Art From London Markets, a-n feature

 

Starting new stories.

New work, stage one the base layer, started today, yellow ochre, chromium oxide and C Robeson matt glaze medium in various concentrations. 1x1m

The smoggy rays of morning got me experimenting on some small 10x10cm boards
when this is dry I think they need a glossy layer on top.

Ashurst Art Prize PD session last week was once again focussed on developing your relationships with a particular emphasis this time on peer networking. The actual sessions themselves do allow this, as there were a few more familiar faces in the room, and also confirm doing fairs as a great opportunity, not only for meeting potential buyers or representatives, but for meeting other artists when their work is there in from of you. I visited the London Art Fair thanks to the Charlie Smith Gallery ( a benefit of networking is free tickets), and in going to fairs at this level you see the continuum from where you are now building to another stage.

And the lost girl, well I will be seeing her in her new residence this week, and hopefully she will not be feeling too lost. She has moved into a residential care home and we are hoping that this will be better for her.

So now its on with getting some lovely limited edition giclee prints made to add to my stall for the Talented Art Fair. As the indigo works are not so well served by photographs I am thinking the more recent works in very small editions, and this gives me a chance to expand the range of what I am showing there.

 

Oh and last weeks unfinished work was completed like this..though still drying

Lost Girl, Looking for Harry Uncle

oil and traditional pigments on canvas

2017

1x1m

I was delighted to be accepted for Art Fair Malaga this week, and a after a little struggle with RyanAir I have booked my ticket and seperatley a nice cheap central place to stay.

At this point in time I cannot afford to take a stand and ship everything there, so I am going for their e-display option. This is very exciting, and a nice way to show there for the first time and test the waters. Maybe I’ll be there with a stand next year.

I am also increasingly delighted by the e publicity surrounding The Talented Art Fair coming up in March at the Truman Gallery. They are doing a great job. And I am looking forward to the next bit of professional development from the Ashurst Art Prize this coming week. This prize has proven really worth entering even if I don’t get selected, because the support they offer to you as an early entrant with feedback and free professional development which is invaluable and motivating.
I am currently developing a new piece which is in early stages, the first of which has already featured here, and the small images here are some selections of areas which are going well.

The work as a whole though needs further development, and I need to wait for a while watching paint dry, for things to firm up before I can take it further.

 

I am applying for residencies and teaching jobs in part so that I am better able to fund opportunities for self representation when they come along. And applying for these jobs reminds me of the things I love about working with other people and teaching too.

Alone in a wine dark sea WIP
1x1m
traditional pigments and oil painting media, hand mixed
Having spent the largest share of last year working in indigo with all its rich potential for tone and its heavily laden role within the history of trade, towards the end of the year around November time I started working with other traditional pigments.

Lost girl: Thames WIP
1x1m
traditional pigments and oil painting media, hand mixed

Through out the year the process of working with pigments and mixing them with oil media myself has made me much more directly conscious of paint as an amalgam of particles. In the indigo pictures I was interested in creating the sensation that you feel when you walk out into a dark night and at first all you can see is blankness, a flatness, but with time you become able to be immersed in the darkness and reach a sense of depth, your own insignificance in the vastness of the night.
Handling the pigment in powder form, and the care it requires, has brought to the front of my mind the way in which tonal values are manipulated by the density of these tiny particles: The concentration within any globule of paint: The way memory is dependent on layered pathways in the brain. The way disease can erode this density. The introduction of a wider palette has created different challenges for creating resonant images full of space, but is more malleable in terms of exploring the complexity of memory and identity.

And as I create these soft images, hazy and unfocussed abstractions, like the light in many a day this winter, building up surfaces where the interplay between the feeling of created space with the flat surface on which it is created is a more conscious act than ever before, and therefore the surfaces are truly more sheer, and yet the feeling of depth is still achieved I am seduced.

I am looking forward to showing works from my indigo series, and beginning to create a catalogue to illustrate a wider range of my work and take full advantage of the Talented Art Fair in March.
for tickets go to: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/talented-art-fair-2017-tickets-30949165788