After a couple of weeks of feeling a bit Meh about my work, the weather and not doing much, I feel recharged again now.
I had 5 days of Spanish sun – visiting the amazing colours and architecture of Seville .
I loved the Moroccan feel, the peacefulness of the gardens and of course, the blue skies.
With so much stimulation, the trip made me want to start to introduce colour again to my work.
I’d been working with white paint so much lately as a kind of revolt against the busyness of my installations . It had a calming effect and I was able to get a feel of the paint without the distraction of colour and patterns.
Back to reality now though.
I can’t start on any work as my studio / spare room/ dumping ground is being used for an overnight stay tonight, so I have to pack away all of my paints etc and have a sort out / clean . Sigh.
Also, going through my emails when I got back, I found one from the open studio tour that I’ll be part of in June. My statement was too short.
One thing I hate, is long, pretentious statements that no one ever reads. I’d said to a friend a few weeks ago that I just wanted to say that I liked to paint. I liked the feel and texture of it. I had written a bit more than that, but it wasn’t enough and I reluctantly had to add a few more sentences .
It’s all nonsense isn’t it.
Last week I had a meeting with two other artists I’d worked with before, about having an exhibition together .
One of them has a studio in Liverpool that has its own gallery space. As it’s also connected to a bar and eating place, it’s a good place to show work as there’s always people around.
One of the suggestions we discussed – having bounced off ideas about the title which would tie our styles of work together , was to make BIG work.
Sounds good doesn’t it, but bearing in mind that I don’t have a studio space, the idea of working large is quite challenging .
I did actually have a couple of old canvases in my loft, that I decided to dig out and rework to see if I could do something with them, which was useful .
I managed to prime them in the garden one day when it was dry and not bitterly cold, so that went ok.
The next bit wasn’t so easy . They were too big for the kitchen table or any others surfaces I’d been using up to now, so the only option was to cover my bed in a plastic sheet and work sprawled across it. Although that worked sort of OK, standing back to see what they looked like was near impossible. It was yet again a case of taking them into the garden to be able to look at how they were going, from a reasonable distance.
I’m not 100% sure. I’m out of my comfort zone in so many levels . As well as size, I’ve introduced more colour , which although I’ve worked with before, I suddenly feel less confident with now .
We’re aiming for an opening date end of April for the exhibition, so given that I’ve already got a body of work set aside, there’s no urgency to finish these two pieces if I’m not happy with them. I’ll keep going though as it’s always good to stretch yourself .
In other news, my application for the open studio has been sent off and I’ve ordered ( and received) the first lot of cards I’ve had printed. I’m quite pleased with them.
… and in a completely different note, I’ve got tickets for the Graham Crowley ( John Moores prize winner) talk next week.
Looking forward to that !
