kerblammo!

2011-11-25T14:23:00.004Z

I can finally show you the work I've done for Goodone, a rather excellent ethical fashion label who are up to many good things at the moment. Lots of fun doing these.

2011-11-17T18:11:00.010Z

It is with much irk that I stroll around the streets of Brighton and notice the horribly premature Christmas decorations. Is it like this everywhere? It's barely mid November; I've only just had my birthday! Yes, I did have a lovely time, thankyou for asking. Spoilt rotten by my girlfriend, fed fantastically, entertained by the likes of Toumani Diabate, Hypnocoustics and Refractal, with a brief walk around Stanmer park and a good deal of lazing about to boot. Very well nourished musically now as well, as I was given some brilliant albums by Tinariwen and Martha Tilston (as well as a lovely Opinel knife - been after one since I were a lad. Hooray!), and treated myself to some beauties by Pelican, Lost and Found, Bolt Thrower and the newie from Laura Marling. Bonza.

And whilst on the subject of Tinariwen, a brand new illustration of a Tuareg lady and some camels in the desert is one of a new range of limited edition giclee prints that I have available from my newly-installed, monumentally exciting (it's been on my to-do list for quite some time...) WEB SHOP! Yes indeed, head on over there to treat yourself (or someone you like) to some fancy prints, or some Christmas cards! It's never to early to get organised, don't you know (but decorations are another matter). Please let me know if you have any problems with the shop - it's brand new and needs to be put through its paces as e-commerce n wotnot is new to me... I hope you like it.

2011-11-14T19:28:00.007Z

Here are some photos of some food from the amazing walled garden at Monkton Wyld Court in Dorset, where I recently helped out with a spot of digging and chopping and harvesting and so on. Rather nice it was too.

2011-11-08T11:01:00.005Z

Yes indeed, sketchbook-o-rama.... no I haven't been on holiday, just having some fun with good old National Geographic. I'm going to start doing much more of this on my blog (ie sketchbook work, photos, work in progress, stuff I've found interesting and the like), as my new website is much easier to upload work to (and talk nonsense on) than it was before and it would be much nicer if the two worked together and had a slightly different slant. Having said that, there's some fresh illustration almost ready to put up too.... I've also just realised I haven't bored you with what music I've been enjoying lately for a while... Penta, Slayer, Laura Marling and John Chibadura mainly. Top banana!

Also, those lovely chaps over at the excellent website Lost At E Minor just asked me to do some writing for them, about all dem cultural tings I been digging of late.... pop over there and have a look - it's a great source of inspiration, weird stuff and all kinds of art and culture that might otherwise completely pass you by.

And whilst on the subject, I've just discovered Andy Smith's lovely blog... if you like hand-rendered type, you'll love it there.

2011-11-07T00:37:00.004Z

Thought I'd post a few pages from the ol' sketchbook for a change...

2011-10-03T13:12:00.020+01:00

Bonjourno.... few things to waffle on about so I shall try and keep it brief... First off, here are some long-overdue photos of the murals I made for DC Storm's lovely new offices.

Having also done some great fun work (mainly sign-writing) at various festivals over the summer, I've just returned from a lovely spell working from my newly mobile studio in rural Devon. Had a very productive, and also very relaxing time down there, and even got to see some America's Cup sailing action from the sound at Plymouth. Man, those boats are fast! I also went to a great event run by Encounters Arts in Totnes called Artists' Lab - a workshop of sorts where a very varied and interesting cross-section of practitioners met for a day to share and develop ideas and experiment in a very free, fluid and open manner - hugely beneficial and a real pleasure to take part in.

In between all of that I've been busily redeveloping my website, and have just launched a completely new and fully updated site. I'm dead chuffed with it, so do please have a wee look: www.edtucker.biz.

I also want to mention a really cracking exhibition I went to see at the University of Brighton Gallery before I went away, thanks to a tip from the ever-intrepid Fred Pipes on the Brighton Illustrators Group website. It was a fantastic and extensive show of maps and murals (and also some sketchbooks and drawings and so on) by MacDonald Gill (1884-1947), whose work I became familiar with at the Magnificent Maps exhibition (written about in a previous post). He had a highly distinctive style, a great eye for detail and a really nice, cheeky sense of humour which you don't often see in much work form this period. The man had many talents and was highly prolific, producing a lot of maps for London's tube and bus networks and many other institutions, as well as posters, murals, book jackets, architecture and even gravestones for servicemen! Gosh!

2011-05-25T12:13:00.011+01:00

Ahhh, May - what a fine time of year. Especially here in Brighton, as the May Festival gets going and the whole town springs into action. A real highlight of the festival has been Jardin Flambeau, a massive event/installation by these clever French dudes. They completely took over St.Anne's Well Gardens, probably our finest park, and completely filled it with all manner of enchanting pockets of firey wonder. Far from the ... spectacular many were expecting, it was the cumulative effect of hundreds of small-scale pockets of fire, in all manner of shapes, positions and configurations that instead generated a wonderfully calm, relaxed and mesmerising atmosphere. Countless flowerpots of fire rose hypnotically up into the canopies of trees, vest-enclosed candles hung ghost-like from the branches, and gazebos dotted around the park housed curious pockets of eery live music. Very refreshing too was the lack of health and safety - exposed fire everywhere and thousands of people (and on Saturday night!)

Caught some ace live music so far too, namely the great Max Romeo alongside Lee Perry and Adrian Sherwood, Shapeshifter, a lovely recital of Boccherini, Locatelli, Telemann and Bach, and even managed to catch the man like Snoop Dogg at his 'secret' gig at the Dome! Hilarious.

Bit slow to mention this but once again I'm back in one of the best Open Houses around for the festival - the lovely Claremont on Second Avenue in Hove. One more weekend left (it's not open on Sunday but is on Monday), so if you're in the area go and check it out to see a whole heap of cracking artwork.

I've finally finished the biggest project I've worked on yet - very satisfying to get it all wrapped up after many months! Working with interior designer Nicola Gobat, I produced artwork for seven large and four small sections of walls, along with 5 large glass manifestation sections, for the sumptuous new offices of DC Storm here in Brighton. Painting directly onto the walls (which made a highly refreshing change!), I portrayed various scenes of Brighton and the surrounding area in a continuous panorama going around the entire office. A huge job and quite a challenge but a real joy to do. Gotta sort out photos of it all - I'll be sure to post once I do....

Couple of other new bits up there too - the first of a series of album covers for Dubmission Records, my entry for the recent AOI/Serco River Thames illustration competition and some artwork for my latest mix, which you can listen to here:

http://www.mixcloud.com/kokerboom/africa-maximum-vol1/

2011-03-11T11:25:00.010Z

Hellooooo. Few more tings for you to see.... been very busy lately, but mostly with music so some projects have been a bit delayed. Just completed another remix for the ever fabulous Belleruche, soon to be available via Tru Thoughts Records in some form or another. My EP is also (finally!) finished and is being mastered as we speak. Wooo! Here is the artwork for it, as well as the artwork and linkage for my latest mix, this time a sweet selection of the finest, classiest roots reggae from the 1970s. 'Ave a listen, it's nice. Also a test piece I did a while back for some packaging for the excellent United Design. They loved it but their client didn't go for it unfortunately.

Roots mix: http://www.mixcloud.com/kokerboom/roots-vintage-special/

The rest of my time at the moment is being taken up with a very exciting (and big!) commission producing artwork to go on the walls of some new office space here in Brighton. Also just about to start work on some new covers for Dubmission Records and some cider labels. Good times! And other than that, trying to stay up to date with promotion n wotnot, which is always a lot less appealing than drawing, unfortunately.....

2011-01-24T12:39:00.009Z

Is it too late to say Happy New Year? Consider it done either way. A crackingly-well kicked off new year, somewhat universally it seems - there's a lovely buzz of positivity, optimism, action and creavitity around at the moment - I hope you're feeling that too!

Anyway, had a great couple of weeks off over christmas so don't have much work to show, but here's a picture of the bandstand that's by my house you may want to have a look at. Also got some other work that I'm waiting for permission to show, and some more mix artwork that I ought to upload the actual mix for first really! Music-wise, been loving Antispin, Cornell Campbell (blown away by his The Gorgon Dubwise album!), Squid Inc, Corrosion of Conformity, Concept, another rather tasty Phase One Records compilation and especially Hedflux. HEDFLUX! He's got a new EP out and it's just amazing. Love it.

2010-12-15T08:06:00.002Z

A few new things - Christmas card designs and prints.

2010-12-02T13:06:00.007Z

I do like this time of year. Aside from my birthday there's been a month of glorious rugby (especially good this year - shock results a-go-go and every game I've seen has been brilliantly entertaining, England - Australia lingering particularly nicely in the memory), I've ice-skated in front of the Pavilion, and there's now a proper covering of snow everywhere. Lovely. It's also the time of Brighton's Christmas Open Houses, and much of my time has been taken up preparing for the New England House Open Studios, which I'm very happy to have been invited to join again this year. A little different to the houses, it's just open for two weekdays (9th &10th December) but there is much much more to be seen (and bought!). A huge amount of artists and makers, largely selling old stock, seconds and other bargains at supercheap bargainsome prices, it's probably the best place around to get interesting and unique christmas presents without breaking the bank. Check the flyer above (designed by my incredibly talented ceramicist friend Rowena Gilbert) for more info, or this link.

Aside from that most of my time has been spent preparing my EP, now a three-tracker and to be released through Wonkay some time this month.... watch this space for an official release date and links for downloading. I've also started doing some work for Goodone, a rather excellent ethical fashion label. Very nice to be doing some fashion illustration for a change as I've always fancied doing some, and hopefully this'll be an ongoing venture.

And speaking of fashion illustration, I've just been up to the design museum to see their excellent exhibitions: Drawing Fashion and Plain Space by the architect John Pawson. Both were very nicely presented, with lots to see and a good amount of information to read - never too much but plenty to digest. I've always been a big fan of John Pawson so it was great to see a fine range of excellent photos, samples of building materials and exquisite architectural models, alongside a massive table laid out with inspirations, notebooks and the like and next to it a 'bio wall' that was a (predominantly photographic) timeline of his life and his work. Drawing Fashion was exactly what the title suggests - 100 years of fashion drawing with over 150 images and the odd video. I was somewhat disappointed not to see the modern master of the artform, David Downton in there (the show favoured showing a a broad range of work from select individuals as opposed to a few works from a broad range of artists), but my discovery of Francois Berthoud made up for this. Well worth a visit.

2010-11-02T23:55:00.012Z

So, one of the things I've been up to is recording a series of DJ mixes, initially for my label but the joys of the internetz mean that I've also now got myself a Mixcloud account so they can be uploaded and shared. And what's more, Mixcloud pays royalties to the artists/labels featured. Win-win. And for a further win, as if any more winning was necessary, let alone acceptable, it's an ace opportunity to produce artwork! It's brilliant to do, as there is a (fairly loose) brief and a particular format, but I am the client so I can ultimately do whatever I want, and I also get to play around with type and design a bit more than usual. And it's a series that can go on and on, limited only by my music collection and the space on my hard drive. Whoop-la!

Here are the links to the mixes that are illustrated above:

http://www.mixcloud.com/kokerboom/roots-tip-top/

http://www.mixcloud.com/kokerboom/late-night-dubwise-vol1/

Hope you enjoy listening, should you fancy it... next up will be some vintage roots, glorious African music, and some mellow dubby stuff and off-kilter weirdness. And of course lots and lots of thumping psychedelic trance and techno.

2010-10-25T19:55:00.011+01:00

Just thought I'd post this again - I did a while ago, but it's had a few tweaks and this is the final version. You can buy the rather excellent CD here. Will have some nice new work to show you in a sec (promise!) but I'm not allowed to show some of it for quite a while unfortunately......

Saw Sean Lock at the weekend. Jolly funny he was too. All round excellent weekend actually, in a nice mellow Autumnal fashion - two very pleasant coastal walks, two lovely cooked breakfasts courtesy of my lovely girlfriend, bit of a pub, a film (Casino - man, that's a heavy film! But nicely tempered by Sharon Stone's and Robert De Niro's seriously badass outfits - I've decided I need to own them all. Maybe if I marry some rich gangster type... he can buy me nuff gold stuff and chinchilla coats n that and I can go off the rails) and capped off with my first roast dinner since January. Splendid!

Sad news on Monday though of the untimely demise of yet another reggae legend. RIP the Cool Ruler, Gregory Isaacs.

I've also finally joined the AOI and now also have a Behance profile. Blam!

2010-10-13T13:59:00.009+01:00

Ooops, got a bit sidelined by a few things and a touch behind on this.... busy times! Got a lot of exciting goings on at the moment, not least of which is recording a Kokerboom EP that'll be out before the end of the year on Wonkay..... And on the subject of dub (a fine subject indeed), my good friends at Dubmission Records have recently released two budget priced samplers in celebration of their 15 years of releasing top-notch music. At £1.50 apiece they're an absolute bargain and you really can't go wrong - solid selections of high-grade dubwise delights. Check this'n and that'n, but their whole catalogue is well classy and dead cheap from here (and I'm not just saying that - I was buying their music long before they became friends).

Some editorial pieces above - the top one's an illustration for an article about how tobacco companies are targetting young people at festivals, and the lower one's about how Iceland, the Faroes and the UK/the EU are squabbling over mackerel stocks.

I've managed to catch a couple of illustration exhibitions in the last month - the AOI's Images 34 and the University of Brighton's MA Sequential Design / Illustration show. I thought the Images exhibition was quite a mixed bag, to be honest - there was a lot of work, and a lot of it was very good, but I was surprised by the standard of some of it, which just seemed a little shoddy. Admittedly some was let down by the quality of its printing and (something which is always going to be an issue in an illustration exhibition) perhaps suffered from being viewed out of context, although there were several glass cabinets that displayed some of the books, magazines, products and so on that featured the works on the walls. The 'New Talent' section (students and recent graduates) especially exemplified the disparity of quality - some absolutely cracking images alongside some real dross (maybe it's just me but the current vogue for overly naive pseudo-outsider/semi-autistic looking illustration that is often painstakingly intricate and vehemently hand-rendered really gets my goat. You see more and more of it in every degree show and, due to its prevalence across the hippest youth-based magazines, music and so on, ultimately comes across as smugly self-indulgent in its lazy yet laboured non-aesthetic, as if knowingly poor drawing can be excused by proving that it took you hours. In these 'ironic' times, far too much seems to be deliberately bad and I'm not impressed). And perhaps I'm being a bit harsh, but, in what purports to be a showcase of the very best in a particular field of visual communication, is it right that the Critics' Choice Award goes to an illustration in which I counted (if memory serves) three spelling/grammar mistakes?

Blimey, I do like a good rant, don't I? Back to the positive, the standard overall was extremely high and there was some truly excellent work provided by, among many others, the ever awesome Andy Potts and Yuko Shimizu, Chris Haughton, Jill Calder, Sarah Coleman, Rachel Tudor Best, Good Wives and Warriors and fellow Brightonians Lee Woodgate and Tobias Hickey. The exhibition is now touring and well worth checking out - for an insight into the look of illustration today, there is nothing like it and it further shows just how invaluable the AOI is.

I'm afraid to say there was nothing to excite me in the MA show - see my rant above.

Been buying a lot of good music lately, namely the newey by the Soul Brothers (hooray!) as well as Pelican, Kekele, The Kinks, The Gladiators, Gaudi and the wondrous 'Ali & Toumani' by Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate - not a patch on their previous effort (mentioned in a previous post and an instantaneous favourite of mine) but still a paragon of sheer aural beauty and effortlessly genius musicianship.

2010-09-29T12:50:00.002+01:00

A couple of illustrations for a magazine article about Seattle's Hempfest.

2010-09-08T15:30:00.009+01:00

Here's a piece I've just finished that I'm well chuffed with..... been thinking a lot lately how didactic and absolute stuff is these days, particularly in the media and how it presents information or opinions - you either see things one way, or the other; something is 'all about this' or 'all about that'; black or white - middle ground is seen as somehow lacking in integrity or taboo. I thought it'd be a fun thing to illustrate.

I've just taken on quite a hefty but very exciting new project, producing artwork and design for a forthcoming cricket website in collaboration with a web developer. Will keep you posted on developments yesyes......

Listen Against is back!!! Man, I'm chuffed, it's probably my favourite programme across all radio and TV - proper hilarious. Helps if you listen to Radio 4 anyway but either way it's comedy gold. Hurrah!

Stalwart dub and roots producer Dubmatix has a nice new album out; he's one of a refreshing minority in this scene who is evidently highly professional and forward-thinking, both in terms of the production and the promotion of his tunes, whilst still with a foot firmly in the foundation to keep the purists happy. Deep Root/Universal Egg also fall into this category - both have excellent web stores where you can also download a stack of ace tunes for free (hooray!) here and here.

In other news, I've just revolutionised listmaking, for myself at least..... if you really want to get something done from your 'to do' list, cross it off before you've done it.

2010-09-07T11:30:00.012+01:00

Another new piece. Aren't elderflowers smashing?

Just made a little jaunt up t'smoke to see the Magnificent Maps exhibition at the British Library and The Printed Image in China at the British Museum. Both were very very interesting, and predominantly featured exhibits from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; I was amazed by cartographers' knowledge and accuracy in such times in the case of the former, and by how thoroughly modern the prints looked, both in style and condition, in the latter. I really loved the room of twentieth century prints (many with a highly political edge) and I'm sorry to say I was far more pleased than I should have been to learn that there's a printmaker called Wang Qing. The British Museum even had Kokerboom trees in its forecourt (Kew Gardens' South Africa exhibit)! Needless to say I got very excited took lots of photos.

The biggest huddles of people in the maps exhibition were around a cracking wartime map giving the worldwide lowdown on tea (it's great and everyone loves it), and Grayson Perry's meticulous and intruiging 'Map of Nowhere'; it would have been excellent to have had more along these lines (the sheer volume and variety of beautiful maps produced by contemporary illustrators could warrant a show in itself) as much of the exhibition favoured work of a similar, albeit significant, period, style and purpose. All in all, though, two fascinating exhibitions.

Just about to start a new show myself at the Claremont (just seen I'm top of the list! Get in) here in Brighton (Hove, actually) so check that out if you're in the area. Private view is this Sunday (12th September) from 3 till 5pm.

Thanks to another good Trick Music podcast, I'm very pleased to have discovered the gloriously off-kilter plinky-plonk music of Sebastien Leger, and have also been enjoying 4DA's output, RMS & Peak, Ajja, and revisiting all my lovely old metal. Choice.

2010-09-05T23:51:00.020+01:00

A few more new pieces, including my entry for the AOI/Transport For London 'Cycling For London' illustration competition earlier in the Summer. I didn't win, unfortunately. Also some personal work based on funtimes in India. I've been slowly uploading photos from my trip to Flickr, so have a look there if you fancy. Doors and boats, mostly...

Whilst in Mumbai I managed to check out quite a lot of contemporary art, thanks to my excellent textile-designer friend with the local knowledge, Dimps. They've got some cracking galleries over there and a great buzz surrounding both local and international art. It was amazing how much it felt like being in London while going round some of the exhibitions! Three shows that really stood out for me were:

Pascale Mira Tschaeni / Michael Husmann Tschaeni / Aditya Pande: 'Was : Is' at Chatterjee & Lal Gallery - colourful, fun, playful and inventive work (some collaborative); every piece had a relaxed confidence that made for a snappy, dazzling show.

Mahesh Baliga: 'Confabulations' at Project 88 Gallery - second solo show of paintings and sculpture here from this young artist. Lots of lush paintings that brought to mind Peter Doig, Graham Dean and the late, great, Reggie Pedro. The exhibition is currently on show in their sister gallery, Gallerie 88, should you happen to be in Kolkata.

Narendra Yadav: 'Memory Minus Me' at Gallery Maskara - a really good solo exhibition of (very pleasingly) interactive sculptures and installations; not often my cup of tea (it did help being talked through every piece by the highly helpful gallery assistant) but the thought behind them all was interesting, succint (refreshingly free of hyperbolic waffle) and boldly executed, with a very considered aesthetic and degree of audience involvement. Fun, but thought-provoking - great stuff.

Other things I enjoyed in India were THE WILDLFE, all the hand-painted adverts, signs, trucks and so on (blimey!), the doors (naturally, and all the crumbly, peely paint and wood and wotnot - wabi sabi in full effect yo!), bus travel, swimming and cycling, chatting to Indians, reading the paper (such a treat to get such an insight into a country, in a language I understand!), riding 1st class at sunset on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, puri, dal fry, masala chai and Hello To The Queen (a soporific pudding if ever there was one). Ooh, and also reading 'Atonement' by Ian McEwan - one seriously sumptuous novel, among the best I've ever read; damn, that man can write. I also caught IPL fever good and proper and subsequently watched a lot more cricket on the telly than I probably should have done.

2010-08-17T13:22:00.004+01:00

Some of the new Kokerboom imagery I've been working on.

2010-08-04T21:49:00.015+01:00

Thought I'd post a few drawings from my sketchbook, from India, should you be wondering.

2010-08-02T22:29:00.011+01:00

Hello. A sorely neglected blog you see before you. And there's a reason for that - I buggered off. Had meself a little adventure. I got a little disillusioned with things (projects over-running massively, not being paid - you know, the usual nonsense) in the midst of a quiet spell, and found myself getting a little stagnant in my work, so I took a few months off and went to India. Gosh it was good. Fascination in every direction, stuff just everywhere, amazing stuff, and exactly what I needed. I'm still sorting through lots and lots of photos and producing a load of artwork based on some of the things I saw, some of which I shall post up very soon, but for now have a few shots from Glastonbury. Being the 40th anniversary of the festival it was suitably immense and full to bursting with all manner of bonkers things and music and colour in absolutely all directions, much like India (I went ten years ago and remember being occasionally overwhelmed by the sheer enormity of the whole thing and by the ridiculous abundance of entertainment, this year even (much) more so. I guess cultural gluttony is par for the course these days; I must be getting old (that's not to say I'm complaining, far from it, it's just mental). I was there with the TNT crew who provided the hottest late night entertainment on site with their Snakepit venue in the Shangri-La field - loads of fun. Oh, and it was baking. All weekend. Excellent.

I've also made a couple of cracking trips out west (of which a few photos will follow shortly) and have generally been having fun producing a load of personal work - experimenting, pleasing myself and developing my style, and hence overhauling my portfolio with a stack of fresh, solid and exciting new work. I've also been enjoying getting busy with the elderflowers, playing tennis in some very decent weather, and gently grooving away to the sounds of Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate (In the Heart of The Moon - my god, now there's an album to get swept away in), Baaba Maal, Dousk, Fearsome Engine, Bon Iver, Dennis Bovell, Kanka & Orchestra Baobab.

Whilst on the subject of music, I'm very chuffed to say I've just joined Wonk#ay Records, both as a recording artiste and as a label DJ for their Wonk#ay Dub Foundation. Jolly exciting news, and as such I've been revamping the Kokerboom identity, producing a new logo, promo imagery and so on. Again, I'll be posting up some selections in the next week or so. Check the interwebz below for more details and keep your eyes and ears peeled for some hot upcoming releases and events from Wonk#ay in the near future.....

Wonk#ay link
Kokerboom link

2010-02-03T12:19:00.003Z

Hello again! Here's a selection of some recent work...

2009-08-13T14:54:00.001+01:00

Hello! Busy times...... I'm having a great summer so far. A bit of everything, and finding inspiration from all kinds of sources. Living where I do is really coming into its own, with the beach on my doorstep providing endless opportunities for pleasure - games of petanque, barbecues, and some gorgeous swims. I interrupted my cooking the other evening to have a little dip, and it turned out to be one of the nicest swims I've had - I had the sea to myself, it was beautifully calm, very warm, and as I swam out I could see a deep red sunset over the town, which was reflected in the (nearly full) moon that was rising, huge and pink, over the pier in the other direction. To cap it all off, as I made my way back up the beach afterwards, there was a group of people doing Tango dancing on the newly renovated bandstand. The bandstand itself is a triumph - a fantastic new landmark after aeons covered up by boards, and with brass bands playing every Sunday. Excellent.

If I'm in a slightly 'floral' mood it's because I'm on quite a high having just returned from my friends' wedding in Norfolk - one of the most amazing weekends I've ever had and everything a wedding should be. I'm in the midst of doing some personal work inspired by the weekend and I'll post the results on here soon - don't worry, nothing soppy - just based on an aspect that's stuck in my mind.....! I'm also working on another personal/promo piece on a certain topical issue that's been lots of fun - it'll see the light of day shortly and hopefully I'll be able to licence it for some use or other in the coming months......

Anyway, some new work for your perusal - a few pieces I did for a new one-shot magazine out this month called Cycling Active, and the cover for the outstanding new album by Slackbaba on Liquid Records - out this Autumn, as well as some artwork for my dub outfit Kokerboom. I hope ya dig 'em! I'm currently working on some new stuff (diagrams essentially) for my favourite regular client, Elaine Colomberg. If ever you fancy some excellent Thai Massage in the Brighton area, do check her out.

http://www.embodyforyou.com/EB/?k=178956
http://www.evolutionarts.co.uk/hc_thai_massage.html

Tune-wise I can heartily recommend the new Trick Music compilation 'Abra Macabre' (see what they did there?) and the Third Ear Audio album on Dubmission, and am also enjoying excellent stuff from Nyboma, Balkan Beat Box, Gregory Isaacs, Sepultura, Manasseh, etc.... I also seem to be developing a taste for minimal techno and am very excited by the prospect of new albums from Earthling, Clutch and Muse. Hurrah!

http://www.edtucker.biz
http://www.liquid-records.com
http://www.myspace.com/kokerboom

2009-06-18T10:55:00.000+01:00

2009-04-21T18:07:00.000+01:00

Springtime in Brighton, ahhh, lovely. The blossom's out, the air is fresh and everybody's feeling fine. It also means the May festival is only round the corner, offering much excitement. I'm exhibiting once again at the rather splendid 5 star Claremont on Second Avenue in Hove, as part of the Open Houses festival. So, drop by any weekend in May (except the last one) and have a look round - a fine collection of over 200 pieces of excellent contemporary art n wotnot, with a lovely garden to enjoy a Pimm's in to boot. Smashing. I'll be showing some new limited edition prints - three commissioned pieces and three brand new personal pieces, which I've really enjoyed doing. There's a sneak preview above.....

In other news, I'm now represented by the very excellent Rarekind Agency, which is exciting. Formally of Brighton Town, they're now based in East London and have a cracking gallery and shop at 49 Bethnal Green Road - check it out!

Currently working on illustrations for a CD cover, a club flyer and a private commission for a painting, which will make a nice change, and listening to large doses of Oliver Mtukudzi and the Gladiators.

http://www.edtucker.biz/

http://www.hovearts.co.uk/venues/Claremont.html

http://rarekindagency.blogspot.com/

2009-02-04T11:59:00.000Z

Oh yeah, I've got a blog innit! Better get a bit more on it with this really....... all this new-fangled cyber jiggery pokery n stuff...... hmmmm, tis a lot to deal with.

So, what's happened? I moved home (and studio) in September - I'm now right by the sea in sunny Brighton (ten years this month, surely calls for a party), on possibly the windiest street in the world, but I get to see the sea every day without fail and few things give me more pleasure at the moment. I can also see the West Pier (the burnt one) from my window and the starlings are going mental at dusk over it at the moment - cracking stuff. Workwise I've just done some nice varied commissions for Mountain Bike Rider, Ransom Publishing and The London Magazine, and have some exciting projects on the go or coming up pretty soon. Starting to think too about exhibitions and stuff to show for the May festival. Unfortunately I also have a poorly computer which likes to frustrate me at crucial moments, the bastard.

As always, being fully enlivened and inspired by a constant flow of exciting music, but I've had an unusually large amount of proper ace stuff come my way of late. Currently loving albums by Perfect Stranger, Antix, Naked Tourist, Multistate, Mungo's Hifi, Abassi Allstars, Martha Tilston, Crowbar, Eric Bibb, Kings Of Leon, Error Corrective and as ever the mighty mighty Soul Brothers. Check some of this stuff out if you don't know it - awesome tunes.

my first blog post thingy.

2008-04-11T11:04:00.000+01:00

Hello! So, a blog..... right. How do you do? News to tell is that my new and fully redesigned website is now live - very exciting. Check it out at www.edtucker.biz. It was up for less than a day and I got some work from it, to make a website. Good gosh I hear you say - yes, quite - smug mode is well and truly activated. People seem to like the 'random' section on the site - this will be updated at regular intervals as there really is no end to all the interesting (and probably quite dull, knowing me) things that could go there, and I find it really fun. Facts, cocktails, recipes, observations, jokes, maybe even some pictures - it's all fair game.

In other news, I will be exhibiting once again as part of the Open Houses for the Brighton Festival coming up in May, this time at the rather excellent and swish Claremont Hotel. It's located on Second Avenue in Hove and will be open to the public every weekend in May, from 11am till 6pm. An incredible 42 artists will be exhibiting, featuring painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, ceramics and more - it'll be ace so come and have a gander if you can.
NOTE: the venue will be closed on Saturday the 17th of May for a private function.

That's all for now. Tarrah!

http://www.edtucker.biz/
http://www.hovearts.co.uk/venues/second_avenue_the_claremont.htm