rca secret exhibition 2013

tomorrow the RCA's Secret postcard art sale & exhibition returns for its twentieth year, this time at the royal college of art's shiny new dyson building in battersea, london.[RCA SECRET 2013]some london cabbies might not like to drive south of the river but some avid postcard art collectors no doubt will, in the scrabble to view all the RCA postcards - maybe a sports car cad (anag.) this year they've announced there will be 2700 postcards on show from 1000 artists!some of this year's more famous contributors have been variously revealed as: David Bailey, Christo, Paula Rego, Julian Opie, John Baldessari, Manolo Blanik, Paul Smith, Orla Kiely... this is where it starts to go a bit art celebrity to excite the postcard art punters. the identities of the postcards' creators are only revealed after the sale as all postcards are anonymously displayed during the exhibition. is that a postcard by... or is it by another artist?in addition to the more well-known, invited artists - who always seem to give a frisson of excitement to the proceedings each year - the other contributing artists are mostly students or graduates of the royal college of art.there may also be some other artists who are neither RCA graduates nor very well-known in the world of art and design - maybe this is because RCA Secret is now a highly anticipated and regarded annual exhibition & art sale on the london art scene/map/circuit - and it's all for a good *cause![rca secret exhibition at RCA kensington gore -  pic from the telegraph]if you are interested in buying a RCA SECRET postcard you will need to register first at RCA Secret's website to obtain a RCA Secret buyer's number, any time before the big day of the sale, which is on saturday 23 march 2013, open to the public from 8am to 6pm.the queues of buyers will probably stretch all the way to chelsea… apparently many people begin queuing in earnest from 5am, or even camp out overnight- it's early birds an' all that..!each postcard costs £45 - if you love it,  it's affordable - but note, it's strictly limited to four purchases per person - more art for more people, fair's fair. if you are near the front of the queue (a requirement for the serious art collector) the more choices you will have.all the RCA secret postcards are also available to view on the RCA Secret website from thursday, 14 march 2013, enabling you to browse all 2700 postcards at your leisure before your visit to the exhibition. i enjoy browsing the postcards online (as i have never visited the exhibition, such is the draw of the rustic idyll). most of the postcards are (or look) handmade: lots of painting, printmaking and drawing - some are mixed media or more sculptural in form within the dimensions of a traditional postcard - and there's some photography or graphic design in the mix. all styles and genres of art can be found here, from the figurative to the abstract, the witty to the more whimsical or peculiar, and sometimes art school rebellious - all good fun.so, a few weeks back i "made" three new postcards for RCA Secret 2013, which i cannot possibly reveal here - but i can humbly reveal that i made this:[love jazz, RCA SECRET postcard, 2011]...RCA SECRET 2013Royal College of Art, BatterseaDyson Building1 Hester RoadLondonSW11 4ANthe RCA SECRET art exhibition is open to the public 14 – 22 march 2013, 11am – 6pm, late opening on thursday 21 march until 9pm.the RCA SECRET postcard sale is on saturday 23 march 2013, open to the public from 8am to 6pm.*proceeds from RCA Secret go to the RCA Fine Art Student Award Fund. more information about RCA Secret is on the RCA Secret website....

another winter, in pictures

another winter stuck out in the sticks; or how i have endeavoured to evoke a fleeting sense of this winter landscape, in pictures.what follows are some of my small sketchbook paintings (on paper) from the months of january and february.[flooded corner of a field, sketchbook painting, acrylic on paper, 7" x 10"]these small paintings will probably mean very little to those who do not live or work in the countryside, but perhaps to some of those who do, it might look slightly familiar: of dreary rain-drenched days, the flustering blustering wind which blows this way and that, or the earthy dampness of a foggy grey morning, the veil of mist or frost on fields, or days when the air is piercing and clear, freezing the landscape into a tundra-like quietude.[sketchbook paintings]i am always drawn towards the skyline, where a thicket of skeleton trees or the raggedy fringe of a hedgerow meets the open skies.and how, at this wintry time of year when this landscape seems even more bleak, earth and sky are still ever-changing in their hues (because of the weather)… on a bright winter's afternoon when an expanse of dark brown field turns a shade of rippled bronze, or when a sulky leaden sky flattens the mired landscape with a melancholic hue.[dimly dusk, sketchbook painting, acrylic on paper, 5" x 7"][rain on the marsh, sketchbook painting, acrylic on paper, 7" x 10"]it is also curious how the rural landscape in winter can give a [false] sense of being in a wilderness, because there are few houses, and in these modern times, very few people are needed to work this agricultural land.this landscape can appear desolate at times.[sketchbook paintings][remains of snow, sketchbook painting, acrylic on paper, 5" x 7"]it's always the little things that catch your eye: the vibrancy of green when framed by the gap in a spindly hedge, a puddled corner of a field glinting silver in the low sun, or the last traces of snow melting in the long shadows… insignificant, transient things.anyone who cares to notice might want to tell you about these incidental things, never mind trying to take a picture...[snow melting, sketchbook painting, acrylic on paper, 5" x 7"][sketchbook paintings][shingle hill, sketchbook painting, acrylic on paper, 7" x 10"]each painting 'sketch' took about fifteen minutes, so cumulatively this amounts to only three hours of field work.here, inside the pages of a sketchbook (or two), i was aiming to express, very loosely in paint, what the rural landscape looks and feels like on some days in winter, from observation, memory and experience. everyone will have their own point of view: nothing really changes, every day it changes.it is interesting that buildings and people (or animals) do not interest me here, so perhaps i was only looking to seek that elemental sense of a wilderness in winter, isolating the isolation, finding solace in the solitude.this is what i find myself returning to at odd moments when it seems i have made little headway in my other work. i hope one day to get better at expressing the thoughts and ideas in my head...…Where little pictures idly tellsOf nature's powers & nature's spells,I felt and shunned the idle vein,Laid down the pen and toiled again[John Clare, The Progress of Rhyme]

an escape from the country

dear reader, do you remember my experimental travelling iCons series from 2010 - where will they go, i often do not know...three of these small canvases are currently on display at the lovely cork brick gallery, three small canvases looking forward to travelling somewhere new. they are: maroc, nepal and tsavotsavo, 2010, 13cm x 13cm x 3cm. read more about this small abstract on canvas, tsavo - another journey into colourmaroc, 2010, 13cm x 13cm x 3cm. photographed in natural daylight on a typically cloudy day in great britain. read more about this small abstract canvas, maroc - around the world in one hundred abstractsnepal 2010, in the artist's studio, under the spotlight!nepal 2010, seen on a rare outing to the end of the artist's garden, where rust and algae grows - it seems at home here, despite the weather. read more about this small abstract on canvas, nepal - painting by numberstsavo, pueblo (centre, not in the gallery), and maroc.there are many more small abstracts in the (travelling) iCons series here (with tour guide explanation), and just over there to the right you will see that there are more canvases ready to travel light to new places, in the country or the city.why is it always about the art on show in cities, in new york, london, berlin..? oh wait, i forgot, that's how this virtually travelling project started - seeing the world, taking a virtual holiday, on an internet road trip, a small break from the norm, getting away from it all, on a (not so) grand tour, an escape from the country*...*escape to the country is a BBC daytime TV property series in which prospective house buyers hunt for their perfect home in the countryside. as a nation of people living quite close together on quite a small island, we quite like watching property & travel shows.Tourists don't know where they've been, travellers don't know where they're going.Paul Theroux (travel writer)...