Neon Lights

There is a Neon exhibition at a local art gallery, so we went along to have a look and saw some wonderful works. I’m pleased to be able to join Valerie over at Art Journal Journey for this month’s theme “Light & Darkness” with my Neon Light interpretation.

I started by colouring three strips of paper from a Design Pad that I had in my craft stash and coloured them neon yellow, pink and blue using different coloured highlighter pens. Then I stuck them diagonally onto the page using a UHU Stic, which I actually used throughout the page to stick things down. I had some post-it notes in the same neon colours so I cut a rectangle of each and stuck them around the edges of the page, so they look like light boxes. Then I cut the art exhibition flyer into strips and used them to add a light tube in each box. I fussy cut a black and white patterned napkin and stuck the pieces onto the page with a UHU Stic. When the glue had dried I added the same neon pink, yellow and blue to the centre bauble shapes so they looked like lights hanging vertically down the page.  I added more strips of flyer and then used a green highlighter pen along one of the edges so they looked like they were glowing with light. I cut squares of post-it note then stuck them down and used different highlighter pens along one of the edges. The name of the gallery, neon sign and art picture are also from the flyer. I edged them all with highlighter pen and stuck them to the page using double-sided foam tape. To finish I outlined some of the elements with a black Uni Pin marker.

The The Grundy Art Gallery in Blackpool holds a series of Art Exhibitions throughout the year, at the moment it’s “NEON: The Charged Line”. The building is Victorian and with its large rooms, white walls and high ceilings it’s a wonderful space to exhibit an interesting mix of wall and free standing art.

The first room was filled with words made from neon, which were fairly hard to photograph as they were so bright and you couldn’t get any distance away from them. I thought this sign was so clever, it  is referring to “Neon” which is “an object that is self-defined”.

In another room, sat in one of the corners was this sack barrow, the glow of the light really lit the space beautifully. I really like the tile floor in this room too, which I think is original.

In the next room, we were greeted with this explosion of colour!

This piece made me smile – I’ll never see a cement mixer in the same light again (excuse the pun!).  On the left of the photo is a lovely original antique radiator, which was warming the room wonderfully.

To commemorate our visit, we set up the camera to capture me and hubby standing by one of the signs. We had such a fun time and really enjoyed the exhibition.

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Stabilo Boss Original Highlighter Pen (Yellow, Pink, Blue, Green)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• Lyreco Sticky Notes (6 Pack Multi Colours)
• American Crafts DIY Shop (48 Papers 366665)
• Alio Napkins
• Flyer
• UHU Stic
• The Range double-sided foam tape