At Gather.ly we’re always looking for interesting opportunities to get talented people working together - especially across different artistic discplines. The viewpoint of another can be a great place to start on a piece of your own, and an opportunity to combine your strengths into something new and inspiring.
After seeing the results from our London Fashion Weekend Photographers we thought we'd keep the momentum going and take this project to the next level. And if you haven't read Pt.1, you can do so here...
For Pt. 2 then, we invited three of our Illustration Collective to produce a series of work using the photographs shot at London Fashion Weekend. We gave our artists complete creative freedom to reconstruct and build upon the photos, using them as a base for their own new and exciting pieces. There was just one rule... they had to work in collage.
Tasha Winton
We're very excited to introduce Tasha Winton to the Gather.ly family. We've had our eye on her for a while and now we finally get to work with her! Primarily using mixed media to create her works, Tasha went old school with scissors and glue for this project to create a series of collages with a colour palette referencing 1960's fashion fabrics.
I was excited when I received this brief from Gather.ly as I’ve been working more and more with collage over the last year.
When working from photography Tasha explains that she doesn't normally have a fixed idea of how each piece will turn out. Playing with building layers and working into the image with ink, her outcome is mainly dependant on what magazines she has laying around at the time and whichever pages catch her eye. With Fraser Stannage's images, Tasha kept to a specific colour palette for each piece and worked with the shapes and outlines of the collages as they developed. By picking out key elements such as the form and movement of the models, Tasha focused on pattern and texture that stood out in each look.
The more you look at Tasha's work the more you find. Subtle details within the layers seem to appear differently on each viewing, drawing your eye around the whole piece. By leaving some of the original photograph untouched, her work gives the viewer an experience that can only been created with collage. Elements of pen added to the designer's garments generate questions on what has been added and what is true to the photograph. With such an abundance of texture and colour, Tasha's final pieces for this project are a tribute to the art of collage in its most authentic form.
Lucy Driscoll
We've been lucky to catch up with Lucy before on Gather.ly and have been looking for a perfect project to pair with her style. We teamed her up with Rob Brazier's photography from the show and she has produced two stunning pieces of work.
Lucy approached the brief for this project with class and elegance. We found an ideal match here with Lucy's minimalist style conjoined with Rob's pin sharp, clean imagery. Focusing on the colour and shape of the clothing worn by the models, Lucy's pieces have a graphic appearance, with references to the new Avant Garde Modernist Movement and Soviet poster design of the 1920's - the influence of the great El Lissitzky is definitely seen here.
Combining the 3D forms featured in the photograph, with distinct 2D blocks of colour in a carefully executed compositional framework, Lucy's collage work lends itself well to being produced digitally.
Easy on the eye, uncomplicated arrangements of colour and shape, we see here that less can be more. Perfectly placed rows of ink dots and white space, quaintly finished with a reference number.
Hollie Martin
Another newbie to the Gather.ly family Hollie Martin shows us a series of three fun and explosive collages with her unorthodox approach to our creative brief. Hollie explains that her portfolio of work is deeply process driven and her approach remains simple. Influenced by the beauty that can be found in the unpredictable she prefers to focus on this, rather than a completely calculated process when making her art. Hollie's work exhibits slabs of bright colour and intuitively composed patterns, as she attempts to create pieces that visually stimulate and serve to decorate and enhance a space.
I always feel like creative work doesn’t need to be narrative driven or have a particular problem to solve – sometimes it's enough to show something that's interesting and celebrate that. That’s the beauty of a creative licence.
Recently Hollie has been experimenting by adding texture into her artwork, so with catwalk photography supplied by Sabrina Carder and Johanna Hedberg, this project couldn't have come at a better time. Normally working with acrylic and watercolour, Hollie explains that she has pushed her practice in a new direction by working digitally. By creating her pieces digitally for this project, Hollie pinpointed her focus onto the details within the fabrics and when repeated and mirrored, created symmetrical geometric compositions.
The results from this project really show how a creative brief can be interpreted so individually by artists, and also how working to an open brief can alter and change the direction of your creativity. All three of our amazing Illustrators went way beyond our expectations within a short amount of time to produce this fantastic work. Massive thanks to everyone involved, it's been a pleasure working with you!
