So this is a little funny for me to write/you to read as my second blog entry on my laptop, which has decided not to work since Thursday. Lots has happened since I last wrote my last blog entry, but we shall assume that you shall read this, if interested, when my laptop is fixed and I can upload.So skipping nearly a fortnight of activity…..
On Friday I spoke to Fiona MacDonald. via skype. She is currently on a British School in Rome residency, which sounds as incredible as I have imagined. We caught up with our respective residencies and she was a good sounding board for my experience so far. I do not believe i was the same for her, as i had a couple of glasses of wine too many at the book launch of a friends graphic novel. Nicola Streeten’s ‘Billy, Me & You’ is an incredible achievement and well worth reading. Find out more here http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/oct/15…
After too small of an amount of time in studio I went to meet Cathy Lomax and Ali Sharma at Transition Gallery. We had a fantastic conversation, primarily about our respective views on painting, both other peoples and our own studio activity. This is one of the most eye opening things about being in London. I have probably had more conversations in a fortnight in the big smoke about painting, than several years in Manchester. I shall have to think about why this is when I return and make efforts to do something about it, as the conversations I am having are proving fruitful. Our conversation focused at the start (after talking bout Sluice art fair) with a discussion about Richter. We had a good debate over our difference in opinion of his abstracts (mine-what is not to like!; Cathy-he stops being interesting with them!).
This carried on to question whether Richter is a good colourist or not. There was something interesting that was raised in the Buchloch talk I went to early in the residency where he responded to a question by T.J. Clark over whether Richter’s abstracts are not more associated with American rather than German culture, a central construct to Buchloch’s argument. He said no (after a pause), that they could only be produced by and in German(y), primarily because of their colour, which he believes is very German. This was something I had in mind when viewing the show and later talked about with Cathy and Ali. There is something in Richter’s use of colour in his abstract works, which is akin to the shell-suit one often sees in Berlin or the Burossia Dortmund football kit, but whether this cultural or not I still am not convinced by. The conversation continued in this vein, but focusing more on my own work. A lot was discussed about generosity within my work, something Dave Hoyland felt there was a lack of, which Cathy and Ali disagreed with. This finally led to a discussion of a conceptual approach to painting, I wonder if this is something that painters and non-painters both find equally baffling and is something I find intriguing.
I left Transition to meet my partner and two year old son from the train to show them London, as this is the first time for Ben in London. Over the weekend there have been visits to Coram fields, The Natural History Museum, The V&A, The Museum of Childhood and The Serpentine. Anri Sala is really worth seeing, a magical coming together of video, with associated live sound in the gallery. A saxophonist duets with a film or a self-playing snare drum bangs quietly with it’s film twin. My little boy particularly liked a musical box, both live in the gallery and in the hands of a man wandering the streets).
I am now back in the studio, editing a film I plan to show on Thursday and working on top of three postcards, with a far more impasto application of paint than before. I have also just seen Mike and will have to modify my idea for the print. I think this is probably for the best and will hopefully create a more successful and surprising piece.
