The below write up of the activity night has been taken from the June edition of the Pelicans Palette and was written by Debbie Kavanagh, photos in gallery below of David's work taken by Kathryn Price:
It was an absolute pleasure to meet David Hourigan for the May Activity Night as he talked us through his process and allowed us a close-up look at some of his incredible artworks. Having worked as a graphic designer for 20 years, which David found creative but not necessarily satisfying, he jumped at the opportunity to be a full time dad and turn his attention to something he was passionate about. He had always loved overlooked or unloved architecture; the weathered, griminess of it and the nostalgia of old signage. “Basically anything old and falling down” as opposed to big, grand buildings with a saccharine finish. Putting to use the skills he’d practised building models as a child, he began recreating the old, often derelict buildings of his local Yarraville and the Inner West. He has now branched out to other areas as well as commission based work. David explained his process of choosing his subjects then performing a site inspection: photographing, sketching and taking exact measurements of the site. In his models, he tries to capture buildings as they are when he visits them: a “snapshot”, as he put it. He has also built miniatures of sites that are no longer there though, like the iconic Olympic Doughnut Van in Footscray. There is a huge amount of research involved in accurately representing a site that he cannot document himself. For this, David explained the benefits of Google Maps Historical Imagery which allows you to see how a site has changed over time. He also finds Heritage Victoria and Facebooks groups such as ‘Old Shops Victoria’ useful for sourcing old photographs. Many of the materials David uses are common to the model-making hobbyist ... Paints and glues, blue modelling foam, plastic sheeting/strips & tubing etc can all be found at your local hobby store but David tries to recycle as much as possible and to use found materials where he can. He explained the possibilities of sushi containers, BBQ trays, tin cans, presentation folders and even teabags! While David endeavours to create as much of his builds by hand, he has at times had small or repeated items 3d printed, like the stools in Pellegrini’s Espresso Bar. The incredible neon sign was twisted by hand though! For David, it’s all about the details. Each nick in the weatherboard, or broken brick is recreated as closely to his photographs as possible. He likes to include elements of life in his work too ... a little can of VB, a bird or bird’s nest give his work another dimension. Creating something so realistic can present its problems when being photographed as you can lose the sense of scale. David cleverly combats this in three different ways: first, his signature matchstick propped against his model; the second: himself: holding the model to make its size clear; and the third: having a comparison picture with both the real building and his model side-by-side. He says he has an enormous ‘To Do’ list of buildings he would like to recreate, which just makes me excited to see what’s next! If you would like to see more of David’s work, you can find him at: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidhouriganartist Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DavesModelWorkshop - Debbie Kavanagh
It was an absolute pleasure to meet David Hourigan for the May Activity Night as he talked us through his process and allowed us a close-up look at some of his incredible artworks. Having worked as a graphic designer for 20 years, which David found creative but not necessarily satisfying, he jumped at the opportunity to be a full time dad and turn his attention to something he was passionate about. He had always loved overlooked or unloved architecture; the weathered, griminess of it and the nostalgia of old signage. “Basically anything old and falling down” as opposed to big, grand buildings with a saccharine finish. Putting to use the skills he’d practised building models as a child, he began recreating the old, often derelict buildings of his local Yarraville and the Inner West. He has now branched out to other areas as well as commission based work. David explained his process of choosing his subjects then performing a site inspection: photographing, sketching and taking exact measurements of the site. In his models, he tries to capture buildings as they are when he visits them: a “snapshot”, as he put it. He has also built miniatures of sites that are no longer there though, like the iconic Olympic Doughnut Van in Footscray. There is a huge amount of research involved in accurately representing a site that he cannot document himself. For this, David explained the benefits of Google Maps Historical Imagery which allows you to see how a site has changed over time. He also finds Heritage Victoria and Facebooks groups such as ‘Old Shops Victoria’ useful for sourcing old photographs. Many of the materials David uses are common to the model-making hobbyist ... Paints and glues, blue modelling foam, plastic sheeting/strips & tubing etc can all be found at your local hobby store but David tries to recycle as much as possible and to use found materials where he can. He explained the possibilities of sushi containers, BBQ trays, tin cans, presentation folders and even teabags! While David endeavours to create as much of his builds by hand, he has at times had small or repeated items 3d printed, like the stools in Pellegrini’s Espresso Bar. The incredible neon sign was twisted by hand though! For David, it’s all about the details. Each nick in the weatherboard, or broken brick is recreated as closely to his photographs as possible. He likes to include elements of life in his work too ... a little can of VB, a bird or bird’s nest give his work another dimension. Creating something so realistic can present its problems when being photographed as you can lose the sense of scale. David cleverly combats this in three different ways: first, his signature matchstick propped against his model; the second: himself: holding the model to make its size clear; and the third: having a comparison picture with both the real building and his model side-by-side. He says he has an enormous ‘To Do’ list of buildings he would like to recreate, which just makes me excited to see what’s next! If you would like to see more of David’s work, you can find him at: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidhouriganartist Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DavesModelWorkshop - Debbie Kavanagh