Simone Lia

NEW WEBSITE and BLOG

2011-11-22T08:16:00.001-08:00

Hello, I have a new website and from now on all of my blog posts will be posted up on this site. Woo-hoo.www.simonelia.com

Thought of the Day

2011-10-21T06:27:00.000-07:00

An afternoon doodle.

2011-10-19T07:37:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon.

"Life is a game, play it." Mother Teresa

2011-10-17T08:13:00.001-07:00

Jon Blob Jovi. Then and now.

2011-10-06T02:18:00.000-07:00

Goal Setting

2011-09-27T06:01:00.000-07:00

Annie

2011-09-22T03:53:00.000-07:00

Worm [dive]

2011-09-13T05:23:00.000-07:00

I'll be back at Tea time

2011-09-13T05:21:00.000-07:00

More Worms

2011-08-26T07:23:00.000-07:00

Worm Party!

Paintings

2011-08-03T06:35:00.000-07:00

Hello! I'm in my artists garret at the moment working out ideas and sketches for a series of paintings. I would love to do an exhibition. Whilst I'm here and you're there, do you know of anyone who might like to show some paintings?

Thank you.

How To Draw Bunnies

2011-08-03T04:36:00.000-07:00

Hello! This was a recent fun thing for the Guardian, originally shown here

2011-07-26T01:38:00.001-07:00

Hello!

2011-07-20T06:23:00.001-07:00

Hello to you and hello to Chip and Bean. I'd been wondering where you are.

Hallelujah!

2011-07-11T05:22:00.000-07:00

So, I've been a bit quiet on the blog for a few months, the reason being is that I've had my head down making a graphic novel and it's been a total emotional roller coaster this one. Bar a few bits of design I've actually finished it, phew and hurrah! The project started way back in 2007 when I had a moment with God in Leicester Square, I silently cried out to him and heard him respond, rather unconventionally, through the lyrics of an INXS song. I was inspired to seek an adventure with Him and in that moment I also imagined in my hands the finished book. I was truly excited about the possibilities and challenges of drawing my relationship with God. It's been a bit of a journey as they say and my confidence has wavered greatly whilst doing this project - I've started over from scratch a couple of times. With great thanks to the friends around me and also some amazingly kind people who offered support and mentoring, the job is done. Hopefully you'll enjoy the book and find it funny too. The release date isn't til Autumn 2012! Gdoing! I will let you know more about it nearer the publishing date. Until then I'll post more regularly on here.

Thank you!

Nelson

2011-07-11T04:54:00.000-07:00

Rob Davis and Woodrow Phoenix have come up with a brilliant idea for a collaborative graphic novel that is featuring 50 UK comic artists to tell one story about Nel Baker from her birth to the present day. I was keen to take part and am representing Nel in 1984. Here is some more info about the project, it will be out this November!

http://www.blankslatebooks.co.uk/2011/05/nelson/
http://www.facebook.com/NelsonGraphicNovel?sk=wall

A well oiled mind

2011-07-11T04:47:00.000-07:00

This was commissioned by The Guardian, they wanted a visual story in response to the theme of oil. I worked with the editor to come up with this piece with the gloomy and frightening concept of oil subjugating our lives. Here is full piece for The Guardian.

Dancing Coffee Bean!

2011-07-11T04:43:00.001-07:00

Patiently Waiting

2011-04-03T07:06:00.000-07:00

Greeting Cards

2011-02-11T04:22:00.000-08:00

Urban Graphic, are a design led greeting card company. They've just produced a new range of greeting cards 'Toasted' and I'm very pleased to be part of the new range with Chip and Bean's 'Cake'.

Check out Urban Graphics blog Toasted which showcases contemporary design and illustration, including Thereza Rowe of Tiny Red Design who has an inspiring blog on her website. The card range can be seen here

Different Values

2011-02-07T09:05:00.001-08:00

Mwaab

2011-01-28T09:26:00.001-08:00

2011-01-28T09:21:00.000-08:00

Duck Wallpaper

2011-01-28T08:59:00.002-08:00

Hello Sausage! New Screenprint!

2011-01-10T08:22:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year all! This is a rather be-lated blog posting - apologies, it's been rather busy at this end.

I've been doing some work with Jealous (Jealous Gallery and Print Studio) they are screenprinting a new edition of Hello Sausage! Last year they printed Hello Sausage! in red as a limited edition, I'm very impressed with the quality of their workmanship, they printed the work beautifully. The prints sold out before I had a chance to put them up here.

Now Jealous are making a new larger edition of the print in yellow - whoop whoop!

The size is 56 x 65 cm onto 300 gsm somerset satin cotton mould paper. Limited edition of 75.

Price £125 unframed.

Jealous will have a stand at The London Art Fair this January 19-23 at the Business Design Centre Upper Street Islington. It will also be on available from their gallery, their address is 27, Park Road, N8 8TE, Crouch End. London. If you're interested in getting your mits on one of these prints do get in touch.

Ta ta for now x

Happy Christmas 2010

2010-12-22T14:38:00.000-08:00

Wishing you all a wonderful and joyful Christmas!

2010-12-09T06:25:00.000-08:00

Chip and Bean love

2010-12-03T10:23:00.000-08:00

Stars on Canvas Auction

2010-11-23T03:26:00.001-08:00

This canvas along with 300 others made by stars of stage, screen, art, music and fashion in an ebay auction to be held from Friday 26th of November to Sunday 5th of December.

Please bid for my painting and raise money for special days for seriously ill 16 to 40 year olds.

All information here:

http://www.willowfoundation.org.uk/starsoncanvas

Thankyou!

When the red red robin goes blob blob blobbin along..

2010-11-23T03:17:00.000-08:00

2010-11-16T04:05:00.000-08:00

Paranoid Elephant

2010-11-11T08:26:00.000-08:00

Cut-out-n-keep Empathy Gene

2010-11-04T05:10:00.000-07:00

This one's inspired by artist and pal Jo Taylor

A little monkey nut for you

2010-10-23T14:27:00.000-07:00

Happiness Exhibition

2010-10-13T00:51:00.000-07:00

Hello peeps,

I'm taking part in an exhibition of artists from 'Happiness at Work Studios', it will be at The Print House Gallery in Dalston from Friday 29th October to Sunday 15th of November. I'll be showing a painting from a series of works based on theme tunes from Australian soaps of the 70's 80's.

I'm particularly excited about the show because 'Happiness at Work' was a dream of mine way back in the early noughties with the idea of having a studio where freelancers who usually work from home can work under the same roof and be a community. The idea was to have a range of creatives who would have opportunities to exhibit their work. I set up the studios with Stephen Smart in 2003 at The Turk's Head (formerly a pub now a cafe) in Wapping. The studios are now run by Jon Aldenton of The Environment Trust. This will be Happiness's second show. Artists include Sarah Horne, Catell Ronca, Steve Smith, Harriet Russell, Sandra Howgate and photographer John Tarby.

Happiness at Work is now planning to spread it;s wings and establish other studios where the opportunity arises and has set up in the Granton Lighthouse in Edinburgh with a local partner.

Speak, Lord, your servant is listening...

2010-10-10T12:11:00.001-07:00

Blob's Your Uncle

2010-09-30T03:40:00.001-07:00

Blob Dylan

2010-09-28T11:35:00.000-07:00

The Answers My Friend

2010-09-28T04:08:00.000-07:00

are

(a) blowing in the wind
(b) googleable
(c) neither of those two

Comical Animal Comic

2010-09-24T08:42:00.000-07:00

Artist Jim Medway has set up a new bi-monthly online publication called Comical Animal , it's not launched yet but is looking good. Here is my submission for the comic.

100 Points

2010-09-09T07:34:00.000-07:00

For 100 points can anyone guess who this is a picture of? Two clues; he's British and was famous in the 80's.

Rude Britannia

2010-09-01T07:55:00.001-07:00

Rude Britannia : British Comic Art is on at The Tate Britain is on for just a few more days (5th September).

Blob Geldolf

2010-08-24T03:14:00.000-07:00

Donate to Pakistan floods and get a how do you Do painting

2010-08-19T03:11:00.000-07:00

If you'd like to be the owner of this brand new How do You do painting on canvas (175mm x 123mm) I'm looking for a donation of £80 or more for the DEC Pakistan Floods Appeal please. Is anyone interested? Thankyou!

Neolithic Twitter

2010-08-11T03:34:00.000-07:00

How Do You Do

2010-08-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

Spuddite

2010-07-29T07:36:00.000-07:00

Hi peeps, I couldn't resist another potato post.

Did you get it? It's spuddite as in luddite. If you got it then you get 10 points and you are the winner. My pals in the pub didn't get it. Kuba told me that spuddite means get lost in Polish.

Spud the difference

2010-07-23T03:16:00.000-07:00

My friend Kuba was mocking me in the pub because he thinks my job is drawing potatoes all day. He came up with this idea as a further mock. I quite like it! Cheers Q. Can you spud the difference? The first to spud the two differences wins a personalised spud (drawing). Good luck!

Desperately Seeking Paul

2010-07-12T23:56:00.000-07:00

Paul and his Missus

2010-07-09T04:50:00.000-07:00

Hurrah for Paul! I hope that he's predicted a nice holiday in Barbados for next week, he deserves it.

A Real Fluffy

2010-07-02T03:59:00.000-07:00

A rabbit has moved into my Dads garden and made it his home, he's been living here for a month and seems to be most content. There is an abundant supply of vegetables and fruit growing but Fluffy seems to prefer the weeds!

Also I forgot to mention last week that the very talented Thereza Rowe of Tiny Red Design blog fame has kindly made a write up of my work on Doodlers Anonymous

Pops Art

2010-07-02T02:49:00.000-07:00

My Dad started making art for the first time about 10 years ago and the house is packed with his paintings and sculptures. He is prolific. I think his work is quite exciting - am I being biased? I'm always inspired after seeing what he's been up to. Hope that you like these..

Thirsty Flower

2010-06-21T02:57:00.000-07:00

News

2010-06-17T01:53:00.000-07:00

A few things here, I'm a visiting lecturer at The University of Westminster and some of the students will be showcasing their work at New Blood (D&AD) Truman Brewery, Friday 25 - Monday 28th of June 10am -6am. There'll be lots of talent here, it's always worth going to see the D&AD shows.

Winner of last years the observer/cape graphic short story prize Vivien Mcdermid and her boyfriend Michael have made this amazing animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jfBJko3oWk

The Rude Britannia show at the Tate Britain is fun and very different to the shows I've seen there before. I'm well chuffed to have a piece on those walls.

For one night only I'll have my work at the Saatchi Gallery, kind of. Deutsche Bank will be holding their annual awards given to artists. There will be an exhibition and a pop up shop for past winners on the 28th of June, I'll be selling prints from my website at the gallery. Unfortunately it's not going to be an open event but these prints are available to buy directly from me.

http://simonelia.com/

Hi there [part 1]

2010-06-16T08:01:00.001-07:00

The room is crowded.

I am surprised to see you and try to catch your eye, but you don't see me.

Making my way over through the throb of people I see you leaving via the back door, you don't hear me call your name. You're skipping down a staircase, beginning to run now, down the metal stairs. I call your name again but you don't hear because the sound of your wooden shoes on the metal is clanging and clonking and echoing as you urgently, now frantically run down another staricase then another and another. I'm waving my arms and my voice is hoarse from calling, I'm flying down the stairs trying to reach you. But you are running too fast. Out of breath I pause to think. What am I doing? You're in the distance now, the sound of your wooden shoes on the metal floor barely audible, you are a dot on the horizon. You disappear.

I only wanted to say 'hi there'.

Hi there [part 2]

2010-06-16T07:36:00.000-07:00

A Pictureless Picture For Your Frameless Frame

2010-06-10T08:58:00.001-07:00

Vest Wishes

2010-06-07T02:30:00.000-07:00

Spod-U-Like

2010-06-01T01:59:00.000-07:00

Hello Chicken

2010-05-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

This One's For You

2010-05-25T02:14:00.000-07:00

Legal

2010-05-19T02:55:00.000-07:00

Hello again, here is a recent illustration for Tony Binghams column in Building. Tony Bingham is an adjudicator and a dude.

Stars on Canvas

2010-05-19T01:51:00.000-07:00

Morning! This is an early heads up to say that I've just finished this painting for the annual Stars on Canvas exhibtion. The paintings are auctioned to raise money for The Willow Foundation who make special days for seriously ill 16 to 40 years olds. The painting is based on a panel on my comic piece that will be shown at the Rude Britannia show at the Tate Britain. The canvases will be auctioned in November on ebay, I'll send out more news nearer the time.

Rude Britannia

2010-05-18T14:18:00.000-07:00

Look out for Rude Britania: British Comic Art coming up at the Tate Britain on June the 9th. Yours truly has an exhibit in the show and you may recognise the illustrations in the exhibition guide.

Pop to The Shops

2010-05-11T09:17:00.000-07:00

Art Review

2010-05-05T06:57:00.000-07:00

The wonderful Paul Gravett has interviewed me for the May edition of Art Review who also commissioned me to make this one off strip for the magazine.

Malta Fields

2010-04-26T06:31:00.000-07:00

That's better. Here's an old painting of a Maltese landscape.

Current Affairs

2010-04-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

Holy Week

2010-03-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

A picture for Holy Week, this is how I saw Jesus when I was six.

Oh dear..

2010-03-23T04:25:00.000-07:00

I've been going through old work and doing a studio expansion in the last couple of weeks. It's exciting having a bit more space and I've been finding old bits of work including a bad joke pea drawing, thought I'd put it up here.

Phone doodle

2010-03-10T08:12:00.000-08:00

I made a bear doodle whilst on the telephone yesterday.

2010-03-08T08:19:00.000-08:00

Art Gallery

2010-03-01T04:18:00.000-08:00

Here's a drawing inspired by a recent visit to Henry Moores show at the Tate, I thought it was rather smashing. I've put in a few characters as requested by Joe Decies comments last week. I hope the kitten is ugly enough for you. Ten points if you spot the lamp.

Great British Art Debate

2010-02-22T02:41:00.000-08:00

Hi there, I thought I'd post up some proper work this week, so here is a recent commission for The Tate Britain and 'The Great British Art Debate' . This is a four year national programme to stimulate conversation about British Art by asking five questions. There is more about that here http://greatbritishartdebate.tate.org.uk/. This comic piece above was a response to those questions through the eyes of British painter John Martin and acted out by Chip and Bean, it will appear in a fanzine that will be handed out at the Tate Britain.

I've been having fun doing the weekly quick silly drawings, has anyone got any requests for subject matters? If so let me know..

I've been making good progress with the graphic novel, I'm on page 70, I thought I'd get to page 90 and then show it to my publisher, see what he thinks. He was wanting to see a chunk of it. We'll see what happens.

Also a friend of mine illustrator Sandra Howgate has started up a new job with lovely drawings, take a look here http://sandrahowgate.blogspot.com/

I've been marvelling at this content of this website http://www.urbansketchers.com/

Cor!

My Ratty Valentine

2010-02-15T04:20:00.000-08:00

Rubik's Cube Fun!

2010-02-08T08:15:00.000-08:00

Celebrity Picture

2010-02-01T01:46:00.000-08:00

Therapy

2010-01-26T13:58:00.000-08:00

Jo's Sculpture

2010-01-18T07:11:00.000-08:00

My friend Johanna Ward was telling me all about Queen Elizabeth the First the other day and how she used to fall over from the weight of her jewelry pinned to the front of her dress. Jo is a European sculpture expert at Sotheby's and with a bit of coaxing/bullying she made this fab play dough relief sculpture of the Queen moments before her topple.

Inconvenient Phone Caller

2010-01-18T06:56:00.000-08:00

Inconvenient Phone Call

2010-01-13T04:45:00.000-08:00

Field with Three Pigeons

2010-01-11T14:11:00.001-08:00

I found another old oil painting today. I think fields are the best thing to paint, they're magic.

MASSIVE snowflake

2010-01-08T08:56:00.000-08:00

I took a photo from my studio window of the snow, it was only afterwards that I noticed this massive snowflake.

In Memory of a Disused Petrol Station

2010-01-07T10:37:00.000-08:00

Even though they've built modern flats where you once stood, disused petrol station in Nunhead; I won't forget you.

New Graphic Novel in Progress

2010-01-04T05:55:00.000-08:00

I'm working on a new book, I've started again from scratch recently so am only on page 34 but it's getting there.

New edition of Little Giant

2010-01-04T05:40:00.000-08:00

Gullane Children's Books have brought out a dinky new board book edition of Little Giant. I'm very pleased with the new size and feel of the book. It's available from February.

Building Illustrations

2010-01-04T04:56:00.000-08:00

I've just completed my first illustration of the year for Tony Binghams legal column in Building magazine. Here are a couple of last years illustrations.

Giraffes in Bath

2009-12-30T15:32:00.001-08:00

Play dough sculptures.

Cursed Fig Tree

2009-12-30T07:34:00.000-08:00

I made a couple of paintings earlier this year inspired by parts of the Gospel of Luke. This one is a bit of a bleak depiction, it's from the story about Jesus getting angry with a fig tree.

Sketch Book Drawings

2009-12-30T07:07:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been making it a habit to draw whilst in transit or waiting. Quite often people are so lost in their thoughts that they don't notice the people around them, quite handy for me.

Too Cold

2009-12-30T05:52:00.000-08:00

I hear you Worm, it's too cold to go outside that's why I'm staying home. This morning I was vaguely thinking that I could get a blog and now with a few clicks and a bit of head scratching I've got one, hurrah! The plan is to put up recent drawings and bits of news. This illustration was from a range of Christmas cards that are on my page at Moo