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]