ARTISTS TALKING

# 23 [15 December 2010]

Painting for pleasure

Feeling burnt out, shutting down and getting ready for a break, then like a gift courtesy of a Christmas party for the kids I was given some extra studio time I didn’t expect .With nothing planned I went up to the studio with the feeling I just wanted to paint, no other aim than to put paint on canvas, so that is what I did. The images I started were worked up from my quarry studies and prints, I liked how they were turning out. I feel sometime I over work and over think things; a tired mind can be an advantage in painting.

# 22 [1 December 2010]

Thinking collage

Events have largely overtaken any making of art outside computer stuff this week, but my thinking has been centred on collage. I have started using paper in some work especially when working on panels, blank paper and some I have used in test monotype or to blot canvases. I now find I am thinking of expanding this collaging. On an ambitious note I had  an inkling to render Hieronymus Bosh’s garden of earthly delights in green and blacks 85% chocolate wrappers (watch this space). I hope to give myself some time to experiment.

 I did realise however that the way I am working in my job with the computer game environments at the moment is collage. Bringing together elements of photo imagery and building geometry objects to represent the places required. I could almost be sat with a big pile of magazines and a pot of glue and some card. Sorry I can’t say what game I am working on until the press release.

# 21 [21 November 2010]

Oh my goodness I love paint!

Work, the computer stuff that is my job has been very intense lately. Just modeling and texturing, but there is a lot to get done... busy busy busy so that is 32 hrs of my week. Then there was  my precious Tuesday when I have my my largest chunk of painting time. I got going on a quarry monotype , what joy, after a little I was so involved with the making of thick painty marks on the plate and the delicious colours smearing together all my tensions floated away. Is this why I do it? (I don't seem to be able to sell any work at the moment ).When I can get so much joy from the doing how much does the end result matter. Obviously the painting can be a struggle, usually when the image doesn't work out and I am fighting it, but even then the individual brush strokes and marks can be a joy. I thought the quarry print came out ok, its nice to feel satisfied with the end result even though if I wasn't I would still keep making those marks.

# 20 [8 November 2010]

New yet nothing new.

I was going to start a new blog, new project new line of thought , then it all spiralled back again and I am still thinking about how to make my crocodile . The shell work has stalled, I will pick it back up I always seem to, but now its lichenscapes, quarry's and patterned stones, clouds and landscape details again . I have a feeling that the key to unlock the responses I am looking for may lie here in the patterns and colours, the details I can set my imagination to roam in . I remember as a child looking into the patterned carpets and sofas in our 1970s  home having adventures in those twisting forms, imagining worlds and landscapes full of strange people and animals. So I will stick with this blog and try to keep it more regularly updated as I move towards my first solo show in 2012 .

# 19 [29 September 2010]

Been busy I think...

Still no crocodiles, but there has been quite a lot going on. My news in amongst the making of, succeeding with and failings of my work is that I am finally getting some out there. I have recently joined a local multidisciplinary art group Moving Clay http://www.movingclay.com  I joined in at short notice with an exhibition they were hanging at a Local Solicitors office, Jobling Gowler. Also the handing in for the much awaited East Cheshire Hospice Art fair http://www.theartofcaring.org.uk  is next Tuesday. It will be good to get the work in and see it up at last, as I have had it ready for quite a while now. I did repaint one of the pieces I submitted and wasn’t happy with and was very pleased I did.

So it’s all on to new projects now, I still have a couple of works in progress to resolve but I am looking to move on with some different work. I am making studies of my collection of broken shells; I have been drawing them, photographing them and have started on some monotypes of them. Very exciting.

# 18 [20 June 2010]

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.

# 17 [20 May 2010]

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

# 16 [7 April 2010]

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.

# 15 [6 April 2010]

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.

# 14 [12 March 2010]

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.