Christmas Artists Open Houses

I probably should have mentioned this. There is info over at my website www.dominicbradnum.co.uk. We are open again this Saturday (7th Dec) and the following Saturday (14th Dec), 11am-5pm.

I won't be in residence this Saturday, but you will find me (hopefully) being productive in Studio 6 on the 14th.

Open Houses and Guilty Feelings

[SATURDAY 30 NOVEMBER]
I guess I was probably kidding myself that I would actually get a day's work done on the first day of the Christmas Open Houses. In reality it was more like an hour, and that's being optimistic!

However, I did get to meet all the other lovely artists with whom I can now call BLANK Studios home. And I welcomed quite a few visitors to my space and chatted to them about my work - something that I'd never done before.

[SUNDAY 01 DECEMBER]
Feeling guilty about my non-productive Saturday, I headed back early Sunday morning to get a couple of hours' painting under my belt.

I clocked in at 09.30 hours to find the half-hearted fruits of yesterday. And after a pass across half the canvas working on the immediate glow of the letters, I left it like this at 11.30 hours:

I also left a note to myself:

New stu-stu-studio

[WEDNESDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2013]
I spent the morning collecting together vital equipment and items in my grimey garrett/loft-studio. Progress was hampered when a curious robin came in to look around - yep, before I'd even left, a new prospective tenant with an eye on my place

This is the mess I left behind after all my churning and rooting around.

Goodbye window-less, ventilation-less loft, we've had some heady times - mainly due to the solvent fumes having nowhere to go...

By evening I had signed the contract and dumped everything at my new space at Blank Studios which occupies a converted end-of-terrace house in one of those, rapidly vanishing, liminal zones on the edge of Brighton and Hove.

[SATURDAY 23 NOVEMBER 2013]
In the afternoon I organised my belongings and made my new space my own - I sense this will be an ongoing and changing thing for the first month or so.

I also found time to do a spot of your actual painting, returning to that elongated '...RUGS&...' canvas (or 'neon for a wig shop' as I referred to it later) - my first dalliance with brush and canvas since December 2012. It was a relief. And it felt good.

Negative Space

[WEDNESDAY 30 OCTOBER 2013]
I had an hour to spare this week after finishing my paid work, so I painted in the negative space around what will soon become one of my phosphorescent neon drips.

I realise this is going to make for painfully plodding progress if I continue werking at such a slow and irregular rate, which is why I am currently seeking a studio space in my native Brighton (or Hove to be exact). If anyone happens to read this that knows of such a holy grail being available in the near future, I'd like to hear from you.

Wednesday Painter: Slight Return

[WEDNESDAY 16 OCTOBER 2013]
I have returned. Slightly.

After paid work, I had 15 minutes to spare, and an itching* to get started with something new.

I lugged a canvas I had made some time ago out to the studio, and set about desecrating its pure white surface with a decorators brush and black ink.

And now I don't need to worry about 'blank canvas syndrome' when I return next time.


*the itching is related to the fact that I have won a painting prize and have been offered a solo exhibition in London. This has galvanised me to get back to the easel (I have barely painted since the commission I finished at Christmas). I feel a strange mixture of chomping at the bit, whilst simultaneously feeling a slight crises in confidence. But two things are clear: I must seize this opportunity; and I must find a studio space closer to home, to fit better with family life.

Wells Art Contemporary 2013

Yes, I know it is Tuesday, and I know I don't very often grace this corner of the internet these days, but there is news: One of my neon paintings has been selected for the Wells Art Contemporary 2013 exhibition.


Wells Art Contemporary 2013
11th – 19th October (open 10am-5pm)
Wells Museum,
8 Cathedral Green,
Wells, Somerset
BA5 2UE

Dominic Bradnum - Cry For Help 2

I've not been idle by the way. You can read of my current non-painting exploits here: www.dominicbradnum.co.uk