extra-curricular painting

Whilst I've not been able to clock-in for Wednesday Painting over the last few weeks, I have found time to set up a temporary studio at home for a spot of remedial painting.  Good job too, as I had to get this finished for our friends Paul and Sarah's wedding on the 3rd December.

here's a quick snap of the finished piece

(I'll post more photos when I have some time)



If you would like to commission a neon commemorative date painting for a wedding, birthday, anniversary or special day, please email iheartneon[at]gmail.com to discuss your requirements.

Wednesday Painting SUSPENDED

ATTENTION: Wednesday Painting has been temporarily suspended.

Owing to the looming spectre of Christmas, I will be mostly playing the role of Santa's only-elf-in-the-workshop, making wooden jigsaws for all the children so that they may have broad smiles on their faces come Christmas day.

Normal service will resume on days when I have spare time to get into the studio, and I will also be doing extra remedial painting werk at home.

wet-on-wet

[WEDNESDAY 09 NOVEMBER 2011]
Today is Wednesday and I am dressed up in my finest painting outfit.  I feel quite fresh considering it was a late night last night.  If you had passed by, you would have seen me sketching out a new sea-scape on that large canvas. Then slurping down a night-cap of hot lemon and ginger tea with a tot of rum (poor man's hot whisky toddy?).

This morning I werked on the meeting of 2 contrasting neon colours: the bright green and the orange.  It will need more werk when it is dry.  Having focussed almost completely on 'Home Sweet Home' for the past 3 sessions, I have put it aside.

This afternoon I re-started werk on the blue neon morse-code. Laying on the paint nice and thick - rich and deep Phthalo Blue - until the canvas won't take any more wet-on-wet paint action.

And then I sit, and I wonder, and I think: what I can do now to fill another hour or so?

There is a large canvas begging to be started, and so I must oblige.  Out comes the ink and the brush and to werk I go.

ten minus fifteen

[WEDNESDAY 02 NOVEMBER 2011]
I award myself 10 points for being in the studio just after 9am and sanding down the primed canvas.

I then deduct 15 points for straying and checking my email and spending an hour on the computer.  Procrastination is a time-sapping thing.

I must get on, I need to leave early today, and my precious few hours are dwindling as a sit here and type.

I made great progress with 'Home Sweet Home', painting intuitively (why can't it always be that way): first green neon and then the deeper, darker reds of the orange neon.

bright green neon lines

[WEDNESDAY 26 OCTOBER 2011]
There is a break in the (torrential) rain.  I must make a run for the studio.  I shall return.

I have been a good Wednesday Painter and I have werked right the way through until lunch time.  So I eat a huge plate of food and can't move for 40 minutes.  Coffee will perk me up and get me back to the easel.

Back at the easel: I continued to paint bright green neon lines.

And then there was just enough time to put a first coat of primer on that big blank canvas.

Day of discipline

[WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2011]
Today I am determined to get painting first, then do all the other crap during breaks later in the day.  I'm going outside, I will, hopefully, be some time.

I return, with a few hours' orange neon painting under my belt, and a hunger in my tummy.

---SNIPPET OF INTERNAL MONOLOGUE---

- Discipline yourself Wednesday Painter, you can't sit here all afternoon supping tea watching the internet.
- Just let me finish my cup of tea and I'll be off.

---MONOLOGUE ENDS---

Another pass of the 'Home Sweet Home' canvas, making those neon letters bright white.  So bright I gotta wear shades.

at 18.39 I clean up the brushes and switch off the lights.

The last hours were spent on green neon - fluid, easy painting - a pleasure.

Discipline is good.

Tricolores and dirty hands (eventually)

[WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2011]
I curse the things I always leave until Wednesday morning to get done:  today these included printing off directions to collect the 'Wish You Were Here' canvas from Manchester, with a convoluted road trip via here there and everywhere thrown in; emailing and phoning various people to meet/visit during the trip; constructing a CD cover for a belated birthday present; checking a L'Amour Electronique mix before it goes live; plus various other odd jobs.  Consequently I greeted the studio just after midday.

And even then I didn't crack on with the neon painting.  Instead I began some new Tricolore posters for the aforementioned L'Amour Electronique.

It is lunch time now.  I need sustenance. Then the painting.

Or not.  The time is 17:22, I have done precious little painting, except for adding some acid-y pale blue glow to the morse-code.  I feel frustrated and listless.  I have about an hour and 40 minutes left to do something worthwhile.  Here I go...

18.10: I. GIVE. UP.  But not before I've got my hands dirty blackening 12 sheets of A4 with indian ink, and painting another Tricolore.  The black paper is for a mock-up of a proposal I'm waiting to hear back about.  The Tricolore to add to the collection above.

pensioner chic

[WEDNESDAY 05 OCTOBER 2011]
...And the Wednesday Painter hobbled into view, aided by a vintage NHS-issue walking-stick...

I came a cropper the other day and severely buggered up my ankle.  It's looking a bit swollen and is all black and blue, but I can just about walk on it now, so it can't be broken, can it?

The worst thing is trying to get up the ladder into the studio, I've only done it once so far today.  Looks like I may be stuck up there for some time when I go back.  For now I am in the house, projecting and marking out new designs on canvas.

I'm now off to the studio for the afternoon shift...

Cooped up in the loft, the tension builds up, and I nearly go stir crazy.  I realise I need a break from painting about every hour just to let me eyes adjust and the rest of me relax.  It is intense werk this neon painting, but the blue morse-code is really beginning to glow.

rich, deep, velvety reds

[WEDNESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 2011]
Back to the Wednesday Painting then...  I had yet more paid work to do first thing, then I cleaned my filthy bicycle, and then the usual email admin.

The creative werk did not begin until midday, and the painting not until 2pm.  I've been putting together a submission for an exhibition: deadline 30 September. The details are secret, but it will involve 12 small canvases, laid out in sequence (as in this sketch).

I returned to 'Home Sweet Home', I find I can werk on the slightly wet layer of last week, though if left for a day or 2 longer, the canvas would have to be rested.  Today I gave it some rich, deep, velvety reds and I brought in the surrounding blackness.

There's no place like home

[THURSDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2011]
The Wednesday Painter has been away.  The Thursday Painter has stepped in for a day to get things started again.  After a couple of hours' paid werk, he primed that big new canvas.  He will take lunch and then begin the creative pursuits in earnest.

A productive afternoon followed, werking away on 'Home Sweet Home'.

radio head

[THURSDAY 01 SEPTEMBER 2011]
The time is 11.35am, I have been doing all manner of crap computer admin stuff this morning.  I am going to paint now, as lord knows I've done precious little of that this summer.  Here I go then...

Werking on 'Home Sweet Home', I took a break to make a brief appearance talking to Mark Radcliffe on 6music for 'The Chain' feature*.  Managed to get a website plug in.  Just logged on to find a spike of about 1,800 page views at just after 2pm.  I should go on the radio more often!

Back to the painting now though...


It just wasn't happening, so I did some constructive prep-werk: A big, new, blank canvas awaits the return of the Wednesday Painter.

* Which I, er, sort of borrowed a bit for the L'Amour Electronique blog

Exhibition NO. 1: PAINT

As mentioned previously, I have a painting in this forthcoming exhibition in Manchester

 

No. 1: Paint exhibition, 8 - 25 September 2011, BLANKSPACE, Manchester

Public Preview & live mural painting: Thursday 8 September, 6-9pm
Exhibition continues Friday 9 - Sunday 25 September 2011
BLANKSPACE, 43 Hulme Street, Manchester, M15 6AW
Free Entry to all Events

OPENING TIMES:
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday 1-7pm
Tuesday 1-9pm
Saturday & Sunday 11am-4pm

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
Bartosz Beda | Dominic Bradnum | Jack Brindley | Cara Campbell | Neill Clements | Lisa Denyer | Jane Evans | Liz Gaunt | Alastair Gordon | Lesley Guy | Caroline Hall | Andrew Hardy | Melissa Henderson | Katarzyna Jablonska | Catherine Knight | Ladoza | Susan Laughton | Scott McCracken | Luci Metcalfe | Emily Musgrave | Georgina Parkins | Maggie Royle | Georgina Vinsun | Rebecca Wild

EXHIBITION SYNOPSIS:
"If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint". Edward Hopper

No.1: Paint is the first in an exciting series of medium-specific exhibitions to be held at BLANKSPACE. Celebrating the unique nature of paint, this exhibition will showcase work from 24 varied and distinctive emerging artists from throughout the UK.

Encompassing a wide variety of styles and forms, from impressionistic to abstract, sculpture to installation, the core subject of this diverse collection is: paint.

The selected artists individually push the fundamental boundaries of paint, investigating the numerous angles available within the selected art form.

"No.1: Paint is about artists exploring the medium of paint in different and innovative ways, with their ideas and concepts being communicated through purely visual means. The work we have selected encompasses everything from more traditional painting to sculptural pieces and installation work - all coming together to create a unique and exciting show."

Jamie Hyde, Curator

An ensemble of colour, texture, concept and vision, this exhibition showcases some of the most gifted talent from around the UK. No.1 Paint will captivate, stimulate and inspire the audience in the dynamic yet intimate environment of BLANKSPACE.

Struggle and Progress

[WEDNESDAY 17 AUGUST 2011]
Is it good to be back at the easel?  Ask me again at the end of the day.

It seems at some point over the past month I found some time to I werk on 'Home Sweet Home'.  Unless the fairies have been in during my absence.  This is what greeted me on my arrival.

I decided it was time the blue morse code painting was taken a step further.  Now you would have thought that having spent the intervening weeks starting and finishing a painting in blue neon, that I would have my hand in.  But it's not exactly been a joy.  And it hasn't helped that the paint was still a bit wet when I started. I struggle on, as I do most weeks.  Yes, it seems a modicum of success has not raised my game.


That's better!  Progress has been made on 'Home Sweet Home': Painting was loose and free, no No.1 size brushes were dirtied in the process.

TORRENTIAL RAIN = hide indoors and drink some tea.

The rain has stopped, still got 40 minutes to do something worthwhile.

More werk on 'Home Sweet Home', and then I'm off home.  The day has been mixed, mostly good, with some bad patches in the middle.

week off

I did no painting last week.  Instead I spent Tuesday travelling up to Manchester to deliver Wish You Were Here to the BlankSpace Gallery for a forthcoming exhibition titled 'No. 1: Paint'.  We spent a whole 10 minutes in Manchester, deciding to make tracks when a gang of yoofs came by with their hoods up putting on their woolly gloves as if they were off to have a snowball fight.  There were riots in Manchester and Salford that night. There were no reported snowball fights.

On Thursday Verity and I attended the WBS logo awards ceremony at the Design Council in London. We enjoyed a slap-up meal and ample wine, met some interesting people, and I came home with a 2nd prize for my re-rendering of their logo in blue neon after Barnett Newman.

Here is a portrait of the artist with the artwerk, after the awards and the ample wine and the slap-up meal and the interesting people.

more Notes To Self coverage

I'd forgotten about this little preview.

Present Joys is a small publishing house based at the Lo & Behold gallery building.  They took some sneak preview photos of the great wall of post-it notes after we'd finished installing the work and gone home.

presentjoys.com/news/notes_to_self/

WBS Logo Competition

I've spent the past few weeks beavering away at that logo competition canvas.  In the final stages I switched to oil paint.  The acrylic was drying too quickly to allow for any blending, even with a slow drying medium.

I awoke early on the day the courier was booked to collect the canvas, and was compelled to put in one last hour getting the background to my satisfaction. Then away it went...

The project brief was to re-imagine the new Warwick Business School logo in the style of one of a list of artists.  I chose Barnett Newman, re-rendering the logo in blue neon, with the letter 'b' extending to form the infamous 'Zip'.

The cup of filth

[WEDNESDAY 06 JULY 2011]
More paid work this morning.  It is midday, the clouds have opened and I'm just about ready to paint.  Today will be all about the blue neon.  I have some morse code craving my attentions, and I need practice so I can work on that competition canvas at home tomorrow.

Now the morse code is wet with rich Phthalo Blue paint, and I can't touch it for another 2 weeks.  It is a good job I'm werking the competition canvas in acrylics - dry by the time I've cleaned my brush...

I'm not going to win any prizes for being the conscientious painter today, I faffed and I time wasted and I did a bit here and a bit there, and all the while in the back of my mind I knew that the real painting was going to take place tomorrow, at home, with the Thursday Painter at the helm.

Still, I have some progress to show for my hours here:

I made some more mess on the chintzy, twee canvas

I picked out the shadows and detail of the windows and balconies of the building, darkness spilling out of the cup of filth.

WBS logo: Day 1 and Day 2

[WEDNESDAY 29 & THURSDAY 30 JUNE 2011]
The canvas finally arrived on Monday. By Wednesday morning I have marked out the regulation 480mm x 480mm square I have to contain my artwerk within, and the neon design is drawn out and ready.  It is the most detailed and scaled down neon I have painted yet - I envisage painstaking hours of delicate painting ahead.  I will be using acrylics for the first time in a long, long time (since 1995?), and these days I like to work big and bold, not small and delicate.  But I have to shrug off this straitjacket as there is prize-money at stake.

Day 1: I had some paid work to finish in the morning, but from 1.30 to 9pm I was painting and resting and painting and resting and painting and resting until my eyes couldn't focus and my arm could barely hold up the brush.

At the end of day 1 I had painted in the fine detail of the white neon forms, and put in a preliminary coat of blue glow and the black background.  It is a relief to not have any blank canvas showing.

Day 2: Werking with acrylics is at least allowing me to paint over and build up the layers a lot quicker than is usual with the oil paint, though this fine detail brush werk is threatening to drive me potty.

I pack up my brushes with a lot of ground-werk covered.  Now at the stage where I can start adding detail to the glow and bring the blackness in from the void.

the wait

[WEDNESDAY 22 JUNE 2011]
Today I await delivery of a canvas.  The canvas has been supplied for me to re-produce a logo idea I submitted for a competition.  The rules have been changed and the goal-posts have been moved since I entered my idea.  But now that I've been short-listed as one of the finalists, I feel I should give it a shot.  It will be good practice, and it gives me a deadline to work to.  Plus: it would be nice to win the prize money!

No sign of it yet, so I shall return to my other canvases and show them some of my attentions: I gave the morse code neon a once over with some luscious Phthalo Blue...

Rather than twiddling my thumbs waiting, I decided to chase up that canvas:   turns out it's being made to measure, and it won't be sent out before Friday.  BALLS!  That's one week less werk for me then.

More filth: this time directed at the new canvas with the chintzy wallpaper over it.

the lazy routine (and how to get out of it)

[WEDNESDAY 15 JUNE 2011]
I seem to be falling into a rather lazy routine of late: waking around 9am, having a shower and a leisurely breakfast, checking my emails, drifting around on the internet.  I think I've lulled myself into the idea that because I stay here later than I used to, I don't need to start as early as I once did.  [internal voice: "But you could get even more painting done, you dummy!"]. The voice in my head speaks sense.

The Path of Least Resistance 3 (pink) is signed.

I threw a load of inky filth down the morse code rock face, it made a right bloody mess.

The idea was to make the rock face more scuzzy and stained, I was happy standing over the canvas at 16.36.

lost trees, rejections, sunshine, showers, ouzo

[WEDNESDAY 08 JUNE 2011]
The men came and chopped down the tree.  And all I was thinking was: "I hope the nesting birds have all flown".

That was the start.  Then I received an exhibition rejection, which bought me down a peg or two.  Then the rain came down.  And somehow I've got to rouse myself to go and paint.

By 2pm I've had another rejection.  "We'd like to encourage you to submit again for next year's competition".  Maybe you'll be good enough by then... Balls! Someone really is determined to piss on my parade today.

Between rejections and cups of tea, I had time to just touch up a tiny area of the "rock face", and now I think it is done.  Despite having at least 4 other canvases on the go, I feel a yearning, aching void, and the need to embark on something new.  In a bid to counteract blank canvas syndrome I cover one in some pretty-pretty, chintzy fabric.  And I know immediately that there are one or two philistines out there who would be happy to offer me money to hang it on their wall as it is.

Fuck 'em.

I will now take out my frustrations on said canvas.

Actually, all that "energy" was targeted at a different canvas.  I painted blue skies and green, verdant trees, and I painted them with conviction.  We lost some clouds in the process, and that can only be a good thing.  And I felt a bit better about everything.

So much so that on a whim I left the blue "morse code" neon outside to contend with the elements - Sunshine and showers all afternoon.

The tally for the day:
2 x lost trees (they took another out in the process)
2 x rejections
1 or 2 pegs being taken down
Much cursing and swearing
1 x finished painting
1 x new painting
1 x wet painting
1 x blue sky made bluer
2 x clouds lost
4 x trees made fresher
2 x big swigs from the bottle of Ouzo
Many cups of tea and coffee
1 x strange twitch in my upper lip which began just a moment ago.

[THURSDAY 02 JUNE 2011]
I shake my fist once again at the May bank holiday bonanza knocking my week out of kilter.  It's not that I didn't enjoy my day off on Monday, but it does leave me a little off balance.  I'm a sensitive artistic type you see.

[As with the previous post, I am writing this in retrospect, going by the photographic documentation from the day, and the brief intro I wrote above. Only 2 photos exist.  Conclusions: I werked on Ne Travaillez Jamais during the afternoon, the following images were taken at 16.47]

Yessssss!

[WEDNESDAY 25 MAY 2011]
A bit late starting today.  We went to London to see the amazing lo-fi Gospel-DooWop-Garage-Soul Revue show of Chain & The Gang.  Then, as is tradition, we very nearly missed the 1am train - made it after a sprint across Victoria Station (it was like the Louvre scene in Bande A Part, only nowhere near as fun or carefree).  Today I have a severely stiff neck, from looking up at the high stage, and I feel a bit hazy round the edges.  I will have a Berocca and a cup of tea and I will go and paint.


Later, I return to the house and conclude that the Pink Path of Least Resistance is finished.

I allow myself a small, celebratory, Napoleon Dynamite-style "YESSSSS!", as I head back out to the garret.

[details of the rest of the day are sketchy, there is no photographic documentation, there are no notes.  I can surmise from the opening paragraph that I was in some discomfort and possibly dosed up on ibuprofen, and I most likely did some painting.  That was my purpose after all]

a brave idea (that did not work)

[THURSDAY 19 MAY 2011]
The return of the Thursday Painter.  Sitting here faffing on the internet.  He's thinking about what painting to tackle first, but mostly he's struggling to get out there and filling time with internet crap...

Journal Entry:
This morning I worked on some watercolour sketches.  I don't do these very often and I'm not happy so far with the results.  One of them is a draft for a competition, think I might need to have a few goes before I'm happy enough to submit it.

I didn't get much else done before lunch, but had a spurt of activity at 2.30pm, taking the old "rock face" in hand, I concluded it was time I got it finished.  I added a bit of glow leaking out over the edges of the fault-line. And now the canvas resides temporarily in the house ready to have holes picked at my leisure.

At this point I had a brave idea, I've been mulling it over for a few days. But the time had come to seize the moment (I still had a practice run on a crappy old small canvas to check).  My plan: to paint over the big square Unitation d'Habité painting with some yellow-y white, then scrape it all off with a plank of wood.

It didn't work.  I cursed myself.  I took to it with a rag and a bottle of white spirit, scrubbing hard to remove as much paint as I could.  Still no joy.

I resorted to more white spirit, leaning the canvas at an angle and applying to the building.  I used up a whole bottle of white spirit and soaked the rug in the stuff..

So now I've removed as much of the fuck-up as I can and I'm still not any happier with the painting than when I came in this morning.  At least the "rock-face" looks better...