Its a new year, hurrah, and time for new work. Over the years my passion for natural landscapes and forms, of geology, colour and texture, have ripened into a visual language. I owe a great debt to the imagery of NASA, and the amazing photography of people such as Bernhard Edmaier, for my inspiration, so a huge thanks to them. However, having now internalized the geographical formations, patterns, strata’s, they now erupt onto and into my work.
The gorgeous stones and carved columns of the Chapter House were a perfect setting for my landscapes, and the natural light flooding through the arched windows was a perfect light show , sometimes highlighting and sometimes shading.
Wow! what a great experience, and a chance to meet people and talk about my work, art in general, and the gallery. It seems that Sam Scorer Gallery is part of the community, and people have woven Sams into their lives, several people say that visiting Sams is part of their routine. My term at Sams went on longer than expected, as our 1st exhibition fell through due to exhibitors illness. However, theres always a silver lining and I was able to continue for longer.
Artist in residency began at Sam Scorer Gallery 13th Jan, its been brilliant working in such a great place, lots of natural light, and space. I have been working on panels for an upcoming exhibition in Oct, called “Earth Inspired”. As usual panels in initial stages have to be worked on flat, as I am applying layers of texture in a semi fluid state, and because there is a lot of room, I can work on several panels at the same time.
I have just finished a very successful solo exhibition, it was two years lead up, creating new works, both 2D and 3D, it was an amazing 2 years, taking images and forms from out of my head and imagination, and transforming the nebulous into the concrete, it was sometimes painful sometimes boring and often joyous, hitting ‘the zone’ Ultimately it was my voice speaking in a visual language, hopefully connecting via thoughts and process.
You can see images, and follow my journey via my blog.
Here are some images taken from my current exhibition at Sam Scorer.
Had an amazing evening event with Dan & Julien playing guitar & using electronic interface to produce amazing musical response to the changing earthscapes of my work.
This panel continues my “Earth Series”panels, it is 4′ x 4′ painted in acrylic, gilded with dutch metal, and patinated.
I continue with my exploration of emergence, evolution, and entropy.
When finishing a panel, because they are very heavy, the panel needs to be braced, edges tidied up, and the back to be cleaned and painted. I find this aspect very much a chore but a necessary one. I have endless lists, such as buy needed equipment, brushes, wood glue, scalpel blades, sand paper, and…………… next on the list, keep up with blog, and posts, and other media networking stuff, and not even mentioning sourcing display frames, etc. I shall stop now as I feel a scream coming.
This panel is a bit of a departure from my other work, I have tried to illustrate by texture the types of rock surface. I t is not finished yet but is well on the way. The title “Chasm” is self explanatory.
Below is a selection of close ups of texture detail. This is still a work in progress.
Detail from “Chasm”
Detail from “Chasm”
Detail from “Chasm”
Detail from “Chasm”
Detail from “Chasm”
close up from panel “Chasm”
I was a mess, my studio a crash site, gesso coating my hands, and paint all over me, I hadn’t realised quite how much I like to physically get down and dirty with the materials, because I love smearing and rubbing in with my fingers. My studio is trashed, not an inch of space to put anything anywhere. I start a piece of work with a reasonably tidy space, and then just go hell for leather, and because I use such a variety of stuff, materials, implements brushes etc, very quickly I have organised chaos. I have three panels in progress at the moment, all at various stages, so that when I am waiting for drying and setting time I can work on another piece, it also allows me to stand back from work to view with fresh eyes. Well, on reflection, there is no room to stand back!
