Thursday 30 December 2010

another A4-sized painting


After reading a borrowed book on Jonathan Miller and his ideas on accidental compositions and street-based decollage, I began to draw what I saw on the streets and in the derelict buildings that I visit.. It does look odd though, seeing a grown man stop in the middle of the street to either photograph or draw cracked pathing slabs, but I don't really care..it beatslosing wide-eyed wonder and getting glued to the sofa.

The above painting is part of a series of practise studies for a final composition..I have used enamel paint as well as acrylics..I am thinking of using enamel for the final painting though.

Wednesday 29 December 2010

new painting



After walking around the Fine Art section of Manchester School of Art and chatting to a few fellow [fine-artist] students, I have decided to get my paints out and do some fresh compositions. I haven't really painted for at least 9 months and thought it was time that I actually did some painterly work.

I left some ideas shelved from when I finished Foundation at least 18 months ago and they didn't really reach any final conclusions or resolutions and after doing some test pieces..in which the above painting is..I will then be jogging on with the final and concluded piece.

This one here has been developed from an A5 sized oil and acrylic on board and I have painted it several colour combinations such as black and white and then green on red and back to red on green. After painting the blue on red and thinking that there should be another element added..I decided upon white. It has a very nationalistic feel about it..very Great Britain and Union Jack-like. We SHOULD really take back our flag from the rascist scumbags and begin to get proud of it like the Americans etc.. In the whole scheme of artistic history..I feel this painting is leaning towards the Jasper Johns side then the normal swayings of Constructivism..in all. I am happy with the A4 sized article and now ready to progress onto the A1 canvas.

Sunday 26 December 2010

diptych at Val-Hal



These are the images before mounting and framing..



These are the images in situ...

val-hal gallery

So after being asked by fellow Interactive Arts student, DW, I decided to get involved with an exhibition that was being put up within an old jewellery shop in Blackburn town centre. The shop used to be called Val-Hallah and was the place where I got both my piercings in my ears and in my nose many moons ago and thought it would be a nice but personal gesture to myself. I had also participation within the same location a few weeks back with the Bzzz gallery. The local councils of East Lancashire has got involved with a company called LET which rents out old and disused retail premises and hands them over for local creative and socially based companies..which isn't a bad idea, a sort of pop-up exhibition/gallery space. I am planning my own show be-it a solo airing or a small collective that I'll be hand-picking..a cross-discipline show based on the throwaway. That is really my focus at the moment and is something that I will talk at length at some other time.

And back to Val-Hal. This particular show is being run by a pal at Uni and somebody else who I had previously studied with on a Foundation course prior to Uni. They had already put on a show two years ago at Blackburn Pavillions and due to personal reasons, I decided not to put anything on for that. It was a good show and I went to the opening night and bought a CD by a local acoustica=electronica band, ther space was used to it's creative intentions.. And this spurned on my reasons why I wanted to get involved this time.

I had two of my Lucien Fellowes:Road-Markings photographs printed up to A3 and then got them bespoked framed at TILT in Blackburn. (I prefer to use Tilt as I have used them before and been shopping with them for most of my life. Something of a loyalty aspect I suppose, and just because I like the people who run it.) I had aluminium frames down and they look good with the juxtoposition of the subject matter. They look outstanding, if I may say so myself..it took me some time to eventually settle down to two that I wanted to show.

At the show, I found that somebody had knocked them out of place and had to re-align them. Being of an abstract/mininal and angular nature, they do have to be hung in a specific way..almost neurotically/OCD way. After doing the business, I got talking talking to a woman and basically described the concept of the photography and of the background of my all-encompassing project; Lucien. We had a good chat about the throwaway culture, the philosophy of [shit] and of the human aspect of rubbish as a organic subject.. It wasn't as weird as it reads but was a grounded conversation..I later found out she was the mother of one of the gallery owners.

In all, I have had a great response to the diptych, some really useful feedback. My old painting tutor mentioned Sean Scully as an influence and we had a chat about reductionism in art and of the critic that I am reading, Clement Greenberg. I have found out that they still use some of my assemblage within the classroom and studios as examples of work and quite pleased that some of my work is still relevent. It is an example of my work ethic.. [to do your work like it is the last thing you'll do].

Saturday 11 December 2010

Wrap up

I had the five minute presentation with an extro ten minutes added for questions and for networking bonuses.. I didn't really have the time to make a formal presentation and just explained my thought processes and how I'm going to expand my creative practise. I sort of winged this, I think I know my art and what I want to achieve. I got a 2:1 for the half year review and had points deducted though lack of research which is something I am going to remedy.

I am on with a new project now which is similar to an older one I set out but didn't find a resolution for. I have been told that my work would look a lot better if I concentrate on enlarging the final outcomes. This is something which I find daunting because the work gets noticed a lot more and the nuances become pronounced.. This is something else I have to address.. I have been given the names of Peter Greenaway (art critic and artistis/film-maker) and Clement Greenberg so I have two books out and presently reading up on Greenaway.. I do like his work and I think it'll be a learning curve for me..

Saturday 4 December 2010

Un-Upholstered Chair




There is an unupholstered chair in the grounds of Grosvenor Square. It has been there for several weeks and I don't think it has has any attention. I have a theory that it has been placed there strategically by some art student through some spatial awareness concept project, but I might be wrong. It IS out of place and doesn't belong [there]. I have decided to catalogue it everytime that I go past it. These photographs are three days apart,

Friday 3 December 2010

new projects


Catalyst for new Hepworth inspired project..

So I have now got a few projects under way. They include my new painting series that I have shelved for 18 months, my socio-geographica sculpture, soon to be started site-specific (uni) project and my new Hepworth/Nicholson inspired rock piece. I have the basic design and now need to do some prep drawing and doodles in my notebook. The first thing that I DO have to get sorted is the background research and then the techniques read up on. I love Hepworth and also Moore.. I think their ost-war ethic and styles are fantastic and adore the massiveness of the task ahead..