Artswipe: Remasters exhibition at the Rag Factory off Brick Lane

 Artswipe is run by Mark Perronet, and is a website dedicated to both selling and producing artists screen prints,as well as an online arts newspaper.They've held several exhibitions at the Rag Factory before.

    I got involved with the latest Artswipe exhibition, based on the theme 'Remasters'.

Artists were asked to submit their versions of famous master's paintings,by working over the top of them and re-imagining them with their own style.The only stipulation was the painting had to be out of copyright.

    I chose to use a wood block print by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849). I took one of his iconic images of Mount Fuji ' South Wind, Clear Sky ' and worked over it with my own illustrations.

I chose his print because I'm a fan of his work,and I saw the potential in using his image as it's got clean and simple shapes and blocks of colour - perfect for adding my own details over the top. I was inspired by the recent Icelandic volcano 'Eyjafjallajökull' eruptions, and the chaos it caused for flights around the world.So I re-imagined Mount Fuji in a modern day setting, surrounded by planes and cities, as well as giving the volcano itself a character ,which explains why I titled it

' Hokusai Revamped'. 

     It was a real challenge,I was a little nervous about defacing the work of such a legend, but I enjoyed the process immensely, and hopefully I managed to give it my own style,working respectfully with Hokusai's print in the background.I'm certainly not implying I've improved it in any way,but hopefully it's a new and different version of a classic image!

   I went down to the opening night of the exhibition on Thursday and really enjoyed seeing all the other artist's submissions! It was nice to see the prints all framed up,I rarely see my work in such a big format as A2.

You can buy yourself one of these lovely prints for just £50! They're very high quality digital prints with Epson lightfast inks onto Hahnehuhle 310gsm German Etching paper.They are signed and limited editions of 50.Get your hands on one now:  http://www.artswipe.com/id36.html