Smashed Sculpture Halts Exhibition

The peace and quiet of the London Royal Academy was smashed at the weekend when a visitor to the exhibition lost her balance knocking a 9ft ceramic sculpture to the floor smashing it into hundreds of pieces.

The sculpture entitled 'Christina' by Costa Rican Artist Tatiana Echeverri Fernande which was valued at over £6000 was totally destroyed at the Summer '08 exhibition curated by famous (if slightly controversial) British artist Tracy Emin.

The Royal Academy confirmed the incident and said they were awaiting discussions with their insurance company before deciding the best coarse of action.

Tracy Emin was not available for comment as she prepares an exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. The artist Tatiana Echeverri Fernande did not wish to comment on what had happened to her sculpture.

Website Updates

WHoArtNow Website Updates [July 2008]

We have made a few tweaks to the site, as part of the start to the WHoArtNow V2 site. As well as giving a bit of a face-lift to the top navigation sections, we have now created a brand new "Help and Utilities" section and started added some content to this section & the "About Us" section. The main aim is to give you guys a bit more information about what we offer, and to answer some of the common questions that you might have.

Over the years we have had a fair few questions that we have answered, and now we have now decided to publish them to the world. "What's the best way to hang a canvas?", "How do I clean my canvas?" to "How big is that in cm's" These popular questions are all answered, along with some other tips, like choosing a canvas for a gift, and how to pick a canvas. The later is quite a good, meaty read, broken down into different sections like Style and Subject, Colour, Size and Shape etc. We've also brought a few sections more into the limelight: FAQ's, Terms and conditions and so on. Not because we want to dissuade you from picking up the phone and having a chat with us, as we positively encourage that, but purely and simply because we are a transparent company, and we want you all to see everything that there is to see.

So check it out, feel free to let us know what you think of it too. As well as some tasty treats of art the banners to tease you, (oh yeah, click through the banners to see the actual art) there is actually some really engaging content, which we plan to stay on top of and update regularly. So things are looking good for the future of WHoArtNow, stay in touch and keep on top of our news with by subscribing to it.

New Stencil and Street Art on Canvas

Artwork Update: [July 2008]

We are well into July now, and deep in the middle of this fluctuating seasonal summer of 2008, & we have a cheeky art update that might brighten up your day! We have just finished furnishing the site with load of brand new street inspired designs and prints which we are very happy with. Featuring a mixed of street art, from abstract macro cross sections of graffiti, to some hand produced pieces that have been put together in-house by some of our outstanding new artists.

The abstract selection of macro photographs, are all based on paying homage to the fantastic lines and shapes that make the art of graffiti something impressive to behold. We've really tried to capture the vibrancy & impact of what you get on the streets and translate it to something that can hang on your wall, without it looking too offensive.

The aptly named "Pollock Graff" is almost Jackson Pollock if he had taken to the streets with his brush and a few spray cans.. It is a real piece of graffiti, overlayed and built up over time to produce a really tidy piece of abstract modern art.

The "My name is..." is a good example of this urban linear art, taking just a small section of the colourful graffiti, and presenting it as an abstract piece of art. This kind of art will not suit every home, and is a bit more of a daring purchase. I wouldn't be looking at mixing with cream walls and leather sofas, these graffiti prints are going to sit well in an eclectic environment. We are not just talking urban flats & loft conversions, but any abode that dares to be different. This kind of modern art, call it urban, abstract, contemporary, it is all becoming very popular, certainly for us, as it is becoming fueled by a new generation of people that want something different & unique & are not happy with nipping to Ikea for a piece of generic, of the shelf art.

Moving on to the hand produced stencil art and what can I say? This selection is absolutely fantastic, the quality has exceeded our expectations. Originally produced for an exhibition at the D&G offices in London (which is still on), the artists in question here are Pegs, and Vic Mason.

Stand out designs here are "Panda Style" by Pegs, a very green piece of art. It has been produced from various layers of stencils, which have had his trademark surface scratching technique applied. Another stand out print from him is "Gee-raff" as simple, yet effective simple one colour stencil design over pastel tones which forms a subtle, light background.

The "Mexican Boston" by Vic Mason has a hand painted background, with sprayed and rolled top end, and represents a beautiful little Boston terrier dog. The fusion of browns, mustard's and burnt oranges will sit well on most walls, and the abstract nature of the print makes it pleasing on the eye. Reggie Jaxx pays homage to the Bull Terrier, king of dogs. This print has delicate pastel tones on top a linear floral pattern, and a combination of sprayed and rolled paint over the top.

If you want to see some more of these new pieces, we have been prototyping & showcasing a selection of them for the last couple of months at an exhibiton in London. The venue is: The D&G offices, which is The Media Village, based just North of Oxford Street. [131-151 Gt Titchfield Street, W1W 5BB.]

So that is it for now, stay tuned, we will have more updates. As usual, you can check all our canvas art from WHoArtNow, as well as subscribing to this feed for regular updates to our world of art!

New Floral Canvas Art

Artwork Updates: [July 2008]

We have a brand spanking new selection of floral designs, and photographic prints which are now live and up on the site.

There is a beautiful selection of commission produced art, which are all brushed / painted on canvas, and produced as prints, followed by a number of subtle photographs of Flowers, some quite abstract in their composition.

"Coffee Rush" & "Pastel Pods" have been created for an obvious reason in mind. The browns, light tones and latte hints, mixed with other light pastel tones and bold mustard yellows are going to sit well in houses with those brown sofas, and earthy colours on the walls. "Concrete Devotion" is another of the brush painted prints, and is maybe a little more daring. Fitting in well with red accessories in a room, this is going to make a subtle statement.

The other prints all fall into the broad category of Macro Photography, all subtle close ups of flowers or leaves. "Vivid Marigolds" is very striking, the raspberry and peachy tones are going to brighten up any room, whereas "Feather Detail" is for the more minimal wall. A subtle, delicate piece of natural photography in black and white, which picks out the leafy veins on a feather.

Keep watching this space more art updates to come, in the form of new Street / Stencil Art coming up next.. Then we've got the long awaited BOYD section following. Plenty of great new art, all good!

Inflatable Street Sculpture

Its hard to be unique and creative these days, yet American artist Joshua Allen Harris has managed to be so unique he's been making world wide news with his breath taking garbage bag balloon art.

The idea started by creating small dogs out of used white plastic bags. The bags were then tired to subway grates in New York so that when a subway train goes by, air rises through the vents and the dog stands up.

Taking things to a new level, Harris has now moved onto bigger and better animals, now using the larger 'black bag'. Harris has managed to create giraffes, bulls and even the Loch Ness Monster!

I love this type of street art, yet i find myself preferring to call it 'Street Sculpture'.

2009 Interior Trends: Oriental Sweetness

WhoArtNow: Interior Trends 2009

Oriental Sweetness:

After Woolmark has launched its new interior colour trends for 2009/10 at the start of the New Year, it looks like Japanese Inspired themes are going to be prevalent. It is still early days as far as interior predictions for 2009, but we are going to look into one of the trends that is looking hot for next year, Oriental Sweetness & produce a dedicated range of canvas art prints to compliment it.

It's all about the East: Asian & Oriental influences are key here. Look to vintage floral Japanese textiles for inspiration, simple and minimal shapes with striking colours.

The colour palettes for the 09 season features strong tones of red, purple and burgundy, contrasted with brighter shades or neutral tones in unlikely combinations. The base for all the colour palettes can be made up from Neutrals, white, brown and bark.

Japanese, Oriental florals are inherently simple in their form, one of the aspects that I love is the minimal block colour approach, it is like pop art, but pioneered hundreds of years early. If you look at Japanese & indeed a lot Asian art, it closely resembles what graphic design has now become in a CAD based world. Blocks of colour that would have been intricately painted with a watercolour brush is only now becoming a popular graphic design technique, thanks to Adobe Illustrator.

Simple, vector based shapes are the key focal point to a design, little or no tone is apparent or necessary.

To quote us from the inital 2009 trends forecast we did, "The use of floral images and light colours simplify things and help keep its grace. Look no further than our floral canvas art section, where Japanese & oriental florals have featured prominently for the last 4 years." And we mean it, we've been all over Japanese florals for years now, what better a time for it to come through than now, when we have tonnes of original artwork!

We are well and truly on the ball with this trend, already loving a Japanese inspired floral design makes it easy for us, as the passion for what we do is there.. So, we've currently designed a selection of brand new floral canvas art, you can see some of them featured on this news blog. The rest can be found on our floral art pages, check them out, feel free to hit us up if you need custom art producing.

New Organic Canvas Art

Artwork Updates: [June 2008]

We have a new selection of Organic Canvas art prints fresh on the site. This is an update on the Organic section, featuring loads of beautifully photographed shots of nature.

So, black and white is a key theme for 2008, so there is plenty here to choose from. "Bare Trees" is one of my personal favourites, it is quite unlike anything on whole of the WHoArtNow site. It's blurry, out of focused trees and branches make it quite abstract in nature, and I just love the whole half and half feel with it, the bottom part being entirely black. Cracking stuff, in the right enviorment, the right space, it would look lethal.

The black and white theme continues, the "Lone Pine" photograph has something about it, a fantastic composition with bold piney leaves is maybe what does it for me. There is quite a few tree and forest related canvas prints here too, "The Dead Forest" is one and "A Old English Garden" is on a similar tip. If abstract is your thing, the "Tree Limbs" print has got some interest. "Pebbles" finally is a good old fashioned greyscale photograph, with a bit of focal interest. Soft & smooth pebbles on a beach bring some shaded texture to this design, and it's a bit of a move on from classic photos like Peaceful & Balanced.


Now if colour is more your thing, there are a few cheeky prints to inject some vibrancy & add a bit more of a focal point into your chosen room. "Tangerine View" is a powerful photograph, the deep Mandarin colours from the sunset sets off some amazing colours in the corn field & gives the print an abstract, artist quality. You could try mixing this print in with subtle hints of orange in a room. Scattering orange cushions on a deep red leather sofa for example...

Sitting next to it is "Raspberry View"which is unsurprisingly a "fruity" coloured canvas. Any hints of this raspberry colour in a room would complement the predominant colours in this canvas. "Crimson Corner" is again, very colour orientated print. Minimal and abstract, it's subtlety and artist composition is something that would accentuate the right wall.