It has been some time since I posted about anything other than cinema reviews and that is all going to change by not neglecting this blog from painting anymore.
Since finishing the Graduate Residency with AirSpace Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent in February this year, things have been progressing rather well. I have been featured in the following group exhibitions:
ARTWORKS OPEN 2013
30/08/ to 22/09/2013 Barbican Arts Group Trust
SWEET ‘ART’S SUMMER SHOW 2013
29/08/ to 03/08/2013 Espacio Gallery / Sweet Art Collective
HOT-ONE-HUNDRED
17/07/ to 03/08/2013 Schwartz Gallery
And have two group exhibitions / auctions coming up in December, with the promise of a solo show at Footfall Art in the beginning of 2014.
In this time, I have undergone some ‘drastic’ changes in my work as well as new developments and peaks of interest that I hope to continue.
Taking note of the cartoonish paintings I premiered in my debut solo show ‘Grandfather’ at AirSpace Gallery, I returned home making more pieces that reflected this ‘satirical’ depiction of issues specific to certain countries such as the Netherlands or Spain. I also started to become focused on discovering my own motifs or trademarks that I could continue to explore for as long as they would allow such as clouds or moustaches.
Whilst some of these proved successful due to their unconventional colour schemes and humourous effect, others proved to be distracting and disjointed from my theme of nationalism. For six paintings in particular, I arrived at a perfect combination of motifs, humour, and inventinveness in the form of THE WILL TO POWER (see image) and EXPRESSING INTEREST (see image) creating playful situations for these elements to frolic about.
Perhaps it was just my being ecclectic or tempermental but these six paintings have not generated any further ‘siblings’ but rather some ‘half-siblings’ in the form of the “Banana Republic series” which I will mention again in a later post.
Then, upon discovering four unused MDF boards I decided to take the motifs of the previous six paintings (mentioned above) and make these four more playful. The result was a remake of painting previously shown in the ‘Grandfather’ exhibition (EASEL II, see image) and three companions that though they boasted colour, they did not necessarily boast the same amount of character as pieces such as OCTOPUS LIFETIME (see image).
To explain my motifs, the moustache that I commonly use is that belonging to Lord Kitchener (1850 – 1916) from the famous ‘Britons Wants You’ posters (see image) whilst the crown symbol is that of royalty (belonging to any country that has had or still institutes the monarchy).
Perhaps the cartoonish aesthetic for me inspired in-part by painters like Philip Guston (1913 – 1980) and Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973) is trying less to be childish and more satirical but who knows.
Judging my by work ethic of sometimes using news papers as a source material for my paintings, I would say that I am replicating a process used by many artists and creative minds alike.
