Fantastic Barnaby, Feeling a Failure and Painting with Pants.
What a weekend! as well as all the other usual weekend stuff with the kids it was the first of the revived Macclesfield Barnaby Festivals. There was so much going on we did as much as we could. Parade, fate, street entertainment and as many of the visual art exhibitions as I could manage with the kids. This usually involves me slipping off by myself or dragging complaining children with me. This time the clever organisers had put together a quiz for the children with a question to answer at most of the shows. Mine loved it and wanted to move eagerly on to the next. This also signalled to me that my children would be welcomed at these events something I am sometimes concerned about.
As for the failure I was rather disappointed with my contribution to the art at al Panino group show. I had submitted three pieces but the one I liked the least was the one that got hung. With so much other fantastic work around I felt a bit embarrassed by it. I have much stronger pieces but none fitted the bill of the surrounding countryside . It made me wonder about submitting any work that I am not completely satisfied with, but then I may just as well crawl back under my rock as I am not sure I am ever satisfied with anything.
Oh well moving on to pants, I have discovered I love painting with them..I had cleared out the kids draws and removed all their outgrown undies, about to put them out I thought they will do for studio rags. Now I find that I start painting with my brush then pick up the pants to wipe something away, only to find an hour or so later I still have the pants in my hand. Working away with them instead of my brushes.
Getting back on track
Things were going so well then I got a bit lost, took a wrong turn, did some other stuff, now I am getting back on track…Well a track of some sort .I took what I think to be the last of the work to the framers yesterday for two local art events coming up. The now very large East Cheshire Hospice Art Fair, and the new (or revived) Barnaby festival, both in Macclesfield. The Barnaby festival in June looks very exciting. I will be submitting some monotypes for the White Galleries show at Al Panino’s cafe, the theme is the surrounding countryside.
The hospice art fair is not till October but they want the list for the catalogue next month so I needed to get the stuff together early. So with that done I am ready to start some new work something I am always very excited about. I am after catching me a crocodile this time… honest.
www.barnabyfestival.org.uk
www.theartofcaring.org.uk
Just came across a fab quote in a book, The Artist In The Office by Summer Pierre, kindly recommended by So Ha Au on the forum thread does your “job” help or hinder your art . I found the book very interesting but for this alone it was worth it. It answers my ramblings of yesterday.
Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if its good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art. – Andy Warhol
And here is a snap of that wonderful wall.
Thinking and doing, (and rambling)
The doing has been side lined a little lately due to illness and Easter holidays. This however means the thinking about the doing has stepped up a bit and I am not sure if this is good or bad. It has lead me to assess the (as it seems to me) eclectic nature of my work and try to look for some common threads. If I was having a solo show now and I am not just yet, what would I call it? Paintings and prints of different stuff doesn’t ring well. My sketch books tell me my interests are in pattern, texture and colour..well me and a zillion others could say that. I do feel always as I work very drawn to the edges of things I like the energy and tension of them. No conclusions yet more doing needed I think.
Out running on Sunday I ran past a wall, oh what a wonderful lichen covered wall. Like nature had painted her own art work on it for me to appreciate, wonderful jade and soft moss greens, yellows, blues and many more. I nipped back with my camera later on. So I feel more lichen paintings in the pipe line as I try to transcribe the work nature has offered me.
I am now questioning if I should post this, well the first bit makes me sound as if I don’t know what I am doing. Just making art I suppose.
Success, failure and still no crocodiles…
Well there might be a crocodile, my studio has got in to such a mess there may well be one lurking under a table behind the detritus of my recent work. So I decided to have a bit of a sort out, I need to start getting some stuff ready for framing anyway. I put the paintings into three groups the “yes that worked”(but I could still change my mind)the “maybe it could work”(well it has some nice bits but I’ll probably destroy that trying to fix the rest)and the “paint over”(all that messy painty struggle will give me a nice textured surface to star t again on!)
It isn’t just me is it? I sometimes think other peoples work always succeeds. It was the middle group that ended up being the biggest so that said there is always hope.
