I'm sat in the garden after a hard day of work watching my son play with his cars, he's being extremely creative with everyday garden objects making bridges, tunnels with all sorts of imaginative ramblings exuding from his little person. He is really happy. Sitting watching naturally led to reflection of my own creativity which to be honest s a little bit stagnant at the moment.
I'm extremely busy balancing work, preparation for exhibitions, proposal writing, preparing for a new baby due any time now and being dad to a lively, demanding and lovely little boy. There isn't much time left to creating art at the momet. I'm getting into the studio a couple times a week but this is mainly for the purpose of preparation that needs to be done. I've run out of paints, stretcher frames and a host of other materials and have come to a bit of a standstill. I am still hoping and praying for my materials budget to come in, hopefully it will arrive to coincide with the end of these exhibitions so I can start afresh and concentrate my artistic time solely on some new creative work.
Oh to be as free and imaginative as a 2 and a half year old child.
Yesterday was hanging day for my latest exhbition. I'm exhibitng at the Corridor Space Gallery, University of Derby. The exhibition runs from next wednesday 15th April through to Wednesday 6th May. There is a private view on Wednesday 22nd April from 5pm.
I am exhibitng with Fine Art Photographer Marc Redford and we are showing work that was commissioned by the Cavendish decorative and fine art society based on "Hidden Derbyshire" My work is relating to the experiences of the derbyshire landscape and Marc's work is a collection of fantastic photographs of the interior of the crescent building in Buxton that has been left to dereliction over many years.
If yu are in the area please come and have look.
It took us about 5 hours to put up the work an we think it looks great.
This exhibition brings me to a time for new work and new ideas so I am really looking forward to the next few months of push my work on and in new directions. It is really great to get commissions but they can restrict the creative process and artistic freedom.
I look forward to posting some new work soon
I had a really encouraging meeting with the people at Arts and Business this week. The represented artists for the East Midlands region came together to meet each other and to discuss the future with Arts and Business. The people at Arts and Business are really nice and really seem to know what they are doing. I am looking forward to the forthcoming year and hope that we will all be busy.
I have to prepare for an exhibition this week. I install the exhibition on Thursday so I have still got a lot to do. I will go into the studio tomorrow and expect to be in most nights of the week. I have all the usual mundane tasks to do, painting edges of canvases, attaching hooks and spacers, mounting etc.
I have a backlog of proposals to write and at the moment the only time I have to work on them is late at night and I am finding it really difficult to concentrate. I know i must knuckle down and get them done!
I am looking forward to starting some new work shortly. As soon as my next few exhibitions are completed I can concentrate on something totally new, I don't know what yet, which is quite exciting.
Today I was part of a creative careers event at Derby University. I had been asked to be part of a Green Room of experts to advise students on starting businesses after graduation.
It felt really strange as this time last year I was one of the students and I am certainly not an expert on starting businesses but everything went well in the end despite my worries about lack of credentials and experience.
It was really great to talk about my experiences of leaving University and setting up as sole trader as an artist. We discussed the importance of networks and also of having confidence in yourself as an artist and in the work you produce. We talked about how the current economic climate has effected the art market and stressed the importance of trying to keep a momentum going, planning for the future and being prepared to work extremely hard.
Dylan Jones, Editor of Britain’s best-selling mens’ magazine GQ was the main guest speaker who spoke immediately before ours slot started. He proved to be a very educated, intelligent, articulate and funny man which really set us up for a fall, with a an untenable position ahead of us we all did our best and managed to come out relatively unscathed, I would like to think that what we had to say was useful. It was certainly a useful experience for me.
I haven't submitted a post for a while, things have been really hectic what with work and art. I just haven't had the time to actually write a post.
I've been into the studio on Friday and Monday for the past three weeks. I hae started 2 new paintings and finished off a few others.
I've had a few rejections in the post for some applications although there are still some outstanding opportunities that I am waiting to hear about.
