Starman

Starman all fitted out

Recently I was given an exciting opportunity to collaborate with Marlow Art Guitars & West London Art Factory on a guitar. Not just any guitar but what would be a beautiful custom hand built rocking instrument made by Steve Marlow who is passionate in what he does.

I decided to go with a David Bowie inspired theme from his 70's alien invader persona Ziggy Stardust. There are a few references to his movie debut as 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' and his iconic album 'Alladin Sane' originally titled 'A Lad Insane' or 'A lad In Vein'.

"There's a Starman waiting in the sky, he'd like to come and meet us but he thinks he'd blow our minds"

 I used tea for base tone and texture and a bit of acrylic paint to add spots of additional colour that I hoped would be accentuated when varnished. The end result pimped out with gold hardware really brought everything together on this.

Here's how it all went...

The sketches...

Mapping out basic compositional lines

Tea applied to build up tone & textures

100% black & fruit tea: front

100% black & fruit tea: back

Adding colour details & highlights, acrylics

Tea staining on the Headstock

Finished artwork unvarnished: back

Finished artwork unvarnished: front

Complete after Steve Marlow did his magic

Lenovo Mini Project

BEAUTY - "everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it" - Confucius

Following my last post and my work with computer company Lenovo as part of the Heidi Bjork Chronicles, I wanted to share the results of the week of photography work I did for them.

A series of nine images inspired by artist Heidi Bjork's theme 'Open Your Eyes'.
Read more here.

Equipment a Canon 350D with a Sigma 10-20mm lens, Ricoh GR camera and an iPhone 5. Post processing tools were Photoshop and editing apps for Windows 8 (Fhotoroom and Fotor). Created using the Lenovo IdeaCentre A520 touch screen PC.

CREATIVITY - "the creative adult is the child who survived" - U. LeGuin

OPPORTUNITIES - "within our dreams & aspirations we find our opportunities" - S. R. Leonard

LOVE - "a loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge" - Thomas Carlyle

THE BIG THINGS - "if you can change your mind, you can change your life" - W. James

THE LITTLE THINGS - "great things are done by a series of small things brought together" - V.vanGogh

ROMANCE - "The word 'romance' according to the dictionary, means excitement, adventure, & something extremely real. Romance should last a lifetime" - B.Graham

DISCOVERIES - "thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries & inventions, & of all achievement" - C.M.Bristol

Lenovo + Heidi Bjork Chronicles: Mini Project

I can finally reveal a mini project I'm working on with computer manufacturer Lenovo and artists Heidi Bjork and Pauli Bates. A three week group project with the theme 'Open Your Eyes' which is now in its third and final week and now my turn to put my creative cap on, this time with a bit of photography.

Week 1 – Heidi Bjork created a painting based on “Open Your Eyes” theme. Link
Week 2 – Pauli Bates created 9 illustrations based on the theme. Link
Week 3 – Carlos M Burgos will shoot 9 photos based on the theme.

Week 4 – We’ll be giving away a Lenovo Touch PC to one of our followers…Link

We would love for you to be part of this project also, helping with suggestions and interacting with us as we develop and share the final stage of this project courtesy of Lenovo. There's also a chance to win a Lenovo Touch Screen PC... so don't be shy, comment on our project for a chance to win.

Catch up on the project here: Link

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. #heidichronicles #Lenovo

A Year of Art

Well 2013 has just gone as fast as it arrived!

A new year has now begun and with it new projects and goals. It's been a very busy year for me hence the blog posts have suffered a bit, but we're back and new stuff on the way!

So we say hello to 2014 and I leave you with a short recap of the creative year gone :-)



Flashback - A year of Art from Carlos M Burgos on Vimeo.
A little 30 second video I made with the Flipagram app for iphone. Using my own photos from my Instagram account over the past year of my art, 2013. Drawings and paintings using tea as a medium instead of paint.
music by Kyuss - One Inch Man.

The Unit London W4

I'm so excited to be part of the launch exhibition, 'Looking for U', of a new gallery which opens tonight in London... West London. With so much happening in East London already art wise, it's a big change to hear about a new art venture that aims to bring “some of the most cutting-edge and uncompromising contemporary art London has to offer, as well as an exclusive selection of international talent.” to a new part of the capital, Chiswick W4.

"We seek to give voice to artists everywhere. We will be working closely with both undiscovered talent and established artists alike. We believe that art should be inclusive. Art should be celebrated. Art should be undivided."

The Unit London is an independent gallery space housing a collective of artists who put the artists and the art first, ahead of the consumer and the market. It exists as a dynamic creative platform that shifts the focus from ‘reputation’ onto where it should be: the unbridled celebration of art, for U: U the enthusiast, U the artist, U the individual.

This is exactly what these guys are about, they are passionate and sincere about art and it shows, I've seen them work hard preparing for tonights grand opening and genuinely care about the artist and their work. Their hard work and drive is sure to show tonight as they unleash some amazing art works to a public which have only seen snippets of whats planned through an empty retail space window and across social media platforms in the weeks leading up to this, keeping people keen, curious and interested. 

Artists:
Carlos Martyn Burgos, Daniel Stepanek, Danny O’Connor, Ed Haslam, Emil Olsson, George Morton-Clark, Januz Miralles, Jake Wood-Evans, Jonny Burt, Michal Mozolewski, Ryan Hewett, Snik.

With a DJ set from Hot Creations new signing, the talented Tom Dinsdale.

Gourmet nibbles by Joe & Seph's Gourmet Popcorn.

September 5th, 2013 – September 14th, 2013

Launch Exhibition: Thursday 5th September 6-11pm 

46 The Unit Turnham Green Terrace, W4 1QP

Nearest tube: Turnham Green Station (2 minute walk)

Blue Feathers Series

Blue Feather

As some of you know already, I recently completed a small series of work with a bird/winged narrative running throughout, exploring parallels of nurture, growth and development between ourselves and the natural world. A certain surreal parody runs along these works also. 

This series is called Blue Feathers. A story that starts with a single blue feather. These tea pieces are larger in scale than my previous tea pieces; 76cm x 56cm on 535gm watercolour paper.

The Becoming - Our journey begins with the initial formative stages of a life, its potential seen by the growths on its back as to what it is to be or could become. It takes shape within an oval encasing, referencing a womb or maybe even an egg. A blue feather gives us a clue and takes our story forward...

The Becoming

The Two Surrogates - Here I make reference to the nurture a life needs to grow and develop, in this case two blue feathered birds (blue tits) are taking care of this child as their own. Attentive and Caring for it by nourishing it with allsorts. Feeding it with worms (protein), sweets (sugar), a pill (medication) and even iron (vitamins/minerals) in the shape of a paperclip.

The Two Surrogates

Fallen Fledgeling - As this creature grows and develops in the proverbial nest, it still must learn to fly. Here we see inexperience, attempts at making decisions and taking that jump to leave. But not all her siblings as well as herself are ready, and some don't make it. We see her wings have not fully formed yet.

Fallen Fledgeling

Wings of Promise - Our protagonist has now fully matured and has her wings fully prepped and ready to make it on her own. Her wings now represent all the possibilities and potential that she may reach. Taking her cue from another bird that has spread its wings and has now taken flight, it is now her turn...

Wings of Promise

The blue feathers are the key to this series, the only spot of additional colour to these tea pieces. Linking each piece to each other.

Memorabilia

Hi everyone, a quick post about what i've been up to lately creating a new piece for a great nostalgic art exhibition called 'Memorabilia' which opens this weekend. An exhibition of artwork and objects from childhood memory and memorabilia by over 100 artists with 30% to 100% of all sales going to charity in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital to be held as part of the Leytonstone Arts Trail. Check out the online shop: LINK - 

Sat 6th & Sun 7th of July at Norlington Road Studios, Leyton E10 6LA. 12pm - 5pm.

This theme has been a joy to work on drawing some of my childhood TV heroes once again, something I would do many years ago like most kids, drawing Spiderman and saturday morning cartoons. I wanted to create a piece that would be very nostalgic showing TV influences and referencing film, a time for many of us growing up in the 1980's of wonder and excitement when we used to come back from school or wake up early morning weekends and tune in to watch Knight rider or Thundercats or even Sesame Street.

Drawing, Drawing, Drawing...

My new tea piece is called 'The Wonder Years' and will be shown for the first time at this fabulous show. Plus to make things a bit more fun I've also included the seven dragon balls from the 'Dragon ball' cartoon along with Goku and even Scrooge McDuck's nephews are hiding throughout the piece from 'Duck Tales'... if you can find them within this vintage party. Below is a little preview of 'The Wonder Years'.
Video: http://instagram.com/p/bWk6zlvywk/

'The Wonder Years' (detail)

So if you want to go back in time and re-live some nostalgic moments then please join us this weekend :-)

Facebook event page: LINK