on painting and printmaking for squares

two free art demonstrations in one week, making light of the work of not so idle hands... firstly, on painting without brushes...this is a photograph of the artist's demonstration area, taken late in the day; i am rather fond of the paint-splattered bath towels. it was interesting to note that the three in-progress canvases already echoed the character of the barn, but in a more reduced, minimalist manner... painting without brushes' aim was to show that paint can be applied (and removed) by various means to achieve textural depth and intriguing surface qualities...the particular aspect of conveying the visual appearance of the slow passage of time is key to how i paint... layering, accretion, then eroded, scarred, denuded...and here are some of the paintings (farmscapes) and, unavoidably, some artist's feet also appeared in the frame, my red painting mules or ruby slippers......and then there was printmaking for squares, another night on the tiles, demonstrating the intaglio printmaking processes in my recent series of small collagraph prints.i forgot to take my camera but some people were taking photographs of the artists at work (so i may get digital copies soon) and many came to watch, to ask questions and appreciate the work that goes into making art. there were about fifteen artists demonstrating a range of art-making processes, from printmaking to wax batik, papermaking and sculpture over the course of three hours.i took along some collagraph plates, printing paper, etching inks and even my humble, small etching press, with its rickety, edwardian hostess trolley base, but i forgot my hotplate and a desk lamp.it was an event well attended and i hope enjoyed by the many visitors despite the stormy weather brewing outside...here are two collagraph print/canvases i made earlier, taken along as examples of the intaglio collagraph processes i have used, from the ongoing, and globally expanding iCons (or eye cons), virtually travelling  'around the world in one hundred abstracts', with some help from google, wikipedia et al...mexico (city), intaglio collagraph on canvas, 2010have i mentioned that these are really quite tiny at 5" x 5", but they are very tactile pieces, canvases that ask to be picked up, placed just so, moved around, made a small feature of, rearranged, on their own or re-configured with one or two more for some colourful company.the colours in these works have become darker but also richer, with very touchable surfaces, with a visual aesthetic appeal recalling something similar to old leather or waxed, aged wood, neither paper nor canvas but now something else, modern & new and yet somehow vintage, an antique, a relic...milano, intaglio collagraph print on box canvas, 2010this led to a discussion regarding the experience of art in galleries (especially sculpture) and the importance or need to experience art through touch, in contrast to the only look/do not touch policy...is this the subtle psychological difference between (as perceived or presented) high art & humble crafts? that is, fine art maintains its higher status by being untouchable for the many, contextually separated, intellectually distanced, suggesting that craft is essentially manual, practical, created by hand for a particular purpose, fashioned from the earth and not a product of the metaphysical mind...of course, those creative, aesthetic boundaries are continually encountered & challenged by the individual artist/maker but the conceptual classification still exists in the art world...so, i am wondering if these iCons are becoming something of a diffusion line in artistic terms - more affordable, ready-to-hang or display, hand-crafted artworks that reflect some of my artistic concerns but are more instantly appealing as objects, decorative, collectible even... but, i think in reality, these are transitional artworks, that will, in time, signify a shift in my initial concepts, my creative thinking, a change in methods and materials, in form and substance...you will see, dear reader, that this is where maintaining an artist journal (as opposed to a regular look at what i made today art blog) is of the greatest benefit to the artist - artists look both backwards and forwards, upways, downways, sideways, both ways - well, you never really know what's around the next corner even if you've been around the block a few times......i have not forgotten the postcard art giveaway - the names have just been verified & collated (all eleven of them - thank you kindly!!), a list drawn up and then randomised to select just one winner - but for blog tidiness it will be announced in a new blog post......

mouldscapes, in more detail

nine mouldscapes; these are mixed media on wood panel, 15cm x 15cm x 4cm...here are three of the panels, photographed at a jaunty angle...mouldscape I (side-ish view)mouldscape II (side-ish view)mouldscape III (side-ish view)and all nine mouldscape panels, full on...mouldscape Imouldscape IImouldscape IIImouldscape IVmouldscape Vmouldscape VImouldscape VIImouldscape VIIImouldscape IXthese small paintings on panel are currently on view in the artworks exhibition at blackthorpe barn,  open daily. 10am – 5pm, 11 September to 3 October 2010…why only nine? well, i only managed to complete nine in time for the exhibition - i have plans to do at least twenty five... which would give me more opportunity to develop patinas, textures, surfaces, etc - i also like very much working on this smaller scale - they become extra tactile objects - the gaze extends to the touch...is it real mould? no! i would never entertain any kind of mould in the house - it can be deadly - no, these are  just creatively adapted from nature...why mould, exactly? am just endlessly fascinated by things that are simultaneously beautiful, a little bit ugly in the wrong context (or eyes) and equally a little bit in awe of, not quite knowing if it is good or bad, a sign of life or death...  it's quite existential stuff, really...perhaps they also act as visual antidotes to all things sterile and clinical in our western culture - and the persistent culture of fear that the media (especially the daily mail) continually perpetuates - and the environmental pollution and health issues that evolve as a result of seeking to eradicate all signs of a natural, biological world... have i said this before? nature is quite cruel really, we must respect its ecology...

on the lie of the land

paper, crumpled, textured, samples or forms, exampled... some 'arty' photographs, in the slow build-up to creating something new... (all in good time; soon enough...)this looks like a decaying leaf...as does this...and this looks like a craggy rockscape, or a crevasse...another rocky, mountainous barren landscape, one that looks oddly familiar...from my antarctica sketchbook, june 2010you can see more of my antarctica sketches here, when, despite that fact it was early june and the start of the summer, i spent some time out in a virtual, cold wilderness...there are many landscape painters in this region, and it is perhaps no surprise that the east anglian landscape should be interpreted in the main quite realistically, representationally - conveying an appealing impression of 'being there' for the viewers, more than the artist's individual experience. i find it difficult to adequately quantify why some paintings engage and draw us in and other paintings fail to - whether success or failure is just down to a painting's style, the painterly process, or whether the fact of the matter is - are they being truthful or playing along with the lie of the land?an artist friend asked me the other day if i knew the paintings of michael porter - no, i didn't - but on visiting his website i was very surprised to discover that he paints a little like me, or perhaps, i paint a little like him - but there are more figurative elements applied to the shifting, textural grounds of his large canvas paintings. the colours of a autumnal leaf, a river's surface with its underlying pattern of vegetation, old woodlands, craggy rocks and found pebbles are just some of his visual influences - all interpreted in a very organic and sensory manner... i could see the connection to my very own lichenscapes... i found the visual contrast of a freely-worked surface with very finely worked botanical details quite mesmerising (at least, as seen from the photographs)...michael porter's large studio in cornwall... jealous, moi??For many years I have described what I do as ‘making’ paintings rather than ‘painting’ paintings, even though the materials I use normally conform to those used by traditional artists, What I attempt to do is use the natural characteristics of paint itself as a means of describing nature.  For me, creating a painting is not simply a mechanical process. Like the land itself, it is something you sense - through your feet, your hands and your eyes.Michael Porter, interviewed by Peta-Jane Field, Art in Cornwallhe puts it very well, what it means to translate an experience into a painting. it becomes something akin to but independent of its source. paint & canvas is the vehicle, the surface is the transmitter, the subject reveals a message, the gaze is the confirmation and response becomes its meaning... it seems somewhat fortuitous to have discovered porter's work (via my friend's recommendation, having seen similarities of process and subject in my work) for it has affirmed in me that it is still good to make paintings - to manipulate the material of paint, to use the transformative qualities of paint to create illusions, sensory surfaces, a surface that is alive, that contains depth & intricacy... he also reminds me that one has to look, to experience and then to paint for many years to refine one's concepts  about nature and the environment... trust your instinct, be truthful and then just do the work......there is an interesting discussion going on over at the guardian website regarding the threadneedle art prize - the perennial representational art versus conceptual art debate, good art, bad art, skills, or no skills, etc... no shocks or surprises perhaps, a photo-realist painting by boyd & evans won the top prize and most of the other works look quite ordinary on the threadneedle website, but perhaps you really have to be there...in the run up to the artworks exhibition, there seems to have been lots of practical, day-to-day, non-art issues to deal with ... but i did grab a peaceful hour or so on a very pebbled beach... some quick sketches in pencil, acrylic and watercolour...sketchbooks at the coast...i think i need to retreat a little (in blogospheric terms) until after the demonstration of 'painting without brushes' next week at the artworks exhibition - except that i do, very occasionally, also use traditional paint brushes... and yes, this really is the artist at work on those lichenscape paintings...i am currently exhibiting two new large paintings, lichenscape I & II and a series of small works, aka the mouldscapes, at the 11th annual artworks exhibition at blackthorpe barn, 11 September to 3 October 2010, it's open daily 10am – 5pm…until the next time......