Katy Prints by Kate Dunn

After a lovely break over Christmas, registering herself as self-employed (yay!) and juggling some teaching work, we were finally able to catch up with the lovely Kate Dunn, one of our newest studio members who has a great love of tea and soul music!

Acrylic sunset painting

Kate's specialism is painting serene, abstract canvases using blended acrylics, but she also likes to delve into the realms of print making and double-exposure photography too. Her work is rather intuitive and she cites landscapes, music, moods and colours as main influences of her paintings.

Work in progress

Monoprint

Monoprint and transfer

Monoprint

Double exposure photography

So meditative is her work it can also be found to enhance the soothing environment of the Leigh James Hypnotherapy clinic in Macclesfield. We chat art and music over a bar of Dairy Milk (Marvellous Creations) in the sewing room, here Kate tells us more:

F6: Hi Kate, how are you?

KD: I’m very well.

F6: Glad to hear it. Your paintings have got a very calm and therapeutic effect, how did you come about painting in this sort of style?

KD: Well, I’m really inspired by landscapes…[bursts into laughter]…all I can hear is popping candy! [More laughter] I’m influenced by landscapes and I’m really influenced by colour as well. I’ve got a few favourite artists like Turner, and I really like the way he washes the colour up in layers, and I kind of like doing that. I’m really influenced by different times of the day, so you’ve got kind of different effects of light coming through clouds…

F6:…like sunrays?

KD: Sunrays, and the difference when weather changes, the kind of different points of change.

F6: So you’re a bit of a romantic at heart then? A romantic artist!

KD: Yeah definitely.

F6: So what are your favourite colours to use? I’ve noticed you use a lot of blue.

KD: Erm quite a lot of blue, and, I really like a lot of deep oranges as well, and kind of warm, rustic colours...sunset colours, and warm Mediterranean type colours, cause I like a warm climate...I’m in the wrong part of the world!

F6: It takes you to a better place!

KD: Yeah.

F6: What do you use to help you get in the right mindset for painting, yours are very fluid and meditative, how do you prepare for that?

KD: It takes me ages to get into it, but I build up paint in layers anyway. I try out lots of different patches, but I mix up loads and loads of different colours first, and then use different kinds of surfaces to paint on just to see how they’re going to react on different surfaces.

F6: So things like music, what kinds of music do you tend to listen to when you're working?

KD: Um, I quite like simple guitar music, people like Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley, which can be complex, but I love PJ Harvey, she’s one of my heroines…yeah she’s amazing.

F6: So if you had to be stuck on a desert island with three records…

KD: Three records, ohhh! I’d have to have a Stevie Wonder, because I love Stevie Wonder he makes me feel happy, and he’s eternally optimistic, and sunny! Erm…ohh..I don’t know which record, I don’t know!

F6: Just artists then?

KD: Oh, when I’m working at night I have to listen to Boards of Canada. It’s all kind of, electronic. I quite like electronic music, Boards of Canada I really quite like, I can write to it, or I can paint to it…oh and Buena Vista Social Club as well. Actually I listen to quite a bit of classical music as well, I've played the violin since I was five. If I’m stressed out and I can’t concentrate, I have to listen to Bach, I find it really relaxing.

F6: Wow bit of a mix there! A lot of your work’s very calming to look at and it’s now in a hypnotherapy clinic, how did that come about?

KD: Well…I sold some pictures on Ebay, and someone approached me after the auction and said ‘oh, do you have anything left to sell, I’m opening up a new clinic and I’m needing stuff for the walls so if you’d be happy to do some stuff…’ and I said (puts on exaggerated voice) ‘Uh yeah, I would’! [laughs]

F6: It’s really exciting.

KD: It is really exciting, so he approached me and that was really good, so we’ve met a few times and he’s very much into producing images that go with his work. So he’ll have a client and he talks through hypnotherapy sessions with them, using a script like a meditation where he takes them to a forest, or a river, or a lake, and he wants images to go with these kind of stories that he tells.

F6: Ah that’s really nice how the two work together, it’s that whole relaxation thing again. Obviously you already have some work on Ebay, what's next?

KD: I’ve got some more paintings to do, I need to do one that’s based on a loch, and one that’s based on mountains.

F6: Are these for the hypnotherapy clinic?

KD: Yeah for the hypnotherapy clinic, but I want to do more drawing as well, like illustrations for greetings cards. But also, what I also want to do is more photography, experimental photography but based on landmarks in different parts of the country.

F6: Like the double exposure ones you brought to The Stand (comedy club)? They worked really well.

KD: Yeah, I’m interested in printmaking as well. Cause I’m really into doing printmaking as well like mono-printing, and I’ve bought this mangle...there’s kind of a bit of cross-over like with a bit of photography that you can then make into mono-print, or print over the top of.

F6: So you’ve got quite a lot going on at the moment then! When is it you graduate from your PNE (Project North East) course again?

KD: I graduate from PNE on 14^th of March.

F6: On 14^th March you’ll officially be a self-employed artist!

KD: Yeah self-employed…oh no my own business!

F6: It’s scary but exciting. You're already off to a great start and you're in great hands, good luck with your launch!


Kate's artwork can be bought on Ebay at http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/katyprints. She is also in the process of setting up her own website for 'Katy Prints', so we'll post a link as soon as soon as it's up and running!

To contact Kate about commissions, please contact via email at 'kate.dunn79@gmail.com'.

MK

'Outside the Lines' at Tower Art Gallery

Last Friday we paid a visit to the Tower Art Gallery, which is ran by F6 resident and urban artist Rob (pictured below looking very dapper) and which also held Newcastle's first all-girl graffiti exhibition, Girls on Top (http://f6studios.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/girls-on-top-colours-preview-at-tower.html). The gallery is currently exhibiting the work of local extreme photographer Lucinda Grange to promote her new book, 'Outside the Lines'. At only twenty-five years old, Grange has experienced thrills that would make Evel Knievel green with envy (well maybe not quite, but her death-defying photography has captured the attention of GQ Magazine...).

Some of Grange's work involves her perched on the edge of iconic structures such as the eagles of the Chrystler building and the Manhattan Bridge in New York, and standing in the  abandoned house of the Bulgarian Communist Party.

I was lucky enough to talk to Grange about some of the stories behind her photography, and was amazed by her brushes with death and her absolute lack of fear. The story that stood out most was when she travelled to Cairo at a time of great unease, when violence was rife and curfews were strict. She discussed how she managed to get the images of Max and herself on top of the Great Pyramid of Giza...it involved sneaking into the pyramid, hiding in a tomb only inches from a guard armed with a very large gun, and waiting till the coast was clear before climbing on top of the pyramid...and taking her clothes off (not on this particular image). Grange is not shy of a naked photo or two, as she has also been photographed naked at the top of the Manhattan Bridge.

Here are some of the pictures from her exhibition:

House of the Bulgarian Communist Party

Time Square

Manhattan Bridge

Notre Dame

Carpe Diem

And here is a cheeky pic of our F6 directors, Helen (left) and Lydia (right).

It's not too late to see more of Grange's photography at the Tower Art Gallery, and she's even doing an Artists Talk there on Saturday 1st February at 2pm for only £4. Alternatively, here is a few links to some of her work:

Website: http://www.theeyeofsilence.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lucinda-Grange/169349236460394

Email: theeyeofsilence@live.co.uk

- MK

Interview with Katherine Rodgers

Hello and a happy new year to you all!

As the weather has been pretty dull and bleak lately, let me introduce you to local artist Katherine Rogers and her colourful, incredibly detailed paintings. With an impressive 27 years in the art and design industry, she discovered her love of painting following several years of working as a graphic designer and illustrator, and now divides her time between looking after her two young children and pursuing her artistic career. The subject of her paintings are diverse and range across landscape, portraits, birds and objects of curiosity...

I'm definitely guilty of being a little partial to her large, bold, Rosenquist-style paintings of interesting objects, which include eyelash curlers and a robotic cat...

Earlier today I brought round some Ferrero Rochers and was lucky enough to sit in her home eating chocolate, drinking tea, dunking biscuits (generally ignoring certain New Year's resolutions) and have a good lengthy gossip about her work and the stories behind them...

F6 Studios: Hi Katherine, thanks for inviting me in.

Katherine Rodger:  It's alright it's a pleasure.

F6: I was having a look at your website earlier, and I worked out that including teaching, you’ve actually been in the art and design industry for 27 years.

KR: God...that long?! [laughs] I suppose that includes a big gap of looking after kids as well!

F6: I love the pop-art feel of some of your paintings, I was looking on your website and your auroscope one is actually bigger than me!

KR: Yeah it’s just over six foot that one, it’s around six foot high.

F6: Must have taken quite a while?

KR: It did. I think the shoes, I did them as a pair and they took…probably the best part of a month for both, but they were done at Northumbria University whilst I was working part-time, because they’re so big I just had to work at them in the studio there. I did the auroscope there too but the rest of them I’ve done at home, and you know most of them are around that sort of size (points to meter square painting of eyelash curlers). That was the first few weeks I was at Northumbria, I did a series of objects that were sort of…I guess at the time I was interested in feminist art and I was interested in people like Jeff Koons, and I was also reading a bit of Baudrillard and thinking about objects and how we relate to objects, and how different objects can have layers and meanings, and how they might connect with one another.

F6: So it’s more than a surrealist slant really.

KR: Yeah I wouldn’t say it was surrealist, unless I guess you could with something like the eyelash curler, you have this tiny little object then you blow it up massive and put it on a really brightly coloured background and isolate it from anything else, then you know you could interpret it as a different thing, such as an instrument of torture or something!

F6: Yeah I suppose it does!

KR: An awful lot of people don’t know what it is when they see it.

F6: Mostly men, I’m guessing?

KR: Yeahh, a lot of women as well though. I mean I would never have used one you now I just bought it because of the way it looked, but the same with the shoes the shoes were Red or Dead, very very high heels that I couldn’t walk in, not until years later when I did yoga for a few years and I suddenly found I could wear these shoes, but before that when I painted them I couldn’t wear them! But they were just so lovely and they were dead expensive as well, so I thought right I’m going to have to do something with them!

F6: Yeah, so why not.

KR: So I think the reason for painting them was partly because I had this feminist art stuff going on in my head, and I was thinking about the ways that women are perceived, and the nature of high heels and the whole sort of issues around that.

F6: So it’s almost like an objectification?

KR: Yeah, but at the same time they were really beautiful objects, you know they had merit just as things in their own right, and I just wanted to paint them.

F6: Yeah I think I've definitely bought something that's a work of art in itself, but I knew I'd never wear.

KR: Definitely I mean even kitchen appliances and things like that, you know I used to lust after Elysee kitchen appliances by Philippe Starck, just because they’re so beautiful!

F6: I don’t think I’ve come across them.

KR: Ohh he’s got some lovely stuff.

F6: What’s the most unusual thing you’ve ever painted?

KR: Um…I don’t know to be honest, I guess there’s a one of a Jesus statue that’s quite an odd thing for me to paint, we’re not religious at all. It was from the 'Mnemonics' exhibition that I ended up having in New Zealand with my colleagues and the sixth-formers. It was about my experience of the place and the people that we met during our time there, and the Jesus statue had belonged to a friend of ours. He and his partner used to collect these weird Jesus memorabilia from all over the world, and every time their friends went away they would send them a little plaster statue, or you know, he had this picture where Jesus’s eyes would look at you as you walked in and follow you round the room.

F6: Sounds like an intimidating home to visit!

KR: Yeah he was quite an intimidating guy, for his 40th birthday they paraded him round Auckland in a coffin.

F6: Really??

KR: Yeah he was a decent guy he was a media studies teacher…so the Jesus statue was his, just out of all of these objects that he had that was the one that looked as if it would be able to fit well onto canvas, it was something that was quite paintable. He was a really cool guy. There was another one of a robot cat that’s very metallic looking, and belonged to a friend who I taught with. She lived in this really posh flat in the middle of Auckland City, and she wasn’t allowed pets and she was desperate for a pet, really, really desperate for a pet, so she ended up with this robot cat, and that was her pet! She really adored it so she brought that in for me to photograph and paint.

F6: It's really brilliant to hear the stories behind your paintings, as far as commissions and stuff have you got any plans for the future?

KR: Just to start approaching galleries really this year, but I’ve been saying that for the past two years! When we came back from New Zealand was the last time I exhibited in a proper commercial gallery, North Street Gallery and there were about five or six of us, it was a lovely gallery.

F6: I'm sure most galleries would be delighted to have you, you should definitely approach them! Thanks again for the interview, and tea and biscuits, it's been lovely talking to you and I wish you every success! - MK

To see more of Katherine's work or to book a commission, check out her website....

http://katherinerodger.co.uk/index.html

The Very Peculiar Adventures of Doodle and Scribble - Ken Dunn

You may have noticed us mention on our last post that we have a new resident at F6.Studios, talented artist Kate Dunn. Well it turns out the apple doesn't fall far from the tree as her father, Ken Dunn, is a talented illustrator. His stories follow adorable characters Doodle and Scribble who are brought to life by lightning, and most are said to be inspired by 'barking mad events which actually happened'...just check out how lush his illustrations are!

Recently Kate took to Tynemouth market to sell some of her Dad's limited edition merchandise for Christmas. We particularly love the little tote bags of Whizbanger...

We'll be interviewing Kate herself sometime in the New Year so keep your eyes peeled! In the meantime here's a fab Santa illustration to get you into the Christmas spirit...

To check out more of Ken's work take a look at his website at http://kenneth-dunn.com. Products are also available to buy at http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=doodle+and+scribble+perculiar - MK

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and New Year from F6.Studios!

XXX

Christmas market at The Stand

So on Saturday we set up again for our 2nd Christmas market. This time at The Stand Comedy Club. It was a great venue and we had a bit more footfall at this one. We were even briefly entertained with some live music, although it was a teeny bit loud for us (they were on the stage next to Chris). 

For this one we had another addition to the table from last time. Kate Dunn (artist, currently working on a commission, tell you more about that later) brought along some of her photographs. These included some beautiful double exposures using old skool real film.    

It was a pretty good day overall but the highlight was selling some Christmas cards to Ben Crompton from Game of Thrones. Just thought I'd throw that in there, not that we're bragging....much.Any slightly obsessive fans out there - do you want buy some Christmas cards as touched by Ben Crompton? Let us know. LB

The Stand Comedy Club

31 High Bridge, Newcastle

http://www.thestand.co.uk/

F6.Studios Collaboration

One of the great things about F6.Studios is that we have a fantastic mix of creative types including designers, artists, printmakers and photographers, all with their area of specialism and able to help each-other out with their knowledge. Every now and again, an exciting collaboration comes along from our residents, and last Sunday there was a 1930's vintage-inspired shoot involving designers Bad Kitty Corsets (Kelly Jane Lamb), Melanie Kyles (yours truly), photographers Michael Gordon Photography (Michael McGuire) and Lucie Cox, as well as our model Millie Parker. The shoot was set at local hidden jem 'No.28' which is just in the entrance to the Grainger Market and provided the perfect backdrop with it's eclectic mix of seats, vine leaves, flowers and fairy lights. Not ones to waste the experience, we ordered some of their delicious potato skins (only £1.50!) and a couple of on-duty cocktails! 

Setting up at No.28

Setting up at No.28

Nom!

Here are some sneaky behind the scenes shots of the photo-shoot...

Behind the scenes

More behind the scenes

And here are some of the final shots!

Millie 1

Millie 2

Millie 3

For more on our residents, here are some more links:

Bad Kitty Corsets (corset designer)

Website - http://badkittycorsets.com

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bad-Kitty-Corsets/141445286435?ref=br_tf

Twitter - https://twitter.com/BadKittyCorsets

Melanie Kyles (accessories designer)

Etsy - https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MelanieKyles?ref=si_shop
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melanie-Kyles/524600184271171
Twitter - https://twitter.com/MelanieKyles

Michael Gordon Photography (photographer)

Website - http://michaelgordonphotography.virb.com

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/100feettall

Twitter - https://twitter.com/MrMexico

Lucie Cox (assistant photographer)

Email - Lucie_CA11@lycos.com


And if your in town check out the venue...

No.28. 27-29 Nelson St, Newcastle
http://www.no28.co.uk/ 

MK