Public Realm // Professional Category Winner
WIA2016
Cromford Mills / Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site Gateway Centre
Commissioned by Interpretive Design company Tandem for Cromford
Mills / Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site Gateway Centre
A graduate of Bristol Polytechnic, Brian has enjoyed a successful career as a professional illustrator and fine artist. His work has appeared in all areas of design including magazines, newspapers, book publishing, advertising & museum/heritage design.
Drawn to using linocut and then scraperboard through the tutoring of wood engraver Peter Reddick at college.
Clients include Harper Collins, Penguin Books, Walker Books, Oxford University Press, Random House, Longmans, Orion Publishing, The National Trust.
Has lived and worked in Dublin for the past 18 years.
About Entry
Enlarged from the original scraperboard to be an over life sized mural in the museum, it depicts the 18th century cotton trade.
Three international phases merging are
– Slaves on a plantation in America pick the raw cotton
– Mill workers in England spin the thread
– Indian weavers at their looms then make the cloth.
The brief was to show the realities of the hard grueling work faced by the people of the time.
There were a number of pencil roughs produced untill we decided on this final composition.
History is big interest of mine so it was fasinating researching the images & clothing of the time.
There was also a depiction of a stack of life sized cotton bales with clear areas for text and information.
Website/Portfolio Address and Social Media
bdgart.com
Facebook: brian.gallagher.31392410
Behance: GallagherBrian
Linkedin: briangallagherart
Brief
The brief was to show the realities of the hard grueling work faced by the people of the time.
Depict the global aspect of the 18th century cotton trade.
Materials
I worked with black Essdee Scraperboard and the sections of three separate images were pieced together on my Mac then blown up for a large wall.
Research
General research of costumes and conditions of the time. Especially the working environment people endured. History has always been an interest of mine so it was fasinating researching the images of buildings & clothing of the time.
Process
There were a number of pencil roughs produced, progressively more detailed as we went on until this final composition was decided on.
Resistances
Had to show the people as worn out, yet still strong spirited and not weak or totally downtrodden, went through a number of changes with feed back from the client on this issue.
Insight
It is interesting to see that a globalised economy & industry is not such a new thing.
Distractions
Working to the deadline and making sure it was historically accurate.
Numbers
There was also another life sized image done by me of stacks of cotton bales. This was to carry information text for the visitors.
Afterwords
Very inspiring commission to work on and was great to see it in situ and so large. I hope it conveys the aimed message to visitors. I have done a few heritage & museum jobs over the years and they are one of my favourites to work on. A couple of recent ones were a commission of thirteen life sized historical figures for the GPO Witness History 1916-Dublin and also a set of illustrations and map for Thomas Hardy's Cottage, Dorset for the National Trust.