Primary research Trip to Newcastle

The week that we received our blog list we also got a list of recommended places to go to do some research and get some inspiration. The list included a few different places that were in the Newcastle/Gateshead area so i decided to ask my class mate Glenn if he wanted to go on a few trips to a few of these places to see what inspiration we could get from them.

The first place that we decided to go to was the baltic. I hadn't been to look around this art gallery before so i had an open mind before i got there. I was pretty impressed by the exhibition that was on the top floor as it was very bright and fun to look at. The exhibition showed Thomas Bayrle's pieces, It was amazing to see because Brayrle was a pioneer of pop art. His art is all very bold and mainly focusses around repeated patterns. all of his work looked really graphic and computer generated witch was strange as it was all created in the mid 1960's and i don't think that the computer software that would enable anyone to make this art was even around back then. it made me appreciate how much easier it is now to create digitally rendered art.

The Baltic art gallery Gateshead

Thomas Bayrle exhibition 

We then decided to go to wondering man comic shop over the river in Newcastle. We got recommended to go here because one of the narrative briefs was set by Nobrow  and they have a no brow section in thier shop. It was a really nice little shop with some great comics and an independent press section that enabled artists and illustrators to create and sell their own books and zines, It was lovely to look through. As i chose to do the no brow brief for my narrative brief i decided to buy one of their magazines to look through for ideas and inspiration. I will post a separate post on the pieces that have gave me ideas and inspired me from this magazine. One other really nice thing about this shop was that they have a free comic style news paper full of local artists comic strips that they have made based on the subject of science.

me in the comic shop at the Nobrow section

The Nobrow magazine that i got

Logo of the comic shop

Free comic newspaper

The final place that we decided to go was the Biscuit Factory it was really nice and interesting to look at all of the art work and see how much it was selling for. I liked some of the pieces more than others but overall everything in there was lovely. i saw a huge painting of a bear that i really loved but it was for sale at £500 (i think) so i couldn't afford it. When i went down to the gift shop i found a book called 'Norris the bear who shared' by Catherine Ryner that the painting was from for only £5.99 so i got that instead. It was a children's book but i didn't mind as they are so much more pretty to look at and i love the simple happy stories that they often have.

overall it was a really good trip and i saw a lot of great things to give me inspiration for my narrative brief. Hopefully the things and information that i collected on this trip will help me create my art work for the module.