Recent work now up on BigCartel!

Click here for my gallery to see my recent live paintings from the beach!
:)
Cosmic

West Briton Masthead Competition

I am so pleased to announce this.

This week's cover holds the story. Next weeks' will have the illustration!

My artwork just won a huge public vote competition to be the first ever West Briton newspaper masthead illustration to mark the launch of this year's Truro Festival.

The artwork I created will replace the usual  masthead on the cover of this coming Thursday's edition of the Truro and Mid Cornwall West Briton, something that has never happened in the newspaper's 200 year history.
I am very happy about this indeed!

I was up against three other artists, all published illustrators who are based in, or from Cornwall: Caroline Pedlar who's work has been published in over 50 books, Nick Brennan an comic illustrator and cartoonist for many famous titles including Dandy and the Beano, and Keith Sparrow, a highly published illustrator and Manga style comic artist.

My work for this was produced on a 6ft canvas using Boardstix paint pens and Pentel markers and then resized on Photoshop to fit the top of the newspaper front page. Even this is a lot smaller than my usual work and probably as small as i would like to work with this much detail.

To celebrate I'll be turning up in various locations to produce drawings for people for free. There will also be some of my artwork on display and some canvases that I have produced to recent demand.

The first place I will be at is at Aggie Newsagents 8am Thursday 3rd April, then the West Briton stand at Truro Festival, at Truro Lemon Quay from 10am on Saturday 5th April.

Aggie Surf Shop's Cosmic Wall!

From the Great British Legends of Street Art Guide:
"Look out on your next visit to St Agnes, Cornwall as you weave between engine houses, Cornish choughs, miners and pastys you will find this little gem on the side of the surf shop!" Cheeky beggars!

Drawing on: Heartlands!!

POOL
This Saturday and Sunday (Sept 1st and 2nd) I will mostly be running interactive art demos at Heartlands in Pool, Cornwall.

COOL

Heartlands is a massive new project in Cornwall that celebrates the rich heritage to be found here. This urban festival is going to be a great showcase of lots of the "street culture" activities that Cornwall has to offer.

WALL
I have had a free-standing wall made especially for the occasion that is looking very exciting! The wall will remain on site to be a constant reminder of contemporary art being alive and well in Cornwall.

SCRAWL!
During the weekend people will be asked to help out with ideas, inspiration and to paint on the wall with me. No experience necessary, just a clear desire to contribute and create.

More info: West Briton, Cornwall In Focus, Cornwall's Coolest

Drawingonthings TV!

The first DrawingonthingsTV live event took place last week at Jacobs Ladder in Falmouth. There will be many more to come. This one was very mellow and quiet but just what we wanted at it was really an experiment.

DrawingonthingsTV are films made by myself and maverick film-maker and Falmouth University graduate Kevin Murphy. When I recently did a projection on a prominent building (Police station) in Newquay I brought along a DJ from Falmouth called Mr Bee to play some music. Mr Bee was interested in bringing a projection inside at his next gig.

So we did!

DrawingonthingsTV is an experimental, artistic platform and it's creators cannot be held responsible for any inspiration that may be generated as a result by it's viewers.

News of more DrawingonthingsTV showings at gigs will be on here and on facebook, Twitter,Instagram, in local press, or anywhere you see this symbol:

If you have an idea for DrawingonthingsTV or have a wall/car/boat/friend that you think would look good covered in paint, or are a fantastic DJ or promoter wanting to get in touch, please do so on here or through the social media platform that is...

Another wall to find in Newquay!

Newquay Art8 Festival Drawingonthings Workshop

Last Sunday was genuinely the sunniest day of the year by far! Loads of people turned up for this event in the back garden of the Newquay Arms as part of the Art8 festival.

The pub and Art8 had sponsored the event so that members of the public could get involved as part of the festival which is the first of what will hopefully be an annual showcase of art in and around Newquay.

A few adults took part too but other than that, the average age of the artists making these pictures was 10 years old, all participants had never used spray paint before. Some of these guys had travelled from bristol to do this workshop! All were complete naturals!

Newquay Art8 Festival

When you head over to Newquay to check out the Art8 festival, from today look out for this!

(Hint, its on a main road.)

More...

A Drop-in Drawingonthings Surgery!

LINk in Cornwall are the people who pass on everyone's thoughts and feelings about their health services here in Cornwall to the people who run them.

Using communication to bring about positive change is also something that my Drawingonthings Workshops are known for. Which is why LINk in Cornwall thought it would be a good idea to have me run a drop-in workshop in Truro City centre as a feature of their celebration event called Watch Your Health, last Thurdsay.

Young people could colaborate on a peice in the Drawingonthings Workshop in exchange for the (Yes/No) answer to: "Do you think there is enough information about health services in Cornwall for young people?

A highly creative day followed, filled with discussion on the topic, and some awesome pieces of work were created!



But the best bit...
All the work returns to the donors of the "canvases" (many of whom were there on the day) and will be displayed in their offices, surgeries, etc. This was an important part of this workshop as it showed that the young peoples' opinions are highly regarded, as is their art!





LINk in Cornwall's website: http://www.linkincornwall.org.uk

Art In The City

On Wednesday I found a car parked on Lemon Quay in Truro. I happened to have a few cans of paint on me so...


Art in The City festival continues until Sunday 15th April.

To greet the Olympic Torch at Bodmin

I did a Drawingonthings Workshop at the Basement Youth Club in Bodmin because the young people that go there regularly wanted to make a banner which was fitting to greet the Olympic Torch when it passes through their town at the start of its journey to London to launch the Olympics.

This banner was completed entirely in spray paint. All the colours, ideas and shading are the work of the Basement crew which included many members that have never used spray paint or consider themselves very "good" at drawing. I just helped them pull it all together.

I think you'll agree, the result is a fantastic tribute to the young people of Bodmin.

"I'm having a portrait"

cosmic had his photo taken. i think he looks cool and stupid. cosmic said hey.

words by felix dye age 7
pictures by stewart girvan photography

Skulls

I hid a few of my skulls about Cornwall this Halloween.

Since about 2009 skull images have appeared regularly in my work. When I am drawing larger or more complicated images or doodles I tend to draw before I think (or think unconsciously instead of consciously) of what images I draw. Because of this, there is always an underlying reason for images which re-occur in my work.

With this skull motif it is no mystery to me. I have always liked the sugar skull images from Mexico's macabre but positive Day Of The Dead festival, when Mexican people celebrate the lives of their ancestors on November 1st and 2nd the day after our Halloween (not a coincidence!).
The sugar skulls and Catrinas also serve the living as a reminder of their mortality.

So, when I only have a moment and have to paint something that reflects me, I often do a skull. Over the last few years these have evolve into a sort of elephant's-foot-shaped pot!

Just like the sugar skulls, my skulls have always had a positivity about them but at the same time reflect an underlying message that nothing will last forever and that, underneath it all, every man is equal.

So, our Halloween season seems like a great time for me to get some of my skulls out there.

Lanson Jungle

A hugely positive community project with Barefoot and people from Lanson (spelled Launceston) who work towards making their town brighter and more colourful.

The Barefoot team have dedicated the wall to Phil Lewitt. Unfortuately I never had the pleasure to meet Phil. By all accounts a local legend.

I approached this in much the same way as I do with all the Drawingonthings workshops, and drew as much inspiration as possible from everyone there and enlisted the help of everyone present to colour in! There were so many capable people at this project, ex fine-art teachers included (that's you Nev!) that we had the whole thing done in two days!

Ideas and painting by everyone present, aged from 1 to 82 years! A pleasurable experience. Thanks Lanson!

NYC!!

(...Newquay Youth Centre!)

I re-visited Newquay Youth Centre to paint the walls based on ideas that had emerged from the "drawingonthings workshop" (everybody drawing whatever they wanted on the wall) I held there during an open day at the youth centre almost 2 weeks ago.

Check out the consultation doodles here!

This time it was just me painting to get the walls ready for the centre to open again in September. I tried to remain true to the lively and imaginative use of shapes, colours and imagery that emerged from the first session (which were drawn on the wooden triangular panel, and are a big part of the work! See bottom picture) and almost follow on from those first group doodles in the "drawingonthings workshop".

The major surfing and nightlife town has a bright and colourful reputation but quite often focus, in the press for example, is drawn towards the negative. Projects like this help to remind residents and visitors of all the positive aspects to Newquay.

I purposefully avoided the obvious and direct images and used the open and non-judgemental collective doodles from the "drawingonthings workshop" to dictate the content of the murals to ensure a unique and original piece that could only belong to Newquay.

Being crafty to be fayre.

Today I will be drawing on things at the craft fayre at the Riverbank in Truro. Expect spray paint designs on recycled skateboards and prints, among other stalls of knitwear, buttons and doilies. (I hope I'm joking!)

1-4 pm The Riverbank

Old Bridge Street, Truro, Cornwall
sat nav:  TR1 2AQ

http://www.theriverbanktruro.co.uk/

Barefoot Finale

This Saturday was the Barefoot Games Finale at the Eden Project.

I was invited to paint on a huge wall, along with with graffiti artist Mau-Mau, during the celebration of all that Barefoot Games has achieved over the past year.

There were live bands, samba dancers, drummers, stilt walkers, giant paella, us, other artists, and a whole lot more!

The Barefoot Games project only ran for a year. During this time it reached out to a vast number of young people in the area to share positive skills and help them achieve personal goals.

It was great to work with this team and, although Barefoot Games has now ended, The eden Project will continue to benefit the wider community.

Next Generation

On Saturday 25th June I ran a massive drawingonthings workshop in Poltair Skatepark in St Austell as part of a Youthfest skate comp day organised by Barefoot Games and The House youth centre.

These four panels were painted by young people who wanted to have a creative outlet on the day. About 40-50 took part during the day.

This was the first day of the recent heat wave and it wasn't expected. During the skate comp there were DJ's playing and a barbecue after.