Aesthetica is one of Britain's best-loved art and culture magazines. If you're an art-lover, it's a must-have for the coffee table, for reading on the train and for all-round updates on the news of the art world.

The publication’s annual awards are approaching once again, to celebrate everything that is excellent and innovative in art. The major prize is The Aesthetica Art Prize, but it also offers a prize specific to students.

The main Aesthetica Art Prize offers a cash prize of £5,000 - but the Student Prize offers £1,000 - a hefty sum for any art student - and the chance to promote your work to a wide and art-savvy audience. With 168,000 readers across the globe, the winner will gain comprehensive exposure and a huge leap in the right direction of making it as a professional artist.

Applications for the 2015 Prize are now open, but you need to submit your entries by the end of next month.

About the Prize

Harriet Lewars won this year’s student section for her intriguing sculpture Frustum Super Planum Cum Filiae Lyrae piece, a shortened cone constructed in steel. Somerset-born Lewars, an avid violinist, is fascinated by the relationship between music and the visual arts.

 

Over 3,000 artists entered last time across the main and student sections. Eight of them went on to exhibit at a display showcasing the competition, with the works of an additional 92 put on public view via gallery monitors.

Earlier finalists included modern expressionist Marcus Jansen, Julia Vogl, Bernat Millet and Ingrid Hu.

The global magazine is renowned for the dynamism of its content, fusing astounding images with critical debate. Aesthetica engages with everything facet of culture and visual art and has helped to make the awards one of the key dates in the UK’s art prize calendar. 

The publication says the works comment ‘profoundly’ on 21st Century life. The inaugural exhibition of the best entries last year attracted 10,000 viewers in a seven-week timescale.

The lucky winning student will receive £1,000 prize money, the chance to to display in an exhibition staged by York St Mary’s, an art book selection, an Winsor & Newton art supplies voucher worth £150, Aesthetica magazine editorial coverage and your work published in the title’s art awards anthology. 

 

How To Enter

You can submit your work under 4 categories: video, performance and installation; drawing and painting; digital and photographic art: and sculpture and 3D design.

Entries cost £15 plus VAT, and the closing date is Sunday 31st August.

You can enter the Aesthetica Student Art Prize here.

Image credits

Image 1 - Michelee Scott, Route 66-A-Series, Photographic & Digital Art, Courtesy of Aesthetica Art Prize and artist

Image 2 - Harriet Lewars, Frustum Super Planum Cum Filia Lyrae,  2013, Three Dimensional Design & Sculpture, Courtesy of Aesthetica Art Prize and artist

Image 3 -  Rhona Byrne, It's All Up in the air, Three Dimensional Design & Sculpture, Courtesy of Aesthetica Art Prize and artist

BEWARE: The above video includes nudity - suitable only for 18+. 

Watch as award-winning artist Toby Mulligan draws at speed with both hands in our video, and read on for an exclusive interview.

Interview 

A young girl stares evenly out of the canvas at the viewer, her hair tied back in two brown tufts, her face cast slightly in shadow. It’s the portrait that stole the hearts of many in the BP Portrait Award 2012, and was painted by the artist – and father of the subject – Toby Mulligan.

Known for his rapid drawing technique where he uses both hands at once, Toby provided the illustrations for our Sketch Your Summer campaign and is hosting several workshops for us this season - read more about the individual ones here.

A largely self-taught artist, Toby has been painting portraits for people since the age of 15. The painting of his daughter, About Time, featured in the BP Portrait Award 2012 and currently hangs in The National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. 

We wanted to know more about his paintings, his process and his need to create, so read on for our exclusive interview.  

You say that your work is about process, perhaps more so than actual painting. Can you talk a little bit about this?

I love to wander, both physically and imaginatively. I often go out for long walks with no idea where I'm going, because in the Mark Twain way, it's not the destination but the journey that counts. Walking is brilliant for thinking; ideas come and go, and you take in what's going on all around you in a way that's not possible when driving or cycling. 

And as for the actual process of drawing and painting, I often use both hands at once when I’m drawing from life. It's sort of impossible as my eyes and brain need to observe and interpret four different areas at once, but it forces me to take an overview as I'm drawing, to see the whole thing and almost watch it as though someone else was doing it.

That way the fear and criticisms, all that distracting stuff that goes on in our heads all the time about whether you’re any good or how pleased you are with something – it all goes away because I'm too busy concentrating.  

 

Your artwork consists of portraiture, landscape and the human figure – but what is it that draws you to a subject?

I've always been drawn to painting people, especially the nude because it's us stripped bare, and I love drawing hands and feet because so much can be expressed through them. But I also feel the need to get out and paint landscape: big skies and billowing clouds, approaching storms, winds, rain and strong sunlight.

Then it's more about feeling the heat, the sun, the smell of stone and wet grass – and if I feel it all, smell it, see it, sense it,  then I can convey it better in my painting.  

Your paintings are so involved with the process of making – the quick application of paint, the dexterity of a brush pen – but your work is so much more than pure experimentation with art materials. What really motivates your painting?

I think that is what motivates me to paint, though there are many factors. I see paintings and drawings that I love and want to emulate, and certain things capture my eye, like shadows in doorways or the angle of someone's hand resting on a chair...But the driving force is more of a spiritual one, to connect and be one with the world. I paint to empathise, embody and express without the distracting thoughts that clog up my mind and stop life from happening. 

 

Which art supplies couldn’t you live without?

Well paper of course! And I love the Pentel Artist brush pens.

But when it comes to paint, I love oil paint the best - acrylic has never quite done it for me unless I can mess it around and pour resin all over it, and then maybe paint with oils over the top as well! Watercolour is also one of my favourite mediums, requiring a whole discipline of its own. I have one of those Winsor & Newton metal box sets with 24 colours, and the blues always tend to go first.

My favourite drawing tool is probably plain old charcoal, or the compressed charcoal pencils, because I use them so much.

You also paint on the iPad – do you enjoy the digital process of art-making as much as traditional painting?

Painting on the iPad is nothing like using paper and paint and canvas - all that gooey messy stuff that I love. I've made some animated illustrations for websites using the iPad but I have to say I've sort of lost interest in it. It's just useful when you don't have the materials to work with.

 

Who are your art heroes?

The first painting I ever copied was The Water Bearer by Velasquez, and I also copied lots of Rembrant and da Vinci – all the Renaissance masters. I love Vermeer and sometimes include copies of his work in my own paintings. I find he has something akin to Rothko - who is also Dutch so maybe that has something to do with it! There are very few paintings that can really command my attention and compel me to sit and look at them for hours, but those two definitely do it for me.

 

Why are you an artist?

I’ve touched on why already, because I want to connect with the world and be at one with everything – but that could be achieved by meditating I suppose! The reason I make things is that I think with my hands; they know things my voice doesn't. 

But it's also about a desire to animate. We are all part of one energy field, and by making things we can transfer energy through those things. I believe it's possible to invest a thing with energy, like a painting, so that it’s no longer like any other object. And not just in terms of its aesthetic but in terms of the energy pulsating within it.

I don’t want to pin down and define it – it’s a feeling, and I’m happy to leave it at that. It’s what we are, within and beyond the muscle and bones.

Toby has completed a number of filmed portrait demonstrations for Cass Art, Winsor & Newton and Liquitex. He has also been commissioned by Samsung to demonstrate digital painting with their new tablet.

Are you a young person eager to learn more about portraiture? Then look no further. Many art-lovers visit the BP Portrait Award every year, but BP Portrait Award: Next Generation is an exciting addition that offers free opportunities for young people to engage with portraiture.

Specifically targeted to 14-19 year olds, BP Portrait Award: Next Generation aims to encourage the artists of the future, regardless of whether they are first-time visitors to the gallery or actively pursuing a career in art.

Now in it’s 5^th year, it offers a variety of opportunities that you can get involved with, to hone your talents and learn top tips from previous BP Portrait artists.

BP Next Generation artwork will also be on display outside the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery.

Get involved

Next Generation offers many ways to meet practicing artists, explore behind the scenes of the BP Portrait Award and create your own portraiture.

Book Taster Sessions throughout June and July, to try your hand at portraiture drawing.

Apply for three-day Summer Schools in August.

Take part in the digital content of BP Portrait Award: Next Generation by sharing your portraiture talent online, watch the video interviews of exhibiting artists, and vote in online portraiture polls.

Feeling inspired?

Visit the BP Portrait Award: Next Generation website to read more about how to get involved.

Find out more about booking Taster Sessions, Summer Schools and more here.

Find out how to share your artwork on their digital platform here.

The BP Portrait Award is showing at the National Portrait Gallery until 21^st September, and you can view work from BP Portrait Award: Next Generation outside the main exhibition.

Every artist needs a way of collecting their ideas. Some write notes, others draw – and some have giant blackboard walls on which to sketch out their artistic visions.

OK, so we might have stolen that from ‘500 Days Of Summer.’ But what better time to begin a sketchbook than the summer season?

Keeping a sketchbook is an excellent way to collate snippets of your artistic journey. Whether it’s an important part of your thinking process, or just a useful place to keep scraps of inspiration, we’ve put together some simple steps to help you start your sketchbook this summer.

1. Buy yourself a sketchbook you really love.

All artists love sketchbooks and notebooks. Plain pages, ruled pages, leather bound or soft bound or hardback – they come in all shapes and sizes and you should pick one that suits you. Whether you want a pocket-sized Moleskine to slip into your bag and make notes whenever inspiration hits, or a large spiral bound book to make giant sketches, you should get the one you like best – the one you just can’t wait to start filling.

 

2. Don’t be precious about filling it. 

Sketchbooks aren’t made to be exquisite artworks in their own right, though often they are. (The sketchbooks of Da Vinci, though filled with rough drawings, are some of the most beautiful records we have of the master’s hand.) Don’t feel pressured to keep every page pristine. Use your sketchbook as a way of scattering your ideas and thoughts – stick things in, scribble notes, make gestural drawings and leave sketches unfinished if you need to. Often the most spontaneous pages will leave you with the best ideas.

 3. Draw from life.

As it’s the summer, use the opportunity to go outside and draw straight from life. Your drawing skills become much more honed if you can study light, shadow and movement first-hand, and you can develop a knowledge of perspective and tone which you would miss if you were drawing from a photograph or static image.

 

4. Treat it as a scrapbook. 

Don’t feel as though you need to use your sketchbook as a means to solely serve your artistic practice. You can use it as a scrapbook to detail moments from your summer – take photographs and stick them in of friends, family and holidays. Collage images of things you’ve seen that have inspired you, and keep leaflets and tickets from your travels to galleries, museums and all the places you visit. You never know what might spark an idea, maybe years down the line, if you recall a moment from one sunny afternoon.

5. Experiment with materials.

You don’t need to feel restricted to pencils just because you’re working on paper. Try watercolour pencils, watersoluble graphite pencils, fine liners and oil pastels – anything that spices up your pages with colour, texture and experimentation. Sometimes the best discoveries happen by mistake, so use your sketchbook as an opportunity to try new things – make smudges, spill water, and think less as you draw. You might be surprised at what you produce.



Subject Matter Suggestions

1. Landscape – trees, lakes and hills from the beautiful British countryside

2. Animals – your sleeping pets, grazing horses or curious sheep (who are excellent life models because they stare at you for so long without moving)

3. Still Life – fruit, flowers and everyday objects that you see all the time 

4. People – facial features, hands and feet and the human form all teach you about perspective and accuracy with drawing



Sketching Material Suggestions

1. Faber-Castell Graphite Aquarelle Pack of 5 Black Pencils - a set of soft pencils that are watersoluble

2. Cretacolor Aqua Monolith Tin Set of 12 Assorted Colour Pencils - a bright set of watercolour pencils - use dry or wet 

3. Derwent Graphik Line Makers - our new summer fine liners that come in different colours

4. Winsor & Newton Assorted Willow Charcoal - a classic drawing tool for any artist in a variety of thicknesses

5. Your perfect sketchbook – click here to see our full range.

Feeling inspired?

We'd love to see what you get up to with your sketchbook pages! Upload any photos to Twitter and Facebook and tag #CassArt. 

As part of Free Thinking this year, Zealous founder Guy Armitage shared his valuable insight on how young artists can promote themselves online. He explained not only how you can harness your digital presence, but how you can be empowered in the process.

Showcasing your work online is now a must for creative professionals and a variety of products are freely available. The digital space is a vital aspect of creating artistic integrity, recognition and credibility - and there are digital platforms out there to support you.

Top Ten Tips From Zealous

1. Choose your medium carefully. Whether it's Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram or Twitter, make sure what you choose is functional. For example, can you upload photographs? Who will your audience be? Where are the people that you want to engage with?

2. What you do online is a form of storytelling. Share inspirations, failures and success stories in order to keep people engaged - keep your audience interested!

3. Share things constantly. Keep people aware of who you are! Remember an image is worth a thousand words.

4. Look for opportunities online. Make it a weekly task - the internet is forever changing.

5. Make it easy to find you online. Keep the same name on all social media platforms - consistency is integral!

6. Organisation is vital. Set time aside for the online. Maybe set a time each day where you will 'tweet', for example.

7. Find photographers to photograph your work. Make your work look the best that it can be.

8. Collaborate. Working with others is a great form of exposure. They may have different followers to you!

9. Stay true to yourself and create your own unique brand. Don't copy others ways of working.

10. The sky is the limit.

Zealous is an online platform that lets you find and be found, discover new work and find your collaborative counterpart from a diverse range of creatives online.

If the taster of digital empowerment from Free Thinking was just the tip of the iceberg, then it is definitely worth digging deeper to see what Zealous can do for you.

By Sophie Flanagan, Student Ambassador

Feeling inspired?

Join Zealous on their website here.

Watch our Free Thinking highlights in a video here.  

It's the colour of the summer - hot pink, candy pink, a sunny shade of fuschia...Flossie Saunders from the Sunday Times even put it up there on her 'hot list'.

We are delighted to introduce a new Cass Art tote bag in Opera Rose, a warm shade of pink that's been a must-have in these recent months.

The bag is available now in all our shops for £1.50, or you can get it free if you spend over £30.

The Colour 

Opera Rose was formulated by Winsor & Newton from a new range of colours made with fluorescent pigments. Absorbing energing from the UV High, invisible energy spectrum, the colour then reflects that energy to give off its brightness. 

Let's take a look at the pink paintings that use this stylish shade - but don't worry, we'll leave out all the pink puns. Mostly.

Dexter Dalwood, The Liberace Museum, 1998, Oil on Canvas

This painting is tickled pink (pun one) with its ornate furniture and pool of a dazzling reflected floor. Dalwood invents imaginary scenes of celebrities' private lives - picturing the glamour and the gaudy, and presenting us with humour. Oceans of pink carpet form the backdrop to a winding staircase and several peculiar sculptures - including a crystal ornament and quizzical baby deer in the back.

Ad Reinhardt, Abstract Painting, 1951-52, Oil on Canvas

In 1949, Reinhardt's painting became about order and abstraction. This is one of his brick paintings, with the Opera Rose rectangular shapes floating on a slate grey surface. One could say he was painting the town pink. (But we won't, because we're not sure that counts as a good pun.) 

Gerhard Richter, Flowers, 1994, Oil on Linen

The master of painting from photographs, Richter's pink flowers appear intentionally out of focus - hazy, dream-like, as though seen through half-closed eyes. Their vivid petals seem demure against the soft, sweeping paintstrokes of the background, their stems falling limply to the ground. 

Amy Gartrell, Pink (Two Lines Meeting In Space), 2004, Ink, Pen and Pencil on Paper

An exercise in perspective, Gartrell's bold drawing is forthright with its texture and use of line. The pink and purple colours radiate for attention against the linear geometry of the scene, so that you only notice the make up of an interior at a second glance.

Caro Niederer, Musella In Autumn, 2008, Oil on Canvas

Pink sky at night, Shepherd's Delight? (That was the last one.We promise.) Niederer's luminous sky threatens a storm, or perhaps the blood warm sun of a perfect morning, against the flowing green brush strokes of the meadow and trees. 

Feeling Inspired?

Add the Opera Rose bag to your collection, by visiting any of our shops and spending over £30. Alternatively you can buy one for £1.50.

Take photos of your Cass Art bag collection, your oldtime favourite or your new pink bag and upload them to Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #CassArt.

Also tell us what you think of Opera Rose on Twitter and Facebook - we'd love to know your thoughts!

Ever wondered how watercolour paints are created? Ever pondered the history of pigmentation? The chemist and part time painter, Paul Lamoureux, is Winsor & Newton and Liquitex’s Innovation and Development Manager, and is passionate about chemistry as he is art. As part of Cass Art’s programme of Free Thinking talks, Paul revealed all about the history and future of watercolours, with a focus on Winsor & Newton art materials.

Founded in 1832, Winsor & Newton have been creating art products for 182 years thanks to chemist, Williams Winsor (1804-1865) and artist Henry Newton (1805-1882). Their logo, the griffin, symbolises the fusion of both art and science as one. They were the first to create the moist watercolour (1835), the first durable white watercolour (Chinese White) and the first to pioneer the portable tube for both paints and watercolours. If it weren’t for the invention of the tube, we would be buying our paint wrapped in pigs’ bladders, as they were originally packaged by Winsor & Netwon!

So what are watercolours made from?

“Pigment, a good binder such as Gum Arabic and glycerin”, Paul begins to explain.

Pigments, whether natural or synthetic, are key to a perfect palette and have been used from early prehistoric cavemen around 40,000 years ago up until today. Some early pigments are also created accidentally, some from bizarre sources.

Take Indian Yellow pigment for example. A rich earthy, orangey yellow. Paul tells us how it's created.  “Dessicated cow urine!” The colour in the urine is produced from feeding mango leaves to the cows.

Another pigment, Caput Mortuum, sometimes known as ‘cardinal purple’ is iron oxide based, but the pigment is also referred to as ‘mummy powder’. Why I hear you ask? Because it was created by grinding the bones of mummified corpses from Egypt. One mummy equals the equivalent volume of pigment to last an artist 20 years! Thankfully this process of obtaining Caput Mortuum was outlawed in 1908, but Paul revealed that today, a gruelling 400 hours goes into product testing new pigment permanence.

New innovation in watercolour

Paul announced that Winsor & Newton have brought out a range of Watercolour marker pens, sticks and mediums. Finally the watercolour is being liberated into a handheld, no nonsense pen and into a unique graphite stick like format too. And the watercolour markers aren’t like felt tips either. With special brush nibs, finer, linear techniques can be applied and can easily be mixed or used alongside the tubes. The watercolour sticks have also been made to a special secret concoction that allows you to sketch first onto paper before applying water to blend.

Thankfully all the watercolour sticks match the pigments of all 48 of Winsor & Newton tubes and pans, so all watercolour products can be interchangeable.

The new mediums on offer allow more unusual effects to be incorporated into your artwork, such as granulated, textured and even iridescent watercolour effects. Paul also revealed that Winsor & Netwon have cherry picked several new pigment colours inspired by other industries to create a limited edition range of pigments that cannot be found in any other art industry line.

So there we have it. Watercolours may have been around for a few odd hundred years but it is the work of innovative developers like Paul that are helping shape, change and pioneer new and exciting ways to appreciatively use colour and mediums for the art of the future.
 

By Sophie Filipiuk, Student Ambassador

Feeling inspired?

Check out the new Winsor & Newton Watercolour Markers and Professional Watercolour Sticks now available for purchase.

Read our How To on the new products and Watercolour Revolution here.  

Watch our Free Thinking highlights in a video here.  

Interning. It can be exciting, rewarding and highly beneficial in elevating you closer to that dream job you’ve always wanted. Hopefully it can also make you stand out from the crowd on your CV, amongst a sea of other art graduates and creative students.

However, internships can also be stressful, costly and extremely time consuming. Libby Page of Guardian Students gave us her top tips at Free Thinking, on finding the best internships and what to do if it all goes horribly wrong.

From Page’s CV it is evident that she has had her fair share of internship experience, from interning with various magazines and newspapers. This feisty writer is a driven campaigner for the group ‘Intern Aware’, set up to provide better rights for people during internships and encourage employers to stamp out unpaid internships altogether. She has even campaigned recently at London Fashion Week, featured on TV and written an article on the success story of an intern that sued Alexander McQueen for being treated unfairly. The student won.

Page said that, “A good internship should be structured, have reasonable working hours and must be paid at least the National Minimum wage. If you are doing real work and set hours you should be paid the minimum wage. The exception to the rule is if the internship is part of your course and contributes towards your grade; then this can be unpaid work. Internships should also not be confused with volunteering and work experience."

Warning Signs

If the internship specification highlights words such as ‘unpaid’, ‘travel expenses only’, involves a contract asking you to agree to being unpaid, or doesn’t mention being paid work altogether, then raise the issue. You are entitled to payment and can ask to be paid even if they outline in writing that you are not a ‘worker’.

Be wary of the hours outlined e.g. ‘minimum of 2 days a week’ is very unclear. Does that actually mean 2 days a week or 2-7 days a week? How long for?

Query it if their required skill sets are very specific e.g. ‘higher education essential’. This indicates an incredible amount of responsibility and pressure may be put on you.

‘You’ll be asked to provide insight and ideas’- do not let them steal your ideas for nothing.

You can even report bad, illegal or unpaid internships to the ‘Intern Aware’ campaign website and you can call the Government number ‘Pay and Work Helpline’ for any queries or problems surrounding your internship on 0800 917 2368.

Internship Dos and Don'ts

DON’T be afraid to ask to be paid, even if stated unpaid.

DON’T be afraid to leave.

DO keep a journal – by recording what new skills you have learnt and a full record of your time there. If you try applying for a job with the employer at the end of your internship, you have evidence of your capability in the role.

DO ask for a reference before you leave.

DO chase up your payment expenses.

DO ask whether you can use the work in your portfolio.

By Sophie Filipiuk, Student Ambassador

Castle Fine Art is hosting the grand opening of its first Summer Exhibition this August, at their flagship Mayfair gallery.

Opening its doors on Thursday 14th August, it will display a diverse collection of artwork, exploring a diverse range of media including sculpture, painting and photography. The exhibiting artists come from all over - from round the corner in Soho to Kailua.

We landed an exclusive interview with painter Allan Banford, one of the participants in this contemporary exhibition. 

How did your art career begin?

I have been painting since I remember but I was not serious about it until more recently. My background was actually in music production and online media, but I'm drawn to painting because of the connection between my perspective and the spectator perception.

Can you tell us a little bit about your paintings for the Summer Exhibition?

The paintings selected for the Summer Exhibition are the Perspective Scenarios series, and were all made with acrylic paint on wood and heavily varnished.

 
The Challenger 

The first is The Lonely Star. It represents the mental journey of every human being to reach something that is further than expected. I used acrylic paint and then varnished it to give a surreal texture that blends with the atmospheric scenario of the unknown.

The second, Challenger, is a painting that roams the dark seas, sending pulses down into the depths of the ocean and becoming familiar with a journey that has never been made before. It is probing our environments, making sense of our surroundings, or just understanding our existence area few of the challenges of life – and a few challenges of painting.

Silvermoon is the final one.The moon shines sharp and consistent through the shadows over the dark mysterious sea, the light gently touching the magnificent red sky, reminding us that we are not alone - especially when everything is unknown.

 
Silvermoon 

What are your favourite paints and brushes to work with?

I'm a big fan of Liquitex acrylic paints because they dry quickly and the end result - after thick varnishing - is bright and deep. I work on Winsor & Newton canvas and Awagami wood canvas and I have developed my own technique called Laceration. It involves many layers, big sponges, paintbrushes and water to reach the desired effects.

Who are your artistic heroes?

So many different ones! Classical painters like Rembrandt and JMW Turner, but also those who embraced the pop side of art, Warhol and Mondrian. But Vincent Van Gogh from the Yellow House is my greatest influence.

The Lonely Star

Feeling Inspired?

The Summer Exhibition will run from Friday 15th August to Sunday 21st September.

The Private View will take place on Thursday 14th August, 6-9pm at Castle Fine Art, Mayfair.

If you want to attend, you can register your interest on the gallery's website by Friday 1st August. Places are limited and will be confirmed by a postal invitation.

Here at Cass Art we have released some dazzling new neon products, so you can Sketch Your Summer in luminescent style. 

We're all colour lovers here and it was about time we spiced our palette up a notch with some fluorescent tones. So don your sunglasses, welcome these new dazzlers to your toolkit and read on for a handy How To feature to help you get started. 

Neon Faber-Castell PITT Artist Brush Pen Set 

Made with pigmented India ink, these pigment liners are waterproof and permanent, just like their monochromatic Pitt Pen brothers. 

They come in a set of 6, equipping you with neon yellow, red, blue, orange, green and pink.



Extremely lightfast, they are durable and come with a flexible brush-like nib, which allows you to vary between nimble details and large, sweeping strokes.

Use them for spontaneous sketching this summer, or to pen some more technical drawings. They are the first choice for many graphic designers, illustrators and architects - just remember to replace the lids so they don't dry out.  

Daler-Rowney FW Ink Neon Set 



Another excellent addition to the FW Inks, the Neon set comes with 6 29.5ml bottles of acrylic-based ink. 

Use these bold colours as they are with paintbrushes or pens, or dilute them with water to achieve a lighter wash or colour. 

Once dry, the FW inks are lightfast and permanent, as well as water-resistant, but make sure you let them dry completely before you work over the top of them to avoid smudging. 



You can bring a bright, neon edge to your acrylic paintings and mix them with normal acrylic colour to achieve different effects. It's colour in a bottle - and the most vivid bottled colour yet!

They come in Fluorescent Yellow, Fluorescent Orange, Fluorescent Red, Fluorescent Pink, Fluorescent Blue and Fluorescent Green.
 

Set of 4 Neon Sharpie Fine Permanent Markers



Just like the old classic sharpie markers, these neon beauties are permanent, colourful and versatile.

They can be used on a variety of surfaces, not just paper; draw with them on cardboard, photographs, wood, metal, foil, stone, plastic and leather (though stay away from your mum's new leather 3 piece suite...)



Use them as an additional drawing tool to make eye-catching artworks, or keep them handy in your pencil case to make labels, signs and notes.  

Available in a set of 4 neon colours, green, yellow, orange and pink, the colours are vivid in normal daylight and then fluorescent when placed under UV light. They're a must-have for making summer party signs.

More and more artists these days are getting their name in lights, by making similarly coruscating works; Dan Flavin, Jung Lee and Tracey Emin are among the luminaries who have famously illuminated their artwork using neon.

To celebrate the launch of our new neon coloured products at Cass Art, we check out those who have lit the neon path in the contemporary art world.

Dan Flavin

The godfather of neon, Flavin's minimalist constructions first brought the medium of neon to art galleries in the 1960s. His job at the end of the previous decade helped to bring him into contact with fellow minimalists such as Robert Ryman and Sol LeWitt, who themselves had made art installations that inspired him. Flavin was a lift operator and guard at the Museum of Modern Art, and his works live on through installations such as Rhine-Elbe Science Park’s glass-enclosed arcade in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

Tracey Emin

This controversial artist’s confessional outpourings found the light when she was bitten by the neon bug in 2012. North Miami staged her You Loved Me Like A Distant Star in 2012, her famous sentence illuminated in turquoise neon and bordered with a pink heart. The following year her lovesick phrases found the oxygen of neon in as public a place as New York’s Times Square, where the midnight hour saw them decorate billboards.

Jung Lee

The Korean creative was ploughing a similarly romantic furrow in the years before Emin. Her staged photographs of neon words in landscapes such as forests and snow-strewn fields conjure up an amorous and unsettling  intensity. Sometimes her messages can be as concise as one or two words, such as ‘THE END’ on a seaside hillscape in 2010 or ‘WHY?’, set among trees in the same year.

Shezad Dawood

The London-born multimedia artist with Asian roots calls his love affair with fluorescent light almost “spiritual”. One of the world’s foremost contemporary exponents of the medium, Dawood’s focus is to try and infuse the most meaning possible in the simplest of designs. Prominent among his works is Triple Negation Chandelier (2008), which brought a fresh subtlety to the genre.

Robert Irwin

Walking into Irwin’s 2007 installation Light And Space is to walk into a glistening ice cave. Supple works such as this prove that neon doesn't have to be loud and garish, but sparkling, calm and serene. 

Ivan Navarro

The Chilean creative had an unusual ‘eureka!’ moment when it came to working in neon. While studying at art school, he became fascinated with observing albino people walking the streets with their powerful insensitivity to all things light. His often fear-laced pieces invite viewers to become lost in a seeming infinite space.

Image Credits:

Image 1 - A member of the public views a major installation by American artist Dan Flavin at the Hayward Gallery, London. Cathal McNaughton/PA

Image 2-7 - Pinterest

Dan Flavin, Untitled (To Jan and Ron Greenberg), 1972-73

Tracey Emin, I Can See Your Smile

Jung Lee, I Dream Of You, 2012

Shezad Dawood, Until The End of the World

Robert Irwin, Light and Space, 2007

Burden (Lotte World Tower), Ivan Navarro 

It’s that ‘Back To College’ time again – the time for new sketchbooks, empty notebooks, a fresh start and a whole lot of blank pages. But who knew that paper could be so incredibly limitless?

Well, the Proud Archivist knew it, and the designer Owen Gildersleeve knew it. Together, they’re launching the exhibition Paper Cut to show 25 of the world’s most critically acclaimed paper craft illustrators at their gallery in Regents Canal.

Paper artists such as Rob Ryan, Mandy Smith and Ciara Phelan will be showcased alongside the work of Owen Gildersleeve himself, an illustrator whose first book, with the namesake Paper Cut, examines innovative paper craft from around the world.

 

To celebrate the launch of this book, Gildersleeve will host the month-long exhibition in collaboration with other paper artists from his pages. Showing all the artists from the book, the exhibition will involve original paper artworks, framed prints and also play host to a series of artist talks and workshops.

Owen Gildersleeve’s work plays with light and shadow, resulting in multi-layered paper cuttings with graphical figures and hand-rendered typography. His playful creations won him the ADC Young Guns 9 award in 2011, and his work has been exhibited in cities across the world.

 

Paper Cut Events and Workshops

Several events are taking place alongside the free exhibition, to celebrate the depth and diversity of paper and the artists that use it. 

Cut & Paste – Party on down at the Lightroom Gallery at The Proud Archivist Gallery from 6-10.30pm on Saturday 30^th August. Surrounded by papercraft artistry, try Papersharp cocktails for one night only.

Sunday Brunch Workshops – Open every Sunday in August, a special guest will share  their knowledge and skills and allow visitors to experiment with their own Paper cutting. Free entry and open to all from 10am-5pm on 31^st August, and 7^th, 14^th and 21^st September.

The Artists Talk - A special series of curated talks featuring world renowned artists from the Paper Cut exhibition, including Rob Ryan, Shotopop, Elise and more. Tickets cost £5, but find more on each talk here.
 
 

Feeling inspired?

The private view of Paper Cut will take place on 28^th August, from 6-10pm.

Read more on the exhibition here. 

Summertime is the season for prizes in the art world. The Griffin Art Prize, the Aesthetica Art Prize, the UpStArt sixth form art prize – they’re all out there asking for entries and we thought it wouldn’t hurt to add another prestigious award to the mix.

The Daiwa Foundation Art Prize offers a British artist a solo show at a gallery in Tokyo, Japan. Sound exciting enough? There’s more!

As well as an exhibition, the winner receives £5000 and introductions to key individuals and organisations in the Japanese contemporary art world.

The prize is open to all British artists who live in the UK, and who have not held a solo exhibition in Japan before. 

Previous winners included Marcus Coates in 2009, and Haroon Mirza in 2012.

The Judging Panel

The judges this year include Hideki Aoyama, Gallery Director at Meguro Gallery in Tokyo, Mami Kataoka, Chief Curator of Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Jonathan Watkins, Director of Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, and artists Richard Deacon and Chris Orr RA.

How To Apply 

Entry is free, and you can apply online.

You must submit documentation of four recent works, in any medium – painting, photography, drawing sculpture, installation, video – there are no limitations!

You must also submit a CV and personal statement.

The judging panel select a shortlist of three artists, and works by all three are exhibited at the Daiwa Foundation, Japan House Gallery.

The closing date for applications is 30^th September 2014.

Shortlisted artists will be announced on 24^th October 2014.

Feeling inspired?

Apply for the Daiwa Foundation Art Prize here. 

Image Credit

Haroon Mirza, Falling Rope, 2013. Installation view in SCAI THE BATHHOUSE. Photo Nobutada Omote, Sandwich. Courtesy the artist, Daiwa Art Foundation and SCAI THE BATHHOUSE

Feel that summer sun on your face and get your drawing pad and pencils out. It's summer and time to sketch your surroundings whilst you top up your tan, as the art masters of long ago surely did. (You never know...)

We've put together some classic sketches to help inspire your seasonal doodling, because we want everyone to be able to Sketch Your Summer. Rough drawings are sometimes the most liberating of all, offering the most raw medium of thought moving onto paper; so take some inspiration from the great artists that sketched alongside their greater works. 

 

MC Escher’s Castrovalva

The Dutchman’s piece might have been plucked from a latter-day Lord of the Rings set. It is, in fact, an Italian village which sits precariously atop a precipitous slope. The foreground sees a snail and a beetle, while angry cotton wool clouds hang almost 3D like from the sky. Picture perfect. 

Eugene Delacroix’s Chopin

With the Roman nose and tortured expression, the Polish composer has rarely been captured better than in this sketch by the 19th-century French Romanticist.

Albrecht Durer’s Study of Three Hands

Many artists love drawing people until they reach the most problematic of features...the hand. Just to prove that this limb didn’t faze him, it’s also worth checking out his Praying Hands.

 

Leonardo Da Vinci’s Study of Crabs

Has there ever been as compulsive a sketcher as Da Vinci? He evidently thought it was time to sketch on the beach with this anatomically correct study of two crustaceans. 

 

Alan Lee’s Helm’s Deep

Does Lee’s stunning, fantastical landscape look familiar? It should do. The Middlesex-born artist and prolific sketcher is the man behind the Lord of the Rings sketchbook.

Image Credits - Pinterest 

Art connoisseurs are being invited to become Ben Stiller and enjoy their own night at the museum - after the facility is locked to the public next week. Robots will be exploring the gallery and shining lights on the artworks, in a project called After Dark, but what's most exciting is that you can control these robots yourself, and steer them using the internet.

After Dark’s immersive online experience will give visitors the chance to remotely drive internet-controlled robots and create a fascinating virtual tour of Tate Britain over five nights.

How does it work?

Viewers simply log in at the right time, and four museum-based machines will be operated through the special portal provided to take you on one of four tours.

As the robots roam through Tate Britain’s corridors from room to room, their camera shines on the exhibits, enabling viewers to read about them.

There is a time limit for each robot user. Those who don’t control the robots can still enjoy all the fun and action by tuning in to the Tate’s robot-cam to view British art spanning five centuries.

The IK Prize

After Dark, which began on 13th August, is part of the inaugural IK Prize from Tate Britain. 

This celebrates creative talent within the digital sector, and judges included Jimmy Wales, the Wikipedia founder.

The Workers, London-based designers who have been awarded £70,000 to introduce the project this summer, devised the idea the virtual tour idea. 

Ross Cairns, David Di Duca and Tommaso Lanza aim to give viewers the chance to see art in a “different light” - by exploring the Tate's treasures in the dark...

 

What can I see?

You will be spoilt for choice with more than 70,000 pieces of intriguing British art dating back 500 years from the current date. There is also international contemporary and modern art hanging inside the gallery, waiting to be stumbled upon that night.

Many of these will be included on one of the quartet of tours available.

The biggest challenge will be knowing where to start: Constable, Turner, Hockney, Bacon, Blake, Moore, Spencer are among the luminaries exhibited here.

Feeling Inspired?

After Dark will go live online on 16th-17th August (10pm-3am) and 15th August (from 7.30pm) at Tate Britain.

Read more here to find out how to get involved. 

Image Credits -

Image 1 - After Dark robot with Jacob Epstein's Rock Drill

After Dark, The IK Prize

Photography: Alexey Moskvin c 2014 

 Image 2 - After Dark robot with Henry Thomson's The Raising of Jairus’ Daughter 1820

After Dark, The IK Prize

Photography: Alexey Moskvin c 2014 

Nothing brings out the best in artists like the sunny summer months, and this August we've been celebrating Sketch Your Summer, to promote all things drawing over the holiday season.

As the warmer weather draws closer to its end, we think about five paintings that best depict the sunshine season - splashes, strawberries and all.

David Hockney’s A Bigger Splash

Could anyone resist visiting their cooling local swimming baths after viewing this 1967 gem at The Tate? A hot sky, two palm-style trees, a vacated diving board and chair plus an enigmatic, tell-tale splash. Hockney’s seemingly infinite versatility is again portrayed here in this pop art celebration of simplicity which captured the British imagination at the time. It took him a fortnight to capture a high-summer happening that lasted but two seconds. Which unsung jumped into the pool? Alas, that question will forever go unanswered. Hockney told The Tate five years ago that he painted it from a photograph.

Sir Robert Ponsonby Staples and George Hamilton Barables’ An Imaginary Cricket Match: England v Australia at Lord’s

Has there been a more famous painting of our summer game? All the classic ingredients are there: the two oldest foes, England and Australia in the white heat of battle at the most sacred of all grounds, Lord’s. The piece today hangs in the Lord’s Pavilion’s writing room for visitors to enjoy. Painted in 1887, it depicts the Victorian fashions of the time under a benign sky with a boundary fielder bending down to stop the ball. You can almost hear the sizzle of chatter among the crowd as he does so.

Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin’s Basket With Wild Strawberries

Nothing says high summer’s here like strawberries, whether it’s a symbol of Wimbledon or a family picnic. So it is with the French painter’s 1761 masterpiece. He brings the fruit to life exuding latent heat. Chardin also proves instructive to any artists who have deliberated for hours about the best way to tackle painting a glass of water.

Pieter Bruegel’s The Harvesters 

The Dutchman’s 1565 classic captures the pleasant tiredness of farm labourers at harvest time. Bruegel skilfully leads the viewer down August’s scythed wheatfield path into the remote distance with one hand. Then he concentrates their focus on the picnicking peasants watching three crop-cutting colleagues with the other. There is so much going on in this painting that it almost defies your eye never to drop out of it.

Claude Monet’s Poppy Field

Perhaps the most iconic summer painting of them all. This red-led riot of colour shows Monet at his most satisfied in a plain in the Parisienne commune of Gennevilliers in 1873. Almost bordering on abstraction, the heat almost drips off the canvas as women with parasols stroll through the waist-high fields. It is the best of a collection of summer meadows immortalised by Monet on canvas.

Image Credits:

Image 1 - A Bigger Splash by David Hockney, John Stillwell/PA Wire

A recognisable sweep of a road, the sheen of rain in the air. A lonely chair, cast in shadow, a turned head, a broken sky – a memory, fragmented on the canvas.

All of these things can be found in the poetic paintings of Sarah Shaw, an artist who exhibited in the National Open Art Competition 2013. This year she is a finalist in the Threadneedle Art Prize, and she is currently working closely with the BBC on a project that is yet to be unveiled.

Shaw’s work hovers in the space between figuration and abstraction, and conveys above all the sense of the human condition – hopes, fears and secrets weave throughout the layers of paint, familiar objects and abstracted brush strokes. 

Cass Art wanted to know more about her painterly technique, and the dialogue she has with her paintings. 

 

Can you tell us a little about your paintings?

I tend to go through different phases with painting, though at the base of all my work is the wish to make images that reflect something of the sense of being a human – with all our passions, our fears, our loves and changing emotions.  There is also an overriding theme of trying to convey a sense of time.  I have always been unsatisfied with imagery that simply reflects reality. I feel the need to disrupt a simple picture plane or a single image with some kind of fracture, which seems to reveal something more multi-faceted and emotionally real than a straightforward depiction.

What are your favourite art materials to work with and why?

My favourite brand of paint is the Michael Harding oil paints. These paints are handmade using linseed oil and without the use of fillers and extenders resulting in a strength and luxuriance of colour which is hard to beat. I very rarely use anything other than oils, though whilst I am roughing out the initial stages of a painting I will use a cheaper artist quality oil paint.

 

In terms of my favourite surface to work on it has to be oil on canvas or linen. I enjoy the idea of making contemporary paintings on such a conventional surface, and nothing can beat the wonderful, glossy, oozy feel of oil paint.

What did you show in the National Open Art Competition last year and how did the exhibition benefit your practice?

Last year I was lucky enough to have two paintings selected for the National Open. The paintings were entitled Rorschach Head II and Beast. I felt very privileged to show work not just at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester but also, excitingly, at the Royal College of Art. The huge thing that happened as a result of being selected was that Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood bought one of my paintings... I am still pinching myself about that one! The National Open have been very supportive throughout the experience and the benefits have had far reaching consequences, not least being included in a television project to be aired later in the year.

Your work involves building up and stripping down the surface of the painting, but how do you go about this in terms of painterly technique?

I tend to think a lot about new paintings; I write my ideas down and collate imagery that I then use as reference material for the painting. I then make a kind of painterly collage to work from before I begin. The initial process is often a very speedy affair with the image being roughly blocked in, and the ideas at this stage are usually quite strong, but I allow the process of making to speak to me, to allow some flexibility within the process. It’s almost like a dialogue between myself and the painting. During this dialogue there are different tones of voice, some soft, some loud, some angry, some visceral...areas are lovingly painted in and then swept away with a big swipe of a paintbrush. My paintings change a lot during this process and I want them to retain a sense of this dialogue.

 

In this way your paintings seem like hazy memories, a sight or sound that you cannot quite remember. Do you recall your own memories on some level when you paint or is it purely about process?

I think for painting to be honest it needs to connect with emotions. In this sense, yes, I recall memories on one level though I have no interest in simple autobiographical depictions. I have made paintings that have felt very emotional at the time and have not really realised why until in retrospect. I do try to let go of a need to control the process too much. I am not a slave to my ideas though I find if I let go, through one circuitous route or another, I tend to reach the same place I had initially envisaged.  I'm glad you mentioned the senses as I do have an interest in conveying not just semi-recognisable imagery but different senses like sounds and peripheral vision, which is often echoed in the titles of the paintings. 

What is your studio like?

My studio is a ramshackle old garret of a hut. It has a very interesting heritage being the old studio of artists such as Dan Baldwin, Chris Kettle and Simon Dixon to name a few. It's an old fire station, interestingly made of wood which tells you how old it is, and still has the hole for the fireman’s pole, though unfortunately not the pole itself!  The floor is uneven, it feels like walking around on an old boat when you're in there, but the light is beautiful and the ceilings are high. I sometimes get rained on inside the studio but I have an umbrella there and I just stick on a hat and get on with it. It would not be to everyone's taste but it is to mine. It suits me and I love it!

 

What are you working on at the moment?

I have a lot going on at the moment! I've been working on a project with the BBC...I'm not allowed to publicise anything further about what this is, but suffice to say, it has been very nerve wracking but really exciting!

I've also just had my painting pre-selected for the Threadneedle Art Prize. I have been exhibiting on Cork Street as part of the Cork Street Open, and have two paintings in the East Sussex Open at the wonderful Towner gallery in Eastbourne. I'm in an incredible group show called Pushing Paint at the Ink_d Gallery in Brighton, another fabulous show in the Lawrence Alkin gallery in London, and have my own solo show at the Naked Eye Gallery in Hove, Brighton. I've been waiting for a bus for a long, long time and the equivalent of ten have come along at once...its hectic but amazing and I am appreciating every single second of it.

Feeling inspired?

You can visit Sarah Shaw’s website here.

Comics and graphic novels are an art form in their own right. Manga, anime, Marvel and DC comics - they all have their diehard fans and, not surprisingly, some notable artists and illustrators are simply born to sketch these cultivated cartoons.

One young artist, David Lovell, is thirteen years old and a Cass Art enthusiast, with a talent for drawing comics and an imagination for story-telling. His idea of a great day out is to visit our Islington Flagship and shop for drawing materials so he can continue creating his comic books.

It may be that Back To School time, but David will leave the fruit-drawing curriculum in the classroom and carry on drawing his own comics at home. We wanted to share his extraordinary cartoons, and find out where it all began (incidentally, it began with a blue hedgehog. But do read on for more detail.)

Hi David! Please tell us - how did you get into drawing?

I started drawing from as early as I can remember, but I had a massive fascination with stationery! In year 4 I drew a picture that was inspired by a screen print and then realised that I was actually quite good at art. I always wanted to paint pictures that would hang in galleries but my good friends Jo and Olly, who are three years older than me, were really good at drawing cartoons and taught me how to draw Sonic.

I then got hooked on drawing crazy cartoons until I was introduced to Anime. After that my friends and I would spend hours at school during breaks drawing Manga (with pointless ideas that at the time we thought were cool). I had a really great teaching assistant who I introduced Manga to and we would debate about Naruto for hours. I initially created my comic 'Blood Wing' as a leaving present for him when I was 11 years old.

 

What is it you like about comics, and how did you discover them? 

I discovered comics when my older brother Syd introduced me to an Anime called 'Dragonball'. I instantly fell in love with the art style, the expression and the exciting story that could go from serious to comedy at any moment. The comic book that I am now making was one of the first stories that I completed when I was 11 years old. I've since developed the story many times and even though the art work was pretty primitive back then, it was so great that I was free to put in whatever I loved about comics and Manga.

My current favourite comic out there is 'Chew' by John Layman and Rob Guillory. I got to meet John Layman at the London Super Comicon in March (I totally geeked out!) and he was very supportive of what I was doing. I also really love 'The Walking Dead'. Unbelievably, they have the first ten books at my school in the Library!  

How do you make your comics, and where do your ideas come from?

Well most of my ideas come from the original comics I drew, but my main influences are from Japanese Manga like 'Hunter x Hunter' and Naruto or Anime movies like 'Akira', 'Spirited Away' and 'How'ls Moving Castle'. I spend hours and hours researching artwork and stories to improve my own.

The story of my comic book 'Bloodwing' revolves around Haku, an ex-leader of the 5th group of the skulls (a group of people with special abilities that run Tokyo) who tries to escape his past. But after two years he gets caught up investigating a case where now 15 members of the Skulls have been assassinated by a shady group of ruthless killers. When he starts to connect the dots he is forced to go back to his old group and find the man who ordered the attacks.

 

Which art materials couldn't you live without?

I work on many different types of Bristol Board paper, but have recently fallen in love with Canson Illustration Paper (90lbs). I always use Winsor & Newton Black Indian Ink applied with a Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable Hair Brush (from sizes 00-3). My drawing pencil is an H Derwent Graphic Pencil, and a Daler Rowney Simply Rubber. Sometimes I draw with the Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pens in grey.

I also use Deleter Screen Tone, which I wish Cass Art would sell as I currently get it from Japan and it's £10 for four sheets!

What do you want to do when you grow up?

I'm really clear that my goal is to make comics for Image Comics. I want my comic to be published by them.

Do your art classes at school help with your artwork?

I mainly work on them at home as we follow the curriculum of drawing fruit!