two photographs of my work in the art exhibition at walberswick over the spring holiday weekend. i was delighted and honoured to be a guest artist in this 'pop-up' art exhibition in the village hall. the eight artists in the Suffolk Coastal Group Spring exhibition were: Miles Fairhurst, Jazz Green, Eveline Hastings, Glynn Hugo, Julie Noad, Anne Paton, David Riches, Helen Riches.although my work is not specific to this picturesque and popular seaside village [fishermen's huts, harbour, boats, the beach, sand dunes, etc], much of my work is indirectly influenced by the coast, of time and tide, and i hope it complemented the more scenic paintings on show:
the large canvas paintings date from 2004 [stratum], 2008 [voda] and 2015 [fyre] - all are from a series i have called 'edgescapes'.stratum [edgescape] was first exhibited at wingfield arts in the exhibition land and light in 2004, and it hasn't been seen in public since. the smaller paintings on paper and wood panels are from 2010-2012.all my recent work [collage] is on show at another gallery, so i selected [or is that curated?] these paintings with the hope that they would provide an interesting show of my work in this context. also nice to spend time with the other artists, also meeting & chatting with many visitors.around 550-600 people visited the art exhibition over the three days, and the exhibition looked contemporary and inviting in the village hall. the hall is a modern, bright and spacious venue, and the professional display panels provide the perfect space transformation from hall to gallery. sunny and breezy [weather] for most of the weekend, but by monday at 6pm [when the show came down] the wind whipped and lashed, the rain pattered and pelted.
thrilled to have sold three small paintings [and some cards] in this exhibition, which [after exhibition costs] helps directly with the household bills [supplements the income from the day job/s]. there is always hope when others appreciate and find value in your work [thank you].including the the 2004 'stratum' edgescape painting is a reminder of my journey as an artist, and my progress [or not...] i have been feeling a little sad since the exhibition closed, for a variety of reasons... now trying to recall some of the responses to my large paintings: 'beautiful' and 'evocative' to cosmic, universal, pulsates, sensation, etc.edges, horizons, crossings, boundaries - all visual influences and factors in daily life... also my 'intention' to transcend the pictorial/illusion of the surface, wanting an aesthetic not bound by a specific location or time/place 'narrative' - maybe in the way that painterly gestures can convey meaning beyond surface mark-making for some people.sometimes the artist paints what they hope for, not what they have. the duties of a 'day job' inevitably feels like a distraction from hope - how much time is needed for hope to exist? maybe like most things, hope expands to fill the time it is given.i am always reminded 'to be an artist is a privilege'[1]. i need some periods of calm, maybe sought or reflected elsewhere - the why/how [maybe over time] - 'tuning in'... self-discovery, the accumulation of wisdom and experience - you can't emulate that... genuinely find this aspect of focusing on the 'essence' difficult, the thought=spaces... a phone rings, voices, more noise, no escape..pretty sure i have painted large paintings for the types of places where i would like to live, where i imagine them to be, to be experienced - i still have some of the paintings. i would like [ideally, if i had studio space] to paint larger pictures, and follow where that leads. painting large pictures in small spaces is reflected in the work - controlled, precise, restrained..when i've needed an honest/critical response to the large paintings, some people sensed hope and not despair, which is intriguing. others might blithely say 'rothko' [still]... in response to all of that, i am now making small intricate things [most of which are at the cork brick gallery in bungay, suffolk].during the walberswick exhibition weekend, on a mission to purchase teabags & artisan biscuits from the village shop, i observed these scrawls on the side of a builder's skip; another found drawing. an expression of one's thoughts and feelings: all over the place...