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!)
If in doubt do it bigger.
I was totally down about things earlier this week, a lot of the time I just feel spread too thin. So despondent I walked to yoga class thinking I must just give up, let it go, put it aside, all doomed to fail all going wrong. Then somewhere in meditation time the mind that was not supposed to be engaged in thought started ticking and whirring and I walked home convinced that what I really needed to do was to paint some much big canvases. Oh this art thing, just like sticky bud.
All in all not a bad week got some painting done, finished a lino cut during gardeners world on Friday night. Then printed it while Mike took the kids to Tesco on Saturday.
A gift of time and Moving Clay
Bemoaning the fact that I have had so little time for my painting recently and how was I ever going to get the piece I was hoping to finish for a submission at the end of march done, my lovely partner took the kids into town to get new school shoes and then on to the supermarket, giving me 3 wonderful unexpected hours, what a gift.
I have left the painting for the competition/exhibition a little late as I was not going to submit but the group I joined in September, Moving Clay have been asked by the organisers to support the event and enter.
Moving Clay is a multi-disciplinary art group they were originally started by a group of ceramicists but as the group is much larger now and as the majority of members work in 2d it was felt a name change was needed. We voted on a new name at our meeting on Thursday and if the absent members agree by e-mail we will have a new name and a new website to launch at Macclesfield’s fab Barnaby festival in June. I did rather like the name Moving Clay but people did keep asking if I was now doing pottery when I mentioned them, so I suppose things change.
Sunflowers Seeds and Dinosaurs
What’s smaller than a crack? A hair line fracture of work this week maybe but I didn’t expect to get anything done it being half team and all. Thank goodness for my sketch book at least I can record my thoughts and ideas in these doing droughts.
Then yesterday I got a bonus I didn’t really expect, while visiting relatives down south we managed a day trip to London. I claimed half the day and took the family to Tate modern, then it was off to the natural history museum for the kids. I managed to enjoy it and felt artistically refreshed apart from the constant can we see the dinosaurs yet from the kids and a heated difference of opinion about the Gerhard Richter Cage paintings with my other half. I of course loved them as did my 5 year old.
