The Cultural Tourist

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Traces and residue, layers of surface and non-surface, light and shadow, matt and shine.
Suggestions of rooms within rooms, windows and doors delineated by a single line.
Gestural, flippant even, in its approximation.
An interior, a construct? Are we out or are we in?
There is a lurking familiarity that cannot be finalised.
A feeling of something unfinished – to do so would be lies.

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Last month, I had just started working on a new series of works – playing with painting, photography and mixed-media on all sides of 7 wood blocks that I found outside of my studio.I have just recently put these to one side, they are probably finished now. They ended up being more of a research exercise as I tried various things and allowed my thoughts to wander all over them. Here are some of the observations I collected.

I very carefully primed one side of each block with a mixture of different pearlescent materials mixed with a primer. Once I had transferred the photograph to the surface I was hoping that some of the sparkly primer would shine through but it didn’t. More often than not the most successful side of the work was the unprimed surface. It provided more of an interesting texture and a contrast to my mark making.

The images of the ceilings and the walls that I transferred to the boards was not enough to inspire further work. I turned to images of rooms and interiors in books to gather ideas of things to try. Sometimes I let go of the original image and idea and responded to the surface, texture and colours I saw in front of me. So that when I did try including an example of an interior motif such as a wooden screen, it acted as a kind of interruption within the piece.

I tried to connect all sides, instinctively and thoughtfully. Paint marks travel from one flat surface to another. I play with receding lines and shapes, layers of paint, and stain and let the wood markings show through on one side. I explore perspectives, illusion, ideas of tension. I include graduation, directional pull and patches of matt and shine.

What started out as a simple interior of walls and ceiling become abstracted and morphed. Some bits fade and wane, other bits stand out and edges appear. Colour makes a statement, a whisper, an exclamation. They join another at a corner and create a dynamic of sorts. Each aspect, mark and smear of paint suggests something which connects to something else.

The work continues when I am not even there. As I sit at the top of the bus on the way home I study the world intently. I look at the tops of roofs, angles, and accents, edges and perspectives and how corners merge into other corners. I study construction sites with layers of scaffolding with space and depth that blend and contrast concrete, metal and wood. I note how the wind strains materials and shifts debris across a surface. I gather ideas for further works.

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It is head down and cracking on with a new series of work. I am using some old wood blocks that were discarded outside the studio complex I am in. These look to be offcuts and they make me think of buildings, construction, materials and surfaces.

I am interested in developing these ideas. I want to create pieces that are three dimensional; that operate as objects as well as paintings. I plan to use all sides of these blocks playing with the relationship between them.

I primed one side of each block with a mixture of plextol and different colours of pearlescent and chalky powders. The other side I did not prime so that the natural pattern of the wood shows through as well as the timber product codes. I had taken photograph of ceilings and walls, including close-ups of odd angles and surfaces. I digitally edited these, mainly creating different colour hues for each piece which I then transferred to both sides of the wood blocks.

I am painting with both watercolour and oil paint, emphasising the angles, the light, dark and textures. I am enjoying exploring the process. I am not sure where exactly these are all going but I am keen to allude to the various components of these structures and the way there is a combination of the physical and temporal events that come into play. Hard surfaces, receding slopes, warped walls meet slants of light and shadow, residual dirt and water stains, obscure marks and evidence of writing. Tension versus release; traces of a city and urban environment, its making and gradual destruction.

The pieces displayed are some of the works in progess.

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It has been a particularly busy month. Family arrived over from New Zealand, my sons had exams and in the middle of this I was involved in 2 consecutive weekends of Open Studios.

This is my first Open Studios as previously I used to work from home. Now my studio is based in ASC Kingston with a community of other artists. It took up quite a lot of time preparing for this, so I have decided to make it the key subject for my blog this month.

The studio complex I am in is not particularly large perhaps compared to other studios so it is noticeable when not everyone participates. One can only encourage other artists to join in, but at the end of the day it’s not compulsory, nor should it be.

Equally in preparation for this, quite a lot of work has to be done from cleaning and sprucing up the corridors to the production of maps explaining how to find ones way around in addition to other marketing material. Our studios are part of a Kingston-wide art initiative called KAOS which plays a key part in marketing the different Open Studios across the borough.

Then there is there is the preparation of my own studio. I wasn’t sure how to approach it. Should I leave it as it and just continue working as per normal? Should I make it look like a gallery space and curate my work? Or should I go ‘salon style’ and display loads of work. It seemed to me that all 3 different approaches were used by the various other artists.

I guess the main question was – what was I hoping to get out of this Open Studio event?

I saw it as an opportunity to let the general public see my work, where it’s made, how it’s made and to discuss my approach and why to those who might be interested. I was keen to carry on working during proceedings but the main problem being is that I have a particularly small studio. There was never going to be a lot of room for people coming to visit, let alone for me to continue making work.

In the end I did curate the work on the wall as in order to give an illusion of space – I had to have it fairly clean-cut looking. I used the corridors to display my larger pieces. I was sometimes able do some work whilst people visited but had to plan it well and keep it small and contained.

We were lucky in that the weather was fine during both Open Studio weekends so plenty of people were out and about visiting the different studios. We had a good throughput of people pretty much the entire time with only a couple of (welcome) lulls around lunchtime.

The most pleasing thing I found was that most people were genuinely interested to hear me talk about my art. I was delighted when people would engage with me and I could discuss the various pieces, the why and how I did what I did. I didn’t really expect that. It was a suburban audience and I wrongly thought that they wouldn’t really be that interested. It was a rewarding experience because of this plus as an added extra bonus I sold a couple of small pieces. I also liked the fact that families visited and often the kids would respond positively to the work. I think this is because they could relate to what I am doing, my subject matter and the tools that I use.

What would I change next time? Not a lot, although I think I might also make some smaller prints and drawings as well which would hopefully provide some more affordable pieces for those who were interested in taking something away. I would also bring in a lot more food. It’s a hungry business and there was just no time to pop out and stock up on supplies!

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Dividing up the space

Why as artists do we do what in our art? Is there always a clear answer? How much of what we do is planned and delivered according to plan and how much is instinctive or happy accidents as we work. My belief is all the above is true. As artists it can be a continual process of planning, experimentation, adjustment and instinct.

I have continued to work on my studio study pieces. They are quite detailed so it is slow progress. They began with photos of the studio I was in at the time (I’m in a different studio now). My initial idea was to create pieces that communicated the purity and simplicity of my environment. However as I have worked I have experimented with slicing up the photographs I had taken, giving them both an abstract and design feel.

Why did I do this, I ask myself? Well, first of all I think it’s because the photos didn’t really give the ideas I had about the space justice. When I look, it is quite different to the flat image that the photographs depict. Even without turning my head or moving my eyes, I can see in the periphery but reasonably clear, all the surfaces in every direction. I am conscious of the different nuances and slices of light and shadow crossing the room and forever changing. The lines that connect the corners of the room, the floor, the ceiling, door and window break down into angles my maths teacher would have been proud of. When I took the photographs, I kept it simple and focused on the areas which had minimal objects. So the space in-between seems to reach out and expand into the room.

When I break up the planes and divide up the space in my pieces, it’s an acknowledgement of all these considerations. It’s a bit of a nod to Cubism; particularly the work ‘In the studio’ although rather than objects and figures being fragmented and abstracted, it is the space itself I have played with. It’s also a kind of abstraction as I have used shapes, colours, textures to depict a visual reality. However it is clearly not purely abstract, as in both pieces there are clearly recognisable features.

There is also a design feel to the work I think. This perhaps comes with the territory as I used Photoshop to manipulate my digital photographs. But also I have to some extent employed a kind of pattern and poster feel – particularly with the work ‘Studio door’. I like to cross that border between Fine Art and Design. I think ‘why not’ – life is not that simple that I can firmly restrict myself to either camp.

What is perhaps not obvious from these images of my work and can only be observed in real life, is that I have been very carefully and subtly working on the surfaces. This is what is taking me so long. Parts are digital, part are oil paint. In some bits, there is the slightest glimmer of iridescent mediums and in others a very slight texture from using marble dust. These may not register to the viewer unless they go close up to the work. I like the inaccessibility of this – unless a person decides they really want to study it, it will not be seen. Either way, it doesn’t really matter. The work is not trying to be elitist in any way, but be reflective of our everyday observations concerning detail and imperfection.