A while back, we told you about a promising young figure on the London street art scene, RJ, from Vandalog. Well, we’ve recently had an update from RJ about an exhibition he’s hosting, called The Thousands.

Now you can not only take a tour with RJ around London’s best and freshest urban art hotspots, but you can view some of the biggest international names in contemporary urban art at his forthcoming exhibition.

RJ tells us that much of the artwork at The Thousands is on loan from collectors, allowing him to include artists like Banksy, Os Gemeos, Jose Parla, Swoon, Aiko, Nick Walker, Kaws and many others that wouldn’t normally appear together.

In a passionate statement about the collection, RJ tells Ooh.com: “The Thousands includes some of the most amazing paintings that have been made in the last decade, from some of the most interesting artists in the world. I want Charles Saatchi, Jonathan Jones and Jose Mugrabi to show up and fall in love with everything there, because the people I know under 30 care more about Shepard Fairey’s posters than Damien Hirst’s spot paintings. I want to start a war. Tracey Emin was relevant. Now it’s Os Gêmeos’ turn.”

If you’d like to find out more about The Thousands exhibition, click here. If you fancy taking a tour around London’s East End, featuring some of the most recent work by the cities most enthralling street artists, check out RJ’s his listing on Ooh.com!

Rebecca Schweiger is one of those rare people who makes you feel that anything is possible. She even makes me feel I could paint.

An internationally renowned contemporary painter, Rebecca’s own work has been displayed in over 50 galleries throughout the world. Of her work Rebecca says, ‘My artwork is a sensitive, intimate, and evocative reflection of this ongoing human journey towards spiritual and emotional evolution.’ Whether you are a believer in spiritual journeys or not, what is overwhelmingly obvious is that Rebecca is an enthusiastic, kind and sensitive person who loves to share her passion for art with others, and who believes that anyone can create and benefit from art, no matter what their ability.

Rebecca’s gallery and creative art school – The Art Studio NY – is based in Manhattan and is open for all ages and all levels. Rebecca and three other renowned artists offer regular courses throughout the year, and there’s certainly something for everyone. Acrylics, oils, watercolours, drawing, charcoal, pastels and mixed media are all covered. ‘Everyone can draw’, a weekly two hour course held on Mondays, should encourage even the most pencil-shy person to have a go; ‘Just 4 Kids’ on Tuesdays sounds messy and fun; ‘Paint your heart out’ on Thursdays sounds liberating, and ‘Creating the canvas of your life’ is intriguing.

Classes are for a maximum of 8 people. We think the classes sound brilliant, and Rebecca the sort of person you’d like to have as a best friend.

For more information about both Rebecca’s work and The Art Studio NY visit the her website.  www.rebeccarts.com

There’s making a walking stick out of a bit of old wood, and then there’s stick dressing…so I’m told. Steve Barrett is a show judge and award-winning stick dresser based on the Dorset/Somerset border. Over the years he has won awards in national and local stick dressing competitions and he’s only too happy to share this tradition with others who want to learn to make beautiful walking sticks.

I asked Steve to explain to me exactly what stick dressing is. “Stick dressing isn’t about making walking sticks, which is what people often think. It is in fact the old fashioned art of using Rams horn to fashion shepherds crooks, the all-important working tool to aid the shepherd. Stick making involves using materials such as wood or Antler, however in the case of wood in particular, this is useless for a working crook because of the weak points on the crown of the stick. For a really strong, long-lasting shepherds crook, Rams horn is what a stick dresser will use.”

Steve Barrett runs tailored courses that will teach participants the whole process of stick dressing: from selecting the right wood and the benefits of the different types, through to carving the top of your stick using a variety of methods and materials. At the end of the course you will have completed your very own stick, and have many of the skills needed to go on and make more.

Take part in a British tradition that goes back hundreds of years, and next time you go for a walk, stride out in style with a stick you’ve made yourself.

For more information about Steve Barrett and the courses he runs, or to buy one of Steve’s sticks online, visit his website at www.walkingandworkingsticks.co.uk

I’d like to introduce you to the little known curator of a rather unusual museum. Arm outstretched, hand gloved in white cotton, RJ stands pointing at a huge, pink, goofy-eyed graffiti monster scrawled on a concrete wall in the East End of London.

RJ runs guided tours around the East End, showing crowds the ever-shifting sprawl of urban art, illuminating torn posters and faded spray-can sketches with the names and stories of those responsible.

RJ’s museum is the city itself and his tours have lately gained noteriety: “I’ve only been involved with urban art for about a year and a half, but it’s become a passion that I spend way too much time on. Almost every Thursday I’m at one or more gallery openings, and on Saturdays I wander around looking for new work.”

‘It’s an extremely welcoming community. I recently spent a few days in New York City, and people who I only knew from their photography on flickr were touring me around and introducing me to artists and photographers.’

I ask RJ what he believes separates urban art from other forms of art. ‘In a purely academic sense, there really isn’t a difference. Most street artists resist that label and say that any work is just “art” once it is in a gallery.’

He continues: ‘On a more personal level, I think that any artist willing to give away their work for free and expose more people to art has a certain “x-factor” – that comes across in their artwork. Urban artists are painting for the love of it, and they are painting to give the public a chance to experience art without having to pay to wander confused around a museum.’

‘Swoon is a great example of this. She has exhibited at MoMA in New York, but she just can’t resist wheatpasting her work [pasting poster work on street furniture]. Right now, she’s in Slovenia building barely-float-able boats with about two dozen other artists, and they are going to sail them to Venice.”

On the flipside, I want to know how RJ distinguishes between vandalistic graffiti and genuine street art: ‘Some of it’s destructive. Almost all of it’s vandalism. That doesn’t mean it can’t also be art. I think a lot of graffiti writers are so good that they become accidental artists, and there are also plenty of street artists who are so bad that they become accidental graffiti writers. In the end it’s a personal call by the viewer.’

I ask RJ to tell us a bit more about the tour itself: ‘The tour changes a bit every time I do it. Even if I did the same route two days in a row, it would be different – work just changes so quickly. A few really impressive pieces that will definitely be included though are 2 works by Banksy, some wheatpastes by Shepard Fairey (the artist who made the Obama “HOPE” poster), a lot by the Burning Candy guys, and a large piece by Conor Harrington, pictured above. It usually lasts between 1.5 to 2 hours.’

I ask RJ what he believes to be the single most significant piece of street art in London: ‘Not including commissioned works like what was painted on the side of the Tate Modern last summer, I’d have to say a tiny piece by Barry McGee. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s surprisingly important. Back in the early 1990’s, McGee pretty much founded San Francisco’s street art scene.’

‘One evening after sunset, I was headed back home from an afternoon of looking at street art. Then I spotted quite an old piece I’d never seen before by Anthony Lister. Next to the Lister piece was one by McGee. It’s the only piece I’ve seen by McGee on the street, and perhaps even the only one left in the UK.’

Surprising me, RJ reveals the amazingly transitory nature of the work he has come to curate: ‘I’m told the McGee piece dates back to 2005. Unfortunately, I stopped by the other day, and the paint has really started to peel just in the last month.’

If the thought of missing out on these snapshots of city life chills you to the bone, drop RJ an email here and grab yourself a guided tour.

Stumbling across Letizia Mattiacci first on Twitter (@MadonnaDP), then moving on to her blog and website, made me very happy (and hungry). I wanted to find people running cookery courses in inspirational and beautiful places, and Letizia does just this.

A cookery course taught by a passionate Italian cook in a restored farmhouse in the Umbrian countryside i n Italy – do cookery courses get any better?

Even the name of the farmhouse is alluring: ‘Alla Madonna del Piatto’. Letizia tells me that the cookery classes offer an informal, friendly blend of modern and traditional Italian cooking techniques. So what will guests cook? As Letizia started to speak, I could feel my mouth start to water, ‘We use whatever is fresh and in season. As an example, we love to cook ravioli with pears and balsamic vinegar, fried zucchini and artichokes, followed by honeyed ricotta mousse.’

Lessons start in nearby Assisi, visiting a local food shop to sample and buy a variety of traditional local cheeses and cured meats for an appetizer. Guests then use these and other ingredients picked up locally or from the farmhouse herb garden to prepare their authentic Italian meal. Oh, and did I mention that lessons take place in a professional kitchen overlooking the gardens and beyond to the Umbrian hills and Assisi? Surely cooking heaven?

I asked Letizia what drives her and keeps her cooking all year round, ‘The ingredients in the area we live in are sensational and cooking is my life. What could be a better job than preparing delicious food and sharing it with other people who also feel passionately about food?’

The cookery lessons sound fantastic, but to be honest, I’d go for the views from the farmhouse to the hills alone.

For more information about cookery lessons and staying at Santa Maria degli Angelli, visit www.incampagna.com.

We don’t want our readers misled into thinking we’re all about action and adventure here at Ooh. Actually, we’re interested in the endless variety of amazing things there are to do in the world. So, passing a thought for the technically minded, we secured this interview with Mike Coman, who can teach you how to weld, hammer, grind and paint your way to your newly restored classic automobile!

‘I’d always been into Classic cars, minis mainly, and in 1998 decided to return to college and turn my hobby into my career… I just feel that Classic cars have got a ‘soul.’ They are an important part of our social history’ he says, noting how much better it is for the environment to restore a classic than to buy a new “green car”.

None of us at Ooh would know where to start operating on a car, but Mike assures us that classic cars are comparatively accessible: ‘take some sort of course to start you off, like the ones here at Leeds, and join an online forum…just beware online of the ‘pub genius’ types who don’t actually know much at all.’

Mike’s currently restoring a Classic Mini with a 1.6 16v Honda engine in it: ‘that’s 150bhp’ Mike explains with glee. We think this sounds like duct-taping a display finishing firework to a shoebox. Mike’s been publishing the project’s progress, ‘or lack of it…’ in Practical Performance Car Magazine

We wanted to know more about the courses offered at Leeds College of Technology and Mike explains they cater for all levels of student availability, ranging from 1 day introductory courses, through ten week evening courses and 1 year diplomas. Students vary all the way through from young career starters to retirees wanting to start new projects.

‘Two ex-students are now working [for a car restoration business] in Switzerland – they both flew over to interview and were both given jobs!’ Mike tells us.

Finally, we wanted to know what it is that students find best about the courses. ‘Students usually say that it’s the little tips and nuggets of information that really form the best bits of what they take away from the course along sometimes with lifelong friends.’

Mike is keen to share his passion for Classic car restoration and would consider setting up his own courses if possible. In the mean time feel free to tap into his wealth of knowledge by emailing him here.

Rich Blundell grew up in New England, Boston. In 1981, he repaired an old wooden surfboard and caught the bug for surfboard engineering. A while after he fixed that first board, he became curious about the construction of sustainable, wooden boards. “There were several established techniques for board building. I had a go at it, but it wasn’t perfect; the problem is how you build the rails, so I invented the strip and feather method. It’s flexible and light and it fills all the gaps between the strips of wood at once – it solves loads of problems in one go.”

“They must be pretty heavy?” I query. “It weighs about a third more than a foam board. But duck-diving (swimming under broken waves to get further out) under waves is so easy, because the wood has great momentum. Plus they catch and power through messy breaks really easily, unlike foam boards.”

For those not in the know, English surf is often messy. So in the UK, wooden boards with this magic ability to harness that power and turn it into forward motion are exciting news. Their use isn’t limited to the UK though, they’re also common in Hawaii and Australia and growing into a global phenomenon.

You can build one of Rich’s boards yourself. When you visit his site and make a donation Rich plants one cedar tree for each dollar you donate, then he sends you a pdf template for building a board from a range of different styles: fish-tails, guns and long-boards. You’ll need a good workshop, but there’s no sorcery. The most important things are a bench saw and a router. Failing the completeness of your garage, your local university or college almost certainly has these tools in their woodshop.

“If you had all the wood stocked up, you could build one in a week,” Rich says, “…as a basement hobbyist maybe a month. If you bought the wood for a 9ft board it’s about £50, but you can often get it free.”

Rich is currently seeking people who know their way round a workshop to start making wooden boards with him. He’s going to teach people his technique and informally provide surf instruction on the side. He’s building a board live at the Wood Festival later this year, and again at the Truck Festival in Oxfordshire on the 20th July.

‘What interests you about surfing?’ I ask. “I’m into the phenomenology of it – thinking about the lived experience. It’s intense, sensuous and contemplative being immersed in that medium. You’re at the interface of the sky, the sea and the land; such a dynamic place. I had attention problems at college but surfing is so different. Your back is to the land and you’re intensely focused on that horizon.”

Rich is looking for joiners and surf enthusiasts to team up with to take his work further and he’s putting together a documentary about how surf culture might answer some of tomorrow’s big questions. Have a look at his thriving website, www.grainsurf.com, and forum, or email him with any questions you have.

Bored of the doom and gloom that seems to have enveloped planet Earth, we set out to find someone who could lift our lowly spirits. We threw some serious resources at the problem, and after several long minutes of research we tracked down Rich Stimbra.

Rich is the assistant director of the San Francisco Comedy College, one of the most famous comedy schools in the US. “It certainly beats having a 9-5 job,” he tells Ooh, “I wake up and go to work when I want and I’m constantly surrounded by creativity, opportunity, and the most interesting people.”

“It’s great to have a job where people clap when you show up to work; they pay to listen to your view of the world and then they clap when you’re done with work,” he says, arousing mild jealousy.

Rich is very enthusiastic about teaching and embraces life as a comedian. He loves “ living a life that is outside of what is considered normal and watching the joy one can give to people by performing,and helping students find out about themselves through comedic expression.”

Curious about the way the comedy college works, I ask Rich how he teaches comedy. “We let people know that you can’t teach someone to have a sense of humor, but there are fundamental mechanics to how jokes are created. We also tell our students to only talk about what is important to them and not what they imagine an audience will find funny. We all have interesting lives and we should explore who we are and find out what’s funny about it. ”

“Comedy is not as easy as some people make it look. There’s a lot of self exploration involved and in the beginning comedians deal with a tremendous amount of rejection. Also, the other half of this is business and comedians who are serious need to learn early on how to market themselves. If done correctly though, the rewards are amazing.”

Courses at the SFCC cost from $250 for beginners, getting students 5 weeks of classes, a workbook, 3 opportunities to perform at open mic shows per week, free entry to professional comedy shows on Friday and Saturday nights and membership of their regularly updated online community. The SFCC also runs an advanced class, helping turn comic material into a well-finished act. Fancy trying your hand at comedy? You can find out more by emailing Rich here.

Jorge Peniche is the man to go to in LA if you’re a world-famous rapper or a beautiful model. At twenty one years old, he’s emerged in only a few short years as one of the West Coast’s most in-demand photographers.

Painting an honest picture of the many faces of Los Angeles, Jorge’s affinity for the city is borne out in his images – “I love Los Angeles because it’s such a unique city, rightfully in its own lane. The elements that exist in our culture our so diverse, many of the people who live here for the most part are transplants from other cities around the world. I paint the picture of the issues we face in LA such as poverty, sex, glamour, gangs, success, and struggle.”

At eighteen, through a series of encounters with industry individuals, Jorge got his first big break shooting rapper The Game, and has gone on to shoot such artists as Ice Cube, Lil’ Wayne and Ne-yo. Where from here? “I’ve been blessed with many opportunities to link up with some major hitters in the game, but I believe I’ve only touched the tip of the ice berg. I love hip-hop music and I owe a great deal of my current success to it. There is definitely a unique dynamic to the industry that has allowed me to partake in it, and for that reason I’m forever loyal to the hip-hop game. The next steps from here are to branch out into other genres of music and photography. I’d like to be the photographer that can be shooting in the Rolling 60s in South Central L.A. one day, and the next day be in St. Tropez shooting beautiful high-fashion models.”

There is of course another, more elusive, modern icon that is on Jorge’s list for the future. “I would love to photograph President Barack Obama, he’s such an inspirational individual and his swagger is off the charts.”

Recognising the internet as a vitally important platform for his art and business, Jorge is yet mindful of the primacy of quality content – “At the end of the day you can have a million dollar site, but if you work isn’t up to par the people will let you know. I make sure I come correct in both my work and presentation via the internet, and this has proven very effective for me.”

You can in find and book Jorge at www.jorgepeniche.com, and contact him here.

Cash-strapped times make us all (k)need the dough, literally. Home baking, particularly bread, is having a huge resurgence. And we like that. Courses on the subject are booking up as quickly as yeasty loaves are rising in ovens around the world.

So save money, leave your supermarket sliced loaf on the shelf to contemplate its chemicals and additives, and opt instead to fill your own kitchen with arguably the best smell in the world – home baked bread (and we promise you, it really is cheaper to bake your own). 

Courses prove that bread-making is not only easy, but that the flavours, shapes and types you can make are endless. Bakers often add the prefix ‘artisan’ to their job title – bread making has become a craft. Quite right.

Photo by cesarastudillo

Carl Shavitz, founder of the Artisan Bread School, is an artisan baker who trained in the UK but who teaches all over the world. You can learn with Carl in Tuscany, New York, Florida, New Jersey, Ireland, Cambridgeshire….

We’ve heard great things about St Martin’s Bakery in the Scilly Isles. Does it get any better than learning to make fantastic breads, pastries and pies in one of the most beautiful places in the UK? Book now before the secret’s well and truly out.

Photos by Carlton Browne

Yeast-intolerant? Avoiding wheat? All covered. Courses cater for all diets and such intolerances don’t mean you have to miss out.

There’s even a Bakers Blog at The Fresh Loaf website - and more recipes than you can shake a french stick at.

Kitchen gods and goddesses, sandwiches just got great again.  And toast is officially trendy.

Photo by Phil Hawksworth

If you know of any other courses out there, let us know.