open studios or art trails are curious events... the artists involved know that for it to be successful it must be a collaborative effort and yet it is the single most important event (aside from the solo exhibition) in which the artist must and does play centre stage... i like meeting new people, talking generally about art, and not just my own, although i find that good too, to reflect on and re-evaluate my practice...
work in progress - for salthouse : salt of the earth, salthouse churchmost artists would like to think that the work speaks for itself (the surest sign that the work actually works) but we all need a way in, to understand, to appreciate, to value art and artists... at one art show, my attention was so focused on a large abstract painting that i quite forgot to look downwards and inadvertently walked into a neat pile of soil (or was it sand?), part of a carefully prepared and considered installation piece... if art can surprise us and occasionally trips us up, then the most mundane objects in gallery situations have the potential to be works of art: is that light bulb part of the installation, what about that ladder leaning against a wall, and the broken chair, the paint splatters on the floor? such accidental juxtapositions can fuel new ideas...
works in progressit would seem that abstractions (in the literal sense) present as many problems to new viewers as conceptual art... whereas conceptual art's premise resides in the quality and clarity of the original idea, and the realisation of the piece is a largely mechanical affair, often in abstract or minimalist art, the subjective nature of art makes it different for each person, either perceptually (the vision, reading or interpretation), or expressively (the evidence of its construction and the material effects)...the benefit i have gained from setting my work up in the barn is to see my work in the wider perspective, a location in which it was born and realised... a confirmation of my vision... most of the large paintings were created for a corporate setting in London, and i had originally photographed them in the winter... now, i can see them in a much clearer light...
[edgesacpe : meld 2008, mixed media on canvas]
this series of paintings are the main pieces in the art trail... it seems right that they are placed in a rural and open setting, for they do hold, if only very slightly, memories and traces of their surroundings... a concrete vision hopes for a shared perspective, the then and now, but reflections live on, endlessly, without pictorial bounds...
[winter field, norfolk 2009]...salthouse 09 : 2 july to 2 august 2009