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Friday 27 July 2012

other opening ceremonies


At Nine o’clock tonight the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony will start and probably run for a little over 13 hours (I’m writing this in June and feeling very disillusioned by the hype). If you can’t bear to watch the spectacle then here are two alternative opening ceremonies that may well prove less of an Olympic ordeal to get through (see what I done there?)

Friday 20 July 2012

Friday Songs

This week we celebrate that most quintessential of rock ‘n’ roll instruments, the descant recorder…
recorder_class_68





If you're impatient it's at 1.52...

Wednesday 18 July 2012

The Art of Children's Books Exhibition at Rheged (near Penrith) ((near Carlisle))

The Illustrators: The Art of Children's Books
Curated by Julia Donaldson

10 Jul 2012 - 2 Sep 2012
10.30am - 16.30pm daily

Rheged 01

The Illustrators is an exhibition brought together by Children’s Laureate, Julia Donaldson.  Julia has selected some of the best illustrations from her own books in an exhibition that tells the story of the relationship between the author and the illustrator.  The exhibition shows the work of  sixteen different artists including Axel Scheffler whose characterful illustrations of the Gruffalo have become hugely popular

Rheged 02

Rheged 03

Tuesday 17 July 2012

It’s Holliday Time!

No we haven’t made a typo… we’re celebrating some recent achievements of talented illustration graduate, Miss Amy Holliday.
Amy, who graduated in June last year, certainly hasn’t been letting the grass grow under her feet. Regular readers of the blog (Beuler… anyone… Beuler…) will remember Amy’s love of all things nature related and that she was the winner of last year’s Computer Arts Excellence Award for Illustration. Well, that love of nature saw her make it through to the finals of the BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year 2012 competition.
amy holliday 03  
Sadly she wasn’t the winner but we don’t think she will mind as she’s just been taken on by top international Illustration Agency, Lemonade!
You can read what they think of her here on their Blog.
Well done Amy, Grillust™ is proud of you.
amy holliday 01
amy holliday 02

Saturday 14 July 2012

It's Bastille Day!





Friday 13 July 2012

Friday randoms

Wednesday 11 July 2012

We’re In With the ‘In’ Crowd…

… and we certainly go where the ‘in’ crowd goes.
Of that, there can be know doubt, as the following photographic images will dramatically demonstrate.

You’ve no doubt heard of Harper’s Bazaar (formerly Harper’s and Queen), Tatler and if we drop our standards for a moment, Hello!
Well, even more exclusive* than these well-known ‘society’ rags is Carlisle’s very own Carlisle Living. Each month the society pages (situated toward the back of the magazine) are eagerly scanned by wannabes and starlets hoping to see themselves captured in print for eternity. This dream would obviously make their otherwise sad and empty lives complete, but tragically for them, this rarely, if ever happens. However in the crazy world of Grillust™, dreams regularly become reality.

Gaze on in envy as you see various Grillust™ operatives, students and friends socialise at that most glittering event in Cumbria’s social calendar, The University of Cumbria Exhibition private view.
 
Cover 02 
Cover 03

Friend of Grillust™ (no, that’s not a euphemism) and Reader in Fine Art, Mr. Mark Wilson is the coolest person we know, so cool in fact that he was the subject of a four page feature in the very same issue! You can see how cool he is on the cover (below) and ladies, please remember, it’s always your night when Mark’s in town…
Cover
 
*small circulation figures.

Monday 9 July 2012

More from New Blood

Here are a few more miscellaneous images taken during our recent foray to the nation’s capital.
Hands across

Hands across the Pennines.
Grillust™ ‘supremo’ Captain Simon Davies extends the hand of friendship to his opposite number at the University of Northumbria, Mr. Mike ‘the mauler’ Pinkney.

Gilbert & George

Gilbert and George.
As world famous artists Gilbert & George live just across the road from the New Blood venue we thought we might well bump in to them and sure enough we did. That’s Gilbert/George on the left and George/Gilbert on the right.

Glen Splendid sideburns sir!
Lot’s of old friends came by to say hello including ex Grillust™ operative and facial hair champion, Mr. Glen Robinson. Glen now lectures at the University of Lincoln and continues to make exciting work with his partner Rebecca. You can see their projects here.

Friday 6 July 2012

friday randoms

Wednesday 4 July 2012

4th July Song

Grillust™ at New Blood

Our students exhibited at the D&AD graduate showcase New Blood in London last week. It was a hectic(and hot) three days with lots going on which you can read about and see on the New Blood live blog here.
The event took place in the Old Spitalfields Market in the trendy East End, adjacent to Brick Lane, of Brick Lane Market fame.
The surrounding area was so cool and trendy that we lost count of the number of fixed wheel bicycles, tall, elegantly quaffed ‘guys’ wearing pedal pushers and boat shoes and young ladies who looked like Rosie the Riveter that we saw. In fact, if you want to get a feel for the genius loci watch this.
As usual we carried everything down on the train. An advance party – Rhiannon Robinson (33) – travelled down the day before (Monday) with the exhibition banners. The exhibition stand was therefore speedily decorated during the Tuesday morning set up.
Exhibition StandTuesday 2pm – the stand ready for action…
D&AD, like most organisations are obviously feeling the financial pinch, as this year they didn’t even supply tablecloths, water or more than one chair. The ever resourceful Rhiannon procured a tablecloth from a nearby branch of Brentford Nylons.
The exhibition stand was staffed by our ever helpful students, working in two hour shifts and it would be fair to say that they were incredibly busy over the two days it was open to the public.
Interior Panorama1
The troops assemble for a final briefing from H.R.H. The Typographer Royal™.
D&AD laid on various speakers and events (including one-to-one portfolio tutorials) but the main draw remains the large numbers of design professionals who visit the exhibition looking for emerging talent. Our students’ portfolios were pawed over and scrutinised and business cards were exchanged. It’s still early days but we can already confirm that one student has been offered a job, others paid internships and many received offers of interesting illustration/design commissions from a range of businesses (from publishing to the world of high fashion).
New Blood External Panorama
No, it’s not a battery farm, it’s New Blood!
Although Spitalfields market has real character, the space allocated to the exhibition this year was fairly tight (as you can see in the image above). This made navigating around a very busy exhibition space fairly difficult and the high number of visitors, coupled with very high temperatures, effectively turned New Blood into a sauna. It should be noted however that even in these conditions, the ultra cool kept their cardigans on…
Tired and
I just wasn’t made for these climes… A tired and emotional ‘Man of the North’, Dwayne Bell (33) pictured just before he melted.
Jimmy
Whereas… James Meacock (21) was perfectly at home in the sub-tropical environment. It should also be noted that James is a ‘cool’ person (note presence of cardigan).
The Team
The four Grillust™ operatives attending say hello (and goodbye).