Summertime

Summer has arrived! I'm planning to carry on with my art over the hols, still on the lookout for instruments in charity shops, got beaten to the punch the other day having seen a guitar in the local Oxfam by some person, but the charities of Pimlico await :D I suppose some interesting news, is that the other day an artist let me in to the studios she works in, which was great because it feels like it's this humungous feat to continue working as an artist after leaving uni, but actually, having seen these studios now, it doesn't feel so far fetched that it's doable to just be an artist. Obviously you would have to get a small job on the side, before making millions later on of course haha, but then she was saying how it's only £20 a week to rent out the space, which isn't horrific, I get the impression these kinds of studios are just dotted around the United Kingdom, so there is hope!

Next up in my practice, I'm on a mission to make it all a bit deeper now, having moved away from my initial obsession with concepts, I've gone a bit the other way, so SOMEHOW (not sure how yet), I need to contextualise a bit, so I shall keep you posted.

First Yr, Fine Art, End of Year Show

Putting up the End of Year show

After endless amounts of marking on the walls to measure everything out, and developing a close relationship with my spirit level and tape measure and possibly a mild case of OCD, I finally got everything up hopefully nice and straight, looking as professional as a I could make it. It was interesting to do this though, as you realise how much you have to take in to account the other artists around you, in order to make it work together as much as possible. Some other tips were:
- keep the space below the painting (piece of work) larger than the one on top
- when trying to make it straight use a measuring tape AND your eye, don't just rely on one or the other

Here are some photos of my work after I'd put it up. There were some problems when arranging all the electrics, but I made a plinth to put the CD player on, then last minute made a hole in the plinth at the bottom so that the wires could run out of it efficiently. I still have to do some touch ups on the painting at the bottom of the walls but overall this is how it's going to look on the night :

Finished all the orchestra pieces!!

This took a looooong time over Easter but finally all of the orchestra experimentation boards are done!! I think they reallly helped to experiment with the paint, whilst still having music on the brain in the process. I don't think they have quite as much depth as the performance paintings because of them being more representational, but then that's not so disasterous because in this process I learnt a lot about use of mediums in the paint and the huge scope of opportunities that surround paint in the the way you can use them.

As a whole though, I'm not sure they entirely work as an orchestra. When showing it to my parents (musicians), they came to the conclusion which I completely agree with, that, although they work quite well on their own, they emit so much noise, almost like they're tuning up, and don't have a coherence that is generally the essense of an orchestra. Instead of them working together, they make many separate sounds, they almost form pieces of music in their own right, which then becomes the opposite of the function of an orchestra. In this way it correlates to my practice, as it's kind of a warm up, a tuning up for future painting. Anyway, I've taken photos and put them up on the same page because there's a lot of them, but you can click to enlarge to see each one.

Bach Suites I and II

Sorry for not having posted anything on here in aages, issues with internet. BUT I've been busy in the studio and here's the second of my performance paintings that I made in response to listening to Bach Suites I and II (two of my favourite pieces of cello music). I chose a completely different colour scheme for this one according to the colours I thought would suit these pieces. It's interesting how the style is very similar to The Protecting Veil, I'm not entirely sure whether this is down to the fact that they're both pieces of cello music, done with the same tools or perhaps that's just how I deal with paint on that size of canvas. Regardless though, given the similarities, I'm showing them as a series in my upcoming show (end of year show at Kingston University). Having said that though, I'm happier with this painting than with the other one, I think it possibly shows a bit more confidence with the paint, and I just need to build up that confidence. The next plan is to get some instruments and fill them with paint then play them on to canvas/board to see what effect that has. Really wanting to go more nuts with the paint now! I actually submitted this piece for an open exhibition in Cork Street so fingers crossed! (click to enlarge)

Jam session #2 at the Toilet Gallery

..and so there was a second one, and hopefully more to come after because once again this was really good fun. Though, this time perhaps not as focused on the music as last time, there were more breaks, but it was really up to you how much you wanted to play etc etc, so even if no one else was playing at the time there was nothing to stop you just playing for a bit on your own even which was kl. The exhibition in the gallery was taking place, open to the public whilst this was going on too, so the public were free to listen. Even though it wasn't particularly a performance it worked well with the artwork which was all about music and art.

So this time we had my brother on the mandalin (much appreciated), a violin player, myself on the cello, Spike on a didgeridoo, a singer or two, someone playing a saucepan and someplaying a makeshift drum using a pedal from a drum and a bin - genius.

Another event that the Toilet Gallery is holding is a painting jam on monday between 6 and 8pm (I think!), which I and most definitely going to have to make an appearance for, so exciting!!! I love this gallery!!

First performance painting attempt - "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" - Pink Floyd

This is my first attempt at a real performance painting, whilst listening to music, in this case, "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" by Pink Floyd. Awesome song! It was really odd, before trying this I tried just doing a performance to the music with my body, without involving any paper or pens etc. I found that ok, not too difficult, it's strange doing performance again, I'd forgotten how free it was. But then trying to add a concious act to an essentially unconcious process made it very hard. I found myself confused, trying to simply be in the now, but I couldn't help but be drawn to the music, getting lost in that, more than getting lost in my own actions. The result being that although I was somewhat acting in the moment, it felt slightly hindered by the fact that my body naturally kept wanting to get lost in the music. Eventually I found that shutting my eyes and simply letting my body flow, giving in to the music with one pen in my hand felt like the most appropriate way to perform in this instance. The moment I decided to switch pens I lost it again though...more practices of these may be needed me thinks, but this is the first go anyway. In order to ease myself into performing again I decided not to film this time, so below is just the result, but as I get more used to it I'll start filming them and posting them on here.