Inspiration - Street Art in Barcelona

Good news photos are working again, so here's a long awaited post!

Last August I went on a summer holiday to Barcelona. They've been a long time coming, but finally here are the photos!

I completely fell in love with the Spanish city and ended up becoming a little bit obsessed with all the fantastic street art. Everyone in Barcelona seems to be so fantastically artistic and everywhere you go there is something fascinating to look at. The graffiti is incredible and there are brilliant street performances to watch everywhere. Place all this amongst fantastic buildings by Gaudi and you are on to a winner! I even stumbled across loads of antique markets and vintage shops. Besides London, this is the one other city that I could imagine myself living in.

I took absolutely thousands of photos, but here is a roundup of my favourite pictures of Barcelona's street art. I hope you enjoy them and feel inspired to go there yourself. I definitely recommend it.

Vintage Elle - Now selling on Etsy!

So I did have an amazing post lined up today on 1920s fashion, but I became a bit side tracked by setting up Vintage Elle's first Etsy store. It's early days yet and it will take me a while to photograph everything, but at least it is now up and running! At the moment I have listed some limited edition prints of some of my drawings and a couple of original canvas paintings. Exciting stuff! You can find my shop at www.etsy.com/shop/VintageElleStudio.

Here's a sneaky peak of what's on offer. Limited Edition prints of my costume designs for Cinderella. Signed, numbered and dated by myself.

The original artwork for these paintings (Although it will be very difficult for me to let them go!)

 AND I am introducing a new illustration entitled 'Vanity'

I will be uploading many more handmade, vintage inspired wares over the next month, so keep your eye on it. New products also include my new line of upcycled vintage glitter shoes! Once I've got photos. Lets just say that taking photos yourself, of shoes that are on your own feet, is proving pretty tricky. Here's a quick preview.

 

Let me know if there is anything in particular that you'd like to see in my shop.

 

...And rest assured that the really exciting post on 1920s fashion will still happen within the next week!

Spontaneous Painting On A Day Off

Today is Tuesday. I had no plans except upcycling my sofa and buying some wrapping paper. I spontaneously decided to do some painting. Both took about 1 1/2 hours each to finish. I am fairly happy with how these turned out. It's been so long since I've painted anything other than a costume design! I first is meant to be a painting Marilyn Monroe, but I think it looks more like Gwen Stefani. What do you think?

If you would like to purchase any of my paintings you can find them in my Etsy Shop at https://www.etsy.com/listing/117937418/original-painting-of-marilyn-monroe

New Start and How to Stay Creative!

So I am beginning to start thinking about 2013 and I have decided that it will be the year of super creativity. I am feeling so motivated and inspired these days and I really plan to make the most of it. This has just led me to have a bit of a rebrand for my blog. I hope you like the new design! Please let me know your thoughts and if you find any links that don't work etc (I am very new to the world of html).

Part of my rebrand is that I am going to begin to focus a lot more on my own work and the work of people I know, rather than that of strangers. I create so many pretty things, but never take the time to get the photos to share. I promise this is about to change! I also have so many talented friends and would love to start sharing their work with you.

Next year I am going to aim to post on here at least once a day and I can't wait to start. I find that writing my blog is really motivating and helps to give my crazy freelance lifestyle a little bit of structure.

For now I will leave you with 29 ways to stay creative! I live by most of these and they really do work!



Laura Marling and her Beautiful Artwork

I just stumbled across these illustrations for 'The Beast' by Laura Marling, taken from the album "A Creature I Don't Know'. I had to post because they are absolutely beautiful. The art is by the very talented group of artists that call themselves Shynola.

You can see these drawings in use at http://the-bea.st/ . This is probably aesthetically the best website I have ever seen. It is a piece of artwork in it's self and could probably stand alone as an amazing music video.

RIP Cy Twombly

Today is a very sad day as my favourite artist has died. Cy Twombly, one of the worlds great lyrical painters, passed away last night at the age of 83.  I feel that my post today should celebrate his life's works.

His painting were typically on huge white canvases, and consisted of scribbles, drips, grafitti, smudges and writing. As a young teenager studying art at school his paintings really influenced me. I remeber walking around the Tate Modern and seeing his amazing work and it really struck a chord with me. I am so sad that he can longer create these wonderful masterpieces.

I loved his style so much. I remember in life drawing classes during my degree we were concentrating on drawing with inks, and i kept getting told off for letting my ink drip. I was so adament that i loved the effect of the drips and proceeded to tell my tutor about Twombly. He wasn't convinced, but still to this day i love the drips!

Here is a collection of a few of Twombly's works. I hope you enjoy them as much as i do.