Gilbert and Sullivan set design

I am involved with the Gilbert and Sullivan society at St Andrews URC, Monkseaton and have been a member of the scene painters team for 10 years or so now. More recently I have been designing the sets as well as painting them.

I haven't taken photos of the final designs in the past so I thought it would be a good idea to record this years design for The Mikado and show the work in progress. 

I have taken a few different sources as inspiration for the design such as Japanese prints and screens.

Using Photoshop, I have roughed out a working plan for the stage set showing a general idea of how I would like it to look. I have copied a modern design for paper screens for the side flats.
This will have to be modified a great deal to fit the newly built properties of the stage set.

There will be a built pagoda and platform in front of the backdrop now so the idea for the waterpool and flowers will need to be changed. The distant pagoda will now be painted onto the backdrop, stage right.

The idea is to be looking out onto the garden from a screened indoor area towards a distant landscape of pagodas and cherry blossom with cascades of blossoms on the stage flats right and left.


Some examples of past designs:


The last time St. Andrews performed The Mikado, it was set in a modern style with the town of Whitley Bay standing in visually for the town of Titipoo. 

(The image shown here is not how the set was designed, the group are putting on a concert of songs and the stage flats were placed over the curtains for this event and they are not seen in the correct order.)

This design is for one of the earliest I was involved with, showing a traditional approach with stone effect and gothic archway.

This is the design for The Grand Duke, for which I used the original set design drawing from 1896 as inspiration.

David Nash at Kew

Over the Easter weekend 2013, I was able to go to Kew Gardens to see the wonderful sculpture of David Nash. I have admired his work for many years as he was a visiting lecturer to Newcastle Polytechnic when I was a student there in the 80's. (Now Northumbria University) 

I love his use of wood and the notion of quarrying the raw material from the trees that offer suggestions for the elemental shapes construct by Nash with chain saws.
He uses the natural movement and splitting of the wood in his work as they release their energy after being cut. The material helps to shape itself.

In the gallery at Kew he shows an amazing mural-sized drawing that shows the family tree of sculptures, the relationships and development of the shapes.

The interior of the gallery is a lovely space to display the smaller works, whereas the monumental sculpture is  positioned in the park. Some of these are surprisingly, bronze, patinated to look like wood and scorched wood.

The natural beauty of the wood speaks for itself. This section through a tree is just an amazing natural object in its own right.

In the glasshouses it is a delight to find the sculptures amongst the foliage, inviting comparison with the sculptural shapes of the plants.

The Nash conservatory houses the most elegantly startling cone constructed from cork barks. The nature of the bark suggests something cast off by a creature like a shell. Each bark is different in its unique way inviting the viewer to observe all of them in their own beauty at the same time as the monumental structure of the whole cone.

These images were taken by myself on my phone, so I own the images but not the copyright of them as they are of Nash's work. So if you do use these images please acknowledge the artist when doing so.

Ceramic Figures

I have recently been working on these ceramics using a buff clay and a terracotta. The terracotta is based on a life drawing whereas the buff clay model is just from imagination.

Pen and ink drawings. (Poppy)

I made these sketches of our Bedlington Terrier, Poppy, when she was a young pup. 

She unfortunately died in May this year of a liver complaint that the breed is prone to. We still feel so sad that we have lost such a lovely little character. 

So I thought I would celebrate her life a little by putting these drawings on my blog. 

I drew them in a small sketchbook using a Waverly pen and Quink.

20 minute acrylic sketches

These paintings were done in one session where we did 3 20 minute sketches. Good discipline but it left me wishing I had more time to work into them.

I had prepared some cardboard with the dragged backgrounds first. I quite like working onto a coloured ground just to lose all that virgin space first.

They are quite small, just 20cm the largest dimension.

Pastel Portraits

This drawing was done earlier this year at the class. The model was wearing the red and white striped robe so we asked for her to keep it on as a challenge.

I used Conte pastels on Murano paper.

This model always keeps her hair in a turban or wrap so it is always a big part of the drawing. 

Here I just used a black conte on a toned Murano paper.

Pastel Portraits

I haven't posted a blog for a while but work has been soooo busy. 


Holidays now though, so I should get some art finished and blog some work as it progresses.

I have some carvings on the go at the moment so I shall try to get going on them as soon as possible.


For now, here are a couple of new pastel drawings.

Monica is a lot more cheerful than I have made her look here.

 

 It is difficult to get Peter's eyes correct as he has quite deep set eyes and you can't really see his pupils.

This is a better one of Peter, I have framed it hence my reflection in the glass, sorry! I have put this one into an art exhibition that is part of the celebrations of St. Andrews URC, Monkseaton 80 years celebrations. I think I have caught his character better here. He always cheers us up after a class by singing to us in a lovely tenor voice!