Darren Nisbett : Photoblog

exhibition starts tomorrow

darren — Sun, 27 May 2012 09:15:48 +0000

Its been a long journey to this point but its arrived like a bullet train in the end.
I thought this weekend would be full of last minute panic and a rush to finish everything but actually, I find myself all organised and ready. The prints are packaged up as best as i can and ready for transport, the mini van is booked for tomorrow morning and so long as everything goes well hopefully i will be able to get them there in one piece and unharmed
then there’s just the small matter of hanging them. I think that Ive got enough to give myself some options as I haven’t thought too much about the hanging plan except for a rough idea of which prints go together
tomorrow will be an exciting day!

Art fair

darren — Mon, 14 May 2012 18:26:39 +0000

I’m hanging a few prints at parallax art fair tomorrow in Chelsea old town hall.
All the fixtures are done, have to find some labels from somewhere though and it means trekking into London carrying the heavy prints

More heavy metal

darren — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:38:10 +0000

My (hopefully) final delivery arrived, more aluminium, glue and frames so I’m all set. The next one I the mammoth one, more panels than I’ve tried before although it a symetrical affair
Pics to follow

The 5 week mark

darren — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 07:28:36 +0000

The sudden realisation that there is only a matter of weeks left until opening night has hit like an electric shock. Most of the pieces are ready but I wanted enough to be picky about which ones go up, I wanted enough to substitute some of the earlier ones.

I started to plan out the biggest print, a flower type arrangement which will be over a meter square, can’t wait to see how this one turns out.

Flickr

darren — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:52:42 +0000

When I set up my flickr account, which was about the same time as this site, i decided to keep all the photos consistantly B&W, recently though ive been thinking about putting colour ones up as well, I think that it I will still be choosy about which ones I put there.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/darkoptics/

Newspapers

darren — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 22:21:47 +0000

Its been an odd week, I had my first interview with a newspaper in oxford, it was quite strange talking about growing up in oxfordshire as it seems almost a lifetime ago, I always worry what will get into print after a conversation, maybe im just too much of a control freak who likes to see the finished result before anyone else does. The paper should be out next week so i guess i will find out then

I submitted a magazine article this week as well and finished one of my Detroit prints for the oxford exhibition. Its Easter weekend now so im hoping to get a few more prints sorted over the long break, may is definitely creeping up quickly now.

website updates

darren — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:54:18 +0000

A few updates to the website, the first was an overgrown mansion in north Wales. A damp and overcast day didn’t do this place justice – definately worth a revisit. The mansion would have been really impressive on its day, a big footprint for both the mansion, outbuildings and garden. The interior was completely wrecked, floors collapsed and rotten wood everwhere. Fireplaces were visible up the interior walls showing where the floor supports would have been secured.

>> Overgrown Mansion

Dadi Park- A traditional playground : swings, slides, roundabouts, it would have been good wholesome fun in its day, no electronics or steam needed here, just energy and imagination. Even now the park was (unofficially) open, kids were playing on giant hamster wheels and couples walked hand in hand through the park

>> Dadi Park

The Prints

darren — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:06:42 +0000

Ive finally managed to get some decent looking photos of the prints. its taken quite a bit of trial and error:
photographing them inside, outside, I didnt want to invest in any professional lights so have now been taking them with 2 homebase halogen spotlights with plain paper infront of them and the prints in front of 2 mountboards. Its all a bit low tech but it actually seems to work, who needs fancy umbrellas

Tobacco Factory – Bristol 2013

darren — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:39:26 +0000

On Tuesday I went to Bristol to see the art director at the tobacco factory, I always like going back to bristol, I was born there and frequently spent time there growing up, so in a whimsical way – taking the exhibition there would be quite meaningful.

Past the SS Great Britain, the Tobacco factory was quite an impressive big brick building, the bar interior, bright and airy. This was the first time that my latest set of prints have been shown to anyone so i was quite nervous about this too. Luckily they were received well. There is a bit of a waiting list there so the exhibition will be in the second half of 2013, should be enough time to sort out something special for them.

Echoes for Company

darren — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:51:11 +0000

The new exhibition set started out from a few prints that I did for the brick lane exhibition last year. Aluminium is a great medium to work with, I was worried about the expense and the fact that the prints are a lot less predictable, especially with the process of painting and scratching of the metal beforehand, I thought that any wastage would have quickly added up.
One of the great things though is the fact that if the prints come out badly, then some water and a scoured, soon get the metal back to the state that it was in before going through the printer.

I love the fact that the prints have a chaos element too, the paint and the metal combine to help create the image as much as the photoshop file that gets sent to the printer
Finally seeing the image emerge from the printer is like unwrapping a surprise that you have been building up for weeks.