Procrastinations of a working man.

 

More, drawing, more studio time – more blogging.

I have interspersed this post with several images of the work I have been doing since my last major post alround a year ago.  It is by no means exhaustive but a select few pieces.  As you will see I have been experimenting with different ideas and developing new techniques.

Usually I begin to write straight off the bat and let whatever comes out – come out, maybe not a recipe for amazing writing but this method fits nicely into what I want from it – reflecting on what I have been up to and what I have planned, however with this post I have just written/ deleted, written/ deleted, written/ deleted my opening line…so I figure – keep it simple. This is:

Isn’t it an amazing feeling when you have clear ideas and know what you want from them.

To flesh this out a little I am talking in regards to current pieces of work from which a clear direction is present, a clear idea has been developed and basically knowing what is wanted from these pieces. It’s refreshing and (I think) quite exciting. I have always liked the idea of letting a drawing develop and seeing what happens (albeit with a very rough idea of what I’m looking for) and in fact it has always formed an integral part of my process which has also often been very valuable in discovering new ideas.

Above are the two little drawings that has stimulated the  pleasing thought I have just been talking about.

I have been having a few random thoughts regarding actual studio practice and I think I have realised just how important it is to have a dedicated space in which to work, for instance I have no distractions whatsoever in my tiny studio such as a tv etc and when I go there I can sink many hours of solid work without batting an eyelid, this would simply not be possible at home in a spare room.  I have also developed a studio protocol from which I have never deviated.  Different pens, inks, pencils etc are all kept in exactly the same place, my chair is always at the same height, I have the blinds a certain way, completed drawings stored away in groups in a plan chest – others not going anywhere tossed into a separate drawer of there own just in case I ever want to use elements of them again (see below).

I guess what I’m saying is that all of these small points allow me to clear my mind and concentrate on drawing and nothing else – that for a time strapped man like me is super important.  I love that.

Thank you as always for reading and I hope you liked some of the work shown in this post.

Oh one other thing – below is a skateboard I was asked to paint, totally loved doing it and may well make some more just for the hell of it.

So, where to begin? It has been a long time time since my last post…a very long time. Happily I have not been at a total standstill practice wise…in fact I have been pretty busy over the last few months (although I did have a self inflicted period of inactivity of around six months due to prior commitments before this).

To anyone that has ever read my blog on a regular basis in the past will know that I often slip away into rambling tangents and I do not think this will buck the trend – and in fact as I am writing this I am beginning to feel better about being back exploring thoughts and ideas through writing so please expect more random cascades of written thought.

Anyway now that the awkward intro is out of the way and my tail is not between my legs any longer I will begin to grind off the rust and begin musing and recording my activities once again.  Lucky you!

I have been working on a fairly wide range of work and exploring new ideas – albeit along the same lines of enquiry and feel in the last few weeks my practice and ambition has grown in terms of life choices and scope of future works/ plans. Along with new works I have also begun to wrestle once again with some old foes that have been slow burning and inhabiting the inner recesses off my plan chest.  I like to do this as I think it is important to follow through with large projects that represent a huge investment in time – even if it is on an ad hoc basis stealing time to work on it around smaller, faster moving projects.

Now at the age of 42 I have been constantly considering and re-considering my life and career choices for quite sometime – perhaps being brutally honest not having the courage to follow my convictions through and leaving a place of relative financial security, however, now I find myself at the precipice of some huge life changes where my drawing is concerned and the position it currently resides in within my life, it may not happen just yet but I am being uncontrollably pulled towards a life less materialistic yet more fulfilling, I think I know that deep down these financial worries wouldn’t be as severe as I frighten myself into thinking and realistically I would be working part time to earn a subsistence wage built around my studio practice.  I am lucky in the fact I have a very supportive wife who will almost certainly eventually push me to make the jump into committing – at the very least part time into making drawings and carving another career (one thing is that I do not consider this so much and coldly acareer but more as a life choice), I guess my main problem in trying to accomplish this is total and utter lack of network/ contacts and friends within the artworld – and the fairly daunting thought that I do not have the faintest idea how to develop this? Social media I guess is an obvious one but how does one go about changing a few clicks into into tangible contacts? I really have not got a clue? Any advice on the off chance someone gets this far in the post would be greatly appreciated.

Mid life crisis…I don’t think so…maybe…who knows?  Who cares?  One thing I do know is I think I owe it to myself to try and integrate my work into my working (and wider) life I am always brimming with ideas but all too often they die in a sketchbook, strangled by crushing lack of time. More than a mid life crisis I feel I have earned the chance to see what happens…so watch this space.

I have toyed with the idea of starting to use oil paint as well as drawing with ink to expand the aesthetic scope of my work. I am in the final stages of completing a random commission for a skateboard collector who wanted a piece of my work but something that could hang with his other boards – totally out of my remit but I have hugely enjoyed doing it, this has been painted and I think it has whet my appetite to explore other mediums and substrates.

Images will follow in the next couple of days of the work I have been producing in the last couple of months.

as has always been the case thank you for reading and whatever you do keep working.

 

 

Sketchbooks – beware!! A place where ideas can die.  A brainstorm on the brainstorm device.

I as many artists do hold sketchbooks in an almost sacred high regard. They are intimately personal, show workings, ideas – good and bad, notes and miscellany…some so personal that they are out of bounds to all viewers other than to the hand that created them.

So inestimably useful in the genesis of new ideas and pushing existing ones – and entire practices on, a sketchbook is an incredibly powerful tool – in my opinion even more so as an essentially ancient device in a world which is becoming evermore electronic and technologically advanced.

But beware! A sketchbook to an avid user can also be where ideas are stored safely away- only to be hidden by the proceeding page and another slightly different idea laid down. As a melting point type of artist who works instinctively and intuitively every single one of these drawings subliminally inform all future works but for real focussed work I think one must be careful not to leave these drawings in the vaults of history and to eternal redundancy.

Quite often I work in an essentially spontaneous manner – cultivating ideas and stealing time to do so as and when I can during my working day, this results in a sometimes fragmented and fractured mass of drawings accumulating that I try to look through as often as possible so as to glean as many of the developments relevant to my work at the time as I can. Sometimes this trawling helps and sometimes I have to look at the problem on the page before with fresh eyes but the sketchbook is an invaluable and reassuring resource that underpins my practice.

No matter what type of art (or anything for that matter) you indulge in I can guarantee the use – even light use of a sketchbook will inform, develop – and enrich whatever is you are trying to achieve, they can be the most brutal advocates of a quick creative death for any idea tested on the exposed page but also hold the strange power of resurrection to sometimes doomed ideas from many moons before.

In short, if you haven’t already – get sketching!

Thank you as always for reading

www.stuartbelton.com

Over the last year or so my practice has evolved more deeply than I thought it would in this time span, my resolve has become granite like and the passion for my work has exploded beyond almost manageable proportions.  I think about what I am doing constantly and feel distracted by the thought of what I am doing, what has been – and what could be.

I consider myself very privileged to feel like this about something within my life (people aside)…but there is a downside.  A downside maybe that is being forced into an ever sharper focus as the evolution of my work deepens and my thoughts are drawn ever stronger into what I am doing, a constant self inflicted pressure to work.  I guess it is partly a discipline that I have imparted upon myself and partly my conscience for some lost years of creativity.  Whatever the thought process behind my daily rituals it is sometimes tiring, I sat in my studio this evening and found it difficult to concentrate, a futile attempt to add meaningful progress to work already in the process of coming to life.

I think this is one inherent problem that anyone who practices part time has to deal with – and it’s hard at times, not to keep going – but to be able to stop.  I apologise for venting my frustrations so openly but looking at work that is part realised and being too tired to add to it…is deeply unsatisfactory.

I have been toying with the idea of going part time with my day job and concentrating more fully on my endeavours – now more than ever.

A profoundly frustrated artist thanks you as always for reading.

So things have been very busy recently in the Belton studio.  Whilst it has been business as usual in regards to working as intensely as my working life permits me I have also put on my first solo exhibition.  It is currently being held at The Snug bar and café in Leigh on sea, Essex (to be taken down on Friday) so if you’re in the area please pop in and see what I’m all about.

The private view was held on Friday 28th and I have to say I could not believe how many people came (I think it was around 70), I was blown away – even more so to then sell eight works that night.

I absolutely loved organising, hanging and having my work displayed for all to see (as opposed to being stored away in a plan chest in my studio), it also taught me an awful lot about exhibiting my work.  The relationship between the frame and the work itself – how they interact together, how the framing can change the appearance of the drawing.  lessons learnt and experienced gained, whilst I am very happy with how things looked I will also do things differently next time round.  another interesting thing I noticed is that when hanging the drawings (21 in total) thy were grouped, re-grouped and shuffled again on the floor to attain a sense of flow to the exhibition and in that I noticed how some work is naturally better grouped with others and the common themes running through my practice – it almost stated the obvious visually but helped me to see in an almost flow chart state the differences in certain elements of what I do – this I loved.

I felt confident about what I have done and found myself able to fluently talk to people about what I do, how they see it and the associations people were making – please do not mistake this for a boast, it is simply that I usually work in solitude so this is all very new to me and I am pleased with how natural it all felt.  I guess I must of underestimated just how much I think about what I do.

This experience has enlivened an already raging passion for what I do and am feeling the starvation of an artist exploding with ideas waiting to be devoured.

Thank you as always for reading.

www.stuartbelton.com

Instagram: stu01621

twitter: stu01621