stuck

[WEDNESDAY 27 JANUARY 2010]
For once it is not snowing. It is just flipping frrrrreezing.

I have been doing this blog for a year now. Does time fly? I think not. Looking back over the posts of the last 12 months, I can see that a more apt title might have been ‘The Wednesday Painter: My Struggle’.

Today I am struggling with white neon. You’d have thought white neon would be relatively easy. I thought it would be easy: Just a matter of fading bright white through various shades of grey and into black. So why does the striking white neon still elude me?

I will go back to ‘the rock-face’. Pink neon is hard to render, but not as hard as white.

I am stuck. The pink neon has had another coat, I must leave it to dry and see where to go from there. ‘No/Yes’ is wet. ‘Ne Travaillez Jamais’ is on hold until I have worked out how to do red neon on a green ground. ‘Ssshh’ is wet and waiting the next move. The sinister crow: ditto. ‘SMILE’ is indoors, with nowhere to werk on it. I have just carried ‘Home Sweet Home’ out carefully and sat it on the easel, from where it now mocks me.

I am stuck.

I have at least primed one of those new canvases I made before Christmas - A small footnote in the werk of “the artist”. There are some men drilling into the brickwork on the other side of the wall – it goes right through me and it frays my shot nerves.

I have stayed away from the loft for 2 hours. In the end I couldn’t procrastinate any longer, and forced myself to trudge out here again. It’s grown colder in my absence, but the banging next door continues.

My year as the Wednesday painter has had its ups and downs. Mostly downs if my writings are to be believed. I have at least managed to get some paintings exhibited, and there was a period during the summer when I was putting in 2 days a week and my production rate hit a peak.

All I really need to engage me with werk is something to get my teeth into. I’ve been a good quiet Wednesday Painter for the last hour, absorbed in the orange-y glow of ‘Home Sweet Home’. I even refused the offer of a cup of tea.


So there: I did some painting, it was a slow day. It is taking a bit of time to get my hand in after the Christmas break and all those snow day interventions. The Wednesday Painter struggles on.

Neon Painting: S.P.Q.R.

This was a commissioned neon painting. The brief: 'S.P.Q.R.' in purple neon. First I had to check what S.P.Q.R. stands for - Senatus Populusque Romanus. It is the motto of the city of Rome, and appears on the coat of arms, and in numerous places across the city, such as manhole covers, statue plinths, graffiti.

Next challenge: I had never painted purple neon before.

I sent them some initial photoshop-ed sketches based on photos of manhole covers, graffiti and an inscription at the base of a statue. The purple was too much towards magenta. We settled on a cobalt violet base and I began.

We were all pleased with the results.

S.P.Q.R., 2009, oil on canvas, 80cm x 100cm.













If you would like to commission a painting, please email: iheartneon[at]gmail.com
You can view more of my work online at: Saatchi/yourgallery and artists.de

Yes/No

[WEDNESDAY 20 JANUARY 2010]
It is snowing again. Third Wednesday on the trot. Welcome to 2010, where Wednesday is snow day. It’s quite wet snow, but it’s so heavy it’s begun to settle.

I am in the loft, and it is cold. I had to move out of the spare room in the house, because it is now full of boxes from the other loft (the bigger one). I lay in bed this morning pondering on what to do:

I’ve had the pink-path/rock-face painting up in the lounge for a few weeks, and have picked enough holes in it to see where the werk is needed.

I have this painting that was started as far back as 2006 – it reads ‘Ne Travaillez Jamais’ a graffiti quote from the 1968 Paris événements. I spent a long time building up a wall-like ground, and then it stopped. I didn’t want to ruin all that werk, I wanted orange-red neon words, but I hadn’t a clue how to make them work on a contrasting green-ish ground. I still don’t.


Today is the day I start werk again on that wall. It is also the day I get on with the rock-face. First the wall: I found an old canvas sketch and sanded it down, drew out some rough words and painted them in.


I mixed up some mossy green paint and plastered it onto the canvas. The words are rougher than I’d wanted, but it’s just a sketch, an experiment, a tester. I need to try some methods of glow on top of green ground to see what works best.


With a shiny new no.1 brush and some Rose Madder paint I take on the pink neon path in the crack of the rock-face, hot soup for lunch.

2.45pm it is still snowing. There were foxes on the prowl in the field, so I had to lock up the chicken. It’s like Jollity Farm round here. Only without the jollity.



I just realised I turned the heater off when I went in earlier. No wonder my werk rate was slowing down. I sat the sinister crow on the easel, and gave his neon perch a going over with some rich, ruby red. Now I am struggling with SSSHH, still the white neon glow eludes me. I need inspiration. And a cup of tea.

I came back, I added a bit more glow. Then I had the bright idea of some shadows. Then I went too far.

I will stop and clean up now.

Wednesday Painting cancelled

[WEDNESDAY 13 JANUARY 2010]
There was still about 4 inches of snow here yesterday, and we got another dumping of the white stuff over night. As a result, there will be no Wednesday Painting this week.

Instead, I will spend the day working and in constant readiness to leave at a moment's notice. It is so cold here we have icicles this long.

the white stuff

[WEDNESDAY 06 JANUARY 2010]

It started snowing last night, it is still snowing this morning. I was taking photos with the bobbins night-vision camera setting late last night, when I saw Monsieur Renard, our local fox scampering round the garden. His eyes lit up red when he looked straight at me, then the camera shutter scared him off.

I want to do some painting but I don't want to get snowed in and stuck out here for the next couple of days.

I sat myself down in the temporary studio/spare room with some white paint determined to increase the neon glow of 'SMILE'. But every chance I get I'm gazing out of the window at all the white stuff, or drifting off to check on the status of the trains.

By 3pm the pull of home was too much - off to the station I went, it took over 2 hours. It usually takes 30 minutes.

Caroline of Brunswick exhibition - more photos

Here are some more photos Verity took of my exhibition at the Caroline of Brunswick.

The exhibition continues until 28 February 2010.
The address is:
Caroline of Brunswick
39 Ditchling Road
Brighton
East Sussex
BN1 4SB
[--map--]

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.

exhibition of Neon Paintings at the Caroline of Brunswick

I have just hung an exhibition of my neon paintings at the Caroline of Brunswick.

My work is installed in the cosy, fake-fur clad boudoir area at the back of the pub (to the right). They're mainly more abstract neon paintings, plus the one of the neon cat. The exhibition will be up for at least the next two months, so pop in for a pint and a look.

The address is:
Caroline of Brunswick
39 Ditchling Road
Brighton
East Sussex
BN1 4SB
and here is a map


And here are some photos Verity took during installation:

Neon Painting: Commemorative Date Plaques

During the summer I made a series of three neon commemorative date plaques as wedding gifts for friends on their special days.

If you would like to commission one for a special date (anniversary, birthday, etc) please email me iheartneon[at]gmail.com to discuss your requirments.

Commemorative Date Plaque: 15.08.09, 2009, oil and mixed media on canvas, 40cm x 50cm

Commemorative Date Plaque: 05.09.09, 2009, oil and mixed media on canvas, 40cm x 50cm

Commemorative Date Plaque: 11.09.09, 2009, oil and mixed media on canvas, 40cm x 50cm

All hands on deck

[WEDNESDAY 02 DECEMBER 2009]
All hands on deck. I have just been offered wall-space to show some of my paintings. Immediately.

My initial enquiry was with a view to exhibiting a set of new paintings sometime in early 2010, but I do have a few finished pieces hanging around that I could show. Late last night I drew up a short-list of potentials:

"Three and Eight"
"Set To Stun"
"The Path of Least Resistance 1 (blue)"
"The Path of Least Resistance 2 (red)"
"Kryptonitis"
the one with pink neon lines which I still haven't thought up a title for
"What's New Pussycat?"
"She and I"

I finished blacking out the edges of "Three and Eight", then I propped the pink neon untitled canvas on the easel. It was looking a little unconvincing in the void areas, so I went at it with some black and white acrylics and some deep green water colour. Better. Just need to wait for a title to come now. I signed it at last, though:


I also signed "Kryptonitis":


And "Three and Eight"




I finished off with some real proper werk: developing the orange-y red glow on "Home Sweet Home", and then I bubble-wrapped the exhibition paintings ready for transportation. Now all I need is a lift.

meanwhile, in the spare bedroom...

[WEDNESDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2009]
It is raining, and then stopping, then raining again. And there are builders with big machines moving hardcore out the front. Rather than drag the behemoth 'SMILE' canvas down the stairs, out the front door, round to the garage and up the ladder, I took the bold decision of werking on it in the spare bedroom, where it presently resides.

I werked and werked with chalk, fingers and dry-brush; then stopped and lay on the makeshift bed to get some perspective; then werked; then ate lunch; then bashed away on my spanish guitar; then scrawled some lyrics to a prospective new Miss Pain song entitled "The Last of the Great French Lovers"; then werked some more with titanium white oil paint, blending it out.

For a time it seemed I was going too far with the spread of the white neon glow, but the photos I took suggest it is working. I stopped at around 5pm, called it a day and left an instructional note to any visitors.

Confessions of a Wednesday Painter - the movie

Back in March, I mentioned, in passing, a lo-fi video I had made. The video was a mock-serious/tongue-in-cheek introduction to "the artist" and his werk. I sent it in as part of my submission for a BBC/Charles Saatchi-is-looking-for-an-artist-to-patronise TV show. I wasn't shortlisted. I suppose they didn't get it.

The video contains shaky footage of a tour around my "studio", showing werks in progress and the general filth and disarray of my working space, intercut with some finished paintings, with an ultra-deadpan monologue over the top.

It is a fine piece of werk...
[WARNING CONTAINS STROBOSCOPIC IMAGES]


"School Of Saatchi" the TV show airs tonight, 9pm, BBC2.

It clicked

[WEDNESDAY 18 NOVEMBER 2009]
I decided it was about time I put some of these canvases to bed. ‘SMILE’ and the ‘rock face’ have been hanging around drying for a good few weeks now, I’ve had plenty of time to live with them, which means plenty of time to become a little objective about them.

I took ‘SMILE’ to task this morning. Although it has a subtle glow, I felt it needed to glow some MORE. So outside, in the gusting winds, I went at it with some white chalk, fingers and a paintbrush. It looked bad at first, but by the time I was through the glowing was growing. It will need a few more sessions, though, I daresay. I took the behemoth canvas back in the house, leaving faint evidence of my werkings in the leaf litter.


Next, that ‘rock face’, or at least the dark chasm enveloping the pink neon glow. Problem is it still isn’t quite enveloping it intensely enough. This could take some time…

I sat and pondered the ‘rock face’. I took photographs. It clicked. There is a specific section of the neon path that is not right. I will deal with that next week. Or the week after.

A moment’s deliberation. I decided to go back to werking on ‘SMILE’ at least I’ll feel like I’m getting somewhere.

It got too dark to werk outside, so I had to stop. ‘SMILE’ looks great in the half-light, not quite there in the artificial light yet, though.

5pm: just got some time to black out the edges of ‘Three and Eight’ – that is the one painting I do believe is now ready to be signed and released. Watch this space.

thick red paint

[WEDNESDAY 11 NOVEMBER 2009]
Last week I had the day off, I needed it. I made up for it a bit by spending a few hours chopping wood last night, I now have timber ready to make 3 canvases 80cm x 130cm – this will be my new format.

Today I am back in the studio. I have inspiration. It is mainly inspiration for new paintings. I am trying to channel it into current ones. I spent hallowe’en weekend in post-mushroom hell. Thankfully BBC4 had programmed an alternative horror-fest: an evening with Francis Bacon. It gave me ideas, it gave me inspiration, it made me want to paint.

‘Home Sweet Home’ is being taken to task. A palette thick with red pigments, I am here to paint…



10 dirty brushes, 3 wet canvases, 10 minutes to 2, and I’m cleaning up.