Artist and huge F1 fan Nikki Douthwaite makes mosaic portraits out of photographs, paper scraps, articles and ephemera, but her Hole Punch Dot portraits really caught my eye. Most of us just toss out those little round pieces of paper punched out from larger pieces without giving them a second thought. What we think of us trash, Nikki has turned into an art medium.
above: Marilyn Monroe's portrait made with approx 99,000 punch hole dots
above: James Lebron takes a good close look at Nikki's portrait of John Lennon
Taking colored hole punch dots to create large overscale black and white portraits (yes, colored dots create the shading and tones in the black and white portraits) Nikki painstakingly arranges them on wood, varnishes them and frames them.
She has created many Hole Punch Dot portraits of Formula 1 race car drivers and even one of Bruce McLaren himself- all shown below. She has also created several commissions and boasts a world's record. Here's a look at her work.
MUHAMMED ALI
Hole Punch Dots (Approx 115,000) on wood, Size - 165cm by 150cm:
JIMI HENDRIX
Hole Punch Dots (Approx 150,000) on wood, Size - 150cm by 200cm:
MARTIN and ALEX BRUNDLE, Hole Punch Dots (Approx 140,000) on wood:
ALAIN PROST
Hole Punch Dots (Approx 100,000) on wood, Size - 160cm by 122cm:
JENSON BUTTON
Hole Punch Dots (Approx 100,000) on wood, Size - 160cm by 122cm:
JAMES HUNT
Hole Punch Dots (Approx 100,000) on wood, Size - 160cm by 122cm:
BRUCE MCLAREN
Hole Punch Dots (Approx 150,000) on wood, Size - 200cm by 150cm:
JOHN LENNON
Hole Punch Dots (Approx 99,000) on wood, Size - 158cm by 122cm:
MARILYN MONROE
Hole Puch Dots (Approx 99,000) on wood, Size - 158cm by 122cm:
AYRTON SENNA
Hole Punch Dots (Approx 100,000) on wood, Size - 160cm by 122cm:
CHERYL COLE
Hole Punch Dots (Approx 59.000) on wood, Size - 122cm by 105cm:
ARTIST STATEMENT:
My work for the last three years has been based around two mediums; dot art (also known as confetti art) and collage.
My dot art is made by using coloured dots produced by a hole punch, and painstakingly stuck on, one by one, with a pair of tweezers. This idea came from the works of Georges-Pierre Seurat, studying his pointillist paintings from the late 19th century. My collages are made from magazine articles relevant to the subject of the picture.
My work, whether dots or collage, have similarities in progress. Based around art-critic and teacher Charles Blanc and chemist Michel Eugene Chevreul's theories of optical mixing, colour placement and colour relationships. Colour excites me, and use of it is critical to the success of one of my works.
Whatever the medium, my goal is to create two experiences for the viewer. The first is a close up experience of either thousands of tiny, mixed up coloured dots, or readable magazine articles, which in detail intrigue in themselves, but may seem chaotic and to have no order to the viewer at this distance. The second experience is the far away view, the viewers' eyes and brain mix the dots/articles/colours together, revealing the relationships of the details and the image as a whole.
My choice of portraits comes from an interest in faces, in the biological form; bone and muscle construction, sociological, expression and individuality. Most of my work is based around my love of motor sport, predominantly Formula One, for which I have a huge passion.
above: Nikki Douthwaite shows off her world record holder certificate for creating the world's largest confetti mosaic consisting of 587,000 hole punched dots.
I have been working with these mediums now for about three years. I am obsessed with attention to detail, and I am meticulous about every dot, every piece being in the right place. I work for ten to fourteen hours at a time, through the night to optimise concentration.
For Exhibition enquires or general enquiries about her work e-mail Nikki directly at nikki@nikkidouthwaite.co.uk
For Sales Enquires please contact her Agent, Henna at henna.riaz@gmail.com
Nikki Douthwaite
