Special Delivery! Papergirl returns to Cardiff!

Following the success of Papergirl Cardiff in June we are very pleased to announce the return of Papergirl in 2012.

At the June event this year more than 300 pieces of artwork were distributed to surprised, bemused and delighted Cardiffians by a cavalcade of cyclists during an hour long cycle through the city.

 

In anticipation of next year’s event we are now asking people to start submitting their original artwork.  We hope that by putting the call out early it will give more people the opportunity to submit work, resulting in more people receiving free artwork and a bigger and longer cycling event.  All submitted artwork will be exhibited for a week before being packaged up and distributed by a team of volunteers.

 

If you would like to submit artwork for Papergirl Cardiff 2012, or are interested in getting involved please get in touch!

Artwork can be submitted to the Cycle Training Wales office, 8 Museum Place, Cardiff CF10 3BG, or posted to Papergirl Cardiff, 20 Howard St, Splott, Cardiff, CF24 2AX. 

Other drop off points will be added at later dates, so keep checking the blog for updates.

All images: Sophie Barras: www.sophiebarras.com

Papergirl Cardiff featured on Welsh TV programme Gofod!

We were very pleased to have an early interest taken in the PapergirlCDF project by the Welsh language programme Gofod, presented by Gethin Evans and Elen Gwynne, and currently airing on Tuesdays at 10pm on S4C.

The exhibition and ride were filmed, and contributing artist and cyclist Sara McGaughey was interviewed for the programme.

The programme featuring Papergirl Cardiff aired on Tuesday 12th July, but as of the date of this post, there are 25 days left to watch it!

Just visit S4/Clic Gofod to watch the programme! (The Papergirl piece is 14 mins 40 secs in - Episode 5).

Gofod Homepage

Limited Edition PapergirlCDF T-Shirts

Just to let you know that we have a few of our lovely Papergirl CDF 2011 souvenir t-shirts left!  If you missed out on getting one on the day of the ride, or are someone who submitted art - or indeed anyone who'd like a limited edition t-shirt designed by Steve Coleman of Canary Black Design and screen printed by Sophie Barras of The Printhaus, just email or tweet us and we'll sort it out for you.

Photos of Papergirl Cardiff 2011

Thanks to Your Cardiff (@yourcardiff) @Hallphoto and Sophie Barras of The Printhaus, we have some early photos of the Papergirl Cardiff Ride on Saturday 18th June - take a look here:

http://yourcardiff.walesonline.co.uk/2011/06/20/papergirl-cardiff-puts-artwork-in-the-hands-of-the-people/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hallphotographic77/5852661823/in/photostream


http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilmizmc/sets/72157626868563277/

Also see here for more of their work:

http://sophiebarras.tumblr.com

http://hallphotographic.yolasite.com

http://yourcardiff.walesonline.co.uk

We'd love to see your photos!

Papergirl - a bike's eye view.

It was all going on at The Printhaus as we pepared to set off.  Music, beer, food - a real party atmosphere courtesy of the Barenaked Beer Festival. Everyone got loaded up with several rolls of art, all packaged in newsprint and with a Papergirl stamp on them. After a mercifully short Health and Safety briefing we were ready to hit the road.

It was a great feeling to be out in the city as a large group of cyclists, not out of any political ideal or to try and prove a point, but just to try and have some fun. The people we met and passed seemed happy enough to see us and when we started to give out our pieces they were genuinely pleased. Somewhat non-plussed by the whole affair admittedly, but pleased nevertheless!

For me the greatest thing about the ride was the simple fact of doing something completely different on my bike. I normally get my cycling fun from pushing myself to the limit in races or dodging through the traffic. Papergirl was completely different, genteel by comparison, but so exciting. I felt exhilarated as we gathered at the top of Queen Street and gave ourselves a desrved round of applause. Roll on next year! Jon

We'd love to hear your thoughts about the ride too, and indeed the whole experience. If you'd like to write a post for this blog, please get in touch via e-mail, twitter or facebook. We look forward to hearing from you.

Papergirl - the art of giving art

What a great day we had on Saturday!  There was much excitement at The Printhaus on Saturday morning as the art was rolled up and prepared for the ride, and cyclists arrived to decorate their bikes in readiness.

Around 30 cyclists took part - and the rain cleared up just in time for us to have a sunny and joyful ride through Cardiff and give out art to the unsuspecting public!  We had so many wonderful reactions to the art gifts, and we cannot thank enough all the artists who gave us their work, and all the cyclists who took part in the ride, making this first Welsh Papergirl project a resounding success.

We'd love to hear from you if you had any part in the project, and if you were someone who received some free art on Saturday - comment here on the blog, tweet, contact us on facebook, or email us - we want to know what you thought of it!

We'll be putting up photos very soon.

Thank you all so much, and see you all again next year!

It's Papergirl Day!

It's here at last - today we are going out onto the streets of Cardiff to give away all the amazing free art sent to us!  So a quick reminder - cyclists are leaving The Printhaus in Canton at 2pm to ride through Cardiff with rolls of art, and you could be the lucky recipient of an original piece of artwork.  Don't forget to come out this afternoon and support Papergirl and join in the fun - you could end up with something beautiful to take home!

We'll be finishing near to Cardiff Castle around 3pm, and everyone is welcome to return with us to The Printhaus who are hosting the Artisan Beer Company's Micro Beer Festival today till 9pm.

See you there - and if you are given some art by us, email, tweet or comment on our blog - and send us a picture!

Is your bike prepared for Papergirl?

Don't worry if not, tonight at Cardiff Cycle Workshop you can use the stands and tools to get it all set up. As well as a little TLC, you can also modify it to carry some art or even just decorate it!. Jon, the Workshop Coordinator and one of the Papergirl Cardiff team, will be on hand to answer any mechanical queries and sort any safety issues.

You can see more details on the Cycle Training Wales website.

The Exhibition is now open!

Thank you to everyone who came to our exhibition launch, and for all the publicity that we've had!

Very kindly, The Sprout - the Cardiff young people's website and zine - came to the exhibition and made a super video of the launch, with interviews from some of the artists who have contributed, our designer Steve Coleman (Canary Black Design) and one of our organisers, Laura Howe, member of thinkARK

We're pretty sure that everyone loved the exhibition, and were as surprised and delighted as us at the range and quality of the submissions.  Sophie Barras of The Printhaus organised Papergirl Cardiff t-shirt screen-printing during the evening - and they were selling like hot cakes!  Print and buy your own to wear on the bike ride next Saturday - take a look!

Don't forget the exhibition is open all week Monday 13th-Friday 17th June 11am-2pm and 4pm-7pm

Exhibition Excitement!

After months of planning, and seeking art submissions for our project, we have been overwhelmed and delighted by the number and quality of artworks sent to us, the amount of thought and care that has gone into their preparation, and the generosity of everyone who has donated art.  Thank you so much, everyone!

We have so many beautiful artworks - the Papergirl Team is very envious of those who are going to receive them!! 

At the last count (yes, we are still counting!) almost 70 artists have contributed, both professional and amateur, and we have over 200 individual submissions to exhibit!

We are thrilled with this figure, since it's the first time the project has been run in Cardiff, and Papergirl was a new concept to most people - although some of our contributors had previously sent work to other Papergirl projects around the world.  Our artists are a cosmopolitan lot - being from all over South Wales, London, Manchester, Bristol, and the US..

Our exhibition will be open from Saturday 11th June to Friday 17th June at The Printhaus, 70A Llandaff Road, Canton, Cardiff CF11 9NL.  Come and see the wonderful submissions we have had, and also the great facilities at The Printhaus - we think it'll inspire you to take part next year!

Opening times:

Saturday 11th June    11am - 5pm
Sunday 12th June      11am - 5pm
Monday 13th June-   11am - 2pm and 4pm - 7pm
Friday 17th June   

Beautiful by Design

Everyone who's been onto our blog, Facebook page or followed us on twitter will have seen our beautifully designed, and visually arresting, logo, avatar and posters.

These are all the work of our super-talented designer Steve Coleman, of Canary Black Design, based here in South Wales.

Steve is a member of thinkARK and also a postgraduate student at UWIC, studying for an MA in Communications.  With a background in textile design, he currently works in digital and photographic media.

Here we showcase his submission for Papergirl - we love it!

We'd like to thank Steve for all his hard work for Papergirl Cardiff - often done at short notice - and for making the project instantly recognisable!

Steve has completed commissions for Ubersaint, The Big Chill, Notting Hill Arts Club, and the Welsh DJ Culprit 1, amongst others, and is about to undertake a major new commission for renowned textile designers and manufacturers Colefax and Fowler.

Please do visit his site here and check out his portfolio!  Follow him on twitter @CanaryBlackLtd

Half-term Papergirl print workshop for children!

Our friends at The Printhaus are going the extra mile in half-term week and are running two print-making workshops for children during the half-term holiday!  It's the perfect chance for your children to make some art for Papergirl Cardiff, and a great opportunity to use the fantastic facilities at The Printhaus.

There will be two sessions on Thursday 2nd June: 10am-1pm and 2pm-5pm.  The cost per session will be only £6 for a parent and child - each additional child will cost £2. There are 8 child places per session, so please sign up now by emailing us: papergirlcardiff@gmail.com

This is a super half-term activity, so please do take advantage of this opportunity to check out our Papergirl partner, and get your kids into print-making!

Papergirl Cardiff Submissions Deadline Extended!

We are pleased to let you know that we are extending the Papergirl Cardiff submissions deadline by 1 week. Why? Well, a couple of reasons really. First of all, we realise it's a busy time of year and a lot of people are struggling to find time to get their submissions done. Second, the coming half-term and bank holiday might give people more time. And finally...we would love to get even more submissions! Our aim is for Papergirl Cardiff to be a fun event for as many people as possible so the more submissions we get the more surprised and happy people there will be!

So you now have until Saturday 4th of June to get your submissions in.

Don't forget, if you want to drop-off artwork on Saturdays you can now leave it at the Chapter Arts Centre box office.

Have your portrait painted for Papergirl!

Here's a lovely guest post from Ian Homer, a 'Friend of Papergirl Cardiff', who has made some art for us, and has a great idea for you to be a part of!  Read how he made the art, and how you can be painted too.  Thanks Ian!

Portraiture has become an increasingly important area of work for me in recent years: portrait photography that is.

However, rather than submit photographs to Papergirl Cardiff, I decided to pick up my pencils and watercolour brushes and commit myself to a new challenge: a portrait painting from life.

It's been a few years since I even did any painting bar the decorating kind and the odd bit of spotting prints and touching up bikes.  I have never painted a visage from anything other than a photograph before so I was a bit apprehensive but excited at the idea nonetheless. Most of the paintings, largely watercolours and a few oils, have been landscapes and the majority of those many years ago before photography took over completely and became my job.

I asked one of the event organisers, @MissClevaness if she would mind sitting for me (how could she refuse?!)  so on Friday I turned up and set up studio in her house.  We chatted over a cup of tea, I found a pose she struck I liked and set about first with pencil and then adding washes and detail; the whole experience shifted from something very  relaxing to something a lot more tense as I  attempted to get a good likeness. Some more tea, some more chit-chat and a few looks over from my sitter and comments like she thought I was giving her a beard – I had to explain it was the shadow beneath her chin - I finally came up with this:

Not a masterpiece but I'm glad I attempted to tackle it

Here's the next part: I had wanted to paint @MissClevaness as a dry run... for what you might ask? Well, I'm putting it out there in the blogosphere and twitterverse that if someone in Cardiff wants their portrait painted by me in the early part of this week at a café or similar venue in town (submissions are due this Friday) please drop me a line @Ihphoto .  It's first come first served I'm afraid so please do all rush at once!

Workshop Update

Just to let you know that our art workshop at The Printhaus on Thursday 19th May (see post below for details) will be open from 7pm - drop in during the evening to make some art for Papergirl and use the great facilities on offer!

Want to make art?

If you'd like to submit some work to Papergirl Cardiff but can't find the time, then our free workshop is for you. On Thursday 19th May, in the evening (exact times tbc) The Printhaus will be open to people who'd like to make some art for the event. There will be some materials available, but if you have any you could bring with you that would be great. There will also members of the Papergirl team on hand to offer advice (not guaranteed to be useful!), ideas and encouragement. This is a free workshop and numbers are limited to 12, so please get in touch via papergirlcardiff@gmail.com if you think you'd like to come. Tea, coffee and soft drinks will be available for a small charge.

More submissions!

 This image is from Hilary Lomas. Beautiful.

This is by Katie Smith. Katie is the founder of the We found Art project - a fantastic idea, bringing art to a wider audience and increasing participation. Bit like Papergirl really! You can find out more here.

Keep them coming people!

This beautiful image is by Pauline Williams. You can see more of her work here.

Papergirl Cardiff goes international!

We received our first international submission today!

 

This fantastic image of rocking wizards is from Brenda Kirk, in Columbus, Ohio, USA.

You can see more of her work on her blog Brain Confetti. She is also the editor of Geektress, a site for women who like Sci-Fi! (amongst other things) 

We're really excited to see submissions coming in! Keep them coming everyone, the more the merrier.

Exhibition Confirmed!

We're delighted to be joining up with printmaking workshop The Printhaus to hold our exhibition. The show will run from 11th-17th June and the works will be distributed on the 18th. We're planning to have an opening party on Saturday 11th, so watch this space for details.

The ethos of  The Printhaus has a lot in common with Papergirl and we can't wait to start working with the artists there. We hope it will be a great partnership! You can find more details about The Printhaus here: Facebook: Printhaus Remember that tomorrow evening we'll be at Cardiff Arts Institute, courtesy of  ThinkArk, for an open evening. Please come and say hello if you have any questions about the event or if you have anything to say at all really!

Our First Submission!

So,  we have our first submission. This drawing, entitled "Wasp", is by Daniel Howes. I hope we'll soon have many more like it!

Start Your Art!

Thank you to all of you who've recently promised us art submissions! We're looking forward to receiving them soon.

There's plenty of time at the moment (well, a month!) to get started and draw, paint, doodle, photograph, write, knit or sew your way into Papergirl Cardiff's heart!

Don't forget, all artwork must be analogue - we can't accept any emailed or otherwise digital submissions - so please post or hand in your work to any of the addresses listed here on the blog.

Also, please be sensitive - we don't know who is going to see or receive your work, so nothing alarming or risqué please!

Keep up to date with the latest news by following us on twitter, being our friend and liking us on Facebook - link straight to our accounts by clicking on the icons on this blog.

Papergirl Cardiff evening on Wednesday 4th of May

ThinkARK will be hosting a PapergirlCDF evening on Wednesday May 4th at 7pm upstairs in Cardiff Arts Institute. If you are interested in getting involved with the project, want to find out more about submitting artwork or want to volunteer as a distributor then come along!

We will also be bringing along some pens and paper for anyone who feels like doing a bit of on-the-spot artwork or wants to come up with ideas for a submission.

Please come along, share your ideas about the project and get involved!

We are now on Facebook!

That's right, you can now follow us on Facebook. Just use the button on the right hand side of this page and you will be directed straight there.

Thanks to everyone who has expressed interest in the project via Twitter and other sources, we are really looking forward to our first submissions. I've nearly finished one!

We are also still hunting for a venue for our exhibition. If anyone has any bright ideas, that wouldn't cost anything, please get in touch via papergirlcardiff@gmail.com.

New Information for Submissions.

In order to keep all pieces to a manageable size for delivery by bike, we have decided that the maximum size is A2. Hope that's not put a spanner in the works for anyone! Furthermore, we'd like to ask people to let us know via e-mail, to papergirlcardiff@gmail.com, when they have submitted any pieces. This will help us to ensure prompt collection and also prevent any work going missing. When you do submit work, please also ensure your name and a contact e-mail or number is enclosed with it.

We have had some great coverage this last week on The Guardian Cardiff blog and also on BBC Wales Arts blog, so word is obviously spreading. Thanks to everyone for creating a buzz. We're anticipating our first submissions soon!

Don't forget you can follow all the news on Twitter

It's even easier to submit work now!

Cardiff Cycle Couriers are confirmed as a new drop off point for submissions. Based on the first floor of The Bike Shed at the top end of Cathedral Road (near the park, they are open from 9am til 5pm, Monday to Friday.

You've got until Friday May 27th to get your pieces in.

Submission Deadline Confirmed

I’m very happy to announce that Paper Girl is coming to Cardiff !

It’s in its early stages of planning, but we’ve decided on a deadline for all your submissions.

We need to be in possession of your art by the last Friday in May, that’s May the 27th.

More information will be released soon – watch this space!
[ and this space twitter.com/papergirlCDF too]

.dm