Deck the halls

I've been printing up some bunting to decorate Mr. Millicent Crow's upcoming mammoth album release tour, based on images that I've drawn for the album cover art and associated bits and pieces.  There's a dog, a gramophone, a lyre of Orpheus (based on a brooch Mr. Millicent Crow wears most days) and a pocket watch.  Here it is being tested out at home:

It'll be adorning halls, bars and maritime museums from Auckland to Milford Sound over the next couple of months; tour dates are here if you'd like to come along...

Flourishes

The artwork I've been doing for The Explorers' Club lately has been mainly decorative flourishes and borders, making a kind of hand-drawn clip art that can be used in different ways for CD covers, programmes, posters and, most excitingly...screenprinted bunting!  Here are some of the borders and bits and pieces I've been working on - the lyre of Orpheus at the top of the border below is based on one of Mr. Millicent Crow's favourite brooches - our friends The Broken Heartbreakers brought it back from Poland.

And you'll be seeing this one soon on an album cover!

If you find the good oil let us know

That's the cryptic inscription on the under-renovation Govett Brewster art gallery in New Plymouth.  I spent Wednesday night in New Plymouth, where Mr. Millicent Crow was playing at the Taranaki Arts Festival.  I stayed in a hotel for the first time in my life, played the ukulele under a bridge and got to see my artwork projected on the big screen at the Mayfair.  New Plymouth has especially beautiful street art so I wandered around in the rain taking some photos while the band sound checked.

 Walking around at night we stumbled upon Tiffany Singh's beautiful installation What is the Colour of the Breeze, a carpark taken over with a rainbow of windchimes that she had got kids to decorate.  At night they were chiming gently but the next day when I went to take photos of the rainbow colours in the light they were rattling in a frenzy.  Beautiful.  Tiffany Singh also did this installation in Aotea Square back in the summer.

 So long New Plymouth, it was a lovely adventure!