Angela Lamb on RCA secret

In advance of the sale we caught up with the very talented Angela Lamb about her involvement with the sale.  She is a regular contributor to the show, supporting it every year.  Anyway over to Angela to tell us more.

RCA Secret Blog have asked me to write a small amble about my involvement with RCA Secret, the hows, the whats, the whys. So here I am, albeit a little belatedly but anyway, Ive been involved for awhile, in fact this will be my seventh year, I believe. I've knew about the event some time ago when I was at art college but never quite knew how you got through the entry doors and be part of it, then I stumbled on a classified for it in one of the art magazines and its gone from there. It's quite odd, to think that you’re part of such a well known event and be amongst arts heroes but its great fun too. 

Also quite bizarre how we all end up with running themes each year despite many contributors being involved directly with the college in other ways. Im sure this year will not be an exception either, its always interesting to see what pops up. What I do know is that there’s always been a little game amongst those involved, like an arty ‘Stars In Their Eyes’ where famous and yet-to-be famous artists disguise their styles into that of another well known artist. I think its more for our own amusement rather than to confuse buyers although that’s fun too.  I have been known to participate in that most times but this year is the exception.

Normally, I work to 3 rules for my RCA Secret contributions, 1 artist copycat style, 1 topical/satirical, and finally, 1 of my own style. However, this year, Ive accidentally scribbled out my rules and they’re all my own style and some might say a little cheeky in their own ways, slight hint of burlesque and things. Its taken me a lot more time to do them although I got ideas for them quite quickly, but they’ve taken a lot more drafting than I thought but they’re in. Expect a little glitter, and freehand drawings, sometimes its a little trickier for me to produce a repeat of my drawings so they’ve been a little trial of my skills and patience at moments, but a lot of blasting music at myself has helped at the trickiest moments. To make it a little trickier Ive had to work on these pieces as A3 sketches as it was proving a little too hard in my normal pocket sketchbook. So there’s been many a trial and error thing happening, but its been a good learning curve really, think its good to be able to test yourself a little or a lot every now and again. Think I’ve been partly influenced by my interest in costume as well this year as I often make my own ones along with accessories such as fascinators and I really love the theatre, look and humour of burlesque.

This will also be the first time, I think that all 3 postcards that I’m contributing will be drawn as I tend to mix my media, including photography, illustration, painting, collage on previous submissions. Really looking forward to seeing everyone’s contributions this year, an amazing bundle of names involved this year too, no exceptions and what will everyone have produced I wonder.