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.

that familiar aroma

[WEDNESDAY 12 MAY 2010]
I just couldn’t wake up this morning. It is 10am, I have just climbed the ladder to the loft. I’ve had to put the little heater on to take some edge off the morning chill (yes, it really is May). Right: drink tea, pick up brush, squeeze paint, get on with it…

11.10am: tea break. I return to the familiar aroma of turpentine. It lingers with the taste of hot tea on my tongue.

By 12.20pm I was craving lunch. I made the mistake of checking my email. 40 minutes of internet procrastination later and I’ve still not eaten. Coffee, cake, cheese on toast, I switch the TV on to find the Lib-Dems are officially in bed with the Tories. I wonder if Nick Clegg will move in to no.10 as well. He could take the left side and Dave the right: Sit-Com gold in the making…

Back in the loft, painting reds and blues. ‘LOVE IS AMOUR IN FRENCH’: the words spelt out on this canvas, Permanent Geranium paint on the brush. Pavement is on the STEREO-O.

3.30pm: I’ve had this dull stabbing pain in my gut. I decided I’d feed the blighter and have a break from the turps fumes and paint brushes. Watched ten minutes of Countdown and pleased myself by getting the answer to one of the ‘numbers’ rounds (both of the contestants were 1 out! Smug face!). Fed and stimulated I trudged back outside.

It’s amazing what a load of black paint can do. I’ve filled out the blank space with darkness and it’s beginning to take form. It still looks pretty sketchy, but we’re on the way. That gnawing in my gut is still there, not helped by the chemical taste on my tongue. I do wonder if this is doing me harm. I do have ventilation in that there is an open loft hatch with an open door at the bottom. But there’s nothing to actually extract the fumes from in here.

I go outside for some air, then come back to clean all the used brushes.


Today hasn’t been the most productive day.

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This entry has been submitted to the Mass Observation Archive for their 'one-day diary' project.

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):

Exhibition FINAL WEEK everything must go!

This week is the final week of my exhibition of neon paintings at the Caroline of Brunswick.

So if you still haven't popped in for a quick look, this is your very last chance. They will be there until last orders on Wednesday evening. And then they will be gone.

the address is:
Caroline of Brunswick
39 Ditchling Road
Brighton
East Sussex
BN1 4SB

But in case you can't make it along here is a short video tour

electric blue drip

[WEDNESDAY 21 APRIL 2010]
Today was a good day. I can always tell a good day because I don't find the time to turn on the computer and type away with my musings and moanings. I arrived to find 'SMILE' looking good, and so I moved it, and the equally large 'Wish You were Here', out of the way. Decks cleared I was ready to begin some new paintings...

It started with projections - a series of parallel vertical lines of varying thickness to choose from:


I traced out a single line on 2 canvases for a pair of neon 'drip' paintings. I envisage them appearing like a single droplet of effervescent liquid running down a vertical surface, bisecting the canvas in a kind of homage to Barnett Newman's 'Zip'.

This one will have an electric blue drip. I washed some Vermillion paint down the two halves to break down the blank canvas areas.

I spent the rest of the afternoon painstakingly whiting in the blue neon letters and smoothing the outlines of 'Love Is Amour...'

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.

filth

[WEDNESDAY 07 APRIL 2010]

I have no camera today – so there will be no crap photos to decorate this post. I hardly slept last night and was awake at 7am. It has been a struggle, but I werk on.

I gave myself an easy start searching for white neon images on t’internet for reference purposes. It is hard to paint neon out of the imagination, so it helps to have some pictures to refer to to see how the neon lights up its surroundings.

I hauled ‘SMILE’ out into the loft, which was no mean feat. I added some of that chalky white glow and rubbed it back. The letters stand out effervescent and bright, but the background now looks flat and unrealistic. What to do?

As you find me, I have masked off the letters, and I wait for the fluid to dry. I have plans for charcoal like I did with two of the ‘Commemorative Date Plaques’. I will not darken ‘SMILE’ quite as much though: the background just needs knocking back a little under some filth.

Charcoal flying all over the place, black fingers and grimy darkness. I have gone so far, I can’t turn back now, got to see this through…

Have I gone too far and messed it up?

VOTE NEON! part 2

Thanks everyone who voted for my painting. I didn't win - quelle surprise - but I was heartened to find my painting in the top 50 favourite works from the round, so thanks for taking the time to vote.

Buoyed by my relative success, I have entered another painting, and its success lies partly in your hands. So if you can bear to spare a moment clicking the link below and rating my 'SPQR' painting, and adding it as a favourite, I will be very very grateful:
www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/showdown/index.php?showpic=263651

Voting runs from 5th to 12th April.

Feel free to forward this on to anyone else you think might be interested in seeing my work and voting.

cheers
WP

let's get physical

[WEDNESDAY 31 MARCH 2010]
I've been itching to get painting for the last couple of days. Then Wednesday finally rolls around and I lose the urge. I've procrastinated for too long this morning, I will head out to the loft and get on with it...

I arrive to find some wee beastie has passed already judgement on my werk:


I play some music and open the water colour set. By the time I break for tea there is some definite progress with the shadows:


I return and spend a quick 30 minutes werking on the end elevation, and paying some attention to the roof ornamentation. And this is how I leave it:



Just some time to white over a primed canvas before lunch. I exit covered in specks of household emulsion.

Remember 'Wish You Were Here'? I wrestle the behemoth seascape onto the studio wall.


It's a daunting thing to have in front of you, especially when you can't get any distance from it. I throw charcoal, sand, water and paint at it. It is satisfyingly physical.

step-by-step

[THURSDAY 25 MARCH 2010]
Yes it is Thursday. Yes I am a day behind. Yes I have werk to do.

I re-stretched a primed but sagging canvas - much better! Then I set myself up with some watercolours and that new non-neon canvas I started last week. I went a bit nuts crouched there in the studio all day filling in tiny details.

Here is what occurred in a few step-by-step photographs:

STEP 1: filling in the outlines


STEP 2: progress by lunchtime


STEP 3: 4pm, it's all in the detail


And relax.

VOTE NEON!

in a moment of rashness I entered one of my paintings (again) in the
bunfight that is the Saatchi online showdown...

Not sure why I did it, but a quick glance through some of the
competition shows me that the standard of entries hasn't changed much
since last time!

If anyone is actually reading this, please go and rate my painting via the
following link (and don't forget to add my artwork as a favourite, as
this seems to help bump up the ratings!)

www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/showdown/index.php?showpic=259388

Thanks for your time and support
The Wednesday Painter

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?