In my final part of my Neon Workshop series, you can read Part 1 and Part 2 here, I want to share more of their work with you. After last week’s mood board post I thought it would be nice to do the same again this week, as I think it captures the medium of neon well.

I love how neon let’s you be free with your designs, there’s nothing you can’t create. Each design has manipulated, twisted and folded to create a piece of unique art that will last for many years to come.

If you’ve enjoyed reading about Neon Workshops and would like to try your hand at creating your very own sculpture, Richard runs workshops throughout the year, from one day intensive courses, to 2 hour taster sessions, there is something for all levels – I may even see you there!

Finally I’d like to say a big thank you to Richard and the rest of his team for letting me visit their studio and share their work with you, it’s been great fun, and my new found love for neon is here to stay.

www.neonworkshops.com

I’d like to introduce my first Artist of the Month: Neon Workshops. They are a great team of artists and designers manufacturing neon lighting for the creative industries, and also teaching the only public neon workshops in the UK.

Over the next two weeks I’ll be posting about this talented team, sharing insight into their art and what got them involved in neon.

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to visit their studio in Wakefield, where I gained a wonderful insight into how neon began, how it grew commercially strong in the 1960’s, how Leeds was the epicentre for making neon lighting outside of London, and finally how neon is making it’s long overdue comeback.

Richard Wheater is the artist behind Neon Workshops and speaking to him, I got to see his passion for this medium and how he’s dedicated to teaching his skills not only here in the UK, but globally too. His love of neon started back at university, and where he found inspiration from the high rise glass buildings that were going up around him, from then on he never looked back.

Today Richard, along with a few local artists and designers, are helping to bring the art of neon back into the mainstream, and rid it of it’s stereotype of signs in seedy shops and 1980’s barbershops. Neon is more than light, it’s art, it’s sculpture, it’s anything you want it to be…

Many of these pieces were produced for exhibitions, with the focus of creating a talking point around each subject and propelling neon a little further into the mainstream.

Continue reading