At a super evening of psychedelic music at AATMA in Manchester it was great to enjoy the music with my Daniel Treacy tribute banner as a backdrop to all the bands.
Originally created for the Dan Treacy fundraiser at the 100 Club in London in 2019 it has now taken on a life of its own..
The artwork has travelled to venues all over the World… including Greece and Iceland and has been seen by MANY hundreds of people.
I am thrilled to share images from the cover art I created for the Swedish band ‘ Men On The Border’
They created an album a few years ago and asked me to create the cover, and recently they decided to give the album a vinyl release.
I wanted to focus on making the artwork simple but arresting, and using linocut was a great way to achieve this.
I worked on a selection of designs and colourways and this process went back and forwards between myself and the band members before we eventually agreed on the final design
you can see a few of these designs below…….
The finished design is a single image, but it is made up from several separate print blocks that are inked and applied one after the other to make the final design.
The patterns are carved into a lino sheet with cutters in relief so whatever is NOT carved away will end up as coloured image when ink is applied to the sheet.
You can see the three lino sheets below.
The lino sheets used to create the artwork
The different sheets are inked with different colours and then applied to the paper one at a time, but EACH LAYER needs to totally dry before the next colour can be applied.
The ink is oil based so takes several days to dry.
This means that is more than a week to make the full print.
When the print is complete I added gold leaf layers to the Blackbirds beak.
The finished album is a wonderful limited edition vinyl set on orange vinyl.
The main seeve is black and the orange vinyl symbolises the Blackbirds beak poking out of the black body
you can buy the album from this link
http://www.menontheborder.com/news
Thanks to the Men On The Border for giving me the opportunity to be a part of their project.
UPDATE
February 2021
You can now stream the album on Spotify
CLICK BELOW
http://www.menontheborder.com/sound-vision
I’ve just been reminded that it was five years ago today that I created the initial sketch for my very first album cover
The album called Morphometry included music by saxophonists Lol Coxhill and Raymond Macdonald and was commissioned by a friend, musician and radio presenter John Cavanagh
There is a full blog post about the album lower down.
This is an unseen preliminary sketch for what would eventually become a hand painted linocut image.
EL GATO.
Jeremy Corbyn's Cat
Unveiled By The Mayor Of Calderdale.
2.36pm
17th September 2019
Rob Martin and myself were thrilled to have our portrait unveiled to the World on Tuesday afternoon.
A project a long time in the planning it is great that it can now be seen by all.
We have contacted Jeremy and expect a response soon.
We hope he likes it and also El Gato himself.
There are already plans for El Gato to appear at more venues soon so watch this space.....
.
https://www.facebook.com/robmartinartist/
The painting was one of Rob’s legendary Cat paintings and stands alongside his other works - such as his painting of Felix the Huddersfield Train Stattion Cat
https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/its-purr-fect-new-oil-12248687
Hebden Bridge Visitors Centre
1 New Road
Hebden Bridge
HX7 8AD
1st - 30th September 2019
Rob has been making art for many years and has developed a strong following for his cartoon art as well as oil painting and video work - picking up two international film awards on the way.
Author of several books of his cartoons and is also well known as the creator of an amazing series of paintings of famous British Cats including Felix the Huddersfield Train Station cat.
https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/huddersfield-artist-who-painted-felix-13528775
Ian Barrett is a jeweller by profession and also visual artist. Using various mediums including watercolour paint and linocut art and even bringing his jewellery background to his art with the use of gold leaf and diamond dust.
Ian has created album covers for various bands across the World.
This exhibition is the first time the two artists have brought their works together and promises to be a colourful, surreal and humorous display.
Ian and Rob have collaborated on a special artwork which will be unveiled at the show by the Mayor of Calderdale on the 17th September.
View the art of Rob Martin
https://www.facebook.com/robmartinartist/
Daniel Treacy Fundraiser Show
100 Club London
I was honoured to be asked to be a small part of a benefit show for Dan Treacy frontman with legendary band THE TELEVISION PERSONALITIES
Dan has sadly been very ill for some time and the show was created to raise funds for his treatment and also to let Dan know how much his music is still loved.
One of Kurt Cobains favourite bands and loved by many others since 1977 the Television Personalities while not achieving huge commercial success have inspired and influenced many bands over the years.
I created a large banner which hang behind the stage.
It was wonderful to be present on the night and see Dans songs being performed by a rotating series of guest singers alongside the original musicians from the band including Rose Mcdowall (Strawberry Switchblade), the Doctor from Doctor And The Medics, Rolo Mcginty (The Woodentops) and many others played a weird and wonderful set.
The 100 Club is the oldest independent venue in the World and has been open since 1942
It has played host to anyone who is anyone in popular music including Paul Mcartney, The Rolling Stones,Bob Dylan and Alice Cooper.
The banner is 2m square and was printed from a 12 inch square linocut sheet ( pictured below) with extra red acrylic paint.
Im truly thrilled to announce that a project that has been in progress for some time, is now finished and available to buy!
I was asked by John Cavanagh to create a cover image for a special vinyl album he created from music he was gifted by one of his favourite musicians - Lol Coxhill
Lol Coxhill and Raymond Macdonald recorded the improvised jazz music in Johns house and the tracks were then gifted to John.
He decided it would be a great idea to utilise the magic of crowdfunding and put the songs out on vinyl
John asked me to create the cover art for the album and I jumped at the chance
I was not familiar with the music or musicians but John gave a little guidance as to theme, and I created the linocut art that now graces the cover
I wanted to create something vivid and playful like the music and incorporated the frog and blackbird which are recurring themes in Lol Coxhill's music.
You can buy the album from DISCOGS here
https://www.discogs.com/Lol-Coxhill-Raymond-MacDonald-Morphometry/release/10448033
You can read a few reviews of the album here
https://www.list.co.uk/article/92096-lol-coxhill-and-raymond-macdonald-morphometry/
https://www.kiltr.com/brian-beadie/1783552784-morphometry
I was delighted to have my chicken linocut included in an ETSY treasury.
Beryl is now happily clucking away on a page with LOTS of other happy chickens.
She would be delighted!
view the CHICKEN TREASURY
Buy the CHICKEN LINOCUT
I was delighted to be asked by Goran Nystrom, from Swedish band ' Men On The Border if I would create a series of paintings based on the Jumpstart Linocut image.
This was the linocut I created for their album cover.
We agreed it would be nice to present those who helped in the creation of the album with an image inspired by my cover art.
I created a limited series of ten paintings using the linocut and watercolour paint.
I called this the 'Jumpstart Paintbox'
Above you can see Phil from the band with his choice of painting.
I hope the rest of the recipients enjoy their artwork.
Please do get in touch if you have received one as I would love to hear what you have done with it!
Ian Barrett
Ian Barrett Art
A few images of the ten paintings
They were made on sturdy A3 card
I was very proud to be asked to create the cover art for a cd album cover.
The band are from Sweden and called 'Men On The Border' and the new album is called 'Jumpstart'
The band are very inspired by the music of my Uncle - Syd Barrett and I thought it would be fun to base the image on some imagery from his career.
Roger/Syd played a Fender Esquire guitar that had been covered in round mirrors.I had the idea of an flash of electricity shooting out from the centre of the image and then reflecting on these mirrors and shooting all over the page.
I also incorporated something of the colours from the legendary Madcap Laughs cover images - when Syd painted his floorboards orange and blue.
I didn't want this colouration to be TOO obvious so kept the colours quite muted and washed out.
The band have now released the album with this image on the cover - they have just added the JUMPSTART lettering in the centre.
You can visit the bands website and also buy the album ( which is fantastic!) from HERE
You can preview the album HERE
