Regular viewers may have missed the texts that I haven’t written for the last few months, but I will now make amends this month and bring you up to date with my art world.
In my last blog I said that I was pleased to be showing at the new St Albans gallery – called the Nude Tin Can Gallery in Hatfield Road in their June exhibition titled ‘Horizon’. I showed 4 small paintings of seascapes that I thought were quite saleable, but unfortunately none sold, although I was told that they were liked by many visitors.
This month ( August ) I have some more work in another gallery show, along with work by the other 16 gallery artists, of which I am one. The inspiration for the work in this show resulted in three abstract paintings that were developed from a woven pattern that was part of a rug on the floor of the cottage I stayed in Newlyn whilst on a painting holiday! The pattern was one that I saw every day for a week, and which fascinated me as it was made up from strips of fabric woven loosely together in a random pattern, and shouted out to be translated into an abstract design with the same delicate pattern of colours.
The trip to Newlyn was indeed a very challenging week, but at the same time rewarding and productive for me. The first few days were painting plein air using only oils on board directly from subjects which ranged from coastal scenes to planting in botanical gardens. I found great difficulty with oil medium as I am so used to the quick drying time of acrylics, which allows me to overpaint rapidly. Oils just sit there all wet, and I found it a struggle to get other colours and textures to overpaint without it merging into a mess. The results in the end weren’t too bad and one might be worth exhibiting!!
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I found my trip to the RA Summer Exhibition very pleasant this year and thought the effort that Michael Craig Martin had put into changing the old displays, giving us a bright cheerful backdrop to many of the rooms a welcome change from the usual. My interest in the work of the American Abstract Expressionists has been re-awakened lately and I have viewed many good videos and several books about them to meet the challenges they faced to establish the freedom of expression in their artwork.
The next event that is now looming large on the horizon, is my forthcoming exhibition called Place & Space at the Espacio Gallery from 15 – 20 September. There will be ten very talented artists showing and it promises to be a really great opportunity to put some quality ‘landscape’ work on show and display just how diverse this subject can be to our London visitors. Details available on the News & Events page.
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