Had an amazing day yesterday. As part of the residency package I am given 6 mentoring sessions. As one of the sessions I was treated to a trip to London accompanied by 2 ASP artists. The purpose of the trip was to visit some of the smaller galleries, some of which are difficult to find! It proved to be so much more. It was great to get to know Jeannie (http://www.jeanniedriver.com/) and Natalie (http://www.nataliedowse.co.uk/) better and to gain knowlege from their experience as artists-we talked of galleries, trying to make it as an artist, art techniques and discussed the art we saw. Work exhibited in these smaller galleries is very varied and although I did not necessarily like all the work there was something to be gained and learnt from everywhere we went whether it was to do with the art, the titling of work, framing and presentation etc or the gallery spaces themselves. I was encouraged to leave my email details so I will hopefully recieve information from the galleries in the future.
The most inspiring work we saw was an exhibition at the Parasol Unit by Canan Tolon. You can check the work out at http://parasol-unit.org/ I was so impressed I bought the book!! The images and mark making-the layering and overlays was fascinating and something to aspire to in my work. I am also interested in layers(palimpsests) mark making, layering paint but this exhibition highlighted that I still have a lot to learn and a lot of experimentation to do. I feel for the moment I need to concerntrate on work for my exhibition but there will be a life time of exploration after April!!!
In addition to the galleries and discussion we also checked out a framers which was useful and really interesting. This is an area I need to explore and research and I have realised that presentation being important it is something I have to get my head round. Work can be ruined with bad presentation and display. As well as interesting there was the opportunity to buy frames in their sale-I came away with a load which of course I then had to lug around London along with my book!!!! They were such a bargain though it had to be done!
Wandering up the wonderful Brick Lane we found the Atlantis Art supplies shop – good job I was already ladden down as I could have very easily got carried away-it was better than a sweet shop! They do mail order so I will check out their website later. It was good to discover that they do wide canvas which I need for my big stretcher.
Last stop was the Whitechapel Gallery and a welcome cup of tea in the cafe. There was a group from the New Art Centre (Roch Court) so it was good to be able to have a quick chat and a bit of a catch up.
Very wearily we headed to Waterloo by bus and just had time to grab a pasty before we caught the train back to Portsmouth! naughty but yummy!!!
It was a very full and wonderful day and I feel I learnt a lot. Thank you so much to Natalie and Jeannie for looking after me so well and for being such good company.
Today I am really looking forward to going to the studio to work on my new big canvas -later I am on door duty at the Private View of the lastest exhibition at GASP-so another great day ahaed of me! :o)
Monday I went to the studio and gessoed and gessoed my lovely new big canvas. I did more coats today so I reckon there are about 5/6 coats-hope that is enough!!! Had a Clay Station meeting so got a bit of business done.
Yesterday was ceramic day at Omega-teaching for the wea 11-2 and running a ClayStation (CS) session 4-8- I was planning to do some ceramic work to exhibit alongside the paintings for the exhibition but was too busy to get any of my own work done-GRRRR
Had a meeting about CS finances this morning which was very productive. A new volunteer has joined us to look after all our monies!Sounds very dull but with nice coffe and lemon drizzle cake-thats my kind of meeting-thanks val!
Back to the studio after the meeting-AAAAHhhhhhh heaven!!! finished streching some small canvases and gessoed them and started on my new big painting-got it mapped out and put the first bit of paint on-fantastic-I am really looking forward to working on this. I feel more relaxed about this canvas and feel I have a bit more of an idea of what Im doing-of course all that might change!!!
Doing some research yesterday I revisited Gerhard Richter and… oh no..got caught by the 1 click button on Amazon again!!! Really must pace myself and stop buying books.
I also measured the very big stretcher I have- 6ft x 6ft 3in-I have to research where to buy canvas from-I tried one supplier but width wasn’t big enough.
No images I’m afraid as camera batteries were flat-Bought some more today so more pics soon!!!
Off again to London tomorrow-that’s the 3rd time in the last 12 days-I had weeks and weeks if not months when I didn’t venture up to London-I am clearly ultra inspired at the moment!!!!Not sure where we are going but as a mentoring session (1 of 6 as part of the residency) I am being taken up to London and being shown around some of the more obscure galleries. Really looking forward to it-hope the weather isn’t too wet but whatever I’m sure it will be a good day.
I am still loving this time at Art Space and appreciating the residency-just completely love my studio. I am so lucky and so happy!
A very welcome discussion with my MA friend about my work. He made me consider not so much what but how I work and that quality is important. Up until now I have used found or cheap canvases and have been impatiently quick to start painting. My thought was that I wouldn’t waste money on experimental work. Using the old black blackout curtain for a major work seemed a good idea at the time and I do think because I wasn’t worried about it it freed my work up. I am pleased with this piece but not sure I prepared the cloth well enough. In future I will start using better quality canvas prepared well. I do think part of my hastiness is because I am aware of the 6 months flying by!!!
Got on the 1 click Amazon the other day-always lethal! and my order came yesterday “destroy the picture” Amazing and really inspiring with fantastic images. There are so many things I want to do and try but sadly I cant achieve everything in 6 months. I just hope a studio becomes available soon so I can continue. For now I am going to try to focus on producing some coherent work for the exhibition and consolidate my practice. I came across an old sketch book-its always interesting to look back at previous work and things often look better now than when I did them! I found a quote I had scribbled down by Josh Billings
“Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there”
I think I ought to try!!!
A wet windy Sunday-what to do??? Ah seems like a trip to Tate Britain to see the exhibition on contemporary painting is a good idea……. Yes-Im off to the big city!
Just grabbing a few minutes so you know Im still here! Its been a really busy week and my brain has been working at least double time!Had the day at the studio monday and worked some more on the large painting. Tuesday was a ceramic day-teaching for the wea and looking after “Clay Station”. wednesday was back in the studio and as I could hardly get through the door I did a bit of a tidy up. when I arrive I just drop everything as Im so keen to get started-there is a point though when you just have to tidy up!!!Thursday I gave a talk to UoP (University of OPortsmouth) radiography students about my MA work and my patient experience whilst going through treatment for breast cancer.Took off to Chichester to see Sean Scully exhibition and go to a talk on his work.I am certainly looking at art in a copmpletely new way and have much more appreciation of different types of art. Loved Scully’s work especially his 3d painting and recent more colourful work-amazing brush marks. Friday my very kind studio neighbour showed/helped me to stretch a canvas 35×81 ins.
Bit of housework today and a friend from the MA coming for dinner-lots to catch up on.
Sighning off for now.
What a brilliant day-for many reasons! Went up to London Art Fair-interesting -learnt it is essential to research the galleries you want to try to exhibit in as they all represent very different work.
In the last few years of gallery/exhibition visits I have tried to take everything in but got drawn towards 3D and in particular ceramics. Today was refreshing as I was looking at painting-technique,paint,texture,composition,colour,titles,framing….It’s a whole new world and I’m loving it.
Thoughts while looking at the art works-revisiting accretions,layers and palimpsests and combining ceramic and painting-I feel more experimentation coming on!!!
There was a few 3D art works there-mostly ceramic, metal and wood-Talking of wood, my wonderful son and his brilliant friend collected a big heavy piece of driftwood from Southsea beach today! I am HAPPY HAPPY-Its a wonderful chunk of wood which I have been “visiting” everyday for the last week or so with Gracie our dog-didn’t think it was moveable-strange how something which seems impossible is even more desirable!!!
