I braved the relentlessly pouring rain today in order to enter this years Derby Open competition. It seems that for the last 3 years I've always had to take work in wrapped in plastic bin liners to protect it from the wonderful weather.
It seemed quite busy with a constant stream of people whilst I was there.
It is always really interesting to see artist scurry in on a submission day, lovingly and protectively carrying their work and putting themselves in a bizarre situation of judgement, rejection or failure. I don't know why we do it really, I don't know why I do it. I don't enjoy the experience. I t certainly isn't for the chance of winning some money, I'd get better odds on the lottery.
It must be to gain some acceptance, some recognition for the hard work and maybe even justification for the path I have chosen. I know that if my work is rejected, sorry, not accepted then I will be bitterly dissapointed despite the knowledge that there are so many fantastic artists out there and just 3 judges choosing work to fit a criteria that they alone are aware of.
Most people you speak to will say "don't take it to heart if you don't get chosen" , but I wonder if anyone really doesn't take it to heart, is it possible? if so, why would they enter the competition in the first place?
I know that the next rejection letter, be it Derby or another. (and I know there will be many others) I will take it on the chin, be gracious and outwardly positive about the whole situation to the point of nonchalance. But bubbling inside will be a rage and fury about the injustice of it all and as usual I will ask myself, why? why put myself through this. And as I always do, the only answer I will be able to come up with is "Because it's what I do"
Not only did it look like a grey day today, it very much felt like one. I was in the studio fairly early this morning to find the painting that I had last checked on monday still as wet as I had left it Monday afternoon. It is bitterly cold at the moment so it is understandable. I was hoping that the painting would be touch dry by this weekend in order for me to enter it into the Derby open competition. But sadly there isn't any chance of that happening. I do have other work I can submit but I had set my heart on this piece, I was really excited by it. Never mind, I should have been more organised and started the painting a few weeks earlier, but who knows, maybe without the urgency and spontaneity the painting would have looked totally different.
I then spent the next 4 hours cleaning the edge of paintings and painting them a uniform colour, then affixing mirror plates onto some work and then cleaning up all my brushes that had been soaking in cleaner since the weekend. I had managed to use about 30 brushes over the weekend. We had an open studio on Fri/Sat/Sun and I carried on painting throughout but rather than cleaning the brushes as I went I kept using new ones until I ran out. I didn't want to be bothered with cleaning whilst people were coming around. I paid the price today as it took me ages.
So in the 4 hours that I was in the studio today I didn't manage to get anything creative done. I suppose we have to have days like this to enable us to have days of making but it is sooo tedious. I wish that I could afford to have someone clean my stuff for me, maybe I could apply to the arts council for funding for a personal brush cleaner, might be worth a try.
It's been such a hectic and exhausting weekend buit it was well worth the effort.
We had our Open studio event this weekend. The private view was on Friday night and we had an amazing turnout, the studio was packed to the rafters and the work on show was very diverse and exciting.
I don't know how I didn't lose my voice as I did not get the chance to stop talking all night. I got some really positive feedback about my work and spoke about some future possibilities too.
Saturday and Sunday provided a constant stream of visitors who were genuinely interested in and encouraging about my work. I decided to paint throughout the weekend and managed to get a fair bit of painting done, some successful and some not at all.
It was interesting to get different views about my paintings and to listen to other peoples reactions to the work and the techniques that I employ. Thank you to all my friends who came to support me over the weekend, as always it is very much appreciated.
Some feedback from friends who know my work and what it is all about was quite enlightening. It was the first time they had seen my new work and many of them commented on how much darker the new paintings were. It is quite interesting to hear that because I haven't conciously done that. I have been thinking about and researching the early hours and the twighlight so it is probably that what has influenced the latest work.
Over the next few weeks I need to concentrate on creating work for a few open submission competitions and then get back to finishing off the Cavendish commision for the November exhibition.
I was in the studio early this morning starting at 7am. I'm really glad that I sorted my space out at the weekend for the open studios, it meant that I could get on with some painting.
Today was a good painting day. It's strange how some days are good, some indifferent and some absolutely diabolical. Well today just felt right. I worked on a painting that I thought I had ruined and was contemplating throwing away but something this morning made me re-address it and things started to fall into place. I now feel that it has the potential to be quite good.
I decided to mount some of my old watercolour sketches with a view to selling them at the open studios. In my sketchbook where they lived they were just evidence of me working out ideas with paint but once they were cut out and mounted properly they took on a new life and became a piece of art rather than a functional experiment. In fact some of them now are interesting enough for me not to sell. I'm going to keep some to progress into larger paintings.
I'd like to say a big thank you to the painter Michael Porter who kindly agreed to meet up with me yesterday. He is a phenomenal painter and it was a pleasure to meet him and talk about his work/my work and art and the art world in general. I haven't met him before but he is someone who's work I studied for part of my dissertation at University. I sent a speculative e-mail to him asking if I could meet up to chat and I was amazed that he agreed. It's great that established and successful artists such as Michael give up their free time to talk to peole who are just starting out in their art. I would encourage anyone out there to get in touch with an artist that they admire, just give it a try and you might just be surprised by the response.
Fantastic, I managed to get into the studio 3 days on the trot. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I was in early all 3 days but managed to get a good 5 hours each day.
I've been working on a few paintings but mainly getting my space ready for the open studios next weekend.
I haven't treated it too much like an exhibition. I've put the work that I am currently working on the wall and some older, finished work on the other walls. It all looks a bit crowded but I think it is better for the visitors to see my older work alongside the new stuff so they can see the journey, if indeed there has been one.
I plan to be in the studio all weekend and I intend to continue working on my paintings. I hope people will be interested in seeing the work being made.
I'm still waiting for my materials budget so I can buy some more materials.
I'm really looking forward to the private view on Friday night. I have a few friends coming and it seems like ages since we got together. It still seems a little strange that I am no longer at university. I was speaking to a few people who are still at uni in the last couple of weeks and it made me realise that I really do miss the place.
I'm looking forward to seeing the studios transform over the next 4 days. I was just about the first person to get my space ready for the open studios, a few more artists started yesterday. It's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate, even in my very short time at Harrington Mill I found myself with loads of stuff that I didn't really want. One of the artists at the studio said the open was a good excuse to clean her space every year.
A few paintings I am working on at the moment are not going very well. The paint has become a little muddied and they are not inspiring me at the moment. I might put these to the side and start afresh. I really hate it when this happens, it seems like such a huge waste of time, materials and money. I've accepted that it is inevitable but it doesn't make it any less irritating.
