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WORKLOAD

 

In my journey of self exploration it is of great importance to seek out the working practices of other artist, not so much in the seeking of sameness but in establishing the differences, one such difference I have found from the norm is in the creation and ongoing workload of artists.

I have found many artists who will create several or many pieces of artwork simultaneously, for some as many as thirteen at the same time.

I tend to work in the creation of series, bodies of work that are quite different from each other, each to accommodate the different times of the day, or night;  for what the future may behold I feel very fortunate to be able to do this and adds further to my belief, and endeavours to be, an exhibitions artist.

My sketches of the local Town continues as, with each announcement of the availability both of funding and employment opportunities comes another portion of the old town that moves a little further away from the public eye, taking with it the grand history of a place once built with the toil and physical graft of the Cumbrian man and the sufferance of their families in times gone by.

My contemporary social pieces are being met with great affection from those who both smile, laugh and provide negative emotional reactions in viewing either the finished pieces or the photographic inspirations; I am not sure who is more looking forward to seeing the entire series, they, or myself.

This morning I completed four small landscapes that end the 7 or so year wait that my mother has patiently lived awaiting a landscape from me, terrible to make your mother wait so long!!!  These images are an additional series which, with the large contemporary canvases make up 4 separate bodies of work that I am working on at the moment.

Tim (Leeson) friend, artist and poet, remarked that were he to be so constantly creative it would drive him around the bend, a difficult scenario for me to imagine under any circumstance when, for the most, my life is spent in quiet restful contemplation of beautiful things.

 

02270909

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What a fantastic day the Royal British Legion Roadshow turned out to be, meeting friends, old and new establishing contact with a local artist who was busily trawling for work as a portraitist.

With only 15 children throughout the day I was far from overstretched, fortunately blessed with attentive parents each with this natural talent that parents have of disallowing their children to make a mess with paints!!! How some children are prevented from being fully creative simply by having to be clean and tidy, how much responsibility to parents have for instilling self doubt or even unknown ability by making sure that they paint ' only inside the lines', how many artists become a victim of life, of ego of depression and lifelong sadness through unexplored creativity, perhaps there should be art therapy for parents, or politicians, accountants and bank managers even!!!

It is true that which was said, by whom I am not sure (answers on a postcard please) that we spend half our life time unlearning to paint like a child and the other half trying to recoup the lost freedom, or something like that.

One of my favourite exhibitions was the, now defunct, annual childs eye exhibition, with over 500 images all by children in the 5 year old age range.  What a fantastic array of colour of diverse mixes and abstraction, true art from the heart, it was sad day when that exhibition had its venue taken away in preference for monetary gain, perhaps I might one day have to opportunity to remedy this travesty.

All in all, the week continues well with my people series continuing to grow, now falling into the bracket of the short lived arts movement of the 50s and 60’s known as contemporary social realism (thankyou Peter Wallis for the description) which, at the time depicted the common working class struggles in society, washer women, the poor and downtrodden, the menfolk in the pubs following a hard days graft.

Unsurprising to me the general demeanour of folk continues to have the batterings of life imprinted in their faces while they go about the jobs that many claim to dislike however, during my constant and never ending interest in people watching ( there is a link to many of these fotos on the right of this blog) I have found a mix of tragedy, humour and life that continues unnoticed by many but nonetheless makes for an interesting social study in paint, I will get some of these painted images on line as soon as my current problem of being camera free is resolved.

Until then, onwards, so please have a day as nice as mine continue and remember, be happy for unhappy people never recognise, let alone attain, their dream.

 

BLOG POST what its all about

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BLOG POST what its all about

This morning I was reminded what art is all about. 

 

I delivered a commission yesterday morning to a very happy couple, imagine my surprise when I had a knock at the door and found the couple on my doorstep, the joy in her voice, the sparkle in her eyes and the love for the piece quite apparent would have calmed an army, to feel and witness a persons absolute joy for something that an artist has created, that is what art is all about.

 

If that were not enough reward for one day, What a gorgeous day today was, a sprinkling of rain, more due like than rain, settling on you and warmed from the slow passage to earth, I could quite understand why everything looked so green and alive, glowing almost, even, down through the stone walls that dominate the town and contribute to it’s much loved other name, The auld grey town.

 

In my revelry I could not help but to notice a couple, , either due to their lateness, or, as the umbrellas would suggest, fearing their smart suits should get wet, both he and her, rushing along the pavement. Imagining that perhaps it was raining more than I was enjoying I looked around to find not a single soul with an umbrella.

 

My ponderance regarding this avoidance to tarnish ones best clothes, for that they were, led me firstly to imagine all that they were missing in the world, eyes down with nought but a damp pavement to enjoy, and secondly how odd some folk live their lives, an afterthought for those that have little or no rain in their lives either to wash or drink led to a prayer and I quickly returned to thoughts of art and folk.

 

Remembering that I had several hundred fotographs of people going about their business during last summer when people and their habits took me on a long and sometimes scary journey of capturing people in the street, I should add that the scary part was that not everyone was particularly enamoured by some guy poking a camera in their faces, unsurprising but fortunately got away with little more than a somewhat aggressive stare.

 

I have set about creating a series of gouache paintings on 200gramme paper, it is almost card like with a slight texture (a tooth to grip the paint) and supports a wet paint with ease.  Other than a bit of a play a few years ago I had not actually used gouache for any particular work, for this series of works however I remembered the quick drying, (and bad mixing of colours) qualities of the medium and the colours that I felt would work well on my chosen subject.

 

After working recently with both oil paints and acrylics the gouache was so much quicker drying, and bad at mixing than I remembered, once an adjustment was made in my coming to terms with its qualities the first piece is now underway.

 

thoughts on my college education

My conversations with Tim over the past few days have brought me to pondering over my own college education and the benefits therein.

Despite a life-time of practice, notwithstanding my senior years ( thankyou to the person who thought up 'mature students) going to college for sure a necessary part of my growth as an artist, firstly I had to satisfy the academic absence that gave me the credence in this modern world to put a price on works, works that had either seen the bottom of a bin or hanging on someones wall, for what reason I could never fathom, given away as tokens of my friendship, work that had been done in times of artistic retreat away from the world in which I both loved and despised.

It was also a necessary step to take in my confidence for it was only when I had enveloped myself in a creative atmosphere was able to remember the intense joy that I used to feel in the creation of things not only in the outcome but also of the journey that I used to take each time I did something, or even, I was saddened to remember, that I could create a place to disspaear into for days on end, .

On the negative side, having found my creative self, lost in worldly endeavours, I found that working alongside a course that was gauged toward the youngest and least experienced of students in the group both restrictive and constrictive, in as much as throughout the course much of the information and contents [of lectures], were of matters that to me absolute second nature, stuff that I always imagined was known to everybody, both in relation to the artistic mind set and in practice; is that, I wonder, a pointer toward an unrecognised or practiced inteligence throughout my life, or, is it similarily indicative that the youth of today either have totally different lives than the teenagers of yesteryear or have a completely different attitude towards life than of my generation, perhaps they dont even get the full level of tuition in their secondary years in preparation for college; my tutor was easily able to recognise this and was quite vocal in getting this across, a lesson however easily learned but as difficult to endure while the status quo continued.

For the now however, and returning to my last Blog and this ongoing and new ponderance regarding learning, taking into account that I do have knowledge that others have yet to learn, I guess my blog should point toward those who have no knowledge of the practice of art, though what I shall write about I am not sure for I know not what others know, I still am the apprentice .

same difference!!!!!

currently unable to provide an adequate title for this blog I hope it is not misleading.

I am a great subscriber to the school of thought that suggests that it is always better to seek the sameness in people that are met through the course of ones day rather, that is, to seek the differences, in recognising the differences in others from oneself only proves to anlienate others, whereas to seek the sameness is to find friendships and knowledge; that nonetheless doesn't stop one enquiring over matters of life and interests for that is how we come to understand others.

I have always imagined that I am pretty much the same as everyone else, I think it comes under the terms of being seen to be normal and of being accepted, my journey now, this part of it at least, is about me understanding myself and, rather than to seek differences in others I delight in finding the differences about myself!

One of the wonderful parts about sharing information about oneself is that to actually hear the words about actions that to me seem mundane and general knowledge, in this simple action of imagining that everyone knows the same as me I am actually depriving others of information that, in some instances, be absolutely essential for the others own growth in terms of the knowledge bank , we all have one and it is this that must be filled in order to grow as a person, without knowledge we can not move on, improve, change and reach for goals.

the realisation of this prompts two actions, the first is to share, the second is for myself to seek out more knowledge, my ponderance now is simply, what do I learn about, art is my passtime, art is my work and art is my pleasure, I dont want to learn any more about art as part of the joy is discovery, of new materials, practice, skills or technique.

Oh well, another day over and a ponderance for the near future, learning, knowledge, pottery, glass art, perhaps it is time for me to return to explore sculpture, I met a most experienced sculptur called Peter Liddle some years ago who offered that I visit him some time, perhaps that time is iminent, watch this space!!!

kind regard to those reading this post and thankyou, I may even become interesting in the future.

all work and no play makes for a dull day

with a one week sabbatical at the Bruderhof and a trip to auchincruive for the glasshouse project both iminent there never seems to be sufficient time, with the energy of the town craving attention from my sketch pad I find more and more that my time away is wasted however a rest, even if only a busmans holiday is always welcome.

I have recently finished a short series that my friend and critique Tim, fondly terms 'my blue series' that was prompted by an initial piece destined for submission to the Sue Ryder Care Foundations 'Art in Recovery' fund raising event later in the year. this piece, in acrylic on canvas (101 x81) is entitled 'inner sanctum', a piece, though I say so my self, that I am more than a little pleased with.

Other pieces that flowed from inner sanctum

since my last emage entries I have also finished a series of Karmic Mandela type pieces that were, to say the least fun and in a surprising way still finds an addition to the collection quite regularly, as meditationary pieces they are part and parcel of the 'blue series and form a singular story, more of that another day, perhaps

I have already mentioned the town, without which I am sure, madness would lie in wait at the end of each days labour, without the inspiration, pleasure and sheer fun of sketching the town it would simply be work work and no work, it is as they say, all work and no play makes for a dull day. The more involved I become with the town the more of its secrets that it reveals to me, even to a point where I have started to take a canvas and charcoal out at night in a bid to capture a part of it that by all accounts is missed in a greater degree by the average person in the street than the town in daylight, for me it is a beautiful and vibrant town, steeped in history that is evident at every turn of a corner, why are there not more artists out in the town I can only wonder but then maybe that is just a thing of the past and probably where I am in my career, still trying to capture those lost years of living in the 'real world'.

Both the sketchwork, charcoal and accrylic works are coming together into a wonderful history lesson and will be the exhibition works for next septembers exhibition in the Doodle Room in Kendal, as far as newcastle and the career stuff is concerned, I am still keeping that under wraps until more progress has been made, both on the venue and the work being prepared for there.

I will be posting the full range of mandela pics, town sketches and paintworks on the Fototime site and will publish links in subsequent blog entrys.

Oh well, another day over, another blog entry, I hope you have enjoyed the images, apologies for the quality of the pics, or lack of, the new camera, following the demise of my tried and trusted, is giving a few teething problems but hope to rectify that in the near future.

good bye, thankyou and God Bless.

andrew