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I’ve recently had another chance to collaborate with artist Vineta Gailite. Vineta’s hand-made dolls, sculptures and shadow puppet theatre work, Imaginary Islands, are beautiful, eery and full of atmosphere. I love the way each of her pieces tells a story or draws on one. For our last project together, I commissioned Vineta to make some special puppets and…
As part of Chorlton Arts Festival, John Brewer and I will be taking wet plate portraits for this two-day event on Saturday May 24th and Sunday May 25th organised by Michele Selway in a pop-up shop on Chorlton High Road. Chorlton Arts Festival is one of the UK’s leading multi-arts festivals. Now in its 14th year, the festival showcases local and…
I had a great day last Thursday making ambrotypes with artist Vineta Gailite. Vineta’s hand-made dolls, sculptures and recent shadow puppet theatre work, Imaginary Islands, are beautiful, eery and full of atmosphere. I love the way each of her pieces tells a story or draws on one. I’ve commissioned Vineta to make a special doll for the youngest member of our family, Violet…
Recently, I participated in an international wet plate series called The Mask Series. The project was coordinated by Shane Balkowitsch who assembled 150 alternative photographers from over 25 countries, making the series the largest international wet plate collaboration since Frederick Scott Archer first invented the process in 1848. The goal is to raise awareness for the…
I’m excited to learn that Jason Anscomb of Rawshock will be designing the jacket cover for my novel. I think his collage and design work is fab, e.g. this stylish cover (above). I’ve had a few ideas cover-wise, mainly involving the long, red hair of the main character, Oona, floating away from her in the underwater scene,…
Many thanks to Melissa Tricoire for this lovely review of John Brewer’s and my exhibition at the Double Negative Darkroom, Hackney! Here’s an extract – “Magic emanates from Brewer’s still lifes, creating a theatre of curiosities with human skulls, candles, medical instruments, tarot cards and other memento mori. The photographer’s series of acrylotype plates entitled Fragmented Dolls is…
An exhibition of unique photographic plates by John Brewer & Kate Horsley 8th December 2012 – 12th January 2013 at the Double Negative Darkroom 78a Glyn Road, Hackney, London E5 0JE; Launch event 8th December 2012 Growing out of the memento mori tradition of Renaissance Europe, vanitas is a genre of art that contemplates the transient nature of…
I had a lovely time at this year’s Manchester Artists’ Book Fair, selling books at the Hot Bed Bookstars table. As usual, there was a fantastic array of book artists from all over the UK in attendance, including Lucy May Schofield, Elizabeth Willow, Gemma Lacey and Sue Shaw, Oliver Flude and Lucy Roscoe. It was sheer pleasure to ogle and play…
Today, Sam and I completed the first day of John‘s excellent course in wet plate collodion at his studio. His studio is filled with a cornucopia of curious objects, large format cameras and Victorian lenses. During the course, we made images on tin, glass and plastic. Wet plate collodion is fantastic fun as well as being a beautiful artistic…
I’ve just been to the 6th Manchester Artists’ Book Fair, a free yearly event that celebrates book arts, small press publishing and traditional printmaking methods such as linocut, woodcut, etching, screen printing and letterpress. The fair included 50 stands showing artists’ books, zines and the works of small publishers from all around the UK. There were workshops and…