Not a very productive day at all today!
Today's timetable – Had to hand in our degree show proposals 10am
A few coffees
11.30am Lecture/Discussion on approaching galleries – quite informative and interesting to hear different peoples views and goals.
Lunch
2.00pm Exhibition proposal tutorial – It went quite well I thought, they seemed pleased with my proposed exhibition, just a few minor points to address but I came out feeling quite happy. Just got to do the work now!
More coffee
3.00pm – prizing my large paintings off the floor without breaking the frames. What a nightmare, the paint had run right under them and fixed them to the floor surer than superglue – Successful operation – All safe and well.
4.00 – Leave uni without having done a scrap of productive work.
I'd started to drop behind in my self imposed schedule so I ventured into Uni today (Saturday). I half expected to see other fine art students working seeing as we only have about 6 weeks left. No, the studios were empty. It was quite good actually to have the place to myself without any distractions. I had a very productive day.
I finished the first stage of my latest large painting, printed out my proposal, sorted out my career in practice file and completed a sizeable number of small paintings.
Although I am still slightly behind schedule I feel a whole lot better after today.
I started worrying about my proposal for the degree show today, although I have finished it and need to hand it in in Monday morning I am not confident that I have got it right. we didn't really have any consultation on this, we were given guidelines to follow. We have exhibition critiques on Monday too. Our personal tutors go through the exhibition plan and critique our work at this stage. Critiques always make me nervous. I am confident in the work I am doing but I do not really like other people telling me what my work should or should not be. I know I should take criticism better but I'm just not made that way.
I've been working from home yesterday and today, a combination of a lot of paperwork to do and childcare problems. I'm probably going have to work over the weekend painting as I am starting to get behind schedule.
I finished my degree show proposal yesterday. It was more difficult than I thought. The artist statement is finalised, I have done technical drawings to show what my show should look like and I have costed the whole affair. This was a huge shock, adding up all the paint, brushes, canvas, paper, medium e.t.c plus the cost of preparing the exhibition, lighting, advertising e.t.c my costs since the start of the semester will have reached a staggering £975.00. I find it amazing that I have amassed that sort of cost and with the drip, drip effect have not noticed it. Some other students have figured out their costs and they seem to be considerably less than me, the cheapest having only spent £175.00
I have the possibility for a solo show in Scotland at a small gallery, the show would be for the whole of July which is fantastic news. It takes the pressure off the degree show slightly in that I know there is something happening straight after leaving and gives me confidence for the future.
I have designed myself a small brochure to send out to galleries and interested parties. It is in it's early stages but it will be great to have something tangible to give to people relating to my work.
A frustrating day today. I was all motivated to work some more on my large painting only to find that it was still soaking wet. Too wet to risk painting back into it. It looks as though it will probably take a few more days yet.
It's a good job that I have plenty of other work still to do. I spent some time painting the smaller paintings, these are coming on quite well.
I think I will use tomorrow morning to complete my proposal. I have finalised my Artist Statement and the technical details but I do have to complete my budget and a few other details.
I applied for the Northern Design awards the other day. I uploaded 3 images online, it was the easiest application for a competition that I have ever done.
I am having to think about the costs for selling my work at the moment and it is a very difficult thing to do.
After spending the last few weeks doing work for fundraising it was such a relief to get back to painting this Monday. I have been eagerly awaiting this week as it is the week that I had pencilled in to start a large painting. I have previously made the frames, stretched and sized the canvas so it was with great excitement and trepidation that I set to work.
The painting comprises of 4 panels, each panel is 175cm x 90cm and when put together creates a painting of 175cm x 360cm.
It is early days with this painting and there is a lot still to do but I am very pleased with the progress so far. The frustrating thing is waiting for the paint to dry. I am working in diluted acrylic in large quantities and it takes several days for each application to dry. Luckily I have lots of smaller paintings to be getting on with. So I work on the large painting in the morning then leave it to dry and then continue with the smaller oil paintings.
I am lucky enough to have 2 studio spaces so I can be working on more than 1 thing at a time.
I have also got to finish my proposal for the final degree show this week and I am having trouble deciding what to exhibit. I am aware that I don't want to overcrowd the space with too many paintings but want to get as much as my work seen as possible. It's a conundrum!
Exhibiting is a funny thing. I am really confident in my own practice and the work I am producing but when it comes to hanging the work I don't have the same confidence. Maybe this will come with time.
