This is Sian Ellis

The portfolio of Illustrator Sian Ellis

Tag: art travel

A Hyperactive Artist’s Guide to Manchester

Posted on by sian

You might have heard me gushing about this city in last week’s blog. It’s just a 50minute train ride from Sheffield and perfect equidistance for me to meet my mates from home. So this is a Hyperactive Artist’s guide with a twist as I’ve spent years visiting and finding my favourite places in Manchester.

Galleries 

Manchester is a wicked city for art. Both in high profile events and right down to its thriving independent creators scene. Home is always a good bet to find something cultural. Only opened in the last couple of years, Home is a cinema complex and exhibition space. It hosts a variety of film festivals throughout the year and free art exhibitions too. Most recently, I visited the David Lynch exhibition as part of Manchester International Festival. Alongside showings of Lynch’s classics the exhibition showcased some of his surreal art. From watercolours, to large mixed media’s to working lamps even. David’s skill for exaggerated and round about storytelling translated into his artwork. Manchester Art Gallery in the centre regularly hosts exhibitions of note and not far behind is the Whitworth a short bus ride down Oxford Road near Rusholme. 

Local artists

I also grabbed the chance to visit Alex Sicklings ceramic display inspired by the use of ceramic as a storytelling tool that is prone to misinterpretations and fake news. The collection was displayed at the Manchester Craft and Design centre. It focused on the Peterloo Massacre, a dark day in Mancunian history. 

There are plenty of independent stores chock full of local makers too. Afflecks Palace is home to the Fox Fairy and Swalk. Both feature a curation of local artists goodies. Afflecks Palace is also home to a menagerie of alternative stores and the best homemade ice cream in the North thanks to Gingers Comfort Emporium. If you are ever lucky enough to catch a day the French Ellis is on offer, make sure you get a taste of its banannay, peanuts, caramelly french toast goodness. 

A little further out of town amongst the uni hustle and bustle of Oxford road lies the hatch box park. Go for the food, beer and vibes, stay for the shopping. Shop Small MCR is hatches independent makers store, and features work from yours truly. Visit Magma on Oldham Street dor a selection of high brow arts publications and high end gifts. Pop round the corner to Travelling Man to support your local comic book store.

A City for Artists

Manchester is certainly my a city made from artists. As well as locally made goodies you are treated to some quality arts supplies stores. Cass Art is the best option for quality vs price I have ever encountered. I can get the brands I love at a good price. Plus their own brand sketch pads are a staple of my art supplies. Fred Aldous however has the opposite charm. Two floors of gifts, stationary and supplies for all mediums, Fred Aldous isn’t cheap but you will be enamoured. The perfect place to find everything you need to start a new hobby. Fred Aldous suits those who like beauty alongside functionality in their craft tools. 

The best thing about Manchester is how it keeps up with the times. There are corners of culture all of the city and always something new to enjoy. The history is impressive though too. Visit Europe’s oldest library in St Peters Square before meeting Stan the T Rex at the Manchester University Museum. A city I always thought I would live in yet never have, there’s always something new and memorable to do on a visit to Manchester. 

A Hyperactive Artist’s Guide to Venice

Posted on by sian

I travel with two things, my belly and my appetite for culture. Holidays for me are beasts of undertaking. A combination of my hunger for beautiful things, collecting experiences and event planning make it so. My trips need research, before during and after for me to feel that I’ve gotten the most out of my travels. I’ve decided I’m this blog that I’ll share my little travel guides every now and then, as a hyperactive artist’s guide to Europe.

First stop, Venice

Venetian style isn’t something I tend to think of when contemplating styles that resonate with me. I find appeal in lowbrow art. The majesty of Venetian design is a world away from my usual style. It’s a city of grandiose statements. Whether the array of paper mache masks or the collages of pillaged architecture. Big, bold and flaunted. My trip to Italy was most certainly guided by my belly more than my artistic notions.

However, for the past 8 years since I last visited the city I have continued to remember Venice as home to one of my favourite galleries in Europe. The Peggy Guggenheim collection. The gallery exhibits an impressive collection of art which belonged to its late namesake. Born into two power families of absaurd wealth and an insatiable passion for art, the American heiress collected pieces at a target rate of a painting a day. Peggy married artist Max Ernst and exhibited works in galleries in the beginnings of the careers of heavyweights including Rothko and Pollock.

The Peggy Guggenheim collection houses an impressive selection of work in an equally impressive location. Based on the Grand Canal the Galleries surround a courtyard garden peppered with statues. The garden itself an oasis on a floating island and the art within it displayed serenely. The building that houses the rest of the collection is literally an unfinished palace.

The Galleries indoors are split into two with the permanent collection in part and temporary exhibits in the other. The temporary exhibit when I visited was a Dadaist artist. The name escapes me but frankly wasn’t too far up my street anyway. It’s the permanent collection that I was there to see.

What a load of Pollocks

The most impressive modern art collection I have ever seen is treasured within its walls. Cubism, surrealism and expressionism paintings and sculptures from a sea of the movements biggest names. Dali, Magritte, Kandinsky, Chagall, Klee, Picasso, Miro and a room full of Pollocks are the first few that flow from my memory. The gallery opens onto a small yard of sculptures upon the Grand Canal itself. A perfect spot to steal a quiet second of beautiful views with a few less tourist around.

Have you ever seen a view like this from a gallery before?

Hop on the water bus two minutes from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and after a transfer or two you can reach the island of Murano, famous for its glass. Through a sea of tourist trap glass shops the gem on the island is the glass museum. You can learn about the history of glass making on the island, and see some exquisite examples. My highlights were the glass octopus chandelier near the foyer and the incredibly detailed miniature cane pieces.

Although the museum gives you an insight into the process of how the pieces are made, it’s difficult to find anywhere that you can actually watch glass being blown. I’d recommend that you research this before you visit to ensure you have a plan if this is something that you want to do.

A hyperactive artist’s guide to Bologna

Posted on by sian

Recently I visited Bologna for the first time. My other half had watched a Rick Stein show where he had visited and it had stuck with him. Very much a trip about food, I didn’t know much else about the terracotta city.

Mambo

Our air bnb was ten minutes walk from Mambo, the Modern Art Museum in Bologna. The museum’s permanent collection charts the journey of Modern art in Italy from post Second World War and onwards. Displayed chronologically you take this journey through time as you physically walk through the gallery.

My highlight from the gallery, however, was the Mika Rottenberg temporary exhibition. Mika’s video and installation work is surreal and slightly creepy. It reminds me of Freud’s The Uncanny. Human figures acting in an alien way. Inanimate objects become animated and live like humans. Each video well crafted and something hypnotic. Installation pieces included flailing ponytails and film montages viewed through the smoking mouth of a sex doll-like disembodied mouth. This was my first encounter with the Argentinian artist and I wouldn’t hesitate to view her work again.

University quarter

Bologna is home to the oldest university in the western world. Walking through this district of the terracotta city the earth timed walls become speckled with street art. From sticker tags to painted shop fronts there was much to admire on a stroll. The art enhanced the youthful vibe of this northern part of the city centre and carried strong political calls for equality.

The university itself holds many treasures if you know where to look. Several museums which are free to enter and open to the public are housed within its walls. I have always found museums a wealth of inspiration for my art. One thing I always enjoy on a free day is to go to a museum and draw.

Anatomy Museum

We first visited the Anatomia Umana Normale museum of abnormal anatomy. I’d read about it before the trip and felt intrigued. Unfortunately, I hadn’t thought about completely grotesque the museum would be. Featuring waxworks of squirm inducing diseases and birth defects, we also saw mummified remains, skeletal specemins and preserved human foetuses. The macabre always appeals to me, but actual dead babies is a step too far.

Zoology and Anthropology Museums

The next museum we visited was the Zoological museum. Several floors of taxidermy specimens is my ideal sort of drawing space. The quality of these specimens however was awful. Poorly applied unnatural shades of painted slopped upon grey birds, reptile and fish. The gem of the museum were the floors of skeletons. There is an impressive number of specemens from a range of species. Even preserved organs too. I took some photos that I intend to draw now I am back in the U.K., as something about drawing skeletons always appeals to me. If I want in a rush to explore a city I’d have been happy to spend the afternoon there drawing. Above was the small anthropological museum which has interesting exhibits on the evolution of Man.

What I did struggle to find in the city was much work by local artist. There is an arts and crafts market but the selection is not wide and it feels very geared towards tourists. I always like to pick up handcrafted pieces on holiday but I struggled to find anything in Bologna apart from a delightful gift shop called Riceteria.

The real art in Bologna is of course the food. It would have been nice to have a few more galleries to walk the food belly off with though.