Nicole Carman – Digital Art Photographer – Brighton, UK

Sunday June 6th 2010  (update – 15th June – over 4000 downloads  - now getting enquiries from Japan and China)

My Portfolio went live in the App Store 3 days ago – it reached  No. 7 in the UK Photography section and No. 6 in the US! ..   and so far 1559 people have downloaded it. I have received lots of purchase enquiries and orders and kind messages from around the globe. I am so chuffed and just wanted to post this latest message which came in earlier from Sono in Japan. Thanks so much to all of you who have shown an interest in my work – it’s made my week.

—-  ”This is Sono from Tokyo, just boosting up my brand new ipad.surfing on apps tab, I eventually found your Photo book, and enjoyed looking through them with my hus.  It is just amazing that We now can easily connect to the something beautiful, which we  have never known a minute ago.

Technology changes the world, and I just appreciate the chance to get your great works.

WIshing you the best and looking forward to see your coming photos.”

Regards, Sono
Sent from my iPad

May 2010 – Our Artists Open House was a huge success. We had over 1000 visitors. Many thanks to those of you who came along. As a result of such a positive response to my work I now have cards and prints available to purchase online and available in selected stores across Brighton and Hove. Please go to: Sales Info

Part of the hugely popular BRIGHTON FESTIVAL held throughout the month of May each year, this is the second largest arts festival in the UK after Edinburgh and brings over 2 million visitors to Brighton.

This fabulous new venue is a converted pub where Status Quo once played!  I was exhibiting alongside a diverse group of talented artists showing a colourful range of art, photography, jewellery and accessories. Other artists exhibiting with me were:  Sharon Smith –  Abstract Paintings, Coleen Slater – Photography,  Sarah Hughes – Recycled accessories, Kat Zahran – Contemporary Jewellery, Jess Barrah – Books, cards and home accessories, Heike Roesel – Watercolours and Etchings and Ali Rabjohns – Scarves, wraps and bags.

I went to a Girls Grammar school and Art was pretty low down on the curriculum after Latin and other useful subjects – so I never “learned’ to draw. To be honest I  went from loving to paint and draw and make things as a child, to pretty much never picking up a pencil or paintbrush once I turned 11. Art at secondary school consisted of making collages with dried pasta and cornflakes (mine sometimes grew mold as I would experiment with leftover breakfast) or really crap clay pots that my dear mother would lovingly keep in her kitchen even though the lids didn’t fit, they wobbled about and were only big enough to hold two large olives. I just accepted that I was rubbish at art, and that was that………..until last autumn when I spotted a class at my local College in Brighton called  ”Drawing for the Terrified!”:
http://www.ccb.ac.uk/public/courses/adult/drawing-for-the-terrified-jun-09-4320.html

I rang up just to make sure it wouldn’t be full of talented folk in need of a bit of ego stroking – and when I was reassured it was for the “stick men only” type of artist – I signed up.

Amy Dury – my tutor for the 10 week course – was fantastic. She expelled the big myths   “people who can draw are just born with a gift” and “drawing can’t really be taught” and made us begin to look at drawing in a different way. In our very first lesson she gave us “upside down drawings”. We couldn’t make sense of what we were copying so had to just focus on lines and shapes instead. Many of  us fear not being able to reproduce what’s in front of us. We look at the person or object that we’re attempting to draw and and we become paralysed. We don’t know where to begin and our minds fill up with the things we associate with that object or person, rather than really noticing the shapes, tones, shadows and lines. Basically we dwell too much on WHAT we are drawing and not how it’s made up. I drew the upside down body of a man – which turned out to be a Raphael drawing  - here is the original:

and here is what I managed by copying above image turned upside down:

My jaw literally dropped when I turned both of the above the right way up .. he looked human!! (well, apart from the mutant hand) and not a matchstick in sight  -  and I did it all by myself with just a pencil and a bit of paper – .. it was a real epiphany.. and I URGE all of you with a fear of drawing to have a go.

Coming next –  Celebrating negative space..