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Drink & Draw (August 2022)

9/3/2022

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Portraits

In August we focused on portraits, inspired by a fun and frenzied online portrait session online during lockdown of 2021.
Despite drink & draw usually being a relaxed affair, this month we all followed suit and did the same drawing tasks- one minute portraits of everyone in attendance, then a five minute portrait and two ten minute portraits. Even the lighting in The Park Pub was perfect to have a well- lit sitter!
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Body & Soul at The Higgins Bedford

8/15/2022

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On a hot Saturday afternoon Katie visited The Higgins Bedford to take in their current art exhibition- as well as enjoy the air conditioning!
Body & Soul is an exhibition of artworks exploring how women have been represented in art over the past two centuries. The Higgins Bedford has an extensive collection of artwork by celebrated artists and you can see works by Edgar Degas, Edvard Munch, Dora Carrington, Stanley Spencer, Henri Matisse, Gwen John, Roy Lichtenstein, Lucian Freud and Chila Burman.
The exhibition considers how women's bodies have been used by male artists, alongside how they have been viewed by women artists. When looking at the exhibition, it is worth considering the reasons why women of colour, trans women and disabled women are not represented in the collection- and in the wider art world. 
The exhibition continues until 2 October 2022, and is free!
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Drink and Draw

7/27/2022

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Pub Signs

​Tuesday 26 July the Circus of illustration had a night of drinking and drawing at The Park Pub in Bedford. The theme was pub signs.

Throughout the month, leading up to this D&D, we looked for design inspiration. We discovered an artist from Oxfordshire called Michael Farrer-Bell via a British Pathè film from the 1950s. We watched contemporary artist, Dave Young at work. He runs a workshop for Wadworth Brewery. We also looked at a recent Green King advertising campaign. Designer, Dave Newbold, used the pub sign aesthetic in the poster campaign to encourage Londoners to go back to the boozer after the pandemic.
We also had a lot of fun looking at our local pub signs in Bedford and doing little quizzes on social media.
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At drink and draw we used a random pub name generator created by Marisa. We threw a 20 sided dice twice and drew results. Thanks for letting us use your dice Katie! 


Here are our creations from the night. Don’t you wish these pubs were real? It would make a magical pub crawl! 


Next drink and draw is on Tuesday 30 August 2022. We hope to see you all soon.
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Illustrators Fair Roadtrip

7/18/2022

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Howdy folks, Kristina here, first-time poster on the COI blog, but long time member of the COI committee!
 
Since 2020, there have been so many things we’ve missed out on but one of the things I’ve missed the most has been illustration fairs! I love seeing so many talented people in one room, love seeing all the beautiful and varied styles people work in and love seeing what they’re passionate about show through in their art.
 
As such, I was thrilled to learn that @illustratorsfair were hosting a market in London last Saturday at Granary Square. I arrived at about 1pm and the area around St Pancras was buzzing. It was another glorious day and there were scores of children and their families playing in the fountains outside the impressive Central St Martins building that was hosting the fair.
 
Stepping into the (blissfully) cool interior, I came face to face with 100 stallholders proudly touting their wears. I honestly did not know where to look for all the beautiful art on display! There were children’s picture books, cute cards, stickers galore, fun risograph zines and all kinds of printmaking on offer. I didn’t realise I was going to write a blog about this so forgive my terrible picture, but it looked a bit like this…
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At these events, I’m always on the lookout for a new piece of art to adorn my walls so took time to carefully asses my options. I did a couple of laps, chatted to a few of the stall holders and, because there were so many amazingly talented people there, made a list of all the artists to follow when I got home! (For real, at least 30 artists will be getting a follow in the next week.) I was tempted by some enormous painterly crows, some beautifully illustrated sharks, a t-shirt with a T-rex magician, and buckets full of hilarious button badges but in the end I came home with what I think is a pretty stellar haul…
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To check out more work from the amazing people exhibiting last weekend, please do have a look through the Illustrators Fair Instagram, where all the artists have a highlight on their grid. Supporting independent artists supports our community and helps make someones illustration dream a reality.

So, all this to say, next time you hear there’s an art fair nearby, get yourself down there! I left with a bag full of unique gifts and goodies, feeling great that I’d supporting some super talented artists and inspired to pick up a pencil (or stylus) for myself.

If you know of any great local events coming up, then do share with us on our socials and we'll be happy to help promote.

Until next time folks!

​Kristina 
 

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May The Fourth Be With You

6/2/2022

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May's Sci-Fi themed Drink & Draw

 This month we were inspired by Star Wars Day. After lots of great ideas about designing bunkers and space ships, we decided to design sci-fi interiors. We had an evil banquet hall, circular garden and a winter garden amongst others!
Looking forward to next month's Drink and Draw of wacky rhyming illustrations- as always we are at the Park Pub on Kimbolton Road, Bedford MK40 2PF, on the last Tuesday of the month.
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The Inaugural Blog Post By The Circus of illustration

9/30/2021

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Marisa here! I can't believe we've been running The Circus of Illustration for almost ten years and we haven't thought about blogging until now.

Why Are You Blogging?

The point of this blog is to add extra fresh content and news to this website.  We're going to take it in turns to write here every fortnight. We'll be able to cover all sorts of topics related to illustration in Bedford.  We'll blog about upcoming events (like drink and draw), people that inspire us, our working life and all sorts of shizz that takes our fancy!  We want you to enjoy reading the blog, so let us know if there is anything that you'd like us to write about .

What's Drink and Draw?

On the last Tuesday of every month we head to the pub for a cosy social. It's simply a creative evening of drawing with a drink. We meet at The Park in Bedford. It starts at 7:30 pm.

Want to know if you’ll fit in?? Drink and Draw is for ALL grown ups!
* Chat with new people who like creative stuff
* Do some no-pressure doodling and get inspiration and tips from others
* No membership, no signing up, it's free to just join in
* All abilities welcome

Check out these snaps from our Drink and Draw from Tuesday 28th September, 2021. The theme was 'Back at the Boozer' because it was the first face to face D&D since the pandemic. We designed our own beer labels, beer mats and beer cans.
Hopefully this sounds like something you'd like to try in Bedford. See you at the next one in October! Bye for now x

Author

Marisa has been employed as an inhouse greeting cards designer since 2005. She specialises in cute, soft and cuddly characters as well as traditional floral and lifestyle scenes for Doodle Press Ltd, a design and illustration studio based in East Lancashire. Marisa sells folk style lino prints on Etsy. She has been seen playing the banjo.

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    Author

    Katie, Kristina, Marisa, Raj and Elly from The Circus of Illustration are blogging about illustration events in Bedford, UK

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