Joe Booth, Author at Blackpool Social Club

09 Dec

Art Exhibition at Aunty Social- Introducing Keith Downey

Joe Booth0 CommentsVisual Arts & ExhibitionsArt, Aunty Social, Blackpool, Exhibition, painting

This week, Aunty Social is proud to introduce the work of local artist, Keith Downey by hosting an exhibition at their Topping Street venue from Thursday 11 to Friday 12 December. Now living in Blackpool, but born in Romney Marsh in Kent, Keith works in the style of the Dutch Masters, using oil paint on canvas. From childhood, Keith was clear he was only ever going to paint still-life or work with animals. Painting won, and he studied Illustration at Medway College of Design in the late 1970s. "From before I can remember, I absolutely loved that style of art…

20 Dec

Gift Guide: Urban Vagabond

Joe Booth1 CommentVisual Arts & Exhibitions

Ahead of the last few days of Christmas shopping, Joe caught up with local designer makers, Urban Vagabond to find out what they do. Please tell me a little about yourself and what you make. We are Val and Vikki Taylor, mother and daughter. We have always loved to make and create, learning our skills from generations before us. In 2011, after a family bereavement, we decided life was too short and started Urban Vagabond. Our work mainly centres around textiles and our current range includes knitted accessories from mittens to headbands, organza brooches and cute bow hair accessories. Describe…

29 Jul

Michael John Bolton-Heaton presents ‘Lux’

Joe Booth0 CommentsLocal News

It is not often that Blackpool is in the Fashion spotlight. Infact, one could say Blackpool is never in the fashion spotlight. Last week, however, saw local fashion designer, Michael John Bolton-Heaton, 29, present ‘Lux’ at Revolution in Blackpool town centre. This is his first collection since graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University. A crowd of family, friends and fashionistas were welcomed to the venue and shown through to the bar area for cocktails before taking a seat to await the catwalk show. Unlike your generic fashion show when anywhere between 30 and 40 looks will be shown, most of them…

01 Nov

Preview: Pierrots on the Pier

Joe Booth1 CommentLocal News, Visual Arts & Exhibitions

I have to admit, before a little research I didn’t know what a Pierrot troupe was! It only took me 60 seconds to find a familiar image of a man with a white face, a pointy hat with a pom-pom on top wearing an oversized black and white costume, resembling a clown. The Fashion students of Blackpool & The Fylde College will be all too aware of this image. After weeks of researching, developing and creating, the designers from both the first and second years of the course have grouped together their talent to create an installation piece for Blackpool’s…