Alice Pattullo

I was googling some info about "Pearly Kings and Queens" after my recent trip to London and the image search result gave me one of Alice's prints. I checked out her website and I was instantly charmed by her work, especially because it plays a lot on traditional British tales and folklore. And in such a beautiful way! Check out some more of her work on her website.


















All pictures taken from www.alicepattullo.com and http://alice-pattullo.blogspot.be/. 

Vilnius, Lithuania

My list of new countries visited in 2013 has yet been extended to one include one more: Lithuania. Long overdue considering how much I love Eastern Europe and the Baltic countries and it was worth a visit, indeed. I combined it with a work meeting in Vilnius and added an extra day to explore the city.

One thing is for sure: Vilnius is the best European city for knit-graffiti so far!And it doesn't surprise me considering the amount of yarn shops and the knitting tradition that still seems to be going strong. I bought some lovely natural yarn for a ridiculously cheap price which is now waiting to be transformed into a nice cardigan.

Apart from that, we experienced 4 seasons in 2 days including snow, rain and perfectly blue skies with sunshine. And on our way back, our flight was cancelled and we had to be re-routed via Frankfurt. But all of that was no big deal considering what an exciting place Vilnius is! And I had one particularly funny encounter with a 12-year old boy who helped me to find the right bus and tood me to the station, immediately involving me in a conversation about computer games and internt download speed rates in impeccable English. The young man also told me that his grandmother makes the best pie in Vilnius. Of course.

Tugboat Printshop

Just discovered these wonderful woodblock prints by Tugboat Prtintshop. It reminds me of illustrations in a fairytale book, lovely colours! Might be an idea for Christmas presents this year....

"Robin and Juniper"

"The Moon"

"Garden"

"Mama Bear"

Making of "Mama Bear"

All images taken from http://www.tugboatprintshop.com/

Paris & Lyon

A combination of work + leisure took me to Paris and Lyon last week; a nice escape from my daily routines, I have to say. And surprisingly enough I really enjoyed Paris this time - it wasn't stressful at all and besides work I still had time to soak up some "culture" (and yes, this also includes my morning coffee on a sunny terrace in Montmartre). 

Paris being Paris there are of course a million things to do and I managed to go to the Musée d'Orsay for the very first time as well as visiting the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson. They were showing photographs by Sergio Larrain, a Chilean photographer who was also part of Magnum Photos. 

Some of the images, especially of the street children in Chile, were very capturing and I especially like black and white photography so this was a real treat. If you happen to be in Paris before December 22nd you should have a look, the entry is free on Wednesdays after 18:30.

 

Images above taken from http://lettresexpres.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/photographe-du-samedi-12-sergio-larrain/

Wolfgang Tillmans photography

I discovered Wolfgang Tillman's work at an exhibition at the Serpentine Galley in London in 2010 but I have come accross his works several times since then, most recently in the Transport for London campaign on the 150th anniversary of the tube.

My favourite photographs are the ones of the night sky, even though I don't think they were meant to go together as a set.  I also like the more abstract, colourful ones that were on display at the Serpentine Gallery and which also feature on the tube campaign:

"Venus Transit"

"In flight astro II"

"Kilimanjaro"

"Freischwimmer"

"Urgency XXII"

More information can be found on Tillmans' website.

Marimekko

Marimekko ist probably my all-time favourite brand (although I generally don't care much about brand names) but their design is very unique and timeless. In Finland it's an institution and items are handed down from one generation to another, I suppose it's also a question of national pride in way. I especially like the organic inspired patterns but there are many other beautiful ones. Here a few examples: 

And here are some more abstract patterns I like:

These ones use images, too [and I'm trying to think what word represents the opposite of "abstract"]:

And this is probably the most famous pattern, "Unikko". I don't like it very much but it has become almost synonyme for the Marimekko-brand.

You can find more information on the official Marimekko website.

ROA - Street art

This has been one of my favourite street artists for a while and I recently found out that he is actually from the city of Gent in Belgium, where I went last weekend. And, spot on: I discovered one of his works by the canal! What I like about his art is that he often uses the environment or his "canvas" and integrates the background into the piece. He often uses doors or windows to create different perspectives or views when opening/closing them. One of my favourites is the "x-ray effect" which can be seen on some of the pictures on the website mentioned below.

If you fancy more examples of ROA's skills, check out this webpage: http://roaweb.tumblr.com/archive 
More up to date pieces from Australia, Chile and Miami can be found here (one of my favourites is the Austalian still life on Cockatoo Island): http://unurth.com/filter/ROA

Here are some examples of his works that I spotted in different places:

(1) Brussels, Rue de la Chaufferette (2) Gent, Canal (3) London, Brick Lane