Cat Scratch Fever

As the dust settles from Pete McKee's 'Pub Scrawl', here're some of the pieces that I exhibited in my  'Flash in the Pan' event at The Harley as part of the one-night Sheffield art show. There's a chicken and an elephant that I drew in the week leading up to the show..

 

 

..And then there's the collaboratively created cat that Drew Millward and I produced live on the night.. 

 

Here's how it all went down through the eyes of our good friends at Dirtyface..

We got a great response to the cat character so we thought we'd treat you all to a new collaboratively designed Artist T-shirt as a limited edition release through The Dead Sea Mob..

 

Big, big thanks to Pete Mckee and the Pub Scrawl team, everyone at The Harley, Double No No, Loveboat, Syd & Mallory's, Posca, Alan at Dirtyface for putting the video together, and The Mother F*cking Gaslamp Killer for the track.

You can snap up one of the 'Ship's Cat' t-shirts from The Dead Sea Mob shop HERE.. 

Release The Kraken..

..I just drew this mural for The Kraken Rum and The Dead Sea Mob at The Crobar in Soho, London. It's all done with black Posca pens, so big thanks to Posca for their continued support of The Mob, and thanks to everyone at The Crobar for feeding me booze while I was drawing the piece, and welcoming The Dead Sea Mob with free jugs of 'The Dead Sea Mobster' cocktail that they named in our honor when we rolled into town last night.

 

 

Pub Scrawl at The Harley..

..Following the last post on my 'Flash in the Pan' show that's going to be making up one tenth of Pete McKee's Sheffield 'Pub Scrawl', there's been an official announcement of where each of the ten artists involved will be exhibiting.. I'm  happy to announce that I'll be cluttering up The Harley with art and music and I'll be doing it with the help of some talented friends.

There'll be live music provided by Love Boat and Double No No, a Pop-Up Syd & Mallory Shop featuring the launch of a 'Syd & Mallory X Tom J Newell' range of t-shirts and accessories, a live drawing collaboration by me and Drew Millward, and there'll be a collection of one-off, affordable artworks with all proceeds going to the Sheffield Children's Hospital.

The whole event has been kindly supported by The Dead Sea Mob, Dirtyface, Posca and the lovely folks who've put the whole Pub Scrawl event together.

Clickety click your inevitable attendance here..

The 'Flash in the Pan' facebook Event Page.

..and check out where the other artists are shacked up here..

The 'Pub Scrawl' Artists Announcement.

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Flash in the Pan / Pub Scrawl

To kick off the new year I'll be taking part in Pete McKee's 'Pub Scrawl' event in Sheffield. On Friday the 20th of January 2012, for one night only, ten  different artists will take over one of ten city centre pubs each to create an arty-farty pub crawl across town.

Pete has curated the event, asking ten of his favourite, Sheffield-affiliated artists to use ten of his favourite Sheffield watering holes as blank canvasses.

The ten artists involved are: Warp Films, Nick Deakin, Lord Bunn, Ian Anderson (tDR), Geo, Sarah Abbott, Tado, Faunagraphic, Fine and Dandy, and Tom J Newell (..me).

The ten pubs hosting the artists' work are: The University Arms, The Harley, The Bath Hotel, The Bowery, The Washington, The Forum, The Frog & Parrot, The Great Gatsby, Bungalows & Bears, and Dada's.

To encourage people to get a good look around all of the venues, the event organizers are keeping the details of which artist has got which pub under wraps until the night itself.. I'm really chuffed with the pub I'm working with.. I'll be exhibiting some new, Tattoo Flash inspired work and I'm calling the show 'Flash in the Pan' to reference the temporary nature of the event.

As well as a series of new paintings and prints, I'll be releasing a new zine of Tattoo Flash, there'll be affordable artworks for sale (with proceeds going to the Sheffield Children's Hospital), live music, a Syd & Mallory's Pop-up-Shop with exclusive, hand-made Flash accessories, AND I'll be joined by my pal (and fellow Dead Sea Mobster), Drew Millward to produce a pair of collaborative, Posca-painted pictures live on the night.

'Flash in the Pan' is kindly supported by Dirtyface, The Dead Sea Mob, and Uni-Posca.. AND there'll be a special Thornbridge 'Scrawl' ale on tap in all the pubs involved. I'll be designing the pump sign for the limited edition tipple, exclusively for my venue.

Check in at therealmckee.com for more details.

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MOBCHESTER

As the dust settles from The Dead Sea Mob's FIMBULVINTER event, here's a photo of me on the night that I just nabbed from Dar Barrow's album.. Check out his other snaps documenting how it all went down HERE.

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Flash Cat Mask

..I've got far too much on at the moment to get sidetracked with things like this, but when I saw this 'Decorate-Your-Own-Cat-Mask' in a pound shop the other day, I couldn't resist taking it home and Posca-painting it up to look like the 'Cat with a Bone' character that featured on my first Dead Sea Mob Flash Print.

Next week The Mob hits Manchester for our Fimbulvinter Event, and our good Cap'n, Chairman Meow might be lucky enough to get her paws on this as thanks for all her hard work for The Mob over the past year.

The Kraken Rum just got on board with The Mob too, so they'll be loads of awesome art and booze up for grabs in the Fimbulvinter Raffle.. See you there!

FIMBULVINTER

The Dead Sea Mob are soon to set sail for Manchester's Night & Day Cafe for our final event of the year. Our Fimbulvinter show takes its name from the Norse legend of "The Winter To End All Winters", and with the guest artists and collaborators we've roped in for the evening's entertainment, things are sure to go down like an apocalyptic storm.

On Thursday the 15th of December 2011, The usual Dead Sea Mobsters will be joined by fellow practitioners of the dark arts, Guy McKinley, Mr. Gauky, Michael Shantz, and Eight Bit.. The live drawing will be interlaced with live screenprinting from Parliament of Feathers, Vinter-Vibes from the good folks at Dirtyface, and astonishing visual-terror from Lord Whitney.. Posca will kindly support the festivities by providing paint pens of varying cataclysmic colours, and there'll be super limited edition, one-colour prints available from each of the participating artists involved for staggeringly affordable prices.

Here's mine.. 

..It's a Fimbulvinter follow-up Flash sheet to the last print I produced for The Mob's event in Brighton a few months ago. There are a few left of that original Flash sheet print (pictured below) in The Dead Sea Mob Shop and, as we're offering a 25% discount on EVERYTHING in the online store in the build-up to Fimbulvinter when you mention the discount password 'FIMBULVINTER' as you order, you can snap up one of the remaining A3 prints for the ridiculously low price of £7.50..   

..Big thanks to Alan at Dirtyface for piecing together this animated Fimbulvinter trailer.. Yeah!

..And an extra special shout-out to Ice Cube Circa '88 for really puttin' his back into reppin' The Mob with his freshly Photoshopped Fimbulvinter shirt.. Word.

Show your love and confirm your inevitable attendance at the.. 

Fimbulvinter facebook Event Page

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Cosby Sweater

I just customized a toy for an exhibition up in Leeds that's been organized by The Hang Gang..

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..As the show is called 'ICONS', I made my bear a placard featuring a portrait of the iconic MC, Biggie Smalls..

 

..I Posca-painted up his head to look like an artichoke..

..And I did a spot of live drawing on the opening night of the show. I drew a similarly artichoke-headed character rocking the same 'Cosby Sweater' as the bear..

 

Some amazing artists contributed to the show. You can see the full line-up and see the opening times of the exhibition HERE..

Both the bear and the painting I produced for the show are up for sale through The Hang Gang. If you're interested you can contact them HERE.

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Surf's Up

I just finished drawing this for an album that's going to be released early next year.. As with most stuff that I do, it's hand-drawn pen and ink on paper. Shazzam.

The Dionysian

 

After helping out on the promotional imagery for über fashion-flick, 'The Dionysian', I was invited to help decorate a venue in Shoreditch which played host to the film's premiere.

So I got to sit in this awesome 'Nail Chair' prop from the film and shout about what I'd just painted on the wall.

..And you can read more about 'The Dionysian' HERE. 

Excursions

I'll be popping up to Leeds to exhibit my freshly Posca-painted custom toy in a couple of weeks. Here's a sneaky snap of the thing with a little cardboard character I made to express my excitement after signing off on a two week session of intricately hand-painting the bear and a few custom-made accessories that I whittled(!) for him.. 

The show opens at Fullcircle Gallery on Friday 28th of October, 2011 at 6pm. I'll be painting live at the event and exhibiting my custom toy alongside a host of other artists. Check the link below for the full line-up..

The Hang Gang Presents "ICONS" Custom Toy Show

Lay it All Down

I've found myself on a bit of a 'Folk listening tip' since the sad news of Bert Jansch's death, last week.

Here's a drawing that I did a couple of years ago when we lost the legendary Johnny Martyn.. Until now the picture has only been seen in my comic, Pictorial Showboat so I thought it'd be nice to dust it off and post it up on here. 

(die-on-niz-zee-an)

STEPHEN LALLY

&

HELEN McGUCKIN

PRESENT

'THE DIONYSIAN'
TUESDAY 18TH OCTOBER 2011
5:30PM - 8:30PM
SPACE FIFTYFOUR
54 RIVINGTON STREET
LONDON
EC2A 3QN

The Mob in Motion

Here's a short film courtesy of Mint Magazine, which gives an insight into how (sh)it went down in Brighton a few weeks ago for The Dead Sea Mob's 'Night Shift Masquerade' live drawing event.

In the build-up to the big night there's some behind the scenes printing and preparation at Parliament of Feathers Print Studio, as well as us lot "Getting Ink Done" at Magnum Opus Tattoos.. The DSM crest that Bob drew on my back still hasn't washed off..

"efiL4zretsboM"

Snowblind

 

I had a couple of last minute gig poster jobs with quick turnarounds last week, and I discovered that  the Tattoo Flash sheet that I did recently is a perfect source of incidental images that can be adapted to suit panicked promotor predicaments such as these.

The Messi image above is the front of a flyer for a Santa Cruz endorsed night that is starting up on Friday 23rd September at The 333 on Old Street. As well as producing some artwork (with a big ol' nod to the legendary Jim Phillips) for the night, I'll be dusting off my f-fr-fresh crossfader fingers and playing a DJ set which might see me sneak some Beefheart and Sabbath tunes amongst a classic '90s Hip-Hop set built from Biggie and Tribe and probably THIS, too.

You can also see the Three Blind Wolves poster HERE in my Gig Posters album, alongside a growing collection of stuff I've done for Dead Young Records, Leeds.   

Viva Sea Shepherd!

I was truly honoured to be involved in the recent Sea Shepherd fundraising event on board the HMS Belfast. Captain Paul Watson welcomed The Dead Sea Mob (and guest Mobsterist, Pete Fowler) onto the main deck where the five of us spent the evening producing some shipshape, Posca-painted canvasses, which will be auctioned off to help fund the continuing mission of Paul and his valiant crew.

I knocked up an Owl & Pussycat inspired piece featuring Sea Shepherd's trademark trident and crook. A friend sent me a link the other day to Stewart Lee's brilliant re-imagining of the Edward Lear poem, which you can check out HERE, if you like.

Make sure you pop over and have a look at The Dead Sea Mob's photos from the night, too. You can see the other pieces by Dan Mumford, Godmachine, Pete Fowler, and TwistedLoaf, all of whom completely pulled it out the bag and smashed it to smithereens for the worthy cause.

As well as meeting the legendary Cap'n Paul, we were introduced to Hawkwind and Adam Ant who played live onboard the ship, but the most humbling experience of the night was meeting the crew of 'The Steve Irwin' who showed us around their anti-whaling vessel. These volunteers are dedicated to sticking their oar in and putting a stop to the pillaging of our seas, and you've just got to take your hat off to them for their hard work.

Thanks to everyone at The Cult PR for putting the event together, Posca for the pens, and Cowling & Wilcox for donating the canvasses and easels..

"Viva Sea Shepherd."  

Last of the Summer Whines

I'm really trying to catch up with myself on blogging all the stuff I've been up to with The Dead Sea Mob recently. Before I can post anything about the live draw we did onboard The HMS Belfast for Sea Shepherd, I'll quickly say a little something about what went down in Brighton a couple of weeks ago.

First off there're the exclusive prints that the wonderful Parliament of Feathers knocked up for us. We sold most of these at 'The Night Shift Masquerade' event, but there might be a few left that you can get your hands on in The Dead Sea Mob Shop.

'The NightShift Masquerade' was a live drawing event masterminded by The DSM Captain and Ollie "Mega" Munden.. Ollie (a Mob associate since day one) got up to draw with the usual Mobsters, new recruit Dan Mumford and honorary Mob member, Harry Draws Pictures in a loosely Tattoo-themed shindig which took place to a huge crowd of good people at The Green Door Store, Brighton.

We got into the swing of things as soon as we dropped anchor in Brighton by booking into Magnum Opus Tattoos with Bob Done for some Mob ink.

Here's me and Drew Millward in the decorative surroundings of the Tattoo Studio as I hit him up with the news that I wanted him to personally rub nappy rash cream into my fresh Dead Sea Mob crest tattoo..

"Rub it"

So yeah, I got myself a simplified version of The DSM logo on my back, The Captain got herself a nice bit of heart-shaped rope that I designed, Drew got a pipe-smoking sailor bear designed by Bob (you can kind of see it there on his non-rubbing arm), and Harry got involved and got an anchor on her ankle.

Here's me drawing on the night and a couple of photos of my finished piece..

The next day me and Drew dragged ourselves along to a live Posca Pen demonstration for a Brighton Posca stockist called Pussy. We each decorated a canvas in front of a small crowd outside the shop and the finished pieces are now exhibited in the shop's window display..

You can see more photos of what everyone else got up to in this great collection of pictures taken by Dar Barrow, HERE.. and there's also a video in the making that I'll post up here as soon as it becomes available.. Yeah!

Sister, Sister

..It's my sister's birthday today. I sent her this card yesterday, but I don't think she's got it yet so I thought I'd whack it up on here so she could see it. "Happy Birthday, sis!" .. You should all swing by her recently opened online boutique n' pick something up, too..

Syd & Mallory's Asos Boutique

I scribbled out the card yesterday morning (Posca on Paper) before heading out to the HMS Belfast where The Dead Sea Mob did some live Posca painting in aid of the amazing Sea Shepherd.. More about that'll be up on here soon.

Monster Munch

Here's a Tattoo Flash design I did recently. There'll be some prints of it available in the next few days, exclusively from The Dead Sea Mob Online Shop. Thanks to Parliament Of Feathers for the awesome printing steez.

Loaded

I just did some stuff for Loaded Magazine's Style Section, which you can see in the current issue amongst the booze n' babes. Under the direction of super stylist, Elauan Lee I drew this random cast of celebrities, who were picked out by the people at Loaded, and had them model some real-life New Era type caps.

I also spent a day in photographer, David Marquez's studio creating a big Posca Pen painted backdrop for some Supra trainers, which David snapped a picture of when I was done.

Elsewhere in the Style Section, Elauan snook a Dead Sea Mob 'Mobster Lobster' t-shirt of mine into a Viktor Vauthier skate-inspired shoot featuring Ben Grove.

Now Then.. Again

If you're up in Sheffield then you're probably fed up to t'back teeth with seeing my stuff dotted about, but if not then you might like to pick up the new issue of Now Then from one of the fine shopping establishments in Town as I've got some stuff in there.

It's the second time I've taken over the free magazine, which gives up its pages to a guest artist each month. HERE's my Blog post from a couple of years ago when I was first featured in there and, if you click on one of the following links, you can check out the latest issue, read my interview where I chat about The Carol-Anne Showband and The Dead Sea Mob, or even download a PDF copy for all y'all that can't get your hands on a real life copy..

NOW THEN ISSUE 41

TOM J NEWELL INTERVIEW

DOWNLOAD ISSUE 41 AS PDF

DO IT TOGETHER!

My friend, Del Hardin Hoyle has put together a group show with work from loads of great artists and a good old 'all for one and one for all' spirit that you can read a bit more about on Article Magazine's site HERE.

The DO IT TOGETHER exhibition is up in The Forum, Sheffield for the next few weeks and I've got a few bits of work all up in there.

There are a limited number of A3 prints of this image available exclusively from Syd & Mallory's Boutique, round the corner from the show in The Forum Shops.

Each one is printed on a nice brown card stock and is signed & numbered. They're £10 each and the money from the first one sold will go directly to one of the other artists in the show, picked at random.

There're also a few A4 copies of the print which will be given out to lucky members of the public in Newcastle as part of the Papergirl Newcastle event later on this month..

DO IT TOGETHER!

The Calm After The Shaun

The Carol-Anne Showband Reunion gigs that we reformed to play a few weeks ago were a whole heap of fun. (Click HERE for a recap of what they were all about.)

My buddy Shaun's visit was short but totally SWEET, and we were completely blown away by all of our family, friends and fans packing out Bungalows & Bears in Sheffield and singing back every word to us whilst dancing "holes in their soles" and shedding "tears in their beers".. (Apologies if I misquoted you there, Ben.)

..In between the two gigs we played up in Sheffield, I popped down to Bristol to take part in the 'Asylum Harbour' live drawing event with the rest of The Dead Sea Mob.

Have a read about how that went down HERE, check out some more photographs of the event HERE, and read about our new Mob member, Dan Mumford... HERE.