XCIV, one small abstract painting on paper currently for sale, shown here mounted (matted), in striated, layered colours of deep teal green, prussian blue-black, dark aubergine-brown and grey...from the series of one hundred small paintings started on one grey day in late 2008…numbered I to C, aka the chromatids, 2008-2009chromatids: the two strands into which a chromosome divides during cell division; origin, from the Greek ‘khroma’ meaning colour and id (an abbreviation of identity rather than id, of impulse or instinct)..you can view more small abstract paintings for sale here.
here are a some of the small abstract paintings from the same series, hanging out to dry in the studio...i had the idea that i would later frame all one hundred of these and exhibit them as one wall-based work... but, being very small works on paper they also suited the idea to begin selling some small abstract paintings online...my aim in this series was to explore visual relationships in both surface texture and colour, created in sequence but on a reduced scale - small, tactile colour studies that suggest abstract fragments of landscape, or colour samples from the environment, but are only identified by a reference number, a process inspired in part by genetic dna maps and product barcodes...
...and here are a few photographs, taken down on the farm...
thank you for looking......aha... if you have scrolled down this far, then may i introduce to you three very small abstract paintings on postcards...
untitled I, II & III , 2010wax, bitumen, emulsion & acrylic on paper, mounted onto postcardsi received these back from the little postcard art exhibition at the king's lynn arts centre - thus, perhaps starting a tradition of giving away these small exhibition remainders - all three are up for grabs, yes absolutely gratis...to be in with a chance, just show your interest by leaving a little comment below (your contact email is not published or shared but is required to authenticate the comment)...distinct from my previous art giveaway, this time just ONE WINNER will be selected at random after the closing date of 1st september 2010 to receive ALL THREE postcards...the winner will be contacted by the email they have provided and will then need to provide the necessary contact information by return for the postcards to be dispatched to them.thank you for reading and good luck......
re: surfacing, once again
resurfacing, from some dark days spent in the artist's studio... it has been raining quite a lot lately but today was bright and breezy. august is now always such a washout; it never used to be like this. i have lots of green tomatoes but no chutney jars... listening to the evening breeze, it could almost be the rushing sound of the sea in the distance...
some paint pots and some paint brushessome works that are still in progress...
actually, i have left these two paintings (the lichenscapes) well alone for the last week, concentrating instead on finishing some smaller pieces...these are (or will be) mouldscapes...
some small paintings drying on a washing linethese are looking quite mouldy but they are not at all mouldy... sometimes deep within this stuff lies a cure, a solution, the answer - it's mould, but it's not always bad... i had brief dip into charles darwin's the formation of vegetable mould 1881, the natural formation of mould as in the breakdown of organic matter (green manure) to produce a friable, fertile soil and earthworms' vital part in this process... darwin studied worms very closely and deduced they had no true sense of hearing (although they are sensitive to vibrations) - he wrote extensively about his observations & many experiments, but without (obviously) any intentional humour:They took not the least notice of the shrill notes from a metal whistle, which was repeatedly sounded near them; nor did they of the deepest and loudest tones of a bassoon. They were indifferent to shouts, if care was taken that the breath did not strike them. When placed on a table close to the keys of a piano, which was played as loudly as possible, they remained perfectly quiet.[from charles darwin, the formation of vegetable mould, 1881]it does conjure up quite a comical scene - and i presume it was darwin loudly playing the bassoon...so, back to the mouldscapes - perhaps i should work on dreaming up more lyrical titles for these? someone once wrote in an exhibition visitors' book that my work was refreshing in that it explained its source without recourse to the written word... although i do go some way (here at least) to explain the things that fascinate me and the parallel desire to make work (for want of a better word) about them; the processes and concepts merge to the point that neither can exist without the other.. i figure (or fear) i'll forever be consumed by the processes of decay/change/renewal because it is a big subject to explore and each time one thinks one can do it better or differently... my concepts and reasonings for making art seem quite focused but i think (or procrastinate!) about working in different media, a different format or scale... when i look back at some of my student work i can see that the sculptural elements have also persisted but have never quite progressed into 3d...i also made a fresh batch of handmade paper this past week... i was quite taken by the ordered but irregular, deckled edges as i stacked up the dried sheets, and the 3d form they constructed, creating a strata of sorts, a layering of a different kind (3d again, take note)...
a neat 'n' tidy stack of handmade, deckled papersi also pursued some sketching, around the irregularity of forms and surface imperfections were/are still on my mind... can the indefinable wabi sabi aesthetic ever be deliberately crafted?
some sketchbook drawingsi am still working through these notions of imperfection, by creating a series of vessel-like forms - that is, i am quite clear about my intentions and reasons for doing so but have yet to construct them and i have not answered the repeated call for action on the matter... something for a future post no doubt, when the lichen/mould paintings are truly done & finished, and after the artworks group exhibition opens to the public in september - the current lichen/mould paintings will form the main body of new work for this show, but i will also submit some smaller pieces for the exhibition's shop... watch this space...i framed this intaglio collagraph print in preparation for a new exhibition opening at the harleston gallery next week (i have put in two other collagraph prints for the gallery's browser)... the broad theme of this group exhibition is the allotments and i considered that this collagraph, as the composition evolved out of looking at the surface structures of old sheds & barns, just might fit the allotted criteria - although, having visited the local allotments just once (on the second occasion they were locked up) i did not see any ramshackle, old tin sheds, it was all rather neat and tidy...
an old tin shed, intaglio collagraph, 2010the exhibition at the harleston gallery is called 'breaking ground' and it will open on thursday 26th august, the private view is 6.30pm-8.30pm. the exhibition continues to 25th september 2010. if you are local to or perhaps just passing through the delightful, waveney valley, please drop in to see the exhibition - and, one could also partake in a nice pot of tea and some lovely cake from the gallery cafe...i also applied to a professional artist mentoring scheme; my application was considered but i was not selected for the programme - i may write about that process in a future post, but the first thought that came to mind was must try harder. perhaps all i need to re-invigorate my work and/or recontextualize my practice is an all-expenses-paid trip to the venice biennale - i would become more critically engaged with the 'issues' in contemporary art/painting - and i would also, probably, still be deeply enamoured by the distressed architecture, those old, crumbling facades with their outward appearance of a slow and very elegant decay...no matter, i will continue to reflect on and write about art and painting, even if some of the creative musings don't (yet) make it into finished artwork, they have been registered as having some potential at least, and myself the artist and my art will continue to exist, out here in the back of beyond......regular readers might notice that i have a facebook badge thingamy-->i have just set myself up a little fan page, which pretty much just redistributes what appears here - the account for a page is very limited, which is perhaps a very good thing... and now it seems that i have three fans, so thank you! but if i get twenty fans i then facebook lets me personalise the page's url!i thought that having a professional 'page' was maybe the thing to do, the way to go, another platform for promoting the art, but now i am not so sure - i always have nagging doubts about these things... this week i heard on the radio that in the future people might need to create entirely new identities (as if some people haven't already been doing this) for their own security, such is the vast amount of personal information that has already been distributed or shared online... you/we/i have all been warned... so, i will try out fb's pages until september and then evaluate its true worth... all i ever planned to do was to have a nice artist portfolio website and this artist journal has become a naturally inclusive part of it, occasional musings and thoughts from the artist's studio... and i have also been wondering, what will supercede the supersonic twitter, for soon enough something else will..?...last chance to see… rebirth at the Art 1821 gallery – the exhibition runs until 8 september 2010…next exhibition... breaking ground at the harleston gallery, 28 august to 25 september 2010...coming up: the 11th annual artworks exhibition at blackthorpe barns, 11 September to 3 October 2010…
some printmaking, old and new
a few weeks back i attended a one day lithography workshop at the curwen press with three other artists, valerie armstrong, jenny goater and lynn hutton, organised through the art group artworks. valerie has very kindly sent me a cd of the photographs that were taken of our day at the curwen studio. it was a day of leisurely learning and perhaps a little professional development...
some photographs of the day at curwen studiothe curwen press (now known as the curwen studio) was established in 1958 as a professional printmaking studio for artists and fine art publishers, originally set up in London but it relocated to more spacious premises at Chilford Hall in 1989. the curwen studio has worked with a number of national & international artists over the years including henry moore, eduardo paolozzi, howard hodgkin, paula rego, john piper and chris orr (who happened to be one of my tutors at the rca). the curwen studio has bequeathed a collection of its prints to the tate's print archive and it has also established strong connections with the royal academy and its academicians. in 2008 the curwen studio celebrated its 50th anniversary with special display of original prints at tate britain.for the curwen lithography day, i decided to take along some small, textured pebbles from my collection so that i could explore drawing & mark-making from real objects, on a small scale - the six drawings are about A4...
crayon & tusche drawings on drafting film and the final lithograph printhere's a close up (about life size) of one of the litho drawings on drafting film, of a very pitted and nobbly stone found many years ago on a beach in south wales, drawn in tusche ink wash, graphite and lithographic crayon - they were created on drafting film as the drawings were going to be used as the photo positives to process onto one large photo litho plate...
lithographic drawing on drafting filmhowever, when my images were processed all the delicate lines and textures of my drawing were pretty much lost - perhaps they needed a slower exposure, as it seemed even the tiniest trace of oily tusche on the film created a very dark, flat tone..
lithographic print on somerset paperso, my final lithograph prints were a slight disappointment but nevertheless i still enjoyed my printmaking day out...special thanks go to jenny roland and michael the studio manager for making our day both rewarding and special - a fabulous buffet lunch was also laid on for us which was much appreciated!i did quite a bit of lithography as an art student, on zinc plate and stone, and if i had the opportunity to pursue it again i would like to do more stone lithography...along with the final editon of lithographic prints, which i've decided i will develop further with some drypoint intaglio or collagraph embossing, i still have my original crayon & tusche drawings on the drafting film... the second set of tusche washes (used for the blue grey colour in the lithograph print) seemed worthy of closer inspection since the subtle textures changed according to the direction of the light, shown here actual size...
tusche backlit from light from a window
with white paper placed behind the drafting film
photographed in a raking lightthere was such a tremendous amount of subtle detail that i zoomed in further - these are the same three images, cropped to show those subtle textures...
this crop is about the size of a large postage stamp...
they look like something viewed through a microscope... (i would love a microscope that links up to a camera)...
and here, once again shown in a soft, raking light....these photographs are very inspiring, as i see so many connections to my other work, from the drawings of bark & lichens to the textured panel paintings... and how digital images derived or developed from one's own artwork are a useful aid to the creative thinking process.so, a little time was spent browsing my digital archives, some digital printmaking from a few years ago...
char, digital print, august 2002these are from a series of experimental digital prints in 2002, created in a very low-tech way. i scanned an old photograph (one of a piece of charred wood, the other of some rocks) as tiff files. the programme i used was an early version of graphic converter - it was freeware at the time. i then proceeded to print the images numerous times on a single sheet of paper, each time rotating the image in the software and then feeding the sheet of paper through the printer again. here's another example...
rock, digital print, august 2002i printed them for my portfolio but i did not exhibit or frame them....