It is now time to take stock of my first open weekend as part of the Harleston & Waveney Art Trail. I received lots of praise for my paintings and my visitors left some very nice comments in my guest book. I must admit I was not completely prepared on saturday morning - donning marigold gloves (last minute tidying), greeting my first guest on the dot of twelve noon (note to self: successful artists operate as a business, are always on amber alert, there are no sleep-ins or late starts). As a past buyer of my work, my first visitor said I that was an inspiration to her, and yet it is patrons such as her that make what I (try) to do so much more an uplifting and worthwhile venture. Today, I had two more guests arrive shortly after noon. I am deeply ashamed to admit that I was dressed in the usual sunday morning slumber wear, seated at the kitchen table bagging up and labelling my handmade cards unaware of the time - but one of my idols, the artist Antoni Tapies, painted in his carpet slippers using a house broom as a giant brush - and so I like to see my minor clothing oversight as one of my little artistic idiosyncracies.Anyhow, as a means for my work to be accessible to more people over the duration of the Art Trail, I had decided to spend an evening creating some small handmade artist cards - the four seasons theme returns - and at £5 each surely they are a knockdown price for original artworks... I have made about twenty so far, here are just four of them..
Spring, new growth, a small shoot emerges from moss-laden undergrowth...
Summer (usually!) brings warmth and aridity, the golden sun, seed pods, a scorched earth...
Autumn, ploughed fields, fallen leaves...
Winter, frost, ice and snow, proud pine trees...I have quite enjoyed creating this series of small collages, creating within the confines of a small folded square of cream paper, but sometimes it seems too frivolous and easy an activity to be regarded as serious art - but if I sell them then I will be encouraged to make more handmade cards in my more whimsical moments (it saves on framing too). However, I feel I must finish off three more paintings for next weekend, since the main two walls downstairs were barren with only two large pieces on show with other smaller works dotted about - and the room in which I work, with all its artistic clutter, did not show the other works at their best. However, I have learnt three important things this weekend:Make more time for preparation - cards, invites, labels, hanging pictures!Provide visitors with as much related information as possible (as above) - they may be unsure what questions to ask and are greatly helped by knowing what they should be looking at.It is not really necessary to make excuses for the apparent state of my house/studio/dress/hair - I am an artist after all!
variations on a theme
i have just completed four small mixed media collage artworks for a mini-works exhibition display (as part of the Waveney Art Trail, full details to follow). they are a very simple exploration of colour and textural contrasts, evolving into an expression of the four seasons.
they each measure 6 x 4 inches (about postcard size, to fit within a standard picture mount issued to every mini-works artist), and will be for sale for at £20 each. the main idea behind the mini artworks show is that it is offers more accessible, affordable art for all.in these mini-works, I've utilised painting, monoprinting, etching and embossed paper fragments.now, it's back to work on the other important works...Edit 22/07/07: they all sold!!
solitude and other brief encounters
It has been some time since I updated my artist journal due in part to the commitment of other work (the day job). I feel that the artwork I am currently developing is born out of an dissatisfaction with the way are (or appear to be), and I can't quite reconcile what I want to say with what I am able to do. Browns, greys and the associated metallic hues of bronze and pewter repeatedly invite me into an emotional state of raw clarity, as night invites dark contemplation. I also like the contrast with white - its ability to provide a frame and a focus to everything it surrounds - a soft, chalky white which does not startle but gently illuminates. I am currently working on a series of small works out of some of these ideas using reclaimed wood panels - incorporating plaster, paint and metallic leaf. Since I am working on these at odd times their development is sporadic and very slow - I feel I am suffering in their intolerable silence to provide any substantial meaning or purpose.I recently acquired a new gadget which makes me feel quite emboldened in this solitary journey - a mobile phone with a multitude of functions in the most compact of designs. I can add notes to a calendar (view it as a memo/diary), record transient sounds and voice memos, shoot clips of video, even take photographs. The fact that I can also make and receive telephone calls seems almost inconsequential. I feel a little guilty that I have succumbed to the allure of the technology when what I am striving for is a purity of experience. Below is a selection of still images taken with the new phone - yet more found paintings, discovered in the daily walks required of the day job...
A close up of an oil tank.. it reminded me of the paintings of Robert Motherwell or Barnett Newman. Taken (along with the others shown here) at around midday between late May to early June 2007.
Looking down onto the base of a metal structure, must be drainage holes - how very banal!
The side of another oil tank! Wish I could remember exactly where...
An overpass, and a walk beneath it, a wall, an urban abstract...
More urban traces, another abstract discovered on concrete...
This is the inside of the wall of another overpass, under which I pass almost daily. On this particular day it had been raining heavily and the residual seepage was glistening with a mix of oil, concrete sediment and rainwater. The relentless noise of overhead traffic was unsettling to say the least...
A close-up of the aforementioned wall; I liked the near symmetry in its composition.
An even closer-up of the previously referred to wall... my enduring fascination with these traces of detrital seepage needs to be addressed...I had the idea that i might incorporate these images into an imovie or flash format with some overlaid text - the silent life of a wall or something similar. I feel that my 2D works sometimes do not engage at deeper levels, since there is no clear narrative or starting point (other than documented visual references) - they are just material suffusions of the senses based on the relatively silent space of solitude. Quiet moments (of thought or experience) within the bigger noise of human life seem to provide a deeper awareness of oneself in the contrast. As I have written before, I also like the slow unfolding of my own work over time, their meaning only revealed by the subsequent, repeated visual engagements with them as material objects. Am I making any sense at all today? Probably not, but this journal is turning out to be more and more of a philosophical retreat (rather than the geographical one that I might wish for) by each entry, and in that sense it cannot be any more clearly mapped until the final destination has been arrived at.