I belong to an exhibiting group Called Lincoln Artists Society, we have regular exhibitions to showcase our members work, but trying to choose what I am going to submit to selection panel, is always a quandary for me. Do I choose my particular favorite of the moment? or do I go for something that is going to stand up for its self among a plethora of diverse styles, shapes, colours, sizes? Do I choose 2D? or go for 3D. When people buy works, they choose pieces that are sympathetic to each other, or within the bounds of a certain style that they like, but a mixed exhibition is a huge battleground of differing styles, techniques, of bold, and quiet, modern, post modern, and on and on…………. What did I decide? I hedged my bets, and submitted 2 x 3D assemblages, and 2 x 2D assemblages.

The result was 1 panel selected and 2 assemblages.

 

 

 

My panels are ready for 1st layers, its always exciting, and at the same time frustrating, as each layer has to be given time to dry out before  going on.

As you see I have used sand to create texture directly into wet mixture, I have to work quite quickly and physically to apply large amounts like this, I use a number of methods to apply, including, spreading, trailing, and pouring, at wet stage materials can be embedded, at soft stage I can make marks into gesso, at hard stage, I can sand and carve.

I always have other work to hand, and often work on several projects concurrently, at present I am harvesting and dipping plants, and flowers in paper clay porcelain slip, to eventually become part of my assemblages,

I have been keeping a visual diary of this commission for anyone interested in the journey from bare board to finished piece. I start by preparing m.d.f. panel of size required by sanding and priming. Why mdf? because it is a reliable sub-strait on which to apply layers of gesso, wood moves too much.

These drawings are my first tools, and I use the working sketches as guides for the panels, of which there will be 2,

4′ x 2′ each. Once the panels are drawn out, I can start to apply gesso to create the textures and  the layers. It is a slow build up, allowing for each layer to solidify and dry out before moving on.

Here is the 1st of several images of my exhibition at Sam Scorer Gallery

Gallery view

People never cease to amaze! I was confronted by two blokes who very gently admonished me for giving images for Gallery pre- publicity that were not truly representative of the work in the gallery. I apologized, and agreed that I had been tardy, they were very kind and said that in actual fact, it had been a nice surprise for them, and they greatly enjoyed the exhibition. I feel I have been given a fair warning, to give as much attention to the stuff we think of as tedious, as it is just as representative, and is whats more, out there.