Shown here are the early year 2 works. ‘Paperbacks & Guidebooks’ was a still life painted in acrylic, all of these books are also used via photograph in
‘Books’ and ‘10 Paperbacks’ which are more graphic. ‘10 Paperbacks’ is unfinished and has been stretched onto wood to be painted oil over acrylic.
‘Diaries’ is a screenprint on canvas used as an underpainting, completed in acrylic. The edges of each dairy depicting different phases in life and memories. Using photography as source material lead to more screenprinting and drawing & painting over them in various ways.
Been painting 3 books from the natural history museum lately from home, adding strong colours to the under-painting which was entirely done in neutral tint.
Been painting Offprints from the Warburg Institute these past 2 week in the studio, it took a while to do all the under-painting in acrylic (as seen here) but it was worth it because I can focus on the colour application.
I had an interim exhibition in February on the same day of my dissertation hand in, from left to right the work the titles included were Patrick Hughes Lilliput Collection, Northumberland Sketchbook, Richard Prince Photobooks & Offprints from the Warburg Institute
The Warburg Institute provided me with a research environment the first sketches I did there were folklore books in brown packing ontop of a cabinet which was further developed into an oil sketch. I am currently painting ‘offprints’ which was completed for the interim show. Prince photo-books was completed for my dissertation.
The research is branching into over-information, as I look yet further into the history of books I am discovering more interesting places to visit in London. Often these visits take a lot of pre-organizing if the books are to be handled and often enough I can get lost in information on the internet. Visual arrangements are sometimes found by chance, suggesting weighty fields of knowledge. I am still working on a large painting of a shelf in the Warburg Institute and the themes of book collecting inspired following my etchings of a unique filing cabinet in Warburg’s photography collection. The theme collecting goes well beyond Warburg’s lifespan and interestingly has taken on a life of its own.
