A Portrait of an Artist as a Very Late Starter

Having been informed I had been selected to appear as a featured artist on a web site some months ago, I excitedly emailed off all the information they asked of me. I was a bit disappointed not to hear anything for what is, I think, a couple of months but it is not in my nature to hassle people unduly, so I didn’t email and enquire if all was well. I just philosophically assumed that perhaps, after seeing the work, they thought it was not for them! (Artists’ low self confidence kicking in, you note).

Imagine my delight yesterday morning, when I received an email from them apologising for the delay and asking for some more info., with links to the proof pages as they appear so far for me to look at! The pages are looking good; only a couple of minor mistakes and I am very much looking forward to having them go live. Once they do, I will post details so you can see for yourselves.

Meanwhile I have also spent considerable hours filling out an application to be considered for an entry in Chrysalis Arts’ Directory. http://www.chrysalisarts.org.uk/

Chrysalis Arts’ Rick Faulkner came over last Wednesday evening to the Dutch House http://www.dutchhouseyorkshire.com to give Ryedale ArtWorks http://www.ryedaleartworks.com a presentation about the work they do. I have to admit that I had previously been very confused about all the different aspects of their work but now feel I understand the organisation much better. I am pondering on some ideas that they might be able to help me with. . .

The next application I am going to make (and I have been prevaricating on this one for over eighteen months or longer), is to AXIS. This is to me, a very important step; serious artists are here; the site gives artists access to wider recognition and I consider it time for me to join their ranks. I know I don’t have as much experience as many of those represented on this site but I know my work is good enough now, particularly since I was accepted for SKETCH 13. It is remarkable how a little success boosts my confidence and sense of myself as an artist.

Back from a wonderful surprise family birthday party for the youngest of my two beautiful daughtersin Salford that started on Friday and continued through Sunday afternoon; I am only just recovering enough to turn my thoughts to my now tidy and organised studio.

While in Salford, we had a walk to the Lowry and looked at the Unseen Lowry show, some interesting drawings, although many of them a little too laboured for my taste. However, it seemed to me that Lowry struggled mightily throughout his life – to keep his art going and with his own sexuality and I felt enormous sympathy for him.

I picked up a brochure for the Whitworth, a gallery that, to my shame, I have never visited. It is due to close for major refurbishments, which look really exciting. The point of this preamble is that, in this brochure, is a drawing, entitled Diary 2007-2008 1 by Pavel Buchler.

I am not familiar with Buchler’s work although I was vaguely aware of his name. Imagine my excitement when I saw this drawing, because my own work relates to it. Whereas Buchler’s drawing is built up by overwriting text, his diary; mine incorporate mark making, and text built up repetetively.

I know that as an artist I can never be completely unique; the acrued knowledge and the visual memories built up over the years of art study and practice mean that is not possible nor desirable. Nor do I feel threatened when I see similarities between my work and that of other artists; it is fascinating and in a way, heartening to find other people reacting to similar concerns and to see common threads both visual and intellectual. My only concern is that I stay true to my own way of expressing my ideas so that my work is never derivative of other artists and I think that I have always achieved that.

Post Script

Since writing the above, I found another blog by Jayne Lloyd, who has recently completed a residency in China exploring script, who then alluded to another artist, (Cathering Wynne-Paton?) Both these artists are also exploring written content or the description of written content in various ways. This proves that we as artists are never working in isolation.

My own brief trip to China in Feb. 2012 had a profound influence on my own work that continues to seep into it in different ways including collaging found text as well as immitating some of the movements observed in the making of Chinese calligraphy.

I am finding it difficult to post images here as they are all too large but images of my work may be found on my other blog:

www.suegough.blogspot.com

and in the albums of photographs on my facebook page:

www.facebook.com/SueGoughArtist

Is it wrong to get excited about storage units? Work has begun to convert the units I inherited from the college where I taught into something more practical for a damp, dirty studio space in a farm building. The guys are brilliant; they reckon it won’t take them more than an evening, (I think two).

I am pleased that it is not going to cost me all of the money I recently earned working on the Ryedale Open last month. Once completed, I will be the proud owner of four robust units on casters about 1m wide with work space on top. YES!

I’ve been going to bed with thoughts about what will be stored where, the most efficient use of the space available and the pleasure of having a tidy studio space in which to work! Now I’m sounding like a sad woman obsessed with tidying – nothing could be further from the truth. My working methods are messy and experimental; I am very tired of wasting my time looking for things though. With this storage I am hoping I will be able to lay my hands on everthing I know I have when I need it without walking up and down looking for it and getting frustrated and cross!

Meanwhile I have not been wasting my time; I have been reading other artists blogs, painting doors and windows at home, (not quite what I have in mind when I tell people I am a painter, but it is work that has to be done), beginning to reclaim my garden from the 4 feet high weedage and yesterday, I went to the Hepworth to see the William Scott exhibition.

I have never seen many of Scott’s works before and it was a real pleasure to see so many together. His use of paint, sometimes thickly impastoed, at others thin and washy, along with the varied tonality of his blacks and greys, the beauty of his reduced palette had the hairs on my forearms standing up. The sophistication of the simplified forms and his skillful composition is so often and badly copied by many lesser artists who would do well to get over to the Hepworth and see how it should be done. Great stuff!

http://suegough.blogspot.co.uk/

An ongoing project, running alongside my work as an artist is the refurbishing of our Victorian house. The plan had been for it to be finished within 5 years of us moving up here, but life got in the way as it always seems to. So, this week, alongside my meeting with Kingy the chippy to sort out my studio and get it back to a workable space, I have been clearing up at home, in readiness for the builders’ imminent arrival to finish what we began last year and was halted due to lack of funds. Actually, I am beginning to wonder if we should have bought a small house and an industrial unit. . .

Had a trip out to Scarborough last Thursday http://suegough.blogspot.co.uk/ and it struck me that it is only the second time I have had a day out with fellow artists since I moved up here. I am planning a trip to the Hepworth to see the William Scott this week and put a call out on facebook to see who wanted to join me. 2 replies so far, so should be a good day too! I think this is something we could develop within Ryedale ArtWorks; I know some of our artists do not often take the time to go to exhibitions.

Meanwhile, despite today’s pouring rain, I am off out to the studio to try and find my Chinese ink as I have some drawing ideas I am going to explore at home, plus I need to clear a bit more space in readiness for the constructing of my storage units. I also have my Sketchbook Project book to make a start on in between clearing out more junk. http://www.sketchbookproject.com/

I am not sure what I am going to do in this book yet, but I think some automatic drawing for a first layer upon which I can make some more considered responses is the way I shall start.

I have started going through some old work stored in my plan chests and throwing out the absolute dross; I found some of the work I started during the graphics module of my part-time foundation at Basingstoke College of Technology in the ’80’s. I say started, because I found it all so tedius I never completed any of the projects and, if my memory serves me correctly I didn’t actually attend all the sessions! These pieces are in the bin bag, to be joined by other poor drawings and scuffed up bits of paper that I know I will not use. All this clearing of spaces and throwing out of rubbish is good for my soul but I am having to be careful not to chuck anything of value or that might be useful for incorporating into new work.

It will be really good to get the studio sorted out and start exploring my print-making ideas before the cold weather hits once again because the studio is bone sappingly cold during the winter! By Christmas, (sorry for mentioning the “C” word), we will have the house back to normal instead of living surrounded by boxes. There will still be some smaller bits of the project to complete as and when we have the money but I will feel slightly less stressed. That’s the plan anyway!