Painting in the cracks of time

Well the artist group I am in has voted to change its name so Moving Clay is now artXstra. Our first exhibition under the new name will be at the Macclesfield Barnaby festival in Incubation Arts, Dukes Court, Macclesfield in June. Then we have a venue for the Buxton Fringe festival in July, I am quite excited about this one as it is in a chocolate shop. We have chosen the theme of confection and all the pieces 2 and 3d works have to be no bigger than 12 x 12 in. This was for practical reasons as the venue is small and the group quite large now but I think the small pieces will work well together uniting what is likely to be an eclectic mix. I usually have trouble with themes but this one was easy as I had already started some chocolate related work and gathered images and photographs. I will probably have more than is needed for the submission and maybe the smaller pieces will help me resolve what to do with my big chocolate lover canvas that I started just after Christmas. Oh I do love chocolate( 85% of course)

As artsXstra does not have new website yet, (this has been cause for much discussion), one of the members Jane has set up a face book page and I am doing artsXstra on twitter. We don’t have many followers or likes yet so please follow us if you can.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/ArtsXstra/195537113810189

http://twitter.com/artsxstra

No more panic paintings…honest

This year so far the paintings left unfinished or turned to the wall as result of failure or not knowing how to continue are staking up. On the up side I like painting over paintings I like the texture and the shadow of things previous, on the down side it’s getting disheartening. I was telling myself it was down to experimentation but it may be panic which is not so good. I come home from work and think right I have 2hrs before I get the kids must paint, grab a canvas and start with no or little preparation. My lino prints on the other hand have been much more satisfying lately. They don’t get started until I know exactly how I want the image, then I can work in bits and when tired because I know what I am doing and where I am going.

I am going to try and put the same level of prep into the paintings and see what happen (several blog entry’s on I will no doubt complain about lack of spontaneity!)