ARTISTS TALKING

# 28 [21 May 2010]

A sense of community with other artists is important to me. But I’ve never been someone who is comfortable networking in the traditional way: cosying up to the ‘right’ people at exhibition openings, for example. Which is part of the reason I began writing and reading artist blogs: to get a wider sense of engagement with other artists – especially painters – and an awareness of, and perhaps also dialogue with, what they are doing and who they are as people.

And I want more videos! Ones in which artists speak about their artistic practice and concerns, and which show them at work or at least in their working environment. Thanks to the website of the wonderful Millennium gallery in St Ives I discovered a beautiful little film by Stuart Lansdowne about Naomi Frears; really worth watching. If anyone reading this knows of other short films about contemporary artists, please let me know. Surely, there must be loads out there, but I can’t seem to find them.

 http://www.millenniumgallery.co.uk/naomifrears/interview.htm

# 27 [17 May 2010]

I had a wonderful day of gallery-hopping in London with a painter friend on Saturday. We went to a lot of shows; the ones that resonated most with me were Phyllida Barlow at the Serpentine, Angela de la Cruz at Camden Arts Centre, Jenny Saville’s ‘Reproduction Drawings’ series at Gagosian, and Audrey Reynolds at Arcade. I’d never even heard of Audrey Reynolds before. As my friend said, ‘she really is a painter’s painter’. I loved the work and I also loved the piece that Jonathan Griffin wrote accompany the show. He writes beautifully about stains: ‘there is something reassuring about the indelibility of a stain. It is an index of an event that refuses to budge, a memory that promises to hold fast until we choose to discard it, along with the surface it’s anchored in. It is also personal: a stain belongs, by and large, in private and indoors’. Reynolds’ work has a quiet, delicate lightness of touch that stays in the mind for a long time. She also makes me think again about trying different supports, such as wood (perversely, since I have so many fresh new canvases stacked up in the studio!), and different media, such as household paint.

http://www.arcadefinearts.com/

# 26 [12 May 2010]

Have been doing boring admin stuff. Created a pdf for the first time yesterday (to attach to emails to advertise for portraits). Having had absolutely no training in graphic design or computer graphics it hasn't come easily to me...

I have been advised to make a facebook page so I did that today as well. Phew. I have some reservations about this; for example, don't facebook claim to have some sort of ownership over the images? But as they are on the web anyway maybe there's no problem. Spoke to a friend at the weekend who's a composer. He said that having made some of his music available to download free of charge on the internet has resulted in various paid commissions. Could it work that way for visual art, I wonder? Your thoughts please....

And by the way, if anybody reading this is on facebook, please feel free to 'like' my page, which is called 'Emma Cameron Artist'.

Really, I just want to bury myself in primed linen and linseed oil - this digital stuff is all a pretence....

# 25 [10 May 2010]

My students would often describe themselves as ‘passionate’ about making art. For some of them this had a ring of truth, and of course there are many ways of defining the term. I’m reflecting on today’s long, tiring and not entirely fruitful session in the studio, and I think: this must be what ‘passionate about painting’ is. Why else would I spend such inordinate amounts of time, money and energy wrestling with paint? (Not literally wrestling, obviously, though sometimes it gets close...) One of the paintings I was working on has been through several incarnations over the past year, of which at least three (as I recall) were actually pretty successful. It looks completely different now. Definitely not better (yet). I keep struggling on with it because – why? – because of the search for resolution, I suppose, resolution on my own terms. I’m tired. But I can’t let it go. I sometimes think I could make a piece of video art by setting up a camera in the studio to record my practice over a long period of time. (Being video, it might be seen as more ‘contemporary’ than painting – or perhaps that’s just me being cynical and simplistic...)  Anyhow, it could play a part in the debate about what on earth painting is for. I wonder how many other people I could find who would agree that there was a point to all the working and re-working. And out of those, how many would see ‘resolution’ in a piece at the same point as I do – probably none! As a friend of mine says about her own artistic practice, ‘it’s as if I’m a scientist, devoting my life solely to studying the particular effects of frost on the left front hoof of a certain type of llama when above 1000 metres – how many other people are going to care about that?’

But it’s okay. Put the dinner on and get the kids to their swimming lesson.

# 24 [9 May 2010]

Got some photos done of recently finished work. This painting was begun years ago, and has been almost 'to hell and back'. There are so many versions buried in the paint! If you look at the image sideways, you might spot that the front of the headdress used to be a pair of small standing figures...

# 23 [7 May 2010]

Made myself get on with the acrylic monochrome work, for the ‘Alice Adrift’ project. Not feeling at all energetic to start with, but booted myself into action with REM’s ‘Orange Crush’ – it’s such an upbeat song, a quick blast usually does the trick, and it did today.

Acrylics behave so differently from oils. Fascinating, but sometimes maddening! I worked on three A0 pieces, two of which had already been started (and in fact I believed them finished, at the time...). But how do I use acrylics? – I’ve no idea. Of course, the not-knowing is exciting and sparky, as I have to remind myself periodically. Take oil paint: beginner painters often believe there’s a formula out there somewhere about how to use it. I’m with James Elkins on this one: I really don’t believe the formula exists (apart from basic rules such as protecting the canvas from the oil if you want it to last). Look carefully at most great painters’ work - many of the so-called rules of oil painting are being broken again and again. This reinvention aspect of painting is part of what I find so compelling.

# 22 [6 May 2010]

I wasn’t planning to blog today, but my partner has gone out with (inadvertently) both sets of studio keys in his pocket, which means I am locked out of the studio until he returns... very frustrating! It’s particularly maddening today because things have been so productive lately, painting-wise, and I really want to just get on with working (on oil painting, rather than the acrylic monochrome on paper that I feel I really ‘ought’ to be getting on with, but that’s another story...)

The new canvases are still not unwrapped, because I have been seeing all sorts of ways forward with various unfinished but much-worked-on canvases that have been sitting in the studio. I think that’s the most satisfying part of the painting process. It’s the point where you seize things and breathe – no, beat - new life into something that was verging on being stuck. Often it fails, but when it works it’s thrilling.

 One thing that I’ve been turning to my advantage, to my surprise, is the slowly drying paint in my tin of Flake White. I had been feeling annoyed at the fact that the paint in the tin (as opposed to the tubes I normally use) was hardening and forming unusable clumps. (Which it is). But there’s a point in-between softness and clumpiness that’s really exciting to use. Yet again it all comes down to White... (see post number 1 of this blog for more thoughts on White).

# 21 [30 April 2010]

The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts is currently showing an exhibition based on ‘the artist’s studio’ and has invited artists across East Anglia to upload photos of their studios to a flikr photo stream. I think this is a really nice idea (except, why restrict yourself to East Anglia?). So I took a few snaps and uploaded them today. See all the photos on http://www.flickr.com/groups/sainsburycentrestudio.

# 20 [29 April 2010]

Fifteen stretched canvases arrived today! I want to spread them around me and glory in the sense of promise they hold (if I was a dog I’d be rolling in them like fox poo). I want to sluice oil paint around and twist the brushes and rags across it and immerse myself in slicks of colour. And what did I tell myself yesterday: must do more monochrome on paper....! What to do... I think a bit of both, if I can get away with it before the school day ends.

Also: I feel so excited and flattered – one of my art heroes has read my blog, and he likes it! (And he said nice things about my work too). James Elkins is the author of my favourite book on painting: ‘What Painting Is’. It’s really worth a read if you’re a painter, or if you want to understand painters.

http://www.jameselkins.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=227:what-painting-is&catid=2:trade-books&Itemid=9

# 19 [28 April 2010]

Someone from firstsite (a contemporary visual arts organisation, based here in the East of England) came to the studio today and we discussed ways to take my ‘Alice’ project forward. It’s so great that they want to be supportive. I make the work; they’ll help me get it into venues as a touring show. She’s gone off to research and identify galleries to approach; I now need to come up with a good title and also crack on with making the pieces. The aim is to get 20 large works on paper. I’ve already done six, some of which have been seen on this blog, but I’ve decided I want to eliminate colour and just work with monochrome, so none of the six will form part of the package. The only precedent for this (monochrome) is the short residency I did at firstsite a few months ago. I have the appropriate anxiety about this (what if I can’t pull it off?) which should make for continuing boundary-breaking as I’m sure to keep coming up against the ‘sod it, it’s hideous, I’ll have to do something drastic to it’ which occasionally leads to breakthroughs... (And also, sadly, often leads to crumpled messes in the bin!)

Migraine's gone now, so I'm full of energy. Just got to make sure I spend that energy in the studio now, and not on the hoovering...