I cycled ten miles yesterday... passed these farm buildings on my return (first noted on the outward journey)... not particularly thrilled with these sketches as they were quite rushed; about fifteen minutes or so for the first two, less for the last one...
[barn and sheds, seen from the roadside]
[barn buildings, near a bend]
[farm buildings, viewed across corner of a field]These sketches are about 8" x 11". For anyone interested in my sketching methods, I used watercolour pencils on lightly dampened paper (I carry a tiny jam jar of water). These sketches, although appearing representational, are not what I am striving for - the regional art scene is saturated with representational landscapes. It is more to do with working quickly 'on location' which I think re-awakens a different part of my creative brain, quite separate from an isolated studio practice largely driven by concepts and processes. I am interested too in the prevailing art aesthetic-sisation of mundane, rural scenes. I am pondering whether to use my amazon voucher to purchase a book on Andrew Wyeth's landscapes...
Andrew Wyeth, House near Chadd's Ford...Today, after visiting the Harleston Gallery, I stopped by the local allotments - there will be an art & allotments themed exhibition in the future... I captured a couple of quick abstracts, looking for bold interactions of colour, both of which (here) contained the complementary colours blue and orange...
and here, I just thought the arrangement of the three different water butts placed next to the potting shed made a pleasing composition, a still life of sorts...
...The HWAT Mini Artworks & Showcase exhibition is now open...
I am not sure that my painting Fenn (pictured left) looks quite right hung so close to a small etching and a life drawing, but it is currently in a fine gallery and not on my own wall (which is nice)... the wall of mini-artworks looks really appealing - many art bargains to be had at only £25 each...
Click here to read about HWAT's Mini-Works and Showcase Exhibition...It's also the last weekend of the Artworks exhibition at Wingfield Barns Arts Centre
pirating the caribbean
[trinidad 2010, hand-coloured collagraph on paper on canvas]Trinidad has become the working title for this small abstract on canvas, as returned by an analysis & association of colour values (read more about my colour values)... the vibrant stripes do seem to echo the colours of carnival, and the structures of the makeshift tin and brick settlements or shanty towns of the Carribbean, places which, despite their obvious veneer of poverty, still resonate with a resourceful and determined spirit.
[trinidad, another view]This is a photograph of the Laventille hills in the Port of Spain, Trinidad.
If one only chooses to see the poverty and crime associated with these supposed slum settlements of the Carribbean, then one would also miss out on witnessing the cultural homeland of carnival, calypso music, and the uplifting rhythms and beats of steelpan bands......
Back in June 2003, I took this photograph of the neighbour's old tin shed (which backed onto the boundary of our two gardens). Shortly after, the (then new) neighbour took down the delapidated shed. I remarked at the time that I quite liked seeing the rusty facade of the shed (from my side), to which he replied: 'ah, you must be an artist'.
However, the neighbour, being a resourceful diy type, re-used what was salvagable from the wreck, and parts of it later re-appeared as a boundary fence at the bottom of the garden. So, I am still able to marvel at the myriad colours of rust in the metal corrugation, a found painting that I can see day after day.
the royal academy summer exhibition 2009
this was my first ever [and most probably last] try at entering the mother of all open exhibitions, the royal academy summer exhibition, and i am sorry to inform you that this tiny work (20cm x 20cm x 5cm, float box framed) was not selected for the final exhibition... 40% of exhibiting artists are current RA Academicians, and with nearly 10,000 entries this year, just under 1200 works were selected for the final exhibition... it was a long, long shot... and simple stripes either hit or miss, when not in the major league of bridget riley, ian davenport, robert ryman et al...
my only issue is that this small, original work on paper is currently residing in a dark basement in Burlington Gardens in central London... and being the quite skint artist (the train fare is upwards of £30), and probably not having any free days to go down to London before the end of June, i had an idea... this painting is free to whomever wishes to claim it from the RA store before June 27th 2009...
all you have to do, dear reader, is write to me at:
and tell me why you would like to give this rejected painting a new home... you need to travel to or live in or near London to claim it (overseas applicants need not apply), provide a name and full address so that instructions can be sent to you, and be prepared to provide documentary evidence of its safe retrieval from The Royal Academy stores, and also inform me where it will subsequently reside, so that i can officially confer ownership to you by letter...
in the meantime, if you want to visit the 2009 RA summer exhibition of selected paintings, prints and sculpture (and now video art), the show runs from 8 June to 16 August 2009 at The Royal Academy of Arts - summer exhibition in Piccadilly, London, and it will cost you up to £9 to get in... queues are likely...edit: the painting has now found a new owner...