Pick up a limited-edition print by the Scottish art stars of tomorrow…

The Skinny Magazine and CultureLabel have partnered on a new virtual enterprise to  provide art lovers with the opportunity to support emerging Scottish artists – for less than the price of a monthly mobile phone bill!

Since 2007 The Skinny Magazine has been featuring the brightest and best of new Scottish talent in its Showcase section each month.

In an innovative collaboration, The Skinny has commissioned seven of these artists to create limited editions that are now available to buy in the new The Skinny Showcase Shop on CultureLabel.com.

Supported by Creative Scotland through the Own Art scheme, this initiative provides the opportunity for art lovers to support new talent with prints ranging from £75 to £150.

Rosamund West is the editor of The Skinny and has been selecting the Showcase since 2007:

‘It’s very exciting for us to be able to offer some of the beautiful images that have passed through our Showcase section to the public to buy, and we’re very happy that CultureLabel and Creative Scotland have offered us this opportunity to bring these artists to a bigger audience.‘

The first collection of prints presents seven diverse Scottish artists who have made works in painting, printmaking, photography, illustration, collage and graphic design. Those artists exhibiting and selling their work include:

David Lemm / Good Wives and Warriors / Jamie Johnson / Markus Thorsen / Rabiya Choudhry / Rachel MacLean / Ross Fraser McLean

Why not take a look now? This innovative collection of works also make perfect Christmas gifts!

Peter Tullin of CultureLabel, said: “We are really excited about working with The Skinny and Creative Scotland to create an online platform for new inspiring artists. The collection features some truly brilliant limited editions and at really affordable price points, making it very accessible to everyone.”

To find the full Skinny collection click here.

Glaswegian artist Martin Boyce has won the 2011 Turner prize with his atmospheric Do words have voices installation. His award winning installation is a development of his No Reflections work for the Venice Biennale 2009. Dundee Contemporary Arts curated his work at the Biennale and subsequently commissioned him to create two limited edition prints in conjunction with the project which can be found on CultureLabel here.

Martin creates what he calls ‘psychological landscapes’ and is interested in creating atmospheres where the indoor and the outdoor spaces can be experienced simultaneously.  His prints make reference to the empty wooden interior of the artist’s bird box sculpture in the vacated Italian Palazzo; the holes in which simultaneously suggest the form of a head or mask. During the development of this project Boyce drew from a short text he had written with an abandoned zoo in mind: ‘warm dry stone and palm leaves, no elephants, no giraffes, no penguins, no brilliantly coloured birds…’.

In his prints this language of an abandoned garden is continued with the text ‘No Brilliantly Coloured Birds’ that tumbles out across the image. The form of the text stems from a central structural motif that forms a core of much of Boyce’s work. This motif is derived from an early black and white photograph of four geometric concrete trees sculpted by Joel and Jan Martel in 1925. Boyce explains:

‘While working on the Martel tree models I began to develop a linear repeat pattern with the central structure of the trees as the main motif. Over time I then began to notice the possibility of letters hidden within the lines of the repeat. As first I found an R, an S and an M then slowly and with much trial and error I found a good representation of every letter of the alphabet. Some letters were found upside down, some on their side…I allowed the letters to appear as they were found within the pattern…the relationship with falling fragments, autumnal leaves and the air blowing through architecture and nature seemed to fit perfectly with these tumbling letters.’ (Martin Boyce)

Martin Boyce also has a selection of limited edition work on sale through Dundee Contemporary Arts here.

Emerging talent Sarah Milton has only recently graduated from Arts school and is already creating quite a stir with her collection of limted-edition graphic prints. We caught up with Sarah to talk textures, typography and printing…

How would you describe your work?
The basic concept behind my work was to abstract type into obscure geometrics and mix them with textures I’d collected whilst printing, so to playfully switch what was usually legible type, and what wasn’t, process. That’s pretty much just a fancy way of saying I like type and I like process art though!

What’s your artistic process like? 
I usually start off with a single letter, number or character on a piece of paper and start to fold. It then grows quite rapidly with the use of photocopiers and collage into black and white graphic prints. These are then taken into the print room and given texture and colour through some sort of process; screen printing and gum arabic are my favourites. That’s the basic process for my flat prints. The 3D prints are the other way round. I go into the print room first to screen print colours and type onto paper, then fold these up to make the final art piece.

How long does it take to create a single piece?
To be honest, I never really know how long a single piece has taken because I’m always doing multiple prints at a time. My mind works on overdrive most of the time; I’ll get half way through one set of prints and already know what set of prints I’m going to make next. I wish I could keep up with it! The 3D prints take the longest to make, maybe a little too long but I don’t care; they’re so satisfying.

What elements of your work do you enjoy the most?
The physical act of paper folding and screen-printing are my favourite elements because they’ll take my mind off of anything. Both processes come really naturally to me and so I can completely zone out and go all day without having to think; it’s very therapeutic.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
“Don’t be afraid to be different.”

What are your plans for the future?More, more, more! Many more artist prints. I’m also currently finalising my wallpaper collection, which is the other big part of what I do. Artist prints and wallpaper are just my starting point though; the plan is to expand so walls and beautiful objects everywhere are covered in my prints.

You can purchase Sarah’s prints exclusively on CultureLabel.

This week we just can’t stop gawping at Dave White’s Cougar print from his latest series ‘Americana’.

Touted as the ‘UK’s Andy Warhol’, White’s 18th solo show Americana features a collection of work capturing the essence of the wild wild West and the iconic imagery found in Western movies.

In a recent interview with The Independent, Dave White said: “My work is always influenced and inspired by the things I love. I’m excited to present this latest body of work, exploring the classic imagery of the West I grew up with as a child.”

Dave White was born in Liverpool in 1971, and went on to study Fine Art Painting at Liverpool John Moores University.

Available as both a limited edition print (£500) and as a larger scale print hand-finished in 24 Carat Gold Leaf (£1500) – read more here on his CultureLabel gallery page.