New exhibition!

I'm delighted to announce the details of my new exhibition called Pangea which opens on Thursday, 6th of August 2009 in Dublin.

I've just completed work on 30 brand new watercolour and ink paintings which will be winging their way to the framers on Wednesday morning. See the small selection above. I've been working on them for the last 10 weeks or so and the whole show evolved into to something totally different from the initial idea I had at the start. Which suits me as I'm really happy with the weird stuff that came out in the process.

The shows opening reception takes place in the beautiful South Studios in Dublin and kicks off at 6pm. We will have a beer and wine reception and nice music. The show is open to everyone and all are welcome.

Details:

Pangea- 30 new paintings by Chris Judge

Date: 6pm -9pm, Thursday, August 6th, 2009
Venue: South Studios, 27-28 New Row South, Dublin 8 (click here for map)

To download the press release and high res images click here.

Hope to see you there!

Luerzer's 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide Book

I was delighted and honoured to be chosen as one of the 200 illustrators chosen for the brand new Luerzer's 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide 2009/2010 Annual. I just received my copy today and I'm totally chuffed with how it turned out. Here's a few snaps of the book and my page (the page on the right).

Comic Cast 1st Birthday Bash

The lovely lads over at Comic Cast, Liam & Craig (above) are having their first birthday bash in Twisted Pepper on Abbey Street this Friday 17th and everyone is invited. There'll be lots of bands playing and ME DJing really badly for an hour or something. It's free in before 11 and a fiver after that. I believe it will be lots of fun so do pop in if you're in town.

Adventures in Monster Land

Here's a story.

I worked on a project last year with a lovely lady in Standhill, Sligo called Marie-Claire McKenna for her great venture called Monster Cafe. She set up her mobile coffee company using a brilliant (very green) electric van selling all sorts of delicious delights in and around the Sligo area.

After weeks of toing and froing in emails developing the characters we arrived at the monsters above for the artwork for the company and I got to work on developing it all for the various bits like the van itself, t-shirts, cards and stationary etc.

I was delighted when Maire-Claire contacted me to say everything was ready to go and she sent me a mail with photos of the van in action. Horrifyingly though, after two days in business, disaster struck. Maire-Claire was travelling along the duel-carriageway near Collooney in January when a lorry came racing up behind her and didn't stop. It ploughed into her and flipped the van on it's side. Astoundingly Maire-Claire was completely fine save for minor injuries but the van was totally wrecked.

I was horrified to hear the news but was so happy to hear that she was ok. The best news is that she has a new van and is back in business with a new van is doing really well. I just received one of the t-shirts in the post from Marie-Claire which prompted me to post about the whole adventure.

If you see the Monster Cafe out and about be sure to give her your support. I hear the coffee and cakes are only amazing.

Hooray!

Tokyo Beasts

When I was in Tokyo last October I took a bazillion photos with the view to do a collection using The Beasts as a photo story of my trip but only managed to do a handful before being side tracked by other work and all that. I used them in that Bill Callahan vid thing but wanted to post some of them here so you could see them in full.

I've just started work on a story book featuring these gentle gents so hopefully I'll get some time in the few months to get it together. I'd love to hear peoples opinions on these fellows.

Jackson

Scamp asked IGI members to do a quick sketch in responce to the Death of MJ. This is my one, there's loads of great ones over on Scamp.

Carlberg Comedy Festival 2009

The Carlsberg Comedy Festival, which takes palce in the Iveagh Gardens, Dublin from Thursday 23rd - Sun 26th, have decided to run with the same artwork I worked on last Summer with IIBBDO for the 2008 festival. I've just started to see some stuff pop up around the city.

When I was out for my elevenzis this morning I found myself running after a bus on Camden street to get a photo of it on the side panel. So strolled down to to Wexford street to where I had spotted two large posters and a bus stop on the way in which had them on it.

Looks like a great line-up so see you there if you like laughing and getting sunburnt.

Beasts

I've been working on and off on these Beast images over the last few years and have just started gathering them all together. Most of them are photos I've taken on my travels and holidays over the last few years that I've drawn into. I'm going to work on an animation using the characters soon but thought it would be nice do a little film just panning across the original images like an old 70's movie sequence.

I've been obsessing over Bill Callahan's latest album 'Sometimes I wish we were an Eagle' (highly recommended if you haven't got it) so I decided to put the little film to my favourite song from it 'Jim Cain'.

Have a look if you've got a few minutes to spare or click here for a bigger youtube version

Fruit Pastilles

I worked on these Fruit Pastilles illustrations with Mark Shanley in DDFHB about two years ago and I really loved the way they turned out. I'm never quite certain how things will look when they've made the move from my screen out into the real world but so it was great news to hear that they wanted to use them again for a new campaign. I've just started spotting them around town on the bus shelters and backs of buses. Big colourdy fun!

Eigse Arts Festival 2009

Alan & Stephen looking Dandy




I was delighted to be asked to take part in this years Eigse arts festival in Carlow. The beautiful St. Patrick's College in the town center is host to a huge exhibition of paintings by various artists from around the country. This year they have a dedicated space of work by four Irish illustrators including myself, Alan Clarke, Derry Dillon and Stephen Ledwidge.

We piled down on Friday evening for the opening which was great fun. The show runs until the 21st and is well worth a look if you're in that part of the country.

New Website and Postcard Box

Blimey. After working on and tweaking my new website for the last two months I finally finished it last night and uploaded it. There's a bunch of new work up there as well as some new sections. Have a browse if you have a moment and please alert me of any broken links as well as spelling mistakes (of which there's a few no doubt).



I've also just made a brand new box of treats available for purchase on the site in the shop section which contains 8 shiny new postcards, a fancy poster and an original mini signed water colour painting all for the princely sum of €20 which includes free postage.

Ben & Jerry's Canvas Bag

This is my design for a canvas bag for Ben & Jerry's new Fair Trade Chocolate Macadamia flavour that I worked on recently with Thinkhouse. The theme was Its What’s Inside That Counts.

May Latest Work on Scamp

Lots of great new work by IGI members from the month of May just uploaded on Scamp.ie.

Movies.ie 2

Just realised I never posted the last movies.ie illustration I worked on. It's in the middle double page spread of the Movies+ free mini mag that's out at the moment.

I've been a bit crap at posting recently as I've been mad busy. I'm also nearly finished a brand new website and blog which will both go live next week hopefully.

Don't Touch Donkeys

Totally forgot about this photo I took in Sligo last Summer I thought I'd share it with you. Reminds me of David Shrigley in the real world.

Mr. Ben Bulben relaxing in the background.