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Private Notes
'I don't have any grand plan, I just go where instinct takes me.' - Norman Ackroyd.
Norman Ackroyd is one of the country's most celebrated landscape artists. Born in Leeds in 1938, he attended the Royal College of Art in the 1960s. After experimenting with pop art, he gradually turned to his first love, the landscape, and over the last thirty years he has documented some of the most remote corners of Britain.
Norman tells the story of his artistic journey and gives a unique glimpse into his working life. Filmed in the converted London warehouse where he lives and works, we follow Norman as he embarks on the final stages of one of his monochrome prints. From delicate work on the copper plate, through preparation of the aquatint resin that brings shade and texture to the image and the application of the acid which etches the final picture from the copper, the film captures each stage of the process behind his craft.
At the end of the day, without knowing how the piece will turn out, Norman passes it through the printing press, revealing for the first time his latest work, capturing the atmospheric craggy cliff of Muckle Flugga in the Shetland Islands.
An intimate peek at the strange and wonderful art of taxidermist Polly Morgan.
Jack Vettriano is arguably Britain's most popular artist, with his nostalgic paintings of a lost age of glamour being instantly recognisable and his most famous work, The Singing Butler, the country's bestselling image, reproduced on everything from calendars to jigsaws. But despite his popularity, the self-taught miner's son from Fife has never been fully accepted by the art establishment.
This film offers an intimate and revealing portrait of Vettriano, as he creates his latest painting, featuring actress Kara Tointon, and sees him talk with brutal honestly about his critics and how he deals with fame.
With a new exhibition of her work opening in London in June, this film follows artist Cornelia Parker as she prepares for the show, working on several new pieces including her latest project - bronze sculptures of cracks in the pavement.
In the past, Cornelia has blown up a shed, squashed a brass band and famously collaborated with Tilda Swinton, who was exhibited sleeping in a glass case. One of Britain's most original and acclaimed contemporary artists, her work encourages us to look differently at the world, transforming familiar objects into extraordinary and surprising art.
This documentary offers a snapshot of the life of artist and writer John Byrne as he completes a large mural for the dome of the King's Theatre in Edinburgh. The film follows Byrne from the intimacy of his Edinburgh home and studio - with a wealth of anecdotes and memories - to the theatre, where he oversees the completion of his latest work.
Born and brought up in Paisley, John Byrne now lives in Edinburgh; the cameras follow him as he cycles and walks its streets, meeting people and reflecting on the buzz of the festival city.
Edmund de Waal is widely known as the author of bestselling family memoir The Hare with Amber Eyes. He is also an internationally acclaimed artist. He trained as a potter, studying ceramics in Japan and his works are in the collections of over forty international museums. Filmed mainly in de Waal's South London studio, this film gives a fascinating insight into his working methods, following him prepare eleven ceramic installations for 2012's exhibition A Thousand Hours.
A past winner of the Jerwood Painting Prize, Shani Rhys James is one of Wales's leading artists. She lives and works in a renovated 16th-century house and barn in Llangadfan, mid-Wales and her studio space is filled with large, arresting paintings combining domestic scenes with melancholy self-portraits which often depict her troubled childhood memories. This film follows Shani as she prepares for an exhibition opening in Aberystwyth in November.
Profile of acclaimed photographer Tom Wood. Tom has taken photographs almost every day for the past 40 years, mainly around the streets, workplaces and nightspots of Merseyside. Hugely respected in the photography world, his work is a unique record of British working class life and in recent years he has gained increasing recognition. In summer 2013 Tom visited Mayo in the west of Ireland, where he was born, and the film documents his encounters whilst photographing the landscape and the people for a new book. Supported by the Arts Council of Wales, an exhibition of Tom's work is currently on at the Mostyn Gallery, North Wales until April 6th.
Frank Quitely is the alter ego of Glaswegian comic-book artist Vincent Deighan. As one of a group of British writers and artists who have reinvented the superhero genre, Frank's depictions of iconic characters like Superman, Batman and the X-Men have provided inspiration for some of Hollywood's biggest movie franchises.
In this film, we follow Frank over the course of a day and night as he works on a single page from his latest work, the epic superhero saga Jupiter's Legacy.
Profile of Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, one of the best-known performance artists in Britain. Nominated for the Turner Prize in 2012 (when she was known as Spartacus Chetwynd), she stages exuberant, anarchic performances in which everything from Dante and Karl Marx to drag acts and Stars Wars are drawn together to explore issues including gender politics and personal debt. The film follows Chetwynd as her first solo UK show opens in Nottingham and she stages a new performance - The Green Room.
Documentary following Albert Watson over the course of a day photographing the barren, beautiful landscape of the Isle of Skye.
Edinburgh-born Albert Watson is one of the world's most successful commercial and fashion photographers. He has lived in the US for over 30 years, where he has photographed more than 100 Vogue covers and created some of the most iconic celebrity images of the 20th century, from Albert Hitchcock to Naomi Campbell.
In recent years he has turned to landscape photography, and in this film he comes back to Scotland for his latest project. Albert reflects on his past work and discusses the challenges of transferring his unique style to landscape photography.
Sir Antony Gormley is one of the world's most popular artists. His iconic Angel of the North is a universally-admired work of public art and his sculptures have been seen by millions in cities all over the world.
In this film we follow the recently-knighted Gormley and his team in their busy Kings Cross studio, preparing a new work called Tanker Field - a group of 60 enormous steel figures that will be shown together at the Paul Klee museum in Bern. Reflecting on the ideas behind his sculptures, the collaborative nature of his studio and the excitement he still feels as new projects come together, the film offers an intimate and fascinating insight into one of the great artists of our time.
Leading contemporary artist Michael Craig-Martin has an ambition to paint all mass-produced, everyday objects in the world. This film gives a rare insight into the artist at work in his London studio and his preparations for a major sculpture exhibition at Chatsworth House.
In the 1980s Craig-Martin was was an influential tutor at Goldsmiths College, which became synonymous with a new generation of talent known as the YBAs (Young British Artists), including Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Gary Hume.
In the grounds at Chatsworth, Craig-Martin supervises the installation of twelve heavy, steel 'line drawing' sculptures including vibrant umbrellas, huge garden implements and a giant pink shoe. Additionally, he has been invited to make a selection of historic portrait drawings from the Devonshire Collection and has made an intriguing, colourful 'intervention' to the marble sculptures throughout the house.
Michael Craig-Martin at Chatsworth House : Exhibition continues until June 29th 2014.
