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.

Calling Cards

My two regular readers (me and my mother), may remember a post back in June 2010 relating how, on a trip to Japan, I had begun to leave my business cards in various cities in the hope they would be found by unsuspecting members of the public.

I have continued this project intermittently since then, and most recently deposited cards at sites throughout Marseille.

You can read more about the ongoing project on my new website.

the taste of white spirit lingering on my tongue

[WEDNESDAY 24 NOVEMBER 2010]
With Christmas coming there are toys to be made, so that all the little boys and girls don't have sad faces on Christmas day.  This means I've had extra payed work to do this morning in the workshop with Santa's elves.

But I'm ready to paint now...

My first task was to try and get that secret date plaque back on track.  I masked out the numbers and commenced with throwing whatever I could find at it: white spirit; oil paint; ink; clean water; dirty water; anything.  I poured and scraped and splattered it all on, then poured and scraped and wiped it off.  The masking fluid didn't last long, but the result was pleasing, and I took it outside to dry in the low November sun.

I've had the taste of white spirit lingering on my tongue ever since.  No amount of tea, water or cake can shift it.  I do wonder what this does to my insides.

Satisfied with myself, I've begun the next phase of "the pink path of least resistance trickling through a crack in a rock face", or "the rock face" as I affectionately call it. I wonder will I ever be happy with it?  But I must persevere or it will always be there, lurking in the corner.  I've decided to knock the glow back a bit so the neon appears deeper in the crack.

As soon as I've done this, I have a brain-wave:  Out comes the red-neon light I bought recently.  I secrete it between the joists under a shed in the garden and take some photos of the intense glow emanating from the darkness. This will give me something to reference for my next attack on "the rock face".

NEXT!  I take up my tools and set upon the large square canvas of Le Corbusier's Marseille blue-print for modern living.  The tools I use: some antique Winton no.39 Terre Verte oil colour, and then a piece of charcoal rescued from the bonfire, which looks like some kind of monolithic totem when seen out of scale.

I work on the foliage and then I go home.

the most un-productive day

[WEDNESDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2010]
This morning I have been running a few internet errands.  I will now make a cup of tea and be off to the studio...

I did a bit of secret testing for an idea I have involving a strobe light.  Call me enigmatic, but I don't want to say any more at this stage.

So after I'd stamped a stroboscopic light-show onto my poor retinae, I unpacked my new neon bulbs and made some reference photos for 'Ne Travaillez Jamais'.

Then I actually did some painting:  After the white neon on black success of last week, I pulled out a white neon 'path of least resistance' and gave it a werking over.  I left it at lunch time. It needs more werk.

I returned after lunch and faffed around for a while.  Nothing was getting done, I transferred the neon photos to the old Mac for reference purposes.  Everything I am werking on is either wet or stuck.  I leave early and go and take some photos of some old junk I plan to put on eBay.  It was the most un-productive day in quite a while.

an empty nest

[WEDNESDAY 11 AUGUST 2010]
I am greeted by an empty nest. Each and every painting I have invested so much love and attention to has gone. They are out there now, in the big bad world. Hanging on the wall at Blanch House.

I am left with a handful of half-finished canvases. The ones that I've neglected and ignored, the one's that I've fallen out of love with. A motley bunch they are too...

I dig out the "rock-face". I've been thinking about what to do with it over the past couple of days. A bold decision had to be made. Out comes the sandpaper, and I set to work sanding down the meandering pink neon line to a smooth, flat surface.

I paint the pink out with white acrylic and take three attempts to draw in a new path of least resistance.

The neon will still be pink, but the line will stagger more than before as it traces its way through the blackness.

I have made a small canvas for a new secret painting. I prime it and chuck a load of filthy, oily black water and ink and God-knows-what over it.

Now, brushes are the main tools-of-the-artist, and I don't look after them nearly as well as I should. They are in desperate need of a deep clean: a bowl of warm water with washing-up liquid and a bowl of clean water to rinse. I end up with a sore on my hand where I've been pressing the brushes to work the soap into them. Ow!

Wish You Were Here - Southend-on-Sea

Here are some photos of my work at Artside 2010: Wish You Were Here in Southend-on-Sea. The exhibition continues until this Friday, my work is on show at Tomassi's, 7-9 High Street.

Don't I look handy with a hammer?

The return of...

I have just returned from a trip to Japan. Pleasure, not business.

Whilst travelling around I secreted my 'I Think of You and I Smile' cards in places where they may or may not be found, with the idea that they might brighten the day of the finder.

I have a feeling this furtive style of distribution could become a habit...

If you have found one of my enigmatic calling cards, and are reading this, feel free to leave a comment or get in touch.

WPx

Wednesday painting will take place tomorrow, on Thursday. Normal werking hours will resume next week.

Fringe MK 2010 Painting Prize catalogue selection

Good news received yesterday: my painting 'I Think Of You And I Smile' has been shortlisted for the Fringe MK 2010 Painting Prize.

100 paintings have been selected from all the entries and these will appear in the exhibition catalogue. Works will be chosen from this selection to be shown at the exhibition, and a final four prize winners will be selected in July.

You can see my motley canvas, and the competition, on the Fringe MK facebook page.

In other news, I had some business cards printed (coincidentally of the same painting) and they arrived this week.

Rustin's Pure Turpentine

[WEDNESDAY 05 MAY 2010]
EVACUATE! EVACUATE!

I have had to leave the loft temporarily whilst the fumes abate. I found an old bottle of Rustin's Pure Turpentine (circa 1970s, I would guess).

Christ they don't make it like they used to! A good vintage? Depends which way you look at it: If you like your turps fumes to spread thick and fast, and to make your head swim and linger on your tongue, then this is definitely the one for you; If, on the other hand, you prefer to keep lucid whilst you paint, the ol' bottle of Rustin's is a bad idea.

Wednesday Painting will re-commence after this short lunch break.

I return to find the stench of turps is enough that I'll be high all afternoon unless I don some kind of respiratory aid - I fetch THE MASK (a 'tool of the artist', occasionally required for health and sanity purposes).

This stage of the painting is all about getting pigment onto the canvas and building up a base layer. It's relaxing to werk unhindered by hang-ups and to just paint and paint. It is also physically hard werk. I resort to standing on the stool to reach the top of the canvas, then sitting down for the lower quarter.

I add another layer of paint over the blue and red glows of 'LOVE IS AMOUR...' and also to the blue drip, a mixture of Phthalo Blue and Titanium White. It feels good to just PAINT.

Another good day

[WEDNESDAY 28 APRIL 2010]
Another good day: no faffing, no computing, no procrastinating. Just good honest hard werk, with the odd tea break from time to time.

I spent the morning tensely neatening the outlines of the ‘electric blue drip’ and the red ‘Amour’ on “Love is… in French”.


Then it was time to start werk on another drip painting: A mixture of cobalt violet and cobalt blue as a base; white-out the neon strip/drip; splash some lemon yellow down the rest of the canvas… Then I had to vacate the loft due to excessive turpentine fumes...

These drips are hard werk! I have them hung on the wall, so I’ve been standing on a brick to reach the top of the canvas, and kneeling on the floor to get to the bottom.

And then there were two:


Still some time, but everything is wet… I return to the “rock-face”, a place I haven’t visited for some time. It has been hung in the lounge and has come under casual scrutiny 2 nights a week, with the odd glance as I watch the telly or read. I feel ready to take it in hand…

Looking better, but still needs some attention.


I finish the day aching and spent. It has been a good day.

Today's palette (clockwise from top left: Rose Madder + Permanent Magenta; Lamp Black; Cadmium Red; Titanium White; Cobalt Violet + Cobalt Blue; Phthalo Blue):

more filth and frustration

[WEDNESDAY 14 APRIL 2010]

I return to the loft to find my rash decisions with ‘SMILE’ hadn’t rendered it unworkable as I had feared. No, it’s nowhere near as bad as I thought it was when I left last week.

Out come the chalks and the paintbrush. Is this painting? I am using a paintbrush, but not paint. Though there is plenty of paint on this canvas. There is plenty of other media too. Too many to remember, in fact.

So, chalky white glow is applied with the help of a paintbrush.

I have a yearning to add some sort of crack across the wall, so I now find myself sifting through photos on this old Mac trying to find one I’ve taken in the past year of a cracked wall which has since been knocked down.

In other news: I have been graced with a stinking cold, which isn’t helping me get things done. I also received my first neon light in the post – a kitsch/naff pink neon Playboy bunny. What can I say? It was very cheap, and will be ultra-helpful for reference purposes – another ‘tool’ for ‘the artist’. It also lends the place an air of seediness.



I never found the cracked wall photo – I had to give up and do some actual painting. Frustration took over and a bottle of water was poured and trickled down the surface. It may not have helped progress but it has eradicated a massive chunk of preciousness that had mounted up over the werk I had already done on this painting...



Later: At last, ‘SMILE’ is beginning to look the part, but I must crack on if I am to finish today. I have a deadline to meet: There is a competition I want to enter, the closing date is tomorrow.

Out comes the sandpaper… Then the fingers, rubbing in paint… Then the brush, more paint, knocking it back… I take the beast outside to get some distance: there are flaws that need attention. It falls over, flat on its front, NOoooooooooooooooooooooo!

Off comes the masking fluid… More white paint, this time delicately brushed to give a little more faint glow. I also touch up some water-marks around the lettering. Then it’s outside to be photographed: SMILE!

And that’s me done.

non-neon

[WEDNESDAY 17 MARCH 2010]
Today I was up and Wednesday Painter-ing at 8.15am. I began werk on a new non-neon painting - 115cm x 115cm. I temporarily lost the use of my legs, kneeling on the floor for an interminable length of time, tracing the projected outlines of a building.



I had intended this to be a distraction from the neon painting. And something I could werk on quickly and intuitively in short blasts. I was not intending the level of detail I seem to have put on myself. I may have bitten off more than I can chew.



I was pencilling on unprimed canvas, so when I finished, I took it out to the loft for priming. I have had trouble with this huge roll of canvas I bought a while ago - It was a mistake, probably one of the worst things I've bought for my art. It is too fine, not heavy enough, and not densely woven enough. Alas every time I've tried to prepare the surface, it goes nice and taught, then when it dries it goes slack and saggy. I was pleading with this one not to sag.

I return a couple of hours later, and the canvas seems to be keeping tension. Another coat of primer over the pencil-werk, then pray...

In the mean time, more projecting. Another new painting, working title: "Release The Bats". One for all you goths out there!

After lunch I return to check on the primed canvas. Everything is still okay. Not much more I can do, I have to leave early, so I pack up and I go.

The Wednesday Carpenter

[WEDNESDAY 10 MARCH 2010]

Yes, today they call me the Wednseday Carpenter.

I did more canvas priming, and then I set up werkshop in the workshop... I have purchased yet another mitre-saw, another 'tool of the artist' - this is the most accurate one so far, and a snip at just £5 from the charity shop.

I made a canvas stretcher 115cm x 115cm. I plan to use this to try out a new, non-neon, painting.

Procrastination or essential prep-werk?

some actual painting

[WEDNESDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2010]
I am fed up with the rain and the snow and the cold, and building work continues so I don't have a proper place to werk, and there's mud and silt and crap everywhere. But I'm back from doing my disappearing act last week...

I've been printing some transparencies to project for new paintings - another tool of the artist - they help with composition.

And now, I might even have a stab at doing some actual painting. With a brush and paint and all that.

6.21pm: I have been a good Wednesday Painter. I've probably had my most productive day in a long time.

I added some tentative glow to the 'NO' on 'No/Yes'.

I tested out some colour mix combinations for 'Love Is Amour In French' - Phthalo Blue with Permanent Geranium and Napthol Crimson, added to Lamp Black and Ivory Black. Then Cobalt Blue mixed with the same colours.


I painted the outlines of the base layer of 'Love Is Amour...'


Then I came inside and continued the ongoing werk on 'SMILE' knocking back those drop shadows and adding a top layer of Titanium White with a hint of Prussian Blue to the neon letters.


There will be no Wednesday Painting next week. I will be on holiday.

the blank canvas

[WEDNESDAY 09 DECEMBER 2009]
In retrospect: It was the 9th of December, I remember it vaguely. I think it rained. Possibly. I hauled my things out to the loft, placed the pink "path of least resistance" on the easel, and loaded the palette knife with some luscious hot pink paint.



At some point, I grew bored or things came to a temporary conclusion. I couldn't think of anything to do, so I wandered down the shed and finished constructing some canvas frames. By evening I was stretching canvas and had 3 of them finished, each measuring 80cm x 120cm. There is nothing quite like the purity of a fresh blank canvas...



...to strike fear into the fragile artist's psyche.