? Sadly, its fate is now shrouded in the mists of time…

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