Artist in Residence at The John Henry Newman School

It’s been a pretty good week. I have been selected for the open show at the Surface Gallery in Nottingham which was a nice suprise, I only found out on Tuesday so it was a bit of a rush to get my 2 pieces up there. The private view is this Thursday, so I’ll get to sample a bit Nottingham for the first time in my life which is nice. The show runs until the 7th of August. I’m interested to see the other work that was also selected, I’m not really sure what to expect. I’m happy that I got into the show though, and there may have been some dancing in the studio when I found out.

Other than that, I’ve just been trying to get my work done. I’ve continued to work on cellophane and now also polyethene sheets too. They are just big floating sheets at the moment on my wall, but it’s a nice surface to work on and I feel that I’m getting a lot out of working in this way. I seem to have somehow began working with acrylics rather than oils recently, and I’ve been using cracking medium, which is a cracking thing to play with (sorry :)) It really works well, but I’ll probably discover soon that it is just an effect and that I’m using it for the novelty value. I’ve also been experimenting with egg tempera, and that cracks too, it’s nice and easy to make.

I’m doing the summer school at school this week, which will involve me running workshops, and one of them is based around using and making egg tempera, so that will be a fun/interesting experience.

I’ve been feeling very tired over the last week or so, I guess I’ve been pretty busy though. Last week was the project with the Noble school kids in Stevenage, I did a one day drawing/painting workshop for the 20 kids and staff. It was good fun, but I tend to pack a lot in and move very quickly through these things to keep everyone interested and on their toes. It was also very hot and I didn’t get much time for coffee. It was a great day though, and the work produced by the kids was pretty outstanding for year 10 kids. My housemates had the bbq going when I got home which was nice.

I joined the rest of the art department in London on Thursday to plan projects/get ideas for next year. We looked at some buildings, galleries and the Design Museum. The Raven Row gallery was my highlight, some really good stuff in there.

I then ventured back to Bath/Bristol on the weekend as it was my birthday, I intended to see the Banksy show, but the cider proved too much of a distraction. I was also pretty preoccupied by my project/assignment thing I’d been working on since November. This was due in on Tuesday. It is part of the HertsCam Teacher – Led Development Work Programme, my was called ‘Exploring the two way process of inspiration for an Artist in Residence’. Several other members of staff from the school also did projects and we had to present them on Tuesday night. There was a buffet too and i ate far too much. It was an interesting thing to do, and not too time consuming (unless you leave it to the last minute). It was a pretty hefty spiral bound thing in the end with lots of photos. I had some interesting conversations with people about artists in schools at the network event on Tuesday.

Back to my own artwork, I’d visited Kettles Yard last week, and saw some work on cellophane by Karla Black, this got me thinking about my own work, so I bought a roll of cellophane-like stuff and have it suspended in the middle of my studio. I’ve been working on it for a day or so, alongside a painting on canvas. I like the potential that this stuff could offer me, especially after working on translucent material. The paint and scribbles are floating in the studio. Unfortunately, I can’t get a good photo of it due to the transparent nature and the lighting, but I’ll keep trying.

I started another big painting in the last few days. Back to canvas again after playing with voile for a while. Trying to get it nice and layered and raw. I like the coldness of the blanked out sections that I’ve been usingand I’ll continue on the route for a while longer and see where it takes me. I got some of the school kids to be my assistants last week. I got them priming a canvas and tearing paper and then blocking in sections. It was an interesting little experiement. They kept asking me what I would do next, my reply being something along the lines of “when I’ve done that, I generally, sit down, drink coffee and think about what I’ve just done and what I’ll do next”. I’ve sinced worked on that piece a fair bit, and they came to see the progress yesterday.

I’ve been playing around with colour too, just adding bits here and there, almost as a distraction, I’m still not sure how I feel about it having worked in black and white for so long. I think it’s more successful when I add just one small bit of colour rather than going overboard.

I’ve got a big 1 day project planned for next weeks with a big group which should be interesting and hopefully good fun. We’re gonna work from mechanical stuff and do some big drawings. There is also a trip into London planned for next week with the department so lots to do.

It’s been a busy week, but quite productive. I seem to have done lots, but at the same time, nothing seems to have got done.

I took some small pieces into London on Saturday for the artswork open, they were both selected which was nice. I think that is the first open that I’ve ever been selected for, after entering loads over the last 4 years. I also went to the Saatchi to see Abstract A merica. First time I’d been to the new space and I was impressed. The floors were really nice, but in all fairness, so was the show. It was good to see a variety of paintings. It was a bit of a flying visit, so I’ll go again soon. I recommend it if you like painting though.

I had a meeting with a teacher from another school on Monday, gonna be doing a project with some of their year 10’s and staff. Should be fun, but I’m not sure what to expect from their kids. Tuesday’s Tate trip was fun, it was interesting just talking to the pupils around the gallery and trying to get their responses to the work. i think it was the first time that most of them had been to a gallery. I found myself saying “why don’t you get closer to the work so you can see it better” a lot. All in all it was a good day. Quite tiring though!

I’m off to Pitt Rivers in Oxford in a bit with the art department to plan our ideas for the summer school. Should be a good afternoon.

I think I was trying too hard with my work, and overcomplicating things, but that was probably an important phase to go through. I kept adding things to the canvases, extra frames, bits of hardboard etc. Since my last post, I've been pretty productive making what are essentially 'just' paintings. Instead of using other objects to make layers and boundaries, I've used paint. Fancy that!

I'm still obsessed with the use of translucent fabric, I don't think transparent materials would have the same effect, or work as well due to the fact that the semi-see-throughness is a bit of a tease as to what is obscured, with the occasional hole cut away for a bit of clarity. Saying that, I'll be working with perspex next week. I've done some really small versions too (30cm x 30cm) which are nice little objects. These pieces of work do have a tendancy to look a little bleak and maybe clinical, and there is a wanting for me to put some of that energetic mark-making back into the surface somewhere. They do look like they've moved on somewhat over the last few months though, always a good thing.