Winding down 2017… Welcoming 2018

A huge thanks to everybody out there for all the support over 2017. Lots of challenges over the course of this year, but your energy and encouragement have kept pushing me along –  so that’s a big gushy thanks from me to you!

With everything winding down now, it’s also about time I shared a bit about next year’s plans.

2018 will be a year of change, and I’m really excited to announce that in Feb I’ll be having my first solo show of paintings in quite a while. If you’ve been following my instagram (@seanedwhelan) there’s been plenty of shots of sketches and work in progress over the course of some 2 years. If you haven’t, you now know exactly where to get a preview of what to expect. If you’re in Melbourne for the opening on the 8th, it’d be great to see you there, but in the meantime, visit Blackartprojects.com.au for more details.

Once that is all done and dusted, there will be some much overdue online spring cleaning. New site? I think so.

There will also be new illustration work with Dormilona, my friends over on the west coast of Oz, who consistently kick bottoms with their amazing wines, and an illustrated cover feature with a New York wine mag. So look out for all these updates in the first quarter.

Finally, hope you all have a great new year, happy holidays and I’ll see you in 2018.

 

Kamidana

Kamidana
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 60cm
2017
(From upcoming solo exhibition: In the Spirit of the Age)

London SketchBook Festival 2017

logo

 

This year I’ll be joining the London Sketchbook Festival lineup, held at The Archivist – a beautiful space west of Hoxton – and showing some of my work on projectors over the 10 day event.

As well as the featured artists, there’ll be heaps of chances to join sketchbook workshops and meet up with designers and illustrators too, all based around drawing, architecture and moving image. For more info on this year’s event, check their site.

http://www.londonsketchbookfestival.com/

 

Sept 21 – 30. 2017.
The Archivist.
N1 5ET
LONDON

MiniComic.club Project Updates

comic_website_crop2

 

After about a month of late nights – I’ve finally got the comic off to the printers for this year’s MiniComic.club.

Hungry Workshop in Melbourne are handling the production, and I’m looking forward to how it shapes up.

Printing starts really soon and right after that will be in the hands of everyone that subscribed this year. It’s been fun, but damn hard work putting it together – I’ve learned a heap about everything that goes into producing them and have a new appreciation – hats off to all the writers, pencilers, inkers and colourists out there. Truly amazing art form.

MiniComic.club Project

MiniComicClub

Later on this year, in September, I’ll be releasing a comic with MiniComic Club – an annual project that’s been running since 2013, and last year, I got the call to submit for 2017’s edition. To give you a bit of a background on it, here are words from the website.

 

…bringing you and your mailbox a years worth of minicomics and zines from some of Australia’s most interesting cartoonists and comics-makers…. 12 comics over 12 months, one each from these beautiful people…

 

Beautiful people artists and a new comic book every month. Nice! And all it takes is a little subscription fee and they come to your door in miniature format – A6 size to be precise.

From year to year the line-up has consisted of well established and emerging comic artists, and occasionally artists from other fields – and that’s where I fit in this year. So once I have the show I have been planning for years finally done, I’ll be working on a comic – which is pretty neat.

And if you want to learn more you can go here, where I have a short interview about my experience with the comic medium, on medium.

https://medium.com/@smallercomics/
(There are also interviews with other comic artists from past and present MiniComic Club projects to check out.)

 

If you are even more interested, you could also visit the MiniComic.Club page and get yourself a subscription for $38 AU. Very nice!

http://minicomic.club/2017/

 

Commissioned Work

commission2016

 

It’s been a while since I posted to the website, but I thought it worth sharing some new work I was commissioned to do for a friend recently.

It’s great to be asked to create a piece of art for someone, for a couple of reasons – one because it’s nice to be given the opportunity, but also because it can give you an unexpected concept to work with.

This piece turned out pretty good I reckon, and my friend was happy with it too – win win.

Prosthetic Reality

pr-ar

 

The new Prosthetic Reality book curated by Sutu and created in collaboration with Code on Canvas is now available!

I got my copy last week in the mail, and it is great to see this project come to fruition. I’m super happy with how my submission came out and it’s great to be side-by-side with animators and artists I really admire.

You can get your own copy at Sutu’s store, and more info about Eyejack, the app that runs the the AR on your mobile device, here. Very exited to see where this goes in the near future, and how artists bridge the traditional and digital arts with this tech.

 

pr-ar_02

 

AR Book

Prosthetic Reality Cover

Sutu (Stuart Campbell) is a prolific visual and comic artist who has been exploring technology in his work thematically and in the way it’s seen for some time now. His latest project – Prosthetic Reality – An Augmented Reality Art book has kicked off and is calling for backers on his Prosthetic Reality Kickstarter page. I’ve been very lucky to be included in the International 45 artist line up with some amazing people, and from the samples I have seen it’s shaping up to be something really special. If you are a collector, a fan of animation, or are interested in the new space technology is pushing art into check it out (click on the pic above)

F(L)ight Exhibition in Bristol

f(l)ight-artwork-2016

 

If you haven’t already seen my facebook or instagram posts in the last week or so, I was invited to join artist and curator Paul Roberts’ self initiated project F(L)ight – opening this Friday at Hamilton House in Bristol, UK.
It’s a real pleasure to be asked to attend the group show, which has brought together a huge line up of over 140 artists; not only because it’s great to be part of the international creative community, but because sales from our artworks will be going towards two very worthwhile charities that promote peace and support those directly affected by war. The Veterans for Peace, and War Child. If you are in the U.K. even better, close to Bristol this weekend, it would be great if you could throw your support behind Paul and this great project.

For more info about the show, the artists and the charities our efforts will be going towards, visit the dedicated website here, and get details on the opening and location at the facebook page.

(Pictured above is my piece for the show)

New Commissioned Artwork for Dormilona Wines

dormilona-label-3_2016

 

Over the last few years I have been working closely with Dormilona Wines in WA. They create some really great wine the old fashioned way – with hard work and no shortcuts. They flipped it up a notch this year with the Clayface series, (which I posted about in January), but I’ve also been commissioned to create art for their latest Cab and Chardonnay – coming soon! It’s great working with these guys – so into those little details that make things sing. See the new art work above.

New Wine Label Commissions

Dormilona_amphora_special_edition

In Margaret River, Western Australia, there is an independent batch winery called Dormilona, who I’ve been working with for a while aside my normal art practice, creating illustrations for their labels.

Dormilona means ‘sleepyhead’ in Spanish, and somewhere along the lines it was decided we create a lethargic skeleton mascot to head up the brand- so he has been the feature in this mini-series of illustrations for a few years now. We have been working on a narrative, a sort of horizontally panning diorama, with lots of lush moss covered stones and trickling streams since 2013, but this year I’ve been given free reign to do something special for their limited addition amphora pot red and white, coming out early next year. See above skeleton illustration. This is just one of the two labels for wine coming on to the market in the next few weeks. If you fancy learning more, head on over to the website (link above).

dormilona_wine_bottle