WORKS IN PROGRESS

New works and SoloExhibition at RedBubble

2010-10-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

The Solo exhibition at Red bubble is now live, and tomorrow is the reception. If you'd like to talk about any paintings, ( or anything really!) follow the link below and come along

Join me at Fee Dickson's Solo Exhibition, 'Beauty and the Beach'

This exhibition, and other upcoming shows has inspired me to do some new work, a series based on the rural landscape around my parent's house in France.

Unusually for me, I'm not painting either from photos or from life, but from memory. It's a fun experiment. Seeing as it's where I walked the dog for 4 years, I know the landscape pretty well, and I'm trying to show it in my favourite early morning light. ( though, I have to admit to slight cheating... I think the sun is rising in the North in my paintings...)

The colour values don't quite match the paintings at present, as I have no photoshop here in France, but it's a little taster of what I have been up to..

Shows, shows and shows

2010-10-08T05:52:00.000-07:00

Next week, I have a solo show on at RedBubble, which I'm very excited about. Elizabeth bravo has created this great flyer for it. These shows on RedBubble are not only a great way to showcase your work, they are a chance to discuss the work with lots of people. For an artist working on their own, that can be a godsend to get some feedback.

I'm also showing some paintings at Peter Potter Gallery's winter exhibiton, opening on the 29th of october. I'll add a flyer for that once I know more. But it will be very nice to have this painting framed properly and shown to the public - it's been hanging in my kitchen too long!

I'm also in discussions with Blackmarket art.co.uk about being represented on their website, and in hotels around Edinburgh. Again, Will post more when I know more..

And finally, I have a feature spot in ArtgalleryUk for the next week or so - lots of original work on sale there.

Now I think it's about time I went and produced more paintings..

Homage to Bernard

2009-12-09T04:22:00.001-08:00

I'm long overdue a blog post on how my show went ( well) and other things, but today I'd like to talk about Bernard Lacoque, a very talented artist who I've just found out passed away this week.

Bernard was an incredibly prolific artist, and one who was warmhearted and generous with his praise of others. The joy of a place like Redbubble is finding artists whose work is radically different, yet you can wholeheartedly enjoy and appreciate each others work - and a relationship of sorts, of mutual support and recognition, springs up, and before you know it develops in to a friendship of a kind. Not long ago, Bernard commented on my Valle d'Or series, and I replied back it would be great to see them in a gallery . 'yes', he said, 'then I'll come and see them!' - Would that he had been well enough to do so.

Bernard's images were a punctuation in my day - they would pop up in my image feed, and though I didn't comment on every one, they would always make me smile. He had a gift for sad faces, for cartoon like drawings that were expressive and touching.

He drew on whatever came to hand - books, lottery tickets, newspapers, sometimes feeding in to the story behind the art, as with the 'resistance' piece at the bottom. No titles for him, all drawings were 'face', or 'bird', or 'nude' - his three favourite subjects. I just bought a calender of his 'faces', so I'll still see his pictures every day. But I wish I had done it when he was alive, so he could know how much I loved his pictures.

I didn't know Bernard well - I didn't even know he had been ill. But I did like him tremendously, and I treasured our dialogue, as I do with a good few Redbubble artists. He was funny, clever, and utterly unique in his artistic style. I will miss him greatly.

The show is ready..

2009-11-27T04:41:00.000-08:00

Just finished hanging my paintings along at Joseph Pearce's. It was really exciting seeing the Valle D'or series, all together, all framed, for the first time. The bar staff loved it, which was encouraging! Vanessa and myself have both put a lot of work into promoting, so I'm really hoping this goes well. If not - well, it's a start, right? and something to learn from. Now roll on sunday!

UPCOMING SHOW

2009-11-20T03:56:00.000-08:00

Had a very exciting meeting with Vanessa of Delicartessen yesterday about a christmas show at Joseph Pearce's, with all the work shown here and possibly a few more - haven't quite decided yet.

Delicartessen is a mobile gallery -Vanessa has a stable of artists that she exhibits at a range of places across the city - bars, restaurants and even a youth hostel. A friend of mine on redbubble, talented ptographer Chris Clarke reccommended I talk to her months ago, but as is often the case with me I lacked the courage to make the call and get my art out there. But inspired by a very good couple of weeks, both selling prints and calenders on Redbubble, and a lot of enquiries about buying originals, I decided it was time to stop procrastinating and approach some galleries and people.

The day after I put a package of work and cv's out there, I got a call from Vanessa, and she came round to have a look at my work. She particularly wanted to see the Valle' d'or series, so that's going to be one of the things shown at Pearce's. It's not a solo show, but there will be a lot of my work up there for a couple of months, with a saturday morning preview on the 28th of November. To say I'm excited is an understatement .

The drawbacks? there's aways some..unlike my work on canvas, all the Valle D'or series need framed. That's going to be tricky both in terms of money, and also to ensure I find the right kind of frame that doesn't detract from the serial nature of the paintings. Clip frames would be the obvious option, but I'm worried they'll look a bit naff, so It's going to take a bit of thought to work that one out. But I am really excited this series will be shown. It's a bit of a 'baby', in that I know I love them but I wasn't sure about how anyone from the art world would respond to them.

The other drawback - well, it's not a huge drawback to my mind, but anyway - is that Pearce's is not a dedicated gallery, but a gastro pub. Hence the morning preview, and the (very slight) chance of damage to the paintings. But I've always had good experiences with selling through informal arts venues, be it bars or cafes or even markets, so I'm not seeing that as a bad thing. This is going to be a lot of my work shown in one place - probably almost 20 pieces - and it'll be awesome to actually be able to invite people to a show of mine.

So..umm..hurray! Now I have ten days to prepare..

Raiding the cellar..

2009-11-18T02:55:00.001-08:00

I was down in North Berwick yesterday, picking up some paintings from a gallery someone had shown an interest in buying, and looking for various bits and bobs in my parent's cellar there. I came across a wee pile of watercolours, mostly from 2002, and thought I'd put them up here just to show how much my style has changed over the years. I painted almost exclusively in watercolour back then, and most of my work was commission based one way or another.

Edinburgh castle

I used to be asked to paint Edinburgh castle all the time – I ended up trying to find a lot of different angles to paint it from so I didn’t get bored with it!

Ann street

This is an old piece from when I was mainly doing watercolour house portraits to commission. This was my ‘sample’ painting, of the centre building in Ann street, one of the finest streets in Edinburgh’s new town. I actually used to have a similar painting on my business card, but unfortunately a lot of people thought I was an artist called Ann Street.

St Bernards well

A gallery who'd bought a few of my pieces asked for some Stockbridge pieces. Unfortunately they didn't think many people would recognise this one, which still surprises me ( maybe they just didn't like it :p). It's a lovely old folly that sits on the water of Leith.

Fidra

This was a commission from a couple who lived near Fidra, an island of the East coast of Scotland. I wasn’t quite happy with it at the time, so I ended up doing another for them. I seem to do that a lot! Maybe I should make myself just do ONE painting per commission..

Anyway, there ends my trip down memory lane. I'm thinking of putting some of these older works up for auction on Ebay, with 30% of the proceeds going towards charity. I'd be interested to know if anyone thought that's a good idea?

Works in progress : Morar Bay

2009-11-13T03:19:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd do a slightly longer post on a work in progress today, showing you a bit of my studio, and the tools of the trade.

First off comes the base image - I generally print two or three versions of whatever photo I am going to work from, with different lighting so I can both get some sky drama and pick out the details .

Then studio set up - the joys of being a very skint artist means a studio in the living room. Thankfully my fiance is very patient if I'm not done by the time he gets back from work...

One good thing about it is I get to watch TV while I paint ( or rather listen).

Once the painting is at a stage as shown above, I'll often take a pic and fiddle with it on the computer to work out colours, contrasts, what it's going to be like if I put all the landscape elements in. It helps rather a lot when I'm a bit stuck.

I can tell now I want the blues to be a lot more intense, the boat to be far to the right ( not where shown above) and that yellow taken down to a slightly less mustardy colour.

So back to painting. Half way through is always the bit I like least - I know where I want to get to, but I don't always know how I'm going to do it . I probably shouldn't admit that! I'll update with a finished version later, if it goes where I want it to go..

Edit to add - the final version :

Works in progress - Arisaig

2009-11-11T04:03:00.000-08:00

I took a break from the Valle D'or series yesterday to start work on some more highland paintings, inspired by a trip out to the car where I noticed a big canvas that had been left in the boot..
I took some stunning sunset pics when I was up at Arisaig in June, but hadn't done much with them yet as it's too my mind quite tricky to turn a sunset photo into a sunset picture without it looking rather tacky. But I felt emboldened yesterday and decided to give it a shot anyway. I'm a bout three quarters of the way through this painting, and I'm at this horrible stage where I can see all the bits that need work, but I don't want to start on them in case I ruin what I've done. Because I like it! Grr. Wish me luck..

Finally, there's still two days left in the Redbubble Sale : one calender like the one below sold this morning, plenty more available..

Calenders here, Prints and cards here.

Sea Sale! 3 days only..

2009-11-10T02:49:00.000-08:00

First off, there's a sale on at red bubble of all my works that are linked to the sea. 15% off all prints, cards, posters.. Just hit the link and go to the sale gallery.

Calenders are also reduced by 15% - Check them out here.

The sale only lasts three days though so don't wait around..

And a quick update on what I have been up to painting wise..

I finished my Ardtoe Beach series with this painting here :

Also in the sale.

I painted it up fairly quickly, and thought, 'hey, I'll finish it off after I come back from my weekend away. Upon my return though, I realised there wasn't any more to do really. This made me happy :)

I've also been working on my Valle D'or series again - I'm up to 11 paintings now. Almost enough for a calender :p. Very pleased with how some of the new paintings have been coming along - not sure if this will be too small to see, but will give you the gist.

Hmm. Weirdly unfixably blurry! but if you click on it, it takes you to a full version that is fine.

West Highland paintings

2009-10-30T03:49:00.000-07:00

Broke my long spell of not-very -much -painting at all with a couple of paintings inspired by our holiday in the highlands last week. It's always difficult to pick up a brush again after a long time away, so I was quite pleased with how they turned out. Some paintings are better in photos than they are in the flesh, with these it's the other way round, but here they are anyway.

Both are acrylic on Box canvas, 16" x 12". The originals are for sale at £120 each, or £200 for both. As always, cards and prints can be bought at Redbubble via the link on the side.

2009-09-28T12:33:00.000-07:00

Just a quick heads up that 2010 calenders are now available on RedBubble, with a shiny 15% discount for the next two days.

Check out my various calenders here. There's a lot of great calenders by other people too on Redbubble, so if mine don't tickle your fancy, have a look around the site anyway, you may find something that does.

RECENT WORK

2009-06-22T23:09:00.000-07:00

Hallo, poor little neglected blog..

I've not been regularly painting, and no regular paintings means not much to write about. But I do have a few things to show.

First up, my partner and I took a wee trip to the highlands and I produced a couple of en plein air little canvases -

Sanna Beach

Back of Keppoch

These, and the hundreds of photos I took, will be used as the basis to work up some bigger canvases. Hopefully I'll be back up there later in the year to work as well - the west coast of Scotland does just make me want to paint, paint paint.

Secondly, a commission to paint the local bistro out here in France. The proprieter is leaving, and my mum wanted to give her a leaving present. Hopefully it will remind her of good times there - We certainly had many great evenings at Le Lion D'or.

Finally - some good news in that a couple of sets of paintings have sold - Belhaven Bay and East Beach tryptichs were sold through Blues and Greens gallery in North Berwick recently.

And that's the news for now..hopefully there will be more to show again soon.

RECENT WORKS - PAINTING PRESENTS

2009-05-11T01:17:00.000-07:00

Now I'm back in Scotland for a while, regular service can resume...

My painting schedule has been pretty scrappy and intermittent of late, but what I have managed to get done is a couple of presents for people.

Painting for presents is a funny thing - whenever I am painting regularly, it seems quite a lot of my output is always marked out as presents. If I have a wedding coming up, or someone I want to thank, or a birthday, I never like to give people something 'off the shelf' - I'd far rather make a bit more effort to make something that is personal to them, that I think would suit their taste.

Sometimes this is easy - La Barthe was a painting for our neighbours in France, to thank them for all their help to my family of late, phoning the hospital daily for us and generally rallying round in times of trouble. Subject matter was fairly easy then - their house, nestled between the maize fields and the hills. I wanted to catch a soft twilight light, and the way the house glowed goldenly when the sun was rising or setting on it. On the computer screen, it looks almost too vivid - garish almost - but seen hanging within their sunny yellow salle, it works.

The Lighthouse was a slightly trickier one - a wedding present for my swedish friend Anna and her new husband Neil. I've never been to Worthing, where they live in the Uk, or Sweden, but I know her well enough to know she'd like a stormy sea scene. I asked a mutual friend for some help, and he suggested using a lighthouse she liked in Sweden - Morups Tånge fyr

Morups Tånge Fyr, April 2008

Creative Commons photo by Sune Frack

So I pulled together a few images of the lighthouse, such as the one above, and set about creating a turneresque moody sea, with gloomy colours but a pale yellow light. Challenging, but fun - and hopefully enjoyed by the recipient.

It's one of the nicest things about being a painter - being able to give people pictures that are personal to them in some way. Just as well I like it though, as we have a lot more weddings coming up that need presents of some kind..

Anne Staub - Feature

2009-04-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

After a bit of a hiatus, the blog is back -my father's on the mend, family crisises resolved, and I've managed to get myself engaged. So - back to real life (or internet life) with a feature on Anne Staub discussed previously. Please click on the pics to see them in their full glory - am limited on the size ( and number) I can show them here!

I'm not neccessarily an enormous fan of photography - but as with everything, there are exceptions to the rule. Anne's work struck me from the first time I saw it as something other than run of the mill photoshopped photos, and she has the honour right now of being the only artist on RedBubble who has moved me to buy some of their work ( granted, a lot of that has to do with the financial restraints I'm under, I'd like to buy a lot of stuff - but there it is.)

So what makes her work stand out so much for me, amongst the 90,000 + photographers on RedBubble? I think all art is most interesting when the artist concerned has the ability to present another world to us - one which we can't always see, but one we'd like to see, and be part of. As a friend of mine once put it, art should show us the magic present in the world.

I could go on about colour, and composition, and when to post process and when to stop, and all these things are great strengths of Ann's. But at the heart of it, it is this that is important. that her art is revelatory - of a world painted in sombre yet elegaic tones, a time past but cherished, a place where objects are seperated from the mundane and the multitude and allowed to exist in elegant purity.

But - that's my take on her work . Anne's answers are as folllows..

1. Your book talks about your ‘creative journey for the last two years’. Does that mark the beginning of a new way of working? Or of your interest in photography? Some background, please!

When I first selected images for the book “My Creative Journey”, it was for me a way of summarizing the last two years. My ideas, my perspective, indeed my journey. I always had in interest in Photography but in the last two years I dedicated a lot of my time to it, photography and creating images using my own photography had turned into a passion. I have learned a lot, it has been very enriching creatively and also in many other ways. After “publishing” this book, I realized that it was also marking the end of a specific creative journey for me and the beginning of something else….

2. I dislike the term ‘digital art’, and I don’t think it appropriate to your work, so I won’t use that – but I see your work as being in an interesting place somewhere between painting and photography. How would you describe it?

I don’t mind the term “digital art” but I don’t feel it applies to my work as to start with. I think I must use about 20% of what my software does offer. Apart from adding textures, contrast and alter colours or tones, I don’t do anything digitally as such to my images which I feel would be considered as Digital Art. I currently describe my work as Photography and Decorative Art. My main interest and passion is photography, I can’t paint or draw, therefore I compose a visual with photographic equipment, sometimes it will be altered, and sometimes it won’t be.

3. When you take photos, is the eventual image you wish to create in your head? Or is it something that comes out when experimenting in post production?

Most of the time it’s in my head, I go out and “see” images (which is rather annoying when I have no camera with me), my eyes pick up on composition, strong lines, contrast and textures mainly, whatever the subject/s. I always know at the time of shooting if I’ll convert an image in black & white. I also usually know if it will be untouched. Other post-processed images are more ideas but I usually know very quickly what I will enhance and/or add to it. I don’t spend a lot of time altering an image (I’ll rather be out shooting), if my idea does not work for my eyes, I will discard it quite rapidly. I never try “to save” an image either. If there is no inspiration to start with or I’m unhappy with the composition or light, I will not use the image or post-work on it at all.

4. Tranquility, Nostalgia, Delicate, Composed and Subtle are the words I would use to describe your work – is that what you are aiming for? How would you describe it?

Different......or some of my work hopefully is. I think these words are a very good description of the journey I have mentioned above, which I presented in various ways (black & white, minimalism, textured images, abstract …). I think my future work will still convey the above but possibly in a less eclectic way. But I can’t see myself ever producing one single “type/style” of images as such. I think variety is the key to ongoing creativity. It’s not unusual to get comments on my work saying that that they saw an image and they immediately knew that it was one of mine. Considering how varied my portfolio is and has been in the past, this is very encouraging as for me not to be concerned about being creative in different ways. Some of my images convey various emotions, sometimes stories to the viewer. Sometimes, it’s reflecting my views at the time, sometimes it’s more open and let them “see” their own and sometimes both.

5. Where do you see yourself going with your work – what are your goals, artistically and commercially?

I have inspirations and ideas which will make me focus more on a certain way of “emphasizing” what I “see” ……. Watch out for “The Ongoing Journey” book… My main aim is to carry on learning and using photography as my main tool to present what I see and how I see it to others, to communicate at times and share ideas with others. I have started selling my work directly and have several events planned this year (all can be seen at http://www.anne-staub.com/). I love to meet Artists, Photographers and anyone interested in creativity and Arts in general, I hope to meet more in the future and possibly work with them. I am also looking to exhibit some of my work.

6. Finally, name three artists who have inspired you on red bubble – pay it forward!

So many have inspired me in one way or another since I have joined Red Bubble and because of this I regularly feature others’ work or link to other members’ portfolio. I use my journal on RB for this and it’s quite popular with my “watchers”. I can not name just three and would have to provide probably a list of 30 instead as the use of negative space, textures, composition, tones, shapes, and much more has inspired me through viewing others’ creations on various media, I feel very fortunate to discover, enjoy and learn from so many talented photographers and artists exhibiting their work on Red Bubble from Abstract Art to black and white photography, paintings and drawings, macro and minimalism just to name a few.

Anne's work can be seen at RedBubble, AnneStaub.com, and Fine Art America

FEATURE & INTERVIEW POSTPONED

2009-04-26T23:38:00.000-07:00

Due to my father being very seriously ill, I'm having to ignore the blog for a few days and postpone the interview and feature I wished to post on Anne Stuab. It will be up later in the week - in the meantime, take a look at her work here.

Valle d'Or continued

2009-04-23T22:39:00.000-07:00

And the latest in the series.

Have to admit, I am thoroughly enjoying making these paintings. The process is somewhat akin to design, imagining what will unfold in the next panel along - half closing my eyes until I can see the landscape before me. I really feel this is a development in the right direction, and I'll push it until the inspiration is all squeezed out.

take a look at the gallery here to see all 5 together.

WORKS IN PROGRESS : VALLE D'OR

2009-04-22T23:50:00.000-07:00

A quick update on how the Valle D'or series is going. Two more, both needing a little tweaking - but I'm just not getting the time to paint as my mother as well as my father ended up in hospital yesterday - I am beginning to feel like a victorian spinster aunt, daubing away in between visits to ailing relatives..

And here's how the series looks so far.

On Monday, I shall have an interview and feature with very talented phtographer Anne Staub up. Have a good weekend!

Location Location Location

2009-04-20T00:09:00.000-07:00

It's monday again, and the beginning of my third week in France.

It feels strange being back here for so long, and in a little sense feels like I have come full circle. The last time I tried to develop art as a career was out here in France, where I ran in to several problems - not least of which was not speaking the language.

But the biggest problem was then, and is now, that I don't find the landscape here particularly drives me to paint. It is beautiful here - there is no doubting that - but it's a kind of self contained beauty, a tranquility, that seems to have no need for translation by the artist.

The colours are soft, the hills are low, the river meandering and placid. There is no drama - no hook. Of course, I'm doing my best with such materiels as I have, and perhaps for another painter, this would be a paradise of inspiration.

Just not for me. But that's ok - I'm working on my Ville D'or series, and if I can't find what I need directly in front of me, it just needs to go through that extra translation process in my head.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have more actual finished paintings to show. That's the plan, anyway.

A demain.

STYLE VERSUS EXPERIMENTATION

2009-04-16T22:41:00.001-07:00

I have about 5 blog posts stored up in my head, but getting to the computer to write them has been a bit problematic. But it's 7 30 am, the house is quiet but for the birds singing, so here I am..

One of the biggest challenges an artist faces is developing a cohesive style whilst constantly challenging one self. (hmm. that was a tad generic - perhaps I should rather say it's one of the biggest challenges I face).

Style is important. It makes your work recognisable. It reassures galleries, who see a constant dipping in and out of different methods as the sign of an immature artist. But it also can seem highly restrictive - how can one develop if one is repeating the same thing in different variations over and over again? and where is the line drawn between progression of that style, and doing something totally new and different every week?

In my last entry, I mentioned that I was experimenting with different media - acrylic on very thin paper with chalks. I did struggle on with this for a while, and produced around 7 or 8 sketches using this method, but ultimately I didn't feel I was getting anywhere with these.

There comes a point, ultimately when you have to concede to yourself - this method just isn't working. That building up a body of work that hangs together is only important if the body of work is essentially something that you can succeed with.

The solution was to buy bigger, heavier paper, gummed watercolour paper that I can load with paint and it won't buckle, won't protest. We had a little trip into Bordeaux where I did just that, and I gleefully set about punishing the new paper with lots of water, lots of paint, lots of colour.

This is a sketch of my brother done whilst in Bordeaux and coloured up after - potraiture is really not my thing ( it looks nothing like my poor brother), but it felt so good to play with colour again, and get away from the muted effect in the paintings above. But where's the style, my head was screaming - how does this fit in to my body of work? It doesn't.

So I stopped and had a bit of a think. I'm away from home, I don't have all my usual tools around me. It's ok to experiment. It's ok to take this time out of linear progression and try and do altogether new things. It's ok if they don't work, or if they don't fit. With this pep talk in mind, I let myself go completely freestyle, concentrating only on the colours I wanted to achieve, and letting my mind wander a little.

And I started to paint a little french valley out of my minds eye, following it with another as my mind travelled along the horizon ( from right to left, strangely), and another... and now I'm just having fun seeing how much of this place I can 'see' before the vision runs out.

Developing a cohesive style is important. It will demonstrate to myself as much as anyone else that my art is backed by rigour, and thought, rather than just the dabblings of an amateur. But it can wait a little longer.

REJECTION

2009-04-13T23:05:00.000-07:00

Lines IV

It's been a bad week all round, for personal reasons as well as artistic ones - but I'll save you the details and talk about the artistic reasons here. As mentioned previously here, there were a few things I was trying out for - The Saatchi 'best of British' Tv talent show for art, The Royal Scottish Academy spring open exhibition, and last but definitely not least, the part time job in an art shop.

I didn't get any of them. None too surprising really, as I was aiming high, certainly with the first two, but rejection is still always disappointing.

I've noticed, however, that rejection in my mid thirties is much easier to take than rejection in my teens, or twenties, or even early thirties was. When I was seventeen, I applied for all 4 Scottish art schools, and didn't get in any. I was heartbroken, angry, hurt - and swore off art for a very long time (at least a couple of years-heh). But part of me was also relieved, because I knew at heart I wasn't quite strong enough to deal with my art being ripped to shreds in the name of constructive criticism, big baby that I was.

But now, I find myself much more sanguine about these things. Perhaps a few years on crafts markets toughened me up - watching tourists look long and hard, then stroll past and spend their five Euros on plastic light sabres instead of my pretty prints. Or, perhaps it's just something that comes with age - an acceptance that wanting does not equate getting, yet that one should not use failure as an excuse to stop trying

Whatever the reason, my confidence and equinamity is happily undented by rejections these days, and I'm just focusing on getting busy looking for the next opportunity. And hapily, I have the Tuesday Art School to look forward to, details of which came through this week - masterclasses run by Artist Kate Downie for a small group of 6 students. I think this is actually the best opportunity that has come my way, and I'm really rather glad it's the one that came through.

Lines V

EXPERIMENTING - WORKS ON PAPER

2009-04-12T00:09:00.000-07:00

LINES I

In between dog walking and gruelling hospital visits ( 5 hour drive) yesterday, I did at least manage to do some sketching, which I am much relieved about. It doesn't do to go to long without painting lest one lose the habit.

These peices are acrylics and chalks on paper, and are a bit experimental for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I'm not using reference photos for them, but rather painting 'out of my head'. I think I've mentioned previously that's not something that comes easy to me, but with these subjects the basic ideas behind them have been rolling about in my head for years, so it's not been too hard.

LINES II

I've always been fascinated with the linear aspect of the french countryside, whether it be stands of poplar trees, rows of vines, the way the countryside is criscrossed with irrigation ditches, or even just the plough lines in the field. This juxtaposition of the geometric and the organic has been subject matter for me - in my head, if not always on paper - since I arrived here in 2002, when the highly detailed watercolour below was done.

POPLAR TREES

Secondly, the medium is new. I could only bring very thin cartridge paper with me, which has its own challenges - it buckles over the slightest application of water, so paint has to be built up in thin, sponged on layers. It's always fun to try and get around a technical limitation like that, but also one musn't expect brilliant results on the first go - or even the second or third. So I'm calling these experiments, and hoping that I can improve upon them in the next few days using the same methods.

LINES III

DEB MILLIGAN

2009-04-08T00:24:00.000-07:00

Coalescence

As mentioned the other week, one of the nicest things about RedBubble is finding other artists whose work inspires you. One such is Deb Milligan, whose abstracts seem to glow with light. The more I look at them, the more I want to go back and look at them more - my only regret is that as an Australian artist, it's not very likely I'll get to see the originals of her work any time soon.

Worlds 3

Deb describes her work on her gallery thus :

My work is largely, though not only, abstract – usually painted in oils or acrylics.
My abstract paintings speak of particular moments in time, glimpses of dynamic stillness when the Universe is at play within us. Through my art I try to give expression to the subtle shifts contained within these openings.

A moment's recognition

As time goes by, I find myself more and more drawn to abstract art - I'm also envious of those who can create it, as I don't have a natural facility for it. When abstract art works best for me, it's something that evokes a mood, a thought, or an emotion that can't be put into words. This ability to transcend written language is what I love most about Deb's works.

Night Lyric (water) Solitude's Shadow Connection

She is also a superb colourist - deep rich muted colours blended beautifully as in her Water or Spirit series, or violent fiery strong colours leaping out from a dark background in the Fire series. I'd urge you all to take a look at her galleries, grouped into elemental series - as I can only show the works very small here and they really don't do them justice.

Deb has kindly agreeed to answer a few questions on her work :

Have you been painting long? give us a bit of background…

I remember when I was 9 deciding that when I grew up I was going to be a famous artist. I rapidly dropped the ‘famous’ but that initial thought has guided me ever since. I have been painting for 30 years and focused first on watercolours as they were easy to travel with while I was backpacking in my early 20’s. In my 30’s I moved away from representational art, and nearly a decade ago developed a love of abstraction, which holds me in its thrall still

Slight

Your paintings are very cerebral – they reflect a pace in the mind rather than a physical place. What comes first, the thought or the painting? or do they evolve together?

This is a difficult question to answer and any response is more an exploration than a definitive answer. Often the thought, or the general theme, comes first. Usually this thought is elusive and difficult to pin down. so I will write copiously trying to capture it. Sometimes, when all the elements are out in the open, I will then try to identify the essence of what I want to capture by writing it in haiku form. This strips away all the fluff and leaves me with a very clear direction to follow. However, I don’t always use that tool. At other times I start with the elusive thoughts still wandering freeform.

When I paint I am often guided by the sensations within my body. When I feel it in my heart, in my stomach, in my hands - even in my mouth - then I know that the painting is working for me. It is a deeply visceral, even primitive feeling. It is only later that I step back and analyse it, refine it, work ‘by the rules’. Initially though, I gather the awareness of what I wish to convey within my body, observe my physical, emotional and intellectual reaction, and then endeavour to give it expression through paint.

Regardless of the way in which I start, the painting itself often tells me more about my initial intentions as it evolves. Sometimes it is only when I have finished that I fully understand what my intentions were. I enjoy allowing the painting to guide me.

The Cross

Tell us a bit about your methods : sponge,rags,brushed,fingers, type of paints – how do you do it?

My methods vary depending on the subject. I usually start in acrylic and work up a base painting. Sometimes I continue in acrylic, for example with Solitude’s Shadow where I used brushes, sponges and rags with glazes to create the dappled effect. With Connection and Transition, I continued over the base painting using oils, with palette knife, brushes and my hands. With these two paintings I was trying to capture a range of different expressions of ‘energy’, both through colour and technique, hence they include gentle glazes as well as more dynamic brushwork. At times I may take off more paint than I put on, using paper towel and other materials, especially when I wish to create a layered veil-like effect. Then in other works I create a highly textured surface by building up layers of acrylic paint using a palette knife.

Transition

What inspires you, motivates you to keep painting, and gives you joy doing it?

I just love painting. I love getting lost in the process. I love the difficulties inherent in presenting or exploring complex issues through abstraction. I love the complex simplicity that is necessary in abstraction. I am inspired by the exploration of ideas, trying to understand the world and my place in it better through this exploration.

As an artist, do you have a goal you are working towards? is there a direction you would like to take, or does your art work evolve by itself?

At the moment I suspect my work is in transition and I am not quite sure where it will go. However the overall goal is to continue to improve my work, keep improving my CV and so increase the opportunities to show my work to a wider audience.

Finally..name three artists who inspire you on Rb – pay it forward!

Victor is one of the most talented artists I have seen on redbubble – he has a superb eye and masterly technique. I love the work of Midori McCabe for her purity of technique – she gets straight to the essence. And John Fish is a great inspiration for his transformative visions, both in paint and word,

Amongst the photographers I also pay respect to Jordanpaint for her clear and beautiful abstracted vision which always inspires me, and Skip Hunt for his superbly crafted images of life as a citizen of the world.

Thanks to Deb for great answers. Please take a moment to look at her gallery here - and I hope you enjoyed what will be the first in a series of artist interviews.

FRANCE

2009-04-07T00:26:00.000-07:00

In France, after a long day's travel yesterday. I'm here to help out my folks a bit, as my father is ill, so any painting/blogging will have to be fitted in numerous drives to Bordeaux hopsitals and back. But really, I have no excuse for not blogging at the same time every morning, as my parents are not exactly early risers. I'll do my best. today I'll be finishing the interview peice I talked about doing with Deb Milligan - this has taken way longer than I thought, and in future I shall not be advertising things before I am sure they are going to happen soon! Full thing will appear tomorrow though.

I 'll also be revisiting these two peices, and adding a third..

2009-04-05T13:50:00.000-07:00

I am (hopefully) off to France tomorrow, for a week or two, so the blog may become a bit sporadic whilst I am out there. Apologies in advance ( not that I expect my..erm..hordes of readers will be jumping up and down with rage, but I like to be consistent).

I've been thinking a little bit about art and ego and how intertwined they are. Sometimes, it seems like such a fantastically arrogant thing to be, or want to be, an artist. It's a sort of childish consistent wish for praise, and attention, and 'look at me! look at me!', and I think you need to be a pretty resilient personality to reconcile this with a way of life.

I was out with a lot of architects from my old job last night, and it got me thinking when I was talking about how different this way of life is. No, I don't have site agents yelling down the phone at me, and constant demands for information, and endless problems which never seem to be resolvable. But I also don't have an 'off' switch any more. Everything seems to relate back to painting - every emotion, every bit of information, every single thing I see. And that has its own form of stresses and tiredness. And the doubt! the endless self questioning, not least of which is if I have any right to do this at all - or if I would be a lot better sitting out the recession with a job down at Tesco, and then waiting for a job in architecture to come back up.

But, I think I'd always kick myself if I didn't paint. I don't really like life when there's no creativity in it - or, I do, but it seems a bit more pointless somehow. It was nice to go out there last night, with all my old colleagues - some of which still have jobs, some who don't, and be able to be a bit proud of what I am doing now, and hear that many of them liked the paintings they'd seen online. It kicked me out of the strop, and the abyss of self doubt I'd been wallowing in since Friday. I think the lesson is it's not a bad thing necessarily to want a bit of praise and encouragement to keep going - the bad thing would be letting myself be cut of from friends and people in general just because I don't work in a big noisy office any more. The hermetic life of the artist in isolation is not for me - or only up to a point. So, anyway,. here's to my friends - thanks for cheering me up last night. Even though I am suffering for it today with a most dreadful hangover..

WORKING TO COMMISSION...

2009-04-03T01:06:00.000-07:00

Is not something I generally seek out. Not that I don't like it precisely, but more that it always seems to take me ages to do it.

Mind, that's mostly because the commissions I have done in the last couple of years have been for charity - which I am all in favour of, if I can make £400 for charity just by giving a few hours of my time, well, that's awesome. And I'm glad to do it. The problem has been getting round to it, particularly when I had a very demanding full time job as well as studying for my professional exams in architecture. And when I'm not painting much, so there's the whole bit of getting back in to practice before I even start.

So it was with a large sense of relief when I went to drop off this painting last night - I really had taken too long over this, and though the recipients were lovely people and very understanding, it was good to have the decks cleared.

Just to say sorry over the delay, I gave them a wee sketch of their gorgeous black lab, Carrie. I think they were almost happier with this than the house painting.

Happy customers is a Good Thing. So I think I'll maybe build a little side website for house paintings - it may not be high art, but if it's art that makes people happy, and makes me a bit of a living then it's not a bad thing.

Blue Wednesday - WIP

2009-04-02T00:38:00.000-07:00

I hadn't been painting for a couple of days, which made me slightly twitchy. Even a short break like that makes it hard for me to get back at it. When I start, I don't want to stop, when I stop, I don't want to start..

Anyway, A few rather blue paintings inspired by our trip to Cramond on Tuesday night in our brand new shiny car. Playing about with the manual settings on my camera gave me some interestingly confused light results, of white skies at sunset.

Granton gas works has always been a wee bit of an obsession with me - I first painted it as part of a student project back in 1997. This is an as yet unfinished romanticised view of it - but it does look romantic fading into the sky from Cramond.

The causeway out to the island is one I've photographed many times, but never painted. It didn't seem to suit the watercolour style I used to use. But I think it's been a bit more successful with a slightly dynamic perspective.

Finally, there's a slightly more abstract piece with the edge of the cause way and one of the high tide markers. There are things I like about this, and things I don't... I'll leave it for a few days and see If I want to change anything.

Now I'm off to the job centre. Hmm. We'll see what that brings. For the rest of the week, I'm going to be concentrating on pulling a couple of pieces together for the RSA (Royal Scottish Academy) open exhibition. I doubt I'm ready for that, or that my pieces will be accepted, but if you don't try you don't get, I guess.

TURNER IN ITALY

2009-04-01T05:24:00.000-07:00

I've been kinda excited about this exhibition for the last couple of weeks - and yes, it was definitely worth the wait.

It's a rare, rare event when I am gobsmacked by a painting. Here I was gobsmacked by whole rooms of them. I think the best was catching a glimpse of what was waiting for you in the next room...and being bowled over by the light which seemed to pour out of his paintings.

The sun is God, said Turner famously. Well, Turner himself is certainly its high priest, if you'll excuse my dreadful metaphor. How something over 150 years old can glow with so much light... I'm rhapsodising. I know I am. But they were That Good.

The exhibition ranged over the whole of Turner's life - from initial etchings and sketches before he had ever been to Italy, to the 'white canvas' abstracts of his old age.

So not only did you get classical Italy to 19th century Venice, you also got a range of every style Turner used and a strand of his life from start to finish.

I've always been interested in Turner's watercolours, as one of the few great artists to work in that medium ( I worked almost exclusively in watercolours throughout my twenties, though I am kind of off them right now). But in this case, it wasn't the watercolours which were the interesting pieces, with one or two exceptions. ( none of which I can find online, so you will just have to imagine them. They were off mountain passes and they were fabulous).The stars of this show were undoubtably, however, the oils. They glowed.

They hit you from far off. They got better the closer you moved. And these images do them no justice. ( I didn't bother buying a catalogue, or a guide, because although I wanted one, the images seemed so flat compare to the real thing. I settled for a mediocre postcard).

Interestingly enough, one of the largest pieces was first shown in Edinburgh in 1845. There was a clip from the Scotsman Review of it at the time. It was kind of cool to be standing in the same building, 164 years on, looking at it.

My sister-in-law and I spent barely an hour in there - because it really was quite overwhelming. Ours eyes hurt after half an hour. I can't imagine what it would be like to live with these on your wall ( not sure if anyone does, these days).

Turner was by all accounts arrogant, commercial, mischievous, and shocking. (painting abstracts in the 1850s! the mind boggles). But just..a wonderful, wonderful painter. Go see it when it comes to your city, or go see it now if you are in Edinburgh. Well worth the price of a cinema ticket.

THIS IS MODERN ART

2009-03-31T00:39:00.000-07:00

Keeping this short today, as I have been too busy umm.. spring cleaning (how creative) to actually produce much over the last couple of days, and I have to rush off to go to the Turner in Italy exhibition quite soon.

So I'll just talk briefly about what I have been reading of late - 'This is Modern Art' by Matthew Collings, - or rather, the thoughts it's sparked.

I came across this book whilst preparing my application for the Saatchi Best of British thing - Collings is one of the judges - along with Tracey Emins, Kate bush (curator at the Barbican), Frank Cohen, (art collector). I read a few of his articles on line, and as a Brit Art 'insider', he seemed to have something worth saying. I've been thinking a lot about 'Shock Art', and contemporary high art which stems from it lately, and it's been - well, to be honest - making me angry.

It seems to be a joke that's lasted twenty years, when the punchline only deserved a mild groan. I've always to keep an open mind about modern art, but recently while at an exhibition by Hayley Tompkins at the botanics, with my family (art lovers, modern art haters) when I began to wonder why I should. I mean really - a painted tea spoon stuck to the wall - why do we tolerate this as a worthwhile use of someones time, much less fund them to do it? it seems what was once avante garde is now the height of childishness and self indulgence. Or maybe I am just getting older.

But then, if we reject modern art, what are we left with? repetition of what has gone before? Once irony has crept in to anything, is it possible to again make an honest endeavour of it without it seeming - well, a bit silly and naive? emotional?

The Stuckist, or remodernist, movement seem to offer an alternative - a return to beauty in painting - but their manifesto, written by Billy Childish, seems full of unfounded petty spite, and the accompanying beliefs of expressing spirituality through art just make me groan (although in a different way to the joke of contemporary high art...)

So what's left? there are plenty of painters working out there between those stools. It's not impossible to find an in-between that is philosophically legitimate, surely. I just have to find it..

I'll keep reading Matt Collings, and let you know if he can shed any light on the situation for me. In the mean time, I'm off to find real inspiration in the form of Turner.

IT'S WORTH WHATEVER YOU PAY FOR IT..

2009-03-30T00:54:00.000-07:00

Well, that's the maxim for art, or rather, non-collectible art. But whilst walking around Edinburgh on Saturday with a friend of mine, I saw something that made me giggle...

Firstly, we came across the stalls on the high street, selling some surprisingly nice prints and some very reasonably priced original art. Beautifully mounted and wrapped, from £30 - £45 for an original painting ...well, dirt and cheap come to mind, especially when it's not the artist himself who is selling it, so there's other people taking a cut along that chain. ( click on the image to see the price tag..)

So we carry on our daunder, stopping in it at the 'Red Door Gallery', a nice wee boutique gallery that sells a lot of lovely prints. Leaving there, we pass another gallery that shall not be named, selling this :

As my friend put it, that must be one hell of a frame. Gold plated?

I think I'd be rather annoyed if I was a towrist and I'd just spent £230 quid on a piece of original art...then found the same thing 200 metres up the road for £30. I think the moral of the lesson is to be consistent in your pricing. Or maybe it is buyer beware. Or maybe it's that galleries, on occasion, take the utter piss...

Anyway. Finished off commission paintings over the weekend which made me happy, and did this wee triptych. Apologies for no post on Sunday.. but I figure very few people are actually reading this on the weekend anyway, so it's OK to miss the odd Sunday.

YESTERDAYS PAINTINGS

2009-03-28T02:25:00.000-07:00

Busy busy busy, in the words of Kurt vonnegut, today - so I'll just put up the two pics I did yesterday. One was a planned peice, which is not quite finished yet, I think.

And the other..a very quick experimental sketch that came out rather well.

Have a great weekend, all :)

A BIT OF INTROSPECTION

2009-03-27T00:59:00.000-07:00

This will be a tricky one to write.

A couple of things happened yesterday to set me on the road of questioning where I am going with art, and whether what I want to do is art at all, or pretty wallpaper. Don't get me wrong here - I'm not sure if most art, even the big important stuff, is any more than wallpaper except in the minds of a very few. Art is such a big old house encompassing the most high conceptual stuff, to the commercial abstracts of boardroom walls, to the village exhibitions with Sunday painters' work.

I'm not entirely sure either room in that house is privileged over the other, though I can see the point of view of people who scorn the work of the shock artists, and the point of view of those who scorn the amateur daubers no matter how pretty the painting can be.

On the one hand, I'm at a place where I want to break beyond 'professional amateur' category - on the other, I'm not sure why, or what that means. This is the sticking point I hit 6 years ago, the last time I renounced architecture and buggered off to France to paint. I don't wish to go too heavily in to details of what happened then - my attempts to delve further and produce art that had meaning didn't end well and I quickly retreated back to doing sketches for tourists. Suffice to say, pondering big questions was not good for someone with my fragile state of mind at that time.

But that was then and this is now.

Yesterday brought this question of what am I trying to do in to sharp focus for me. Firstly, it was the first official day of my unemployment. Secondly, I went to see Kate Downie in her studio. Thirdly, I had to start outlining the five hundred words of 'why do I want to be part of Saatchi's art school'. Disclaimer : I don't seriously think I'll get on to that show, but I think the attempt will be useful in defining what I am trying to do.

Talking to Kate, an honest to goodness proper artist, highly respected, highly successful and represented in some very important private collections, made me realise what a sharp contrast there was between the real world of a working artist, and my daubings at a coffee table in my living room.

I AM untaught. I truly hate the label 'self taught', yet that is what I am, and it's no use pretending otherwise. Kate said 'You wouldn't expect an architect to build a building without having ever been taught - why is art any different?'. And there's definitely something in that, and I'm highly aware that there is a limit to where I can go without tuition.

There's a few reasons why I have never sought out proper tuition. I spent seven years in art school, studying architecture, but surrounded by the smell of paint and the brash enthusiasm of teenage artists. While I had envy for the art students, I was also unsure that I was ready to go in and be taught art.

My mind was too mobile, too easily influenced, and whilst yes, I wanted to learn technique, I didn't want to go in and turn out the kind of artwork I saw my friends creating - this may sound arrogant, but I had very little respect for what they were producing. 99% of what I saw at degree shows was shite.

The way I saw it then, to produce 'serious' art, one had to have something to say. And I wasn't at all convinced that your average 21 year old, much less myself, had much of interest to say to the world. Painting could wait, till I was older and till I did have something in my head a bit more important than emo meanderings.

But now I AM older, and I'm still not sure I have anything to say through art. Or if art is the correct medium to say things through. Or, to be brutally honest, if my mind can take the intellectual rigour and the introspection required without collapsing again. I've spent a long time learning not to think. It's frightening to consider opening certain doors again. I'm at a place now where I can paint -simple, pretty things perhaps, but simple pretty things I am getting better at doing - without imminent mental collapse. I'm a little bit scared of going any further.

Then, I don't really want to take this year the economy has gifted me with and not try and use it seriously. I'm 36 now and I don't have a lifetime left in which to develop. I don't want to cut my intellect off from my painting. I don't want to be stuck.

What's this all about? well. It's a bit about the chance to be taught by an incredibly good artist, and me being a bit scared to do that, scared that I will lose my confidence, and whatever small ability I have along the way. Scared that whenever I consider art too seriously, I come up with the answer that the whole exercise is utterly pointless.

Such simple things can make you feel like you are standing on a precipice sometimes.

X-Factor for Artists

2009-03-26T01:57:00.000-07:00

Working on a commission at the moment, which has been a long drawn-out process. But I will finish it today! I WILL!

Because I need to have the time to prepare for BBC 2's version of the X- factor for artists - I just found out about this yesterday, and I think I shall give it a go. (it's not really x-factor, it's a slightly more serious endeavour, but I like describing it like that). I don't have a chance in hell, but hey, you have to try, right? And it will be a good exercise picking out 5 works and describing how and why they are important, and whether I achieved what I set out to do.

I've asked my friends on Lj to take a look at my gallery and pick out 5 images they like best - if anyone reading this wants to give that a shot too I'd be very grateful (apologies for cross posting to Lj readers of this). The criteria is that I have to have the artworks to hand, and they have to be painted in the last two years - which rules out anything in the Watercolours, Pen & Ink sketches, or miscellaneous sections of my galleries, as most of these are already sold, or were done a long time ago.

Chances of my getting the part time job in the local art shop are about as good as getting a job in architecture at the moment - i.e. rather slim. I spoke to the manageress yesterday and they had 120 applicants the last time they advertised! Ah well. I could do with the 20% off art supplies...for that I'd work for nothing.

CAN YOU TELL WHAT IT IS YET?

2009-03-25T01:54:00.000-07:00

First up, Redbubble are having a sale, so if you were considering buying a canvas print of my work or anyone else's on there, now's the time to do it. Sale ends Sunday!

Anyway, I usually have a half-decent idea of where I want to end up when I start a painting. But not always..

yesterday I decided to try and make use of all the gorgeous pics I took at the Botanics on Sunday, and paint some orchids. I started with this (photoshopped up for colours) image :

And did this little painting :

Orchid. Acrylic on Canvas 8" x 8"

Which I hated. Not sure why, but I did. I hated painting it, I hated the direction it was taking, and I couldn't see a way to paint it so I liked it. So I mushed up all the paint, and ended up with this :

In between. 8" x 8" Acrylic on canvas

There's sort of still a shadow of a flower in the sky, there..a kind of fleur de nuit. But it looked a bit too splashy, like fireworks or something. And I didn't like the yellowy green. Not a fan of yellowy greens, on the whole. By this time, it was quite dark outside but I photographed the final version anyway.

The gate (night) Acrylic on canvas 8" x 8"

Much as I love this, it's not really the true thing - I never take photos with flash (really wouldn't work on artwork anyway) so the colour values and the light are all different. the final image is actually more like this.

The Gate. Acrylic on canvas 8" x 8"

It's come a long way from an orchid. Rolf Harris would be proud - or deeply disturbed, I'm not sure which.

The fun thing about the digital age though, is that nothing is ever lost. So now I don't hate the orchid pic as much as I did when I was painting it, I still have it. The transitional painting, which has it's own merits even though I like the final version better, survives. And I don't need to sit and look at my little abstract and wonder if it would be better as an orchid. I can enjoy it for what it is. And if anyone reading has fallen in love with any of the images above, they can buy a canvas print at the redbubble sale.

I also managed to finally finish off the damned plums pic, yesterday. And do another lemons one. And today, I'm applying for a part time job in an art shop round the corner - wish me luck!

Three Plums 12" x 12" Acrylic on canvas

Lemons at the Botanics II 12" x 12" Acrylic on canvas

THE LAST OF THE DAY

2009-03-24T01:55:00.000-07:00

The last of the day
acrylic on canvas 8 " x 8"
Original for sale £115

Sometimes, it's the accidental painting that turns out best. After struggling all day with these bloody plums ( which still aren't right), and doing a kinda nice painting of lemons we saw at the botanics on Sunday, I started a little abstract just to finish off the paints on my palette - waste not want not.

But a wee house appeared within it, and then a window frame, and it became a night painting of an imaginary cottage somewhere very remote, with only one neighbour to share the dark of the night with. I was pleased with this.

Later on this week, I'll be doing a couple of blog entries focusing on one of may favourite 'finds' at RedBubble, Deb Milligan. And discoursing on if and how artists see things differently.

Three Plums
Acrylic on canvas 12" x 12"

Lemons at the Botanics
Acrylic on canvas 12" x 12"
Original for sale £150

and...some works in progress.

2009-03-23T04:08:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I decided it would be fun to do a still life for a change. I only had about 40 minutes to paint before we were of to a trip to the botanic gardens with my family, so it was a rough and ready fast moving sketch..

This morning, I thought perhaps I'd better do a little more work before I uploaded. I worked up the bowl around it a little more, after a couple of suggestions from my partner , Kit -

But it looked a bit too bowl-like now..and the plums needed work. So..

And then I thought the plum at the back was a little too red. Final adjustment and voila..

Of course, every painting needs a companion piece. And I thought it would be nice to show one from start to finish..

And this as as far as I have got just now. Will keep uploading as it progresses.. and let me know which versions you like best.

Noon...

Mid afternoon - (after which it all goes a bit horribly wrong...)

And just for fun.. this cool website puts your pics in the gallery!

AN OPENING AT PRINTMAKERS, FOLLOWED BY SOME RUGBY...

2009-03-22T02:42:00.001-07:00

New Commissions at Edinburgh Printmakers

All Galleries
21 March to 09 May 2009

An exhibition of recent work from Edinburgh Printmakers’ internationally respected fine art print publishing programme.

This exhibition showcases works by some of the UK’s most respected leading contemporary artists, all commissioned and published by Edinburgh Printmakers.

Off to a gallery opening yesterday- talking about Kate Downie in the blog the other day reminded me to get in touch with her, and she invited me along to Printmaker's latest show where she had a couple of works showing. Kate has always been a huge inspiration to me, and one of my favourite artists, so I jumped at the chance to see what she'd been up to lately.

The opening was fun, although I was a bit late to the proceedings and missed most of the free wine ( probably a good thing). Works I particularly like include the following:

( taken from Edinburgh Printmakers website, all copyright resides with the artists)

Footbridge 2, Andrew Mackenzie

I like the architectural feel to this, and the subtlety of line and colour. Although I'm working very hard to get away from that kind of precision myself at the moment, it's interesting to see it done so well here. Andrew's works talk a lot about networks - whether organic within trees, or physical within bridges and pathways.

Driving Nowhere, Ray Richardson.

I have to admit to not reading the artist's blurb for this, so I have no idea what his intent was. For me though, this is the kind of image that arises endless curiosity as to the thoughts of the passengers. I like how the people are spaced far apart and looking away from each other, so one's eye constantly travels from one to the other, and wonders whether they are thinking about each other, if they have a had a fight, or are bored of each other, or rather are in completely separate worlds , lost in their own thoughts. It's a painting that makes me speculate, and I rather like that.

Ferry down the forth, Kate Downie.

The bridge has played a part in Kate's work for as long as I have known her - when we met 15 years ago she was working on digital remastering of some of her Bridge paintings. This is the first time she's gone back to this subject in a long time, and I'm glad she's revisiting it, as some of her best work has come from her fascination with this megalithic structure. This particular print was made from a sketch of the bridge done on a ferry travelling down the Forth, and I like the fact that the painting is from a shifting space - a space that can't be revisited exactly. There's an energy, and movement to this print that can only come from a sketch done on the hoof.

All three prints have that in common that they are about moments in space and time that can't be revisited - that they are about networks of travel and transition. I'm only realising this now as I write about them that these threads connect them. Much food for thought for me in a direction to pick up in in painting.

As much fun as the opening was, sloping off to the pub with Kate and Indian artist N. Ramachandran afterward to watch the rugby was the highlight of the day. A rather bizarre juxtaposition of art talk and cheering and sobbing as Scotland got hammered by England. It's a long time since I've talked art with anyone, and it was inspiring, entertaining, thought provoking. I only wish I hadn't had quite so many glasses of wine so I could remember a bit more about all we talked about.

SATURDAY ART-WEB-SITE REVIEW

2009-03-21T02:57:00.000-07:00

Saturdays are going to be web review days, mainly to allow myself to write something short if I happen to be hungover. I'm not today, as it happens - so I'll start with the grandaddy of art sites - RedBubble. ( this won't just be a promotion piece, I have work there, but that's not what I'm talking about just now).

Red Bubble is something of a hybrid - it's part photo-dump a la flickr etc, part arts market place for selling work, and part community where you can meet with other artists and talk about your work. It's trying to do a lot of things at once, and it does none of them perfectly, but a lot of them quite well.

There is no quality control on the site itself, which means anyone can set up a free account, upload the pic they took on their phone that day, and sell it as a t-shirt, postcard, or even canvas print. It's fun, it's easy. it's accessible, and it's great for those starting out to do something with their art, or just make t-shirts for their friends.

But with about a million users - there's very little chance of selling to the outside world without some extreme marketing on your part. There are people who turn up there and wonder why nothing has sold after a few months - needle and haystack are the words that come to mind, especially of you are a painter outnumbered ninety nine to one by photographers.

So, a great place to direct people to buy stuff, and the nice clean layouts give you a good showcase. But not a great place to generate customers, and a difficult place to casually browse to find stuff you like to buy. (Although the popular art pages at the front end of the site generally show some fabulous work - mostly photography, but of a real high standard with some genuinely innovative and original work)

The really useful community bit of the site then, is the villages within the city - the groups. Again, anyone can set up a group as long as they find a willing co-host ( I'm still searching for a fellow host for the Scottish painters group I want to set up) and there are a LOT of them. over 1200, at last count.

A lot of these are juried, and the hosts will only accept work they feel is of a certain standard, or that fits their subject. A few of my favourites are Painters in Modern Times ( the biggest painters group on there, with around a thousand members) Out of the Blue (blue art, whether it be paintings or photography) British Painters ( what it says on the tin) and The Scots are Coming (anything Scottish - a good place to meet fellow Scots makers)

The fun thing about that is submitting your work to the group, then sitting back and hoping it gets accepted - or even better, featured on the group homepage. The groups become the best way to find work you like, fellow artists who you can 'watch', and to generate feedback on your own work. ( RedBubble has a 'play nice' policy which means the feedback is always good - which is nice, but sometimes you'd like a more balanced view of your work.)

The other great function for the artists is the 'favourites' option - you can build up a portfolio of work you love done by other people. One of my favourite ways of bouncing around the site is to pick an artist I like, then click on their favourite pieces, find another artist I like, check out their favourites.. and so on. You can bounce around the quality stuff that way, without drowning in the dross. If only I wasn't a dirt poor starving artist myself, I would have bought a tonne of stuff by now.

There are also forums, which you'd think would be a wonderful hive of creativity and high flying art's talk - and which unfortunately seem to be more based on internecine squabbles and 'chit chat'. A shame, as it would be a great resource for wannabe art makers, and those interested in arts.It's perhaps one of these cyclical things, that will pick up again soon. I hope so. I Did however, get quite a few useful tips on painting on hardboard yesterday, for example - and I've had some urgently needed help on an artwork that I had to finish in four hours time when I put it into the forums for critiques. So, there is good stuff in there too.

I joined Red bubble a couple of months ago, and since then I've found a host of people I like talking to about art, and that I hope to get to know better. One of the biggest problems about working creatively can be the isolation - finding a place you can talk to people whose opinion you respect about your work. Red Bubble has fulfilled that function beautifully for me - almost too well, as the temptation is always to spend more time on there than you do on your artwork.

The only real problem I have with the place is the pricing - I want people to be able to buy a birthday card without taking out a second mortgage! And, of course, to get a reasonable share of that money myself :p.

However, if you are at all interested in art, go take a look. bounce about a little and look at all the wonderful (and sometimes not so wonderful!) art works there. You never know, you might find something you really love.

I've run out of time to illustrate this piece - And I need to check for permissions before I put images up here. But it shall be festooned with pretty pics at a later date, apologies for the boring layout atm!

A LENGTHY DISCOURSE ON THE ART OF COPYING

2009-03-20T01:54:00.000-07:00

I've decided blogging is rather a nice thing to do over morning coffee, to organise my thoughts for the day - so expect a regular entry about this time. Today I'm going to talk about about photography, and how I use it in art - and problems thereof with copyright and integrity.

The last couple of days, I decided to do some paintings for my former co-workers down in Yeovil, as a thank you for all the help they gave me in working towards my professional architecture qualifications. At first, I thought I'd just give them something from stock, but then I decided - naah, let's do something a bit more specific to them. I wanted to do something with soft colours and rolling hills, that would sum up somerset.

Cue problem. I had no photos to work from. I'm not someone who's good at working purely from memory, or directly from the imagination. I like to have a base picture to start from, even if I never look at it through the whole process of painting, and the final picture comes out nothing like. Probably a hang up from my architectural education, where I was taught to record what I saw rather faithfully.

So I turned to flickr, which turned out to have nothing much of use, then to RedBubble - where I found the wonderful work of Steve Spraggan. I would urge anyone reading this to go and have a look at his photography - it's incredibly beautiful. I found these two rather perfect images here :

*From his redbubble site - I wanted to link these pics directly to it but haven't worked out how yet!

Now here comes an ethical dilemma. Firstly, is it legally right to base art on someone else's photographs? There are copyright laws involved here, and so many issues as to fill up a thousand days worth of blogs talking about it. But basically - no. It breaks UK copyright laws.

Copyright applies to any medium. This means that you must not reproduce copyright protected work in another medium without permission. This includes, publishing photographs on the Internet, making a sound recording of a book, a painting of a photograph and so on
Source -UK Intell ectual property office

There's a lot of debate about this these days - a whole Creative Commons debate, a realisation that so many artistic works these days come from 'remixing' - graphically or musically. The Obama Hope poster is a very famous example where copyright was broken (although laws are different in the US, and the case appears to be murkier). And it's not very realistic - how many people apply for permission to cross-post pictures on the Internet? the Internet would surely become a text based medium if everyone did that, and be a much poorer environment.

But really, this is just a couple of presents for friends! is it a big deal?

Well, yes. Because I do also plan to put the finished paintings on the Internet, to promote my art, and possibly sell prints or cards of the paintings.

In other words, I plan to profit from my theft. So I did the sensible thing and asked the artist for permission, which he kindly gave. And in return, I'm publicly thanking him, and linking to his work every where these images are displayed. A win-win, hopefully.

With the legal side out the way, that brings me to the artistic side - is it really art if I'm just copying someone else's vision?

As said above, I nearly always work from photos (or en plein air). But I generally make it a rule only to work from my own photos.

The reasons for this are threefold - copyright, as mentioned above. Secondly, when I take photos, I'm taking them with a painting in mind - I'm looking for something quite different to a good photograph. The composition isn't always the same, the lighting will be different, and what makes a great photo can make a very dull painting, and vice versa.

The final reason is a little more difficult to explain - I need to kind of feel myself in the photo. Working from a photo of a place I have never been will often result in a flat dead painting - I can't capture the emotion I felt when there. It sounds a bit hippyish, I know, but that's how it works. I often can't even use my own old photographs - the emotion has leached out over time, and whatever I felt when there is forgotten.

The photo is the beginning of a process, of a seed of an idea, that will wither and die quite quickly if I don't turn it into paint soon. Sometimes I have to work from other people's photos'; for commissions for example, but I don't generally like it.

With that in mind, how did I manage to work from Steve's photos?

When I lived in Somerset, I would take an hour long train journey at 6am every day through the somerset countryside. The beauty of the morning mists rolling over the somerset countryside was something that would take my breath away day after day, and left me with a memory of these train rides being a rather wonderful part of my life, rather than a dull commute.

Steve's photographs brought me back to that time, to the magic of these early mornings on an empty train, very forcefully. If I could have stopped the train, these are the photos I would have taken. (If I had also been as good a photographer as Steve!)

So, in this particular case he captured something that was important to me, that I'd seen again and again, and that I could feel myself in the picture. So it worked, and I felt when I painted that I added my own interpretation, my own emotion, to my version of Steve's vision.

But I do look back on times when I was younger, and I did highly representational paintings from photos in books, with a sense of shame, and a sense that I cheated.. I guess this is an issue that all artists make their own rules on, and as best as I can sum up, these are mine.

IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER

2009-03-19T01:30:00.000-07:00

Or is it?

A very good friend of mine, Scottish artist Kate Downie, once told me the hardest thing for an artist to do is stop painting. To resist the temptation to tinker, and accept 'it is what it is'. That's a lesson that was brought home strongly to me yesterday.

The conversation ( in Lj and by email) went a bit like this :

Friend : I want this one.

Me : you can't have it. It's a work in progress.

Friend : let me know when it's done, then.

Me ( to self) shit. I don't know how to finish that one! Not sure how to fix it without losing the bits I like. Never mind.

Friend : well, can I have these other ones instead?

Me : Umm, They're in a gallery. I'm not sure I want to drag them out, as I 've spent ages trying to get in to that gallery (thinks furiously) Actually, let me send you another pic of the work in progress one, and if you really like it you can have it as is. It's part of a set of three that are in progress, and maybe that one's done after all.

Friend : I've done this before! I always make artists stop because I like it as it is! I'll take it, please.

Me : Ok! done deal.

The upside of this ( apart from selling a painting, which is always wonderful) is that it made me go back and work on the other two in that set. Here's where I am now with them, and I'm still not sure if they are finished or not. I think they maybe need lightened up a bit to match the first one, but now they are not a true tryptich any more as the first one's left the nest, so does it matter? hmm.

The thing is, the artist just isn't always the best judge of their own painting. The ones you really love, are the ones that sit mouldering in the cupboard for years. (Though that's partly because they are the ones you don't really want to sell). Working on the arts market in France, I was constantly amazed that people would splash out on the original of the worst painting I had, and leave the 'good' ones hanging.

The great thing about the digital age, however, is that you can record paintings throughout the progress - and if, as it turns out, they were better half way through...well, you can always sell the print of the earlier version. Sort of like selling shadows. But the best thing of all, I guess, would just be to learn when to stop. And that's something that'll probably take me my whole life to learn.

INTRODUCTION

2009-03-18T01:59:00.001-07:00

This is the first blog post of what I hope will be many here, so it makes sense to start off with a little background.

Last month I became redundant in the same week as I finally qualified as an architect. With the world the way it is, it's unlikely that I'll get work in architecture for at least another 6 months or probably a year.

With that in mind, I turned to my 'alternate' career of being an artist - something that's seen me through student days, when I did 'House portraits' like the one shown here; times when I was too ill to work in architecture, and times when I would just rather be painting.

In the past, I've sold in Edinburgh cafes and little galleries, outdoor markets and galleries in New Zealand; set up selling postcards and prints of my paintings in rural France. I've probably sold somewhere between 500 to 1000 paintings over the years; yet I've never had a proper show, or approached many serious galleries.

This blog will be following me as I attempt to take my art a bit more seriously - to break into new galleries, to begin marketing and selling properly online, and above all, to take my painting somewhere I can be proud of, rather than 'scribbles for tourists'.

Paintings in progress like the one to the left will be shown, from beginning to end, and hopefully by talking through my work here, I'll understand better myself the what, why and how of what I do - and become a better painter.

I'll also be looking at other artists I admire, critiquing paintings I love, and reviewing Scottish galleries that I visit.

The recession has given me a chance to go back and do something I love, and learn to do it well. This is my diary about how I do it. Wish me luck!

And finally - all works shown here can be purchased as cards or prints at Red Bubble, and many are available as originals at Art Gallery . Some Originals are also for sale at Greens and Blues, a Scottish gallery in North Berwick.