Tip to Nottingham

I took a trip to Nottingham the check out first cut the paper cutting exhibition that was being held at the lakeside gallery. 

One artist that stood out to me was Laura Cooperman

She did these rotating wheels, that had all intricate patterns cut out. They were obviously inspired by more mechanical shapes, patterns and cogs etc. In the "First Cut" Exhibition catalogue I bought it explains that she's inspired by architecture and engineering. But they somewhat reminded me of some of the sun like patterns I was drawing it. It made me think I could have an experiment using paper cutting as a different media. This piece itself was really amazing it moved like working cogs and created a beautiful shadow on the wall. 

When looking online at more of her artwork I found this one which I also thought was really nice. It inspired me to look into drawing a portrait out of the kind of patterns i've been doing.

Another similar artist from the exhibition that inspired me was Emma van Leest. Though her work includes more storytelling, and papercut illustrations of people and fairytale like scenes.

This is the one I really like by her because of the use of different coloured paper and overlaying of different papercuts.

When leaving the exhibition and looking round some of the other parts of the gallery I found this mans artwork exhibited on the wall, and I couldn't believe how relevant it was.

He was a student at the university and he uses real henna to draw all over the body. I decided to buy some henna and have a go at using it.