New work, mid-January: Iced Summer, Enivrez-Vous, Bright Young Thing (ii)

Iced Summer

view on etsy (opens in new window)

Enivrez-Vous (large detail)

view on etsy

Bright Young Thing (II)
etsy

Save The Old Lock Up Studio - an exciting new crowdfunding arts project in Cromford, Derbyshire!

Fellow artist Rachael Pinks has a great little studio in a historic building in our local village, Cromford, Derbyshire.  She has set up a rewards-based initiative on the UK-based Crowdfunding site We Did This in order to extend the lease on the studio and expand its uses to serve arts and crafts activities in the local area, including a regular affordable life drawing class, arts and crafts workshops, regular "open studio" selling events and low-cost work/exhibition space for individual artists, all based on a self-supporting, non-profit making collective ethos:

http://www.wedidthis.org.uk/projects/save-old-lock-studio

A shot of the exterior of the studio (centre)

Below, a glimpse of Rachael's wonderful art:

Teardrop by Rachael Pinks

The Day After Yesterday by Rachael Pinks

and the studio space:

Below, some photos of the recent Open Studios Christmas event- (the first of many, we hope!) :

The rewards:  This is a unique opportunity for art lovers to buy affordable original works from an exciting emerging British painter.  Then there is the lasting sense of achievement from having contributed towards developing the studio into a thriving, independent rural arts hub - nurturing creativity in people of all ages and ultimately enriching the culture of the area - all from an individual contribution of as little as £10.  Quite something if you compare that to the ephemeral nature of most everyday spending!  

Framed works and prints by Rachael Pinks on display at the Apple Day art event, Scarthin Promenade, Cromford, last autumn.


 Discover more here








Rachael's art blog

http://rachaelpinksart.co.uk/

Catching up with Channel 4's Life Class: Today's Nude series.

A quick sketch done during the John Berger/Maria Muñoz episode.    I really need to go to a regular life class.  As you can see! 

But I found Maria - dancer and one half of Mal Pelo- so fascinating to observe  - her tough yet elfin androgynous grace. 

All episodes are intriguing though. I loved the encouraging guidance and sensitive comments by tutor Judy Purbeck in episode 2.  Once begun, I had to watch the lot in one session. They are only half an hour long each and as I was drawing along each time, they really sped by!  My only criticism would be that there was sometimes too much commentary in situ. I was quite happy for silence to reign, sometimes artists (Hume and Ocean specifically) seemed to feel an obligation to speak (very distracting for the artist and observer both, I think) rather than just leaving us to observe/draw.  Perhaps an occasional split screen might have been more useful at certain moments to reveal how the featured artists were progressing along.

Watch series one here (UK ONLY? Probably)

There's also a great flickr pool of others' drawings in direct response to the programmes here

As Maggi Hambling (the artist who accompanies us in episode one - a definite highlight!) and others emphasised: although the series makes a great introduction to life drawing, it's a completely different experience - a privilege actually - to really draw "from the life".
Why not have a go?  Is there a class near you?

New silver clay ring

Here's a new ring-in progress, formed by
carving the silver clay at the dry stage.
After firing in the kiln it was dipped in
Liver of Sulphur solution to darken the lower
areas giving greater contrast to the burnished
upper surface.


















Part way through the carving process I began to make
smaller scored lines and notches in some areas trying
to echo and amplify the lines and irregularities seen in
the surface of the fingers. I like the idea of pieces that
sit well with the characterful fissures of use and age.
This is one interesting aspect of making it up as you go
along, you allow space for new things to come up.
I was also using the irregular slight dips and hills of the
simple clay shape to determine where and how I was
carving into the clay. The deeper carved areas set up
natural weaknesses and tensions in the clay which can
cause cracking when you fire the piece, and this happened
in one place on the inside surface.
but this can easily be righted by refiring with oil paste
in the gap, which forms a very strong bond fusing with the
surrounding metal.


The look here is influenced by work
made using lost wax casting technique, something I
would love to have experience of and access to, but with
silver clay I enjoy that you often find your own ways around
technical difficulties to make a fine silver object without much
equipment, it can all be done in a very small kitchen.



more silver clay jewellery here

metal clay info

Abstract in progress

First of a new winter series

New painting, "Ambergris"

11 x 14 oil on canvas board.


details:

view on etsy

Details from work in progress:

This first is a more "alchemy-influenced" painting,

-which feels as though it marks the coming of the dark half of the year,
a possible time for occultation, and finding strength deep inside oneself.
In the fog and murk one might at least stumble upon a new direction.
"Honour thine error as a hidden intention" as the Oblique Strategies card set
has it.

I'm currently exploring Taoist alchemy http://www.goldenelixir.com/jindan.html

and magical calligraphy;
James Elkins has written engagingly on the kinship between painting and alchemy in "What Painting Is".

Meet Me at the Airport: The Midlands Open at the Tarpey

Well, near the airport, anyway... the Tarpey  gallery is situated behind a beautiful thatch-roofed house in Castle Donington high street.

Yesterday evening saw the opening night of the Midlands Open exhibition now in its third year.
http://tarpeygallery.com/index.php/art/midlands_open_2011/
One out of the three paintings I had submitted is on display,
Madeleine de Demandolx:

and I was very happy with its positioning and the lighting etc.
A great deal of hard work was clearly involved and to curate such a variety
and quantity of work well is not easy; the results were impressive.

I went along with fellow artist Rachael Pinks, (to whom huge thanks for making me aware
of the event and making it accessible to me as I don't drive.)
Two of her abstract paintings are on view there currently, in the main gallery room.
http://rachaelpinksart.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/midlands-open-at-the-tarpey-gallery/

I really like the gallery interior; the weathered red brick on several walls
contrasts well with the more conventional carte blanche setup.
I was surprised how well certain works look against these walls,
lending them a backdrop with mellow character.  (I was similarly intrigued
at how good several paintings looked against a background of living foliage,
at the recent Apple Day event!) I regret not taking a camera along, but wasn't
sure of the etiquette in these matters.  It was good to see the high standard
of work included, and the variety of media, techniques and subject matter.
The balance struck between  abstract and figurative seemed well thought out.
I was drawn as I often seem to be, to the printmaking side of things.
More ceramic works would have been welcome, but space was at a
premium, clearly and the limited amount of 3d work on show was great.

A few personal highlights: Two stone litho works by Serena Smith,
Pastorale I and II from the Exegesis series,  particularly caught my eye.
  Chris Pickup 's Turquoise Door.  
 John Paul Cooke's Untitled 890 (oil on board)
- as an aside, this was also very well framed,as Rachael pointed out to me.
It's a tribute to the framer that I had been aware only of the painting itself
up to that moment, yet when I switched focus to the framing,
it seemed perfect.)

Ashop for Joan, a small oil and varnish on canvas by Michael Bruzon on
display in the lobby of the main house, appealed to us both.

I also enjoyed the sculptures in resin and wire by Jason Carey, and
  Sarah Fiander 's winning sculpture Pale Vessel (which I immediately
wanted to curl up and sail away in) and related painting.
The joint prizewinner was Inge Tong, for her Anon series.

It was exciting to see all the work together, jostling for attention inevitably,
but conjuring up a strong sense of a lively contemporary art community
in the region. This was a busy two-hour event and this inevitably meant
it wasn't possible to take everything in, or indeed connect with any artists
(I'm rubbish at schmoozing and we kept having to flee outside to cool down
and top up on oxygen!) - altho I did meet Andy Parkinson very briefly!
But I hope to discover more in the coming weeks and share my finds here.

Two other paintings, Caw and Clatter

and Machiavellian 

are also currently held by the gallery.  All three works are available for purchase.

The exhibition continues until Christmas Eve.


WEDS - SAT : 11AM - 6PM 
TARPEY GALLERY 
77 HIGH STREET 
CASTLE DONINGTON 
DE74 2PQ
http://tarpeygallery.com/index.php/art/contact/

New painting, "Caw and Clatter"

This is part of a series using gestural large brushstrokes in blackboard paint, with oil colour overlaid with painting knives.  It's partly inspired by the sounds made by corvidae and other birds in and around the trees in autumn.   
The painting is available via the Tarpey Gallery.

Apple Day Preparations...

Apple Day (I)

oil on canvas, 5th October 2011

First of a new series celebrating Apple Day, officially October 21st, but will be on Saturday 22nd here in Cromford, much better for families to join in with apple pressing, games and general apple-based mayhem! 

This event  highlights the need to protect older trees and orchards as both habitats and

producers of heritage or heirloom apples and encourage the growing of less widely

known varieties .

The local independent bookshop, Scarthin Books, has supported Apple Day with

its own celebrations including apple pressing outside on the Promenade at Cromford

for some years.  This year for the first time they are inviting local artists to display their

work there a la Rive Gauche!
Any sales I make will include a 20% donation to

Common Ground.

A few more relevant links are...

orangepippin


The Orchard Network (UK)

a is for apple, a V & A Museum art page

List of Apple Day events in the UK

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_apple_cultivars

...and the painting is on sale here:

etsy link 
(now sold)

"You've just let yourself go, haven't you?" - exploring local textures

Lately I'm feeling very much that I'm missing so much that is right under my nose and that it's high time I attended to it!   






Here what attracts me is partly the whitewash intention/ eventual, inevitable failure; 
the flaky brick and greenish mortar looking more cavelike than modern.


Also the interplay of human with other aspects of nature.  It seems so inherently poetic.

There are some great Flickr groups on this topic, the "Best Textures" one, for example.  
I enjoyed searching with terms like "peeling", "flaky", "blistered" , "abraded" "rusty" and even "mouldy"!  Not forgetting "palimpsest". 

Other flickr groups celebrating weathered and time-affected materials include "The Rust Bucket" "Wonders of Oxidation"and, especially exciting to me, "Old, Abandoned Houses", and "Rural Decay".