Life, painting and discource in London

Its the last weekend of my groups exhibition. Its gone very well up to now and the feedback has been great. We've sold everything and commisions are rolling in now. On the back of the works up I have a one man show planned for the Royal Academy and………yes by now you are realising this is all too good to be true.

SHAME!

Its a sad truth that the opposite could be said about the exhibition. OK the feedback has been good, I'd like more, but its been good. The marketing went well, but the feet and £'s have not followed. Now this was never about the selling, but it would have been nice to cover the costs. I think that, as a first show, its gone well and at least it got me off my backside and back to the coalface of producing art.

Producing ART! – now thats a loaded couple of words.

I have gone back to basics and I am now starting to buld up an idea of where I want to go. Enjoyment for me is the key, as is expression and technique. Now technique is a important factor here, as I feel that Picasso would not have been the artist he was if it had not been for his early years painting traditional oils on traditional subjects. Its a starting place for style and expression to develope.

I am beginnig to grow

Thats the most important thing for me at the moment. To grow in maturity and expression, within a chosen field or discipline. Keep the techniques and feelings that I enjoy, ditch the others. OK my landscapes are contrived, maybe dull and lack REAL expression or concept/ideas. BUT, I enjoyed doing them (well, to a degree as they can be bloody hard to do – the more detailed you get) and they are what they are, landscapes of London, set to a loose theme painted in oils in a traditional circa 1800 way.

I want to move on

The next step is to take it all further, the lessons I have learned in painting in oils, the ideas that are now coming to me thick and fast and the feeling of wanting to express myself more than ever.

Now if that last paragraph is not a good advert to why you should enjoy, be involved and exhibit your work, then you have lost the reason for art surely!

I have recently (this Monday) felt that my time in the wilderness of non creativity was time wasted but at the same time it was time well spent.

I will explain.

As I have said before I am, or have been, an artist. Nothing like the brave souls who go out there and do it, with no support or financial backing. NO. I am a charlaton, a degree student – who gave up when the money and course run out and the lure of jobs and the 9-5 was too much to turn down.

My years in the wilderness were spent building a career in TV production. From the humble beginnings of a video tape library I worked my way up to the even more humble (or is it humiliating?) heights of internet TV sports producer. WOW!

Now I have embarked on my new life – as an artist again. Ok, i am still employed by internet TV and I am a whore to the money men, but at least i am trying!

My wife tells me i have to put a positive spin, she has had a glass of wine!

So, over the next few days I will attempt to tell the ups and downs of my (our) current exhibition.

I can honestly say that I feel all the hard work over the last few months was certainly not worth it. I feel that I have let myself down. What part of me honestly thought that i would be happy with lame landscapes that were geared to the buying public.

What is even worse is did they buy………? NO!

I think its time to think again.