Owen Davey

So, I'm doing an intern at Bath Festivals at the moment and today I was putting together some info sheets about some authors who are visiting schools as part of the Kids Lit Fest. I was going from website to website and this one blew me away...

Check out Owen Davey. He's an illustrator and he's produced this beautiful picture book, Foxley's Feast and is soon to release a second. I think his drawings are brilliantly stylistic. I want one!

His talents don't stop at stories. He's produced work for the likes of Orange, The Times, Jamie Oliver and the BBC! An inspiration to all us budding creative types.

Take a look at his wrapping paper too. It's the coolest. Now whose birthday's coming up...?

Bertie and Jack in Bath

As promised, here are some pictures of Bertie and Jack's stall in Bath, England. It looks like something you'd find in Europe rather than rainy England! If their work is not worthy of a Creative Thinkers entry, I don't know what is.

All their pictures are one-offs. If you hang these babies on the wall, you'll be the only one that has one exactly like that. Truly unique. And now I work for them!

Check them out on Facebook: Bertie and Jack.

Bertie and Jack in Bath

So my life has turned super busy and it may look like I've forgotten all about creativity, but I just wanted to let you all know that it's just not the case. In fact, you'll be happy to know that I have a new job (yay!) working on a little art stall in Bath called Bertie and Jack. They sell cute pictures of elephants, penguins and doves made of patterned paper. Perfect for wedding presents, birthdays, moving in presents ...basically there's one for everyone. The designs are so simple, yet really affective. They are perfect.

Check them out on Facebook: Bertie and Jack.

I LOVE working on the stall with Emma and Rebecca. I'll take some pictures today for you all to see.

Watch this space...

Day 362: The gift of the gab...

Since a very young age I've been pretty chatty, especially on a one-to-one basis. Meeting up for coffee with a friend is one of my favourite things to do.

So why am I telling you this? Well, chatting away to people is pretty handy for a creative person.

Over the summer I'm going to be working with Bath Festivals who organise two literature festivals and a music festival each year, as well as going into schools and inspiring creativity through drama and writing. It all started when I got chatting to Karl at a book event I went to over a year ago now.

Yesterday I got chatting to this women on an art stall in Bath. As I bought a piece of her art, I was chatting about finishing Uni and doing my internship with Bath Festivals...then she asked if I wanted to come a work with them on the stall!

What area do your creative talents lie? Drama, dance, music, writing, textiles...? Wherever it is, talking to people in your field seems like the way forward. Just see what happens. Sometimes we fall into these things, but more often that not, it's not what you know, but who you know!

Day 342: Tessa Wolfe-Murray: the purpose of art...

Today I thought I'd start up a bit of a debate because I'm in that kind of mood. It starts with a question;

When does art stop and necessity take over?

Take this vases for example. They have been crafted by Tessa Wolfe-Murray and are really beautiful. I love the deep blue with it's mottled tones. I like to imagine they've been found at the bottom of the ocean from a sunken ship...It's obvious that a lot of skill and time has gone into making them. But, what are they for? Should we use them as vases to put flowers in or should they just sit and be looked at?

Vases were used by the Romans to carry water or store food in like salt or grain, safe from rats. But we've got bottle and fridges for that, right? So should be just put these on the side and look at them? Is that what art is for? Can art be useful? can we use it for stuff or is it just for the pleasure of out eyes?

I wonder what you think...



'Deep Sea and Shallows' 

Day 337: Show me the Monet

The BBC have just started showing their new arts programme, Show me the Monet which is basically the x of the art world. People who have been making art quietly in their garage, as well as professional artists have come from all over the country to get in on the change of having their work on view at an exhibition at the Royal Collage of Art in London. Those artists will try and prove to a panel of judges their work is the one.

Could you do it? Would you be brave enough?

Follow the real talent of the British art world by watching the first episode on iplayer. Real people, taking their creativity seriously.

Will you be inspired?

Day 325: Be an Olympic Storyteller

Listen up all you Creative Thinkers! BT are giving people like you and me the opportunity to tell the story of the 2012 Olympics. If you've a blogger, creative writer, a graphic designer or an artist, why not get invovled and share your experiences of the Olympics. However you are creative, BT want YOU to get involved.

What do the Olympics mean to you? What's going on in your area to prepare or celebrate? How could you use your creative talents to get in on the action...?

Sign up here and find out all the details.

Get Creative. Get involved.

Day 301: Adele breaks records

Yes, indeedy, Adele has reached ten consecutive weeks at the top of the album chart for her second album, simply called 21. She's beaten Madonna who held the record for nine weeks at the top with The Immaculate Conception in 1990. You know you've doing something right when you're beating the pop queen herself in the album chart, right!

But, it's not just the UK chart she's topping. Over in the US they love her too.

Amazing. A proper English rose, doing her stuff, breaking records. Her voice is so beautiful and deserved to be heard. She's an inspiration to all us creative ladies!

Here's her performance at the Brits Awards this year. I well up just watching this. It must have been incredible to be there. My invite unfortunately got lost in the mail...

Day 293: The Fiction Project

So, yesterday when I was 'researching' Takeshi Kawano's Melting Sculptures, I found an advert for this;

It's a project which is fusing words and visual art and making a book out of it, which will tour America, from coast to coast. Just think of your ideas, in a book, wandering around America...what a great opportunity! The cool thing is anyone from anywhere in the world can get invovled, which includes YOU! If you're into art, drawing, writing, graphic design, illustration...then check out their website. Once you're there, you can chose a theme and away you go! You could use an idea you've already got or be inspire here and now by one of the themes.

So, what are you waiting for? Go be inspired and be part of the project.

Day 292: Takeshi Kawano

Artist, Takeshi Kawano has created these set of sculptures called 'Melting Animal Sculptures'.

Not much more needs to be said. I think the sculptures do a pretty good job of portraying their message. How could you speak through your creative works?

Be inspired. Be creative.

Day 285: Pink and Red makes...

...well, I guess it makes whatever your creative minds choose!

What would you do with pink and red? Would you mix them? Add them to cake mix? Wear them together? Paint with them? Combine them? Alternate them?

...I could go on.

These are some of the creations Google came up with:

Flower arranging, feet decorating, designer furnishings and, of course, a bit of Andy Warhol.

Let your imaginations go with Pink and Red. Where could they take you today...?

Day 281: Damien Hurst's Bike

For all you Art fans out there, I have found a really cool website which tells you whats going on each week around the world in Art. There's loads of pictures of artist's exhibitions, news and an entire archive of activities. If you're after some visual inspirations for your creative projects, mocoloco.com is the place to go.

See what you can find...

Ps, this bike is Damien Hurst's latest creative project...what's yours?

Day 277: T. M. Alexander at View Art Gallary

How much creative inspiration can you get from one night? Well, last night I was blown away by the amount that was thrown at me as a creative thinker.

I was lucky enough to attend T. M. Alexander's book launch in Bristol. She's one of the judges for my writing competition and has just brought out her third book in the Tribe series, Labradoodle on the Loose. She gave a talk to the crowds of people attending, all about the fun author things she gets to do, including receiving the Hull Children's Book Award, doing loads of school visits and writing, of course. It was so exciting to listen to all the ins and outs of living a real writer's life.

Afterwards she spoke to me about how the publishers had decided to change her book order round and release the fourth one before the third! That's the reality of being a writer, I guess. Funnily enough, I don't get told stuff like that on my course.

On top of all of this, the book launch was held in the art gallery, View. So much creativity in one place I nearly died! And there were free smarties! What more could you want from one evening?

There are seven artists being exhibited at the gallery including a guy who'd graduated from Bath Spa only last summer. I was so impressed to see Will Kendrick's work on display, I had a big chat with the owner about it and learnt loads about owning a gallery too. A career change, perhaps...?

Opening yourself up to new creative experiences like this is so inspiring, so why not take a look and see what's going on around your area. Keep your eyes peeled, folks. Creativity really is everywhere!

Circle Painting, Will Kendrick >

Day 268: Desperate Romantics

Yesterday, as well as going to an amazing talk about the future of education, I was also lucky enough to sit in on a talk by Franny Moyle. It was more of a lecture than a talk, all about the Pre-Raphaelites, who turned from the traditions of painting in the late 1800s to create works like these:

(Proserpine by Rossetti and Orphelia by Millais)

Paintings like these were viewed with extreme opposition at the time, but now we've fallen in love with their charm. When I was studying Art at school, I looked at the Pre-Raphaelites. I loved their romantic scenes of (well dressed) beautiful women, each of them telling their own story. But it turns out I knew very little about those paintings and the people who created them. The lives of these painters, their wives and models were intertwined in every way. Basically, they're all about death, sex and politics!

As Franny Moyle showed us slide after slide of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, their meanings became clear and I realised how intricate these works were in combining details of society, their own lives and the skill of the craft. When you see old paintings on a big wall in a gallery, sandwiched between two (very similar) ones, you just don't get the depth that they really show. That's why it's so inspiring going to talks and presentations about creative things you love, or even things you don't love for that matter. There really is so much we don't know, but together, we all know quite a bit. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is learn from what/who you can and be inspired to get creative from their knowledge. I really want to get my paint brush out and get creative again...what could you do?

Check out Desperate Romantics by Franny Moyle. It's also bee turned into a BBC production.

Day 254: Arts Award. Get Involved.

If you are sitting there thinking no one cares about your creative talent. If you're wondering why the government are cutting all the Arts funding, then don't fear...

I found out about this yesterday and was SO excited. It's an award you can work at, kind of like the Duke of Edinbourgh, but for the Arts. You can put it on your CV and it even goes toward UCAS points for Uni.

I wish they had this award when I was a school! If you're between 11-25 and you wanna get invovled in the arts, this is the award for you!

Check it out here and see where it can take you...

Day 245: Amazing Animation by Jo Lawrence

Jo Lawrence worked at the V&A Gallery, London in 2007 and used her experiences whilst there within her own creative work. All you animators out there, check out this, Glover by Jo Lawrence on You Tube. It uses stop motion animation (like Wallace and Gromit) to tell it's story. Can you see how exhibitions at the V&A might have influenced her work?

Find out more about Jo and her animations here.

Be inspired by what's out there. What story could you tell...?

Day 242: Barbara Hepworth

In the year 1965, Barbara Hepworth, the artist who made all these amazing sculptures, died in a fire at her studios in St Ives, Cornwall. Since then, her studio has been restored and opened up to the public.

In January, 2010 I had the pleasure of visiting this studio. It was a cold, blustery day, so my boyfriend and I had the place to ourselves. The garden is filled with her sculptures which we spent ages looking at, sharing our opinions.

Perhaps the strangest thing is her workshop, which stands still in history, unchanged from the day she left it. The calender reads May '65. The tools lay on the bench next to the unfinished sculpture, waiting to be picked up again.

Hepworth was 72 when she died and had a lot of help making her sculptors by that time. But her memory is held in that place, held in her sculptors, both complete and incomplete.

If you get a chance, take a trip down there. St Ives is a beautiful place with art, the sea and a cream tea waiting for you!

If St Ives isn't your thing, try the new Gallery, The Hepworth Wakefield in Yorkshire. It opens in May 2011 and will be home to rarely seen works by Hepworth as well as pieces by Turner and Henry Moore. If it's British art you're after, look no further.

Day 238: Daniel Pennac

As I mentioned yesterday, I've just finished reading a great book called The Rights of the Reader by Daniel Pennac. He's an author and a teacher and it's certainly evident from his book that he has a lot of opinions about how we get taught to read.

In one chapter he talks about reading and how we find time for it. Do we find time for it? Well, it depends if it's important to us. Daniel Pennac says it beautifully, 'time to read is always time stolen.'

Isn't that true of all things we love? I know I should definitely read more, but I'd much rather spend that stolen time doing some knitting!

What do you spend stolen time on? Most people spend it doing the things they love and I guess for many of us, it involved creativity, am I right?

I think creativity begins to take over our time in some ways, not just the stolen bits. Should it take over? Pennac quotes Legend of the Fall by Jim Harrison, whose character, Burlington says, "Yes, when you buy a jacket, it's important the pockets are big enough for a paperback!"

The things we love spending time on do affect other areas of our lives. I've heard drummers say they bought that car 'cause its boot's big enough for the whole drum kit. Or student artist demanding the biggest room in their shared house so they have space to paint.

So what about you? Do you steal time for your creations? Do you customize your life for your 'art'? Should you?

Something to think about...

Day 191: Illusions on the street

Check out these amazing images drawn on pavements:

They are soooo cool and really inspiring. I love illusion art. It makes you question what is there and how it can be made to look like that. Do you recon these artist draw them for fun? Art like this brings the community together and get people interested, even it it's not their thing. everyone can enjoy art out in the street! What would you draw on the street if you could?

I hope these images inspire you're creativity today. How could you bring illusion into your creative work...?

Day 187: Shadow Catchers at V&A

Check out this amazing exhibition if you are into photography. These eerie images have been captured using shadows to manipulating light. What a cool idea!

Five contemporary artist/photographers are on show at the V&A Museum in London; Floris Neusüss, Pierre Cordier, Susan Derges, Garry Fabian Miller and Adam Fuss.

The V&A website has got more info, so that's a good place to start.

Shadow catchers...what a great name for a book...