Just over a year ago, Jack Lowe Studio started making prints with Alistair Hood.  This week I have been making some more but remember being struck in the first instance by Alistair’s style and knack for producing very gentle, quiet portraits…

Shot on the 39 mega-pixel Hasselblad HD39, the detail in these images is, of course, exquisite.  Along with the muted palette, Alistair’s approach makes for simple, elegant imagery.  Printed on Innova’s Smooth Cotton Natural White 315gsm with HP’s Vivera Pigment inkset, the finished prints really are special.

Alistair’s black and white photography invokes similar sentiments.  With such calm, engaging portraiture the viewer could easily feel they are sitting in the room with the subject.  A slightly different approach to printing these portraits, by using Innova’s FibaPrint Warmtone Gloss 300gsm, results in a more ‘analogue’ feel…

If you have a moment, do take a look at a few more of Alistair’s portraits in this gallery.

The Great North Museum is staging an exhibition honouring thirty years of the Great North Run:

“Explore the history and significance of the Great North Run as we mark 30 years of the world’s most popular half-marathon.  The exhibition features interactive exhibits, films, paintings and celebrity memorabilia and celebrates elite athletes, charity runners and volunteers.

View new commissions by Sir Peter Blake and Claire Leona Apps, alongside artwork by Jane and Louise Wilson, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, Graham Dolphin, Julian Germain, Suky Best and others.”

I have been privileged to work with three of those artists—Julian Germain, Suky Best and Graham Dolphin over the years as part of the Great North Run Cultural Programme.

Graham Dolphin’s drawing is typically extraordinary—thousands of pencil lines recording each of Graham’s steps when he took part in the Great North Run.

I painstakingly scanned Graham’s original A1 drawing from which the Archival Pigment Edition Prints were subsequently made:

Jack Lowe Studio also made Archival Pigment Prints for Suky Best for her show at BALTIC:

This exhibition will be well worth a look—an eclectic take on a hugely popular event and a real slice of North Eastern culture…

Another collaboration to add to the heritage of Alec Finlay and Jack Lowe—Apple Wheel.

A collection of fifty native British apples gathered into the digital world, sampled and juxtaposed into this beautiful, graphic piece.  Lovely on screen and glorious as an A1 Archival Pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308gsm with HP’s Vivera Pigment ink-set.

Spend a moment or three with Alec’s new blog and do also take a look at a previous post of mine on our Sky Wheel to appreciate the lineage of Apple Wheel…

Congratulations to Alec, too, on being shortlisted for the Northern Art Prize 2010.