On Friday night was Derby's 'Feste' event to celebrate the opening of the new Derby Quad.
It was a really good, entertaining night. The highlight for me was Sarruga who are a Spanish street art company. I missed them when they performed for the opening of the local shopping centre when they paraded huge Dragons through the streets in celebration. This time they created wonderful insects. There was an ant, black widow spider, a huge praying mantis and more. With music blaring and spectacular lighting of the insects and even the spraying of steam above the audiences heads. It was quite an amazing spectacle.
The Quad building itself was quite dissapointing. To me it just doesn't look big enough. However it was very busy and extremely hard to get around to look at things so I will reserve full judgement until I can visit again at a calmer time.
The commissioned exhibition Spiteful of Dream by Jane & Louise Wilson was interesting. Quad said they wanted to comission something spectacular but in my opinion this is far from that. It is however very interesting and relates to the history of Derby. I liked the fact that it left me feeling a little light headed because of the effect of all the little parts of the images moving slightly in different directions.
I look forward to seeing more at the Quad.
I was in the studio on Saturday and had a really good day. I progressed my two current paintings into a nearly finished stage so I need to allow them to dry for a few days before I can touch them again. I would get on with other work but I am waiting for materials to arrive at the moment. I hope to have received delivery by Thursday at the latest so fingers crossed I will be in the studios then.
After my moaning of yesterday I woke to find that I would be able to go in to the studio today after all.
I was in around three and a half hours and managed to get a decent amount of painting done. I'm not quite sure about the results, I will have to mull over the painting to see what I do with it next. It doesn't feel quite right yet, but I don't quite know what to do with it yet.
I find it quite interesting that as artists we look at a work of art, visually judge it, sometimes we can say if a particular part is exceptional or poor or even bland. But from my experience of my art and talking to other artists, most artists instinctively know if something is right or not, even when there aren't any parts that prove these feelings, our brains instinctively recognise it and respond accordingly.
It's really weird at the moment being fresh out of university. I've become accustomed to and a little reliant on feedback from lecturers and fellow students, in fact anyone involved in art that you come across. But ever since leaving there are very few people around to give an honest opinion on my work, some artists are quite reluctant to and others will only speak about the good and the flattering. I am quite confident that after a while I will have developed a network of fellow artists whos critical feedback will help me invaluably.
The studios of my residency are fantastic, they remind me of the old studios at Derby University, but clean and warm and more space. It's great to have other people moving around and getting on with work and generally being involved in art. It is quite encouraging and reassuring to see other artists being artists. I have yet to meet alll of the members at Harrington Mill studios but the ones I have met so far have seemed really nice people and their work is of a really high and honest standard.
We have an open studio event at the end of October, if anyone is in the area please come along and see our work and the wonderful studios. I will be at the Private view and be around most of the weekend and I love to chat.
Harrington Mill Open Studios 2008
Private View – Friday 24th October 2008 – 6pm – 8.30pm (This will be opened by the mayor of erewash)
Open Studios Sat 25th – Sun 26th October – 11am – 4pm
It's so frustrating at the moment, I'm itching to get into some serious work at the studio but it seems like events are conspiring against me for the last 7 days. Every time I plan to have a lengthy visit to the studio something important crops up. I've been in for 3 hours on Monday and 2 hours today but I need a full 5-7 hours to make headway in my latest paintings. I'm not going to be able to make it in tomorrow but will get a few hours on Friday, fingers crossed.
If only there was some funding available to allow me to get on with my painting and relieve the worry of work and earning money. Life after university is definately different and it's taking some getting used to, having to juggle many committments at the same time is proving extremely tiring.
In my 2 hours today I stretched some linen onto a stretcher frame. I know it shouldn't take that long but I still struggle when stretching linen. It only wants to stretch one way and when it is all stapled it decides to relax a little more and I basically have to take most of the staples out and tighten even more. I don't get this problem with cotton duck, it is so much easier to stretch. Anyway I finally managed to stretch one of the stretcher frames with another still to do.
Yesterday I was with my son (2 years old) whilst he was doing some painting. I gave him some blank greetings cards and asked him to do some paintings on them. The idea is to use them as thank you cards for friends and family who sent him his birthday presents last week. I thought it was going to be carnage but was amazed, he took each one seperately and told me for each one what he was going to paint, they were all obviously Thomas the tank engine orientated but i was fascinated by the simplicity in his painting, he picked a colour/colours with a quick drag and then a quick unlaboured twizzle with the brush gave some beautiful brushtrokes that I only wish that I could translate into my paintings. I was really proud that he was enjoying the act of painting for what it was without a worry for what it looked like.
A lesson for us all could be taken from that maybe?
I was in the studios early-ish this morning at 7am. My paintings had dried over the weekend and I was really happy with the way they looked.
I have a commission to produce at the moment for exhibition in December, but before that I have an open studio event on the 24th, 25th and 26th October. For this I will have to use standing work as I will not have enough time to produce some new work as well as the commission. I do have plans to modify some of my existing work and should that go successfully then I will show these.
I go for a meeting on Friday with all the people involved in my Cavendish (NADFAS) commission. We meet at the dome in Buxton, which is one of the venues of the exhibitions. Hopefully we will get all the finalised answers regarding the exhibition details.
I should be next in the studios on Wednesday, this should be long enough for this latest layer to dry. I'm really looking forward to applying the final oil paint layer to both of them.
I realised today that I am low on materials. I've left it a little late for ordering so it is going to be a bit of a wait until they are delivered.
It's taken me 2 days to move my equipment and work into my new space. The temptation was to bring everything into the space but I resisted the urge, I'm glad as it feels a really great place to make some work.
So much so I started painting today. I've divided the studio into two allowing me a wet area where I can lay the paintings flat on the floor and an office area where I can have a desk and lots of wall space for painting onto. Hopefully it will work well, I can be working on many paintings at a time, in various different stages.
Sometimes It's amazing how some things happen by coincidence but just fit perfevtly into what you are thinking about or doing. Take yesterday for example, I moved my stuff into the space and put all the furniture together and then realized that I didn't have a chair. It wasn't the end of the world, I've got a stool at home that would be adequate enough, but i kept daydreaming about having a chair that was confortable, something I could sit back in and relax whilst I contemplated life. But cost was more important than comfort and sense won out over fancy as I settled for the stool. However, I couldn't believe my luck when I ventured out from the studio to pick up a few supplies and happened across the very style of chair that I had dreamt about, lying discarded in a skip!
Today I've been daydreaming about discarded winning lottery tickets without much luck but at least I've been comfortable in my daydreaming.
Laura from the erewash Borough Council came to visit me today, she is wonderful, so enthusiastic and encouraging. We went through the contract that laid out all the requirements and responsibilities for the residency. I'm looking forward to a varied and enjoyable year ahead.
