Tuesday 18 September 2012

images from my website






Theatre and Production - While selecting images for my website ( will be live this October) I realised how much I have produced since I set up as an artist in 1989.  The early work and exhibitions , the residencies and workshops in schools and galleries and the theatre work. I thought I'd load up some images here.

Miss havisham Design Andie Scott Written directed by Di Sherlock


This summer I designed and produced the set costumes and props for Miss Havisham's Expectations, written and directed by Di Sherlock, performed by Linda Marlowe, lighting design by Paul Green. It's had great reviews at Edinburgh Fringe (see links below) and is now touring. This has been a wonderful project to work on and to be part of an amazing team.

There is a design style that runs through all my work, paintings and production. These next images are of the set and costumes I produced for Dance Continuum for the performance 'Of Myths and Moon dragons' premiered at Sadlers Wells Theatre. 





 I enjoy working on the detail of a piece. Everything is a work of art. The many props for fringe theatre are always facinating, particularly when it is the only prop as in Naomi Paul's 'Reshape While Damp'. The hand painted Kafka Biscuit tin which she uses has the wonderful irony of the fact that Kafka died of starvation.

  In The Cinderella Story ( directed by Jo Girdleston) the challenge was to produce costumes for twenty young people which gave a sense of the ashes of the fire yet make everything with a budget of £100! The fish was made from newspaper,  kitchen roll and PVA glue - very Blue Peter!


 I freelanced as a master Artworker for Living Paintings, making the sculptural reliefs to complement the audio discriptions which allow partially sighted and blind people to read and 'see' paintings. It brought a new perspective to my work, particularly concerning accuracy and detail.

 
 
 Jacques Louis David's portrait of the revolutionary Marat assasinated in his bath. First sculpted in clay, a strong rubber mould is taken and then  cast with bronze effect fine casting resin and burnished. It was exhibited along side the painting at the Royal Accademy. I produced panels for many of their albums as well as the queen's collection.

Sometimes budgets fit the brief. I designed and made the objects on the tables for 'Breaking the Mould' exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery. Curated by Clare Gittings it was experienced by 18,000 visitors.


Everything needed to be robust to enable that many visitors to handle and explore the objects which explained the materials and methods of sculpture. 
 
               
 I collaborated with Clare Gittings and Roger Hargreaves at NPG on many schools and community sculpture workshops over a period of ten years.




Community involvement has always been part of my working practice. One of my favorite projects was an installation Jouet Unite- Dance in a box-I made with James Engel for the Royal Festival Hall and Islington Festival. It explored all manner of materials specifically aimed at under fives. It was a flat pack installation which could be transported to different locations. The 120cm panels each explored different sound, materials textures and could be put together in any combination.

The theatre work was my starting point in the art world. Apprenticing at Boundary Road studios in the late eighties gave me skills which have been forever developed. Backdrops I produced on canvas and plaster fifteen years ago stil have a fresh finish today.


The images from Sygiria in Sri Lanka (all in private collections) and clouds of cherubs are far removed from my painting for 9/11 memorial museum or the 1100 Tokens (see earlier posts on this blog)


Yet fifteen years after these works I was commission last year to turn a new plastered wall into a surface that looks as if it hasn't been touched in fifty years.



My work is always about being able to convey the message or brief using whatever medium is required to enable the concept to become reality. Budgets may range from £100 to £30,000 but the desire to produce something original and amazing never leaves me. At every step  I have had wonderful people to collaborate with and throw ideas around with.


We had some great reviews this summer for Miss Havisham's Expectations:

http://ed.thestage.co.uk/reviews/1505


http://www.whatsonstage.com/reviews/theatre/london/E8831344421121/Miss+Havisham%27s+Expectations.html

http://sgfringe.com/2012/08/13/miss-havishams-expectations/

http://edinburghfestival.list.co.uk/article/44027-miss-havishams-expectations/

http://www.festivalhighlights.com/the-times-give-4-stars-to-miss-havishams-expectations

http://www.lothianlife.co.uk/2012/08/miss-havershams-expectations/

many more ... and some lovely comments on  the costume / set design and Paul green's lighting...

Michael Coveney: Clever design and costumes by Andie Scott, and lighting by Paul Green, help Marlowe's mighty line in fringe fantasia: great riches, indeed, in a little room.

fringe guru: 'The iconic Miss Haversham look, a skeletal old lady in a decaying wedding dress, is created beautifully. And the costume design was my favourite part of this show; the two ‘Estella’ dresses are quite breathtaking, glistening like sweetie wrappers...'

and 'The cleverly designed costumes really added to the changing characters that Linda had to play.' 
here's just a few amazing people to acknowledge and thank:

James Engel-  designer of Breaking the Mould & Jouet Unite -  www.spacedout.co.uk
Di Sherlock - http://diningwithalice.co.uk/portfolio/cast-and-production-list/
Linda Marlowe -  http://www.lindamarlowe.com/
Paul Green - http://www.paulgreenld.com/Home%20New.htm
Eric Richmond - (first photo for Miss Havisham images) http://www.ericrichmond.net/

Clare Gittings - National Portrait Gallery http://www.scalapublishers.com/4fold.php?ID=198
Camilla Oldland - Living Paintings www.livingpaintings.org/
Michael Ho - of myths and moon dragons, http://www.elmhurstdance.co.uk/Michael-Ho.html
Josh Pulman - (photos for Of Myths and Moon dragons)- http://www.joshphoto.com/
Seabright Productions, www.seabrights.com/
Naomi Paul, http://www.fringereview.co.uk/fringeReview/4131.html

Peta Lily, peta@petalily.com
Roma Napoli - http://www.dix10.net
Black Sifichi -  http://www.blacksifichi.com  



City Plaza  Hong Kong - andie scott, james engel, roma napoli, photos by josh pulman

Thursday 9 August 2012






Today I am uploading my memorial painting onto the National September 11 Memorial Museum website of artists. The problem with this painting is that as a tiny image you cant see the individual portraits. 
Below is the piece I have written to go with my images.

911 : Memorial to 343 Firefighters Andie Scott
'911' depicts the portraits of all 343 firefighters who lost their lives while on duty at the World Trade Center on 11 th September 2001. I chose to paint the firefighters because they are a-political, there to save life at a risk to their own. I felt a compelling need to express the 9/11 tragedy in my work.


I started to draw the firefighter’s portraits on September 20th 2001, using memorial notices on the web and newspaper articles. It took six months to produce the portrait drawings and paint them onto the canvas. 

Detail
A thin blue line walks across a canvas to create an image of the firefighters standing shoulder to shoulder, alphabetically, in rows from top left to bottom right. I had been working with this abstract style since 1998, and in this painting the broken lines express loss and grief.
When I showed the painting to Firefighters at Duane Street, New York in 2002 I stood silent and humbled as they kept pointing out their lost friends on the canvas.
The solo firefighter paintings are from the individual portraits I painted of some of the firefighters. I received this letter after my visit with the painting in 2002. 
Raymond Downey

Dear Ms. Scott:
Since September 11, 2001 we have all been moved by the tremendous outpouring of support from across the country and around the world. I would like to thank you for sharing your artwork with us, and indeed for showing your solidarity with the fallen in creating this work.
I will be forwarding your beautiful artwork to the wife of Ff. Joseph Angelini Sr,. The Angelini family was the only FDNY family that lost a firefighter father and a firefighter son on September 11, 2002. Your artwork of Joseph Angelini Sr. will, I am sure, be of comfort to this family.
As we look ahead with hope, know that we are stronger for this expression of support from you.
Sincerely yours,
Evelyn Tesoriero
New York City Fire Department
Family Assistance Unit
Karl Joseph
 


911 forms part of 'World Tragedy' a series of my paintings which challenges the way the news and media moves from one tragic situation to another filling us with emotions and a desire to act. The 'sound bites' of the world move on and we are expected to as well. But the memory and emotion of those who have lost family and friends continues.
'World Tragedy' is about making a mark through painting to make sure we do not forget situations that continue to cause that level of distress and outrage that we felt when it was called ‘breaking news’. '911' is the first completed painting. 





'911' is difficult to convey the impact on the website registry of artists. 
I have included an image of all the drawings I made with each firefighter's name. The painting is in oil on linen and measures 18” x 96”. I would like to see it hung at the National September 11 Memorial Museum.
andie scott, flexitron studio, 46 penton street,London, n1 9qa
andie.scott@btinternet.com 07880911488

Monday 28 May 2012

Fringe Arts Bath



I'm really delighted to have been selected for the  Fringe Arts Bath open, a new bi-annual competition and exhibition with work selected from artists practising contemporary art in the fields of painting, print, drawing, photography, film, sound, sculpture, installation, and
performance.

My painting 'Tsunami' is 250,000 counted white lines painted in 24 hours

On the day of a Tsunami, 26th December 2004, it was estimated that 250,000
people had been killed within 24 hours. The images stayed in my head and I had to
record it. Some years later I decided to paint a line for each of these people and to do it
within 24 hours . Over time the official figures of death changed and by the end of six
weeks it was nearly 300,000.



It forms part of the World Tragedy series which are paintings and installations which challenge the way the news and media move from one tragic situation to another, filling us with emotions and a desire to act. Then the 'sound bites' of the world move on and we are expected to as well and a tragedy is forgotten. This work is concerned with mark-making that transcends the media hype and keeps in our minds the outrage that we felt when it was first called ‘breaking news’.
'1100 Tokens'
This installation marks the 1100 Burmese monks arrested in 2007.
 I have completed 700 portraits so far. Planning a touring exhibition for 2013 at the moment.

I had a great time at the busy FaB opening on friday. A facinating series of curated shows at the Old Officers club in stall street. for info on Fringe arts Bath see link below.

http://www.fringeartsbath.co.uk/

Wednesday 18 April 2012

Great Expectations for summer 2012

Great Expectations

Busy working away on a rainy day on the costumes and set for
'Miss Havisham's Expectations', written and directed by Di SAherlock and performed by Linda Marlowe.
Exciting project to get my teeth into because I want it to feel as though the stage and characters are a painting.....

Then there's the London Festival of Architecture project Platform 9 with Spaced Out Architecture Studio and movingartsbase....

I'm writing the old stories of Kings Cross... how it was the last stand for Boudicca and was called Battle Bridge... how the Fleet River was full of healing wells around Kings Cross until it became an open sewer.
These stories form the seed for the contact dancers to perform at the London Festival of Architecture on the weekend of 6th - 8th July. The performance and drawings produced will be exhibited at the Flexitron Gallery

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Cerulean Blue ... inspiration and pictures



Dear friends and readers,

This post places some visuals to Cerulean Blue, a fantasy novel...

I am starting the reproof of it because there are the e-pub errors and because I am sending it out to some new agents who have expressed an interest....

but here we go....

The front cover is symbolic of the picture world and Leon's way through, takes from the outside of Hironymous bosch's triptych of 'The garden of Earthly delights.

Below is a detail of the right hand panel from Hell which Leon studies right at the beginning of the book...

Here is the image of the Inn a painting in the National Gallery where they are blamed for breaking the eggs.

Abe the carthorse is a little known painting I found a couple of years ago, hidden in a corner of the gallery. I have tried to refind it but without success...


But the Alchemist lurks in one of the small rooms still.

Leon Manny and Jude hide in a Gauguin painting until they know the gallery is closed, swimming in a coral sea ....

until it is time to find Uchello's George and the dragon where all is not as the painting suggests...

Here is Horace in the Prince's dining room waiting for Manny to be able to step out of the painted world.


While Stubb's whistlejacket the race horsehas very little brains only brawn...


I was inspired by this painting where the snake in the garden of Eden is not really a snake... It enabled me to mix together the characters of mythology and religion. In this case the snake Jormungard and Ouruboros become one lizard-like serpentine creature.

The Prince and Zoe.....

and for Zoe, modelled on the self portrait by Artemesia Gentillesci she is depicted filled with passion sadness and regret when she becomes the weeping woman of Picasso's Jaqueline.

When they arrive at the Louvre Paris, Manny's money changer is this picture


Without telling you the whole story... when they enter a Surrealist picture world, away from the National Gallery and into the Tate Modern, they enter first Miro's painting

... which leads them to Dali's famous clocks...

and the disintegration of the persistence of memory...

Can't tell you any more or I'll give the ending away!

But back to another strand of the story... the mythical gods like Loki, Blake's Urizen, Orc and Albion and the devil

I found more inspiration from lithographs woodcuts and etchings...

which in turn lead me to write of Jude's journey , the narrow escape from Picasso's Minotaur

and later her friend Barney the dog is modelled on this painting

The view over the lake at the Price's palace and it's golden river is this inspiration....

My son gave me made up names and some great images he has created for the Night Tormentors.......

So the major battle scenes.... are of course...

Hell

Fall of the rebel Angels, by Bruegel

and Kandinsky's composition 6, the abyss


I won't give away the ending... but hope you read it!

.... locations with photos will be coming in my next blog and an explanation...