Painting to Some Purpose #1

I'm back! I've decided to start a new blog as my last one ran its course and was going for about a year. I wasn't an active enough blogger, but I hope that my attitude will change with my new blog. I've just been lurking around Artists Talking http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking for the last couple of months reading everyone elses blogs which has been very insightful. There is quite a community on there now. I think my work moved forward a fair bit last year, and I had lots of encouraging comments and feedback from the two exhibitions that I took part in over the summer. I'm now working my way through my ideas list in my sketchbook, as well as working back into existing work.

Originally posted - 20 July 2009

It's been a pretty good week. I have been selected for the open show at the Surface Gallery in Nottingham which was a nice suprise, I only found out on Tuesday so it was a bit of a rush to get my 2 pieces up there. The private view is this Thursday, so I'll get to sample a bit Nottingham for the first time in my life which is nice. The show runs until the 7th of August. I'm interested to see the other work that was also selected, I'm not really sure what to expect. I'm happy that I got into the show though, and there may have been some dancing in the studio when I found out.

Other than that, I've just been trying to get my work done. I've continued to work on cellophane and now also polyethene sheets too. They are just big floating sheets at the moment on my wall, but it's a nice surface to work on and I feel that I'm getting a lot out of working in this way. I seem to have somehow began working with acrylics rather than oils recently, and I've been using cracking medium, which is a cracking thing to play with (sorry :)) It really works well, but I'll probably discover soon that it is just an effect and that I'm using it for the novelty value. I've also been experimenting with egg tempera, and that cracks too, it's nice and easy to make.

I'm doing the summer school at school this week, which will involve me running workshops, and one of them is based around using and making egg tempera, so that will be a fun/interesting experience.

Originally Posted - 10 July 2009

I've been feeling very tired over the last week or so, I guess I've been pretty busy though. Last week was the project with the Noble school kids in Stevenage, I did a one day drawing/painting workshop for the 20 kids and staff. It was good fun, but I tend to pack a lot in and move very quickly through these things to keep everyone interested and on their toes. It was also very hot and I didn't get much time for coffee. It was a great day though, and the work produced by the kids was pretty outstanding for year 10 kids. My housemates had the bbq going when I got home which was nice.

I joined the rest of the art department in London on Thursday to plan projects/get ideas for next year. We looked at some buildings, galleries and the Design Museum. The Raven Row gallery was my highlight, some really good stuff in there.

I then ventured back to Bath/Bristol on the weekend as it was my birthday, I intended to see the Banksy show, but the cider proved too much of a distraction. I was also pretty preoccupied by my project/assignment thing I'd been working on since November. This was due in on Tuesday. It is part of the HertsCam Teacher - Led Development Work Programme, my was called 'Exploring the two way process of inspiration for an Artist in Residence'. Several other members of staff from the school also did projects and we had to present them on Tuesday night. There was a buffet too and i ate far too much. It was an interesting thing to do, and not too time consuming (unless you leave it to the last minute). It was a pretty hefty spiral bound thing in the end with lots of photos. I had some interesting conversations with people about artists in schools at the network event on Tuesday.

Back to my own artwork, I'd visited Kettles Yard last week, and saw some work on cellophane by Karla Black, this got me thinking about my own work, so I bought a roll of cellophane-like stuff and have it suspended in the middle of my studio. I've been working on it for a day or so, alongside a painting on canvas. I like the potential that this stuff could offer me, especially after working on translucent material. The paint and scribbles are floating in the studio. Unfortunately, I can't get a good photo of it due to the transparent nature and the lighting, but I'll keep trying.

Originally posted - 25 June 2009

I started another big painting in the last few days. Back to canvas again after playing with voile for a while. Trying to get it nice and layered and raw. I like the coldness of the blanked out sections that I've been usingand I'll continue on the route for a while longer and see where it takes me. I got some of the school kids to be my assistants last week. I got them priming a canvas and tearing paper and then blocking in sections. It was an interesting little experiement. They kept asking me what I would do next, my reply being something along the lines of "when I've done that, I generally, sit down, drink coffee and think about what I've just done and what I'll do next". I've sinced worked on that piece a fair bit, and they came to see the progress yesterday.

I've been playing around with colour too, just adding bits here and there, almost as a distraction, I'm still not sure how I feel about it having worked in black and white for so long. I think it's more successful when I add just one small bit of colour rather than going overboard.

I've got a big 1 day project planned for next weeks with a big group which should be interesting and hopefully good fun. We're gonna work from mechanical stuff and do some big drawings. There is also a trip into London planned for next week with the department so lots to do.

Originally posted - 12 June 2009

It's been a busy week, but quite productive. I seem to have done lots, but at the same time, nothing seems to have got done.

I took some small pieces into London on Saturday for the artswork open, they were both selected which was nice. I think that is the first open that I've ever been selected for, after entering loads over the last 4 years. I also went to the Saatchi to see Abstract A merica. First time I'd been to the new space and I was impressed. The floors were really nice, but in all fairness, so was the show. It was good to see a variety of paintings. It was a bit of a flying visit, so I'll go again soon. I recommend it if you like painting though.

I had a meeting with a teacher from another school on Monday, gonna be doing a project with some of their year 10's and staff. Should be fun, but I'm not sure what to expect from their kids. Tuesday's Tate trip was fun, it was interesting just talking to the pupils around the gallery and trying to get their responses to the work. i think it was the first time that most of them had been to a gallery. I found myself saying "why don't you get closer to the work so you can see it better" a lot. All in all it was a good day. Quite tiring though!

I'm off to Pitt Rivers in Oxford in a bit with the art department to plan our ideas for the summer school. Should be a good afternoon.

Originally posted - 3 June 2009

I think I was trying too hard with my work, and overcomplicating things, but that was probably an important phase to go through. I kept adding things to the canvases, extra frames, bits of hardboard etc. Since my last post, I've been pretty productive making what are essentially 'just' paintings. Instead of using other objects to make layers and boundaries, I've used paint. Fancy that!

I'm still obsessed with the use of translucent fabric, I don't think transparent materials would have the same effect, or work as well due to the fact that the semi-see-throughness is a bit of a tease as to what is obscured, with the occasional hole cut away for a bit of clarity. Saying that, I'll be working with perspex next week. I've done some really small versions too (30cm x 30cm) which are nice little objects. These pieces of work do have a tendancy to look a little bleak and maybe clinical, and there is a wanting for me to put some of that energetic mark-making back into the surface somewhere. They do look like they've moved on somewhat over the last few months though, always a good thing.

Originally Posted - 13 May 2009

I've had a few minor breakthroughs in my work since my last post, and of course a few exhibition rejections, but that's all part of the fun and I'm far more selective these days than I used to be.

I've enjoyed painting on the rough hessian as opposed to the smooth canvas and the more delicate voile, and I like the way that the different materials compliment and contrast each other. I've also been thinking about my ideas, and what my work means (again) and decided to try something different, almost in reaction to the rest of my work, it is very bright and straight edged, but it kind of says similar things to the rest of my work, it's only a test piece that I'll probably grow to hate.

I keep just starting new pieces of work rather than sticking with one piece and seeing it through and really finishing it, I think I've become scared of finishing work, maybe of overworking it. I think I've got something like 9 pieces on the go at the moment, which seems a bit ridiculous, they're constantly evolving though and they all seem to feed off of each other, so I guess it's a healthy way of working.

Just reading this post back, I sound really negative, but I'm totally not, I'm happy as I'm seeing my work slowly changing and hopefully evolving.

Originally Posted - 24 April 2009

It's been nice here this week. I've started to deconstruct and layer up some photos of my work, the idea being that I will be trying it on a larger scale with a proper piece of work soon, this will probably also end up being a cube structure too by the looks of my experiments. Talking of cubes, thanks for your comment last time Helen, that was useful. I'm getting ready to build a larger cube thing that will have a more useful relationship with the rest of my work, it's a fun way of working when you've been painting in 2D for years, although this is by no means 3D I guess. I've also got hold of a small projector that I'm going to be experiementing with, this will add another dimension to my work and is something that I've wanted to try for years. I'm looking forward to seeing how projected and maybe moving images will sit within my work.

Another passing comment by a friend of mine has stuck in my head this week, she said that my work is becoming more concerned with the materials that I use, whereas I'd always used markmaking techniques to create layers, I'm now using different fabrics and wooden boards. Maybe I am actually 'growing up' as an artist, maybe it's seeing the kind of work that the kids in the school are doing, and my reaction to it.

Other than that I've been having a crack at some proposal writing and I've also managed to get to a few big exhibitions, Gerhard Richters portraits were ace, and I got a lot from them, but the Picasso show was an odd experience, it was as busy as one of those trendy bars on a Saturday night, not ideal for viewing art, but what can you do.

Originally Posted - 30 March 2009

I've finally gotten round to adding more of the images as I promised in my last post. I've been working on an idea of a box, a cuboid painting where each side informs the other, and it is becoming an idea for a painting installation where the cube/box informs the work displayed surrounding the box. I think I came up with this idea a while back my friend had a dream where she went into a painting, my ideas surrounding this are developing nicely in my sketch books and in the studio. I've started making a small maquette of the box idea. I've also just got a load of hessian too, I'm gonna do some big paintings on it. I'm also continuing to add layers to a 2D surface by placing things infront of and behind the pictorial space, I need to be more brave and risky though.

Originally posted - 10 March 2009

I didn't realise that it has been a month since my last post. I've been pretty busy with everything, doing a fair bit of teaching and making lots of work in the studio too. I thought that my work was all going in different directions, but it seems to be all meeting up again now. I've been attaching stuff to the canvas and just starting lots of small things. The sunny weather has helped spur me on too, I have always seemed to work well in good weather for some reason. I feel quite motivated at the moment despite one or two recent setbacks, so it's good that I'm feeling positive and keeping the production rate up. I'll post some images later/tomorrow.

Originally Posted - 9 February 2009

Well, what an odd week. The snow was pretty bad in this neck of the woods and the school was obviously closed for some of the week, so I didn't get a chance to do much work. I did get the chance to head to Bristol the weekend before the snow to catch up with some friends from uni. They are very familiar with my work and how it has changed since the beginning of my degree, so it's great to get feedback from them. They were saying how my work has always seemed a little dark (although that's never really the intention) and that now my latest work has quite a bleak, cold feel to it, but in a good way. Maybe that's mainly due to the materials that I'm using, they do look quite ghostly and empty in a lot of areas. I'm in the process of finishing a few of these off at the moment so we will see how they look at the end of the week.

Working in a school during crazy weather is quite a strange experience. On the Thursday, only a few kids made it in, and a number of staff were snowed in so the school day was turned upside down. I decided to hang out in the art department and to see where the day would take me. It was quite fun actually, after break, one of the art teachers and I decided to do an impromtu drawing day with some year 10 girls. It was quite fun and introduced some pupils that I don't normally have contact with to my working methods. The work was a bit hit and miss, but for a 'made up as we went along' session, is was ok. After doing lots of one hour sessions with big groups, it was a breath of fresh air to work for a longer time and with a smaller group. Maybe we should have made snow sculptures though!

I've started a new project within the residency. It's to do with ways of learning and developing and a number of teachers from the school are doing projects and we have meetings and evening sessions to discuss our ideas. Anyway, I've decided that my project is to based around the idea of a 2-way collaborative exchange (if that makes sense). When I began the residency, it was my hope that my work would influence the pupils work, and vice versa. So far it has I believe. To kick off my 'research' I took a group of year 8's, about 27 of them, and after giving a presentation of my work and my influences, I asked them to 'set me some homework', for them to give me instructions for what to do on a blank canvas that I presented to them. Now, I did make suggestions and give them a materials list as I didn't want to do anything crazy. I ended up with an interesting batch of instructions, and I can safely say that this will be an odd piece of work, but this is a test run. They seemed really keen to give me a task to complete, as they are used to being told what to do by a teacher, I'm not sure how it has effected their classwork yet, but they have made visits to my studio which is probably the most important thing. I next plan to do some quicker tasks with different groups.

Originally Posted - 19 January 2009

It's been a while since I last posted, so mainly I wanted to show my face and say hi. I've been extremely busy since December, and the two week break at Christmas was much needed. I've mainly be sorting out stuff and working on a few plans/ideas for later in the year.

I'm quite excited by my current work with that see-through fabric though, I'm even adding bits of wood to my biggest piece, it looks quite different/more resolved than my other stuff which is positive.

I've been doing lots of work with the kids at school, this major project will run to the end of March, but it's all good experience and very inspiring seeing their work being produced under my guidance. They got really excited on Friday when I enlarged and projected some of their work for all to see. I've been pretty flat out with this and my own work, almost so that my own work is developing without me even noticing. There is so much I want to make at the moment so I think it's a good start to the year, especially as I think that I know what my work is about now!

Originally posted - 15 December 2008

I actually wrote this post just before Christmas, but never published it. I've just tweaked it a little to bring it up to date.

The week leading up to Christmas was quite manic, I was just looking forward to a break, and that's what I did, 2 weeks away from the studio and my work. I planned to put my work to one side after Christmas and start afresh in the new year, but that's not how it's panned out, which is kind of good.

I think I was struggling a bit at the at the end of 2008, so it was a welcome break. I know that I want to push my work on this year and make the most of the remainder of my residency. I felt quite dis-satisfied with most my work before the break, but seeing it all with fresh eyes has been positive, and I generally feel quite good about it all.

My new scenic fabric has worked fantasically, and has a nice quality to it, I'm getting into working on a double layered painting now, and will continue working this way for a while. I've also had a suprising return to an idea I was going with at the end of my degree in 2005, cutting holes. It's funny how you end up revisiting things, but it's been quite a natural progression.

Originally Posted - 26 November 2008

I'm feeling quite happy about the direction that my work is going in at the moment. I took a bold move earlier in the month and put some shapes onto the canvas, circles, squares and torn paper shapes - in florescent red paint. The idea behind this? Well, I wanted to spice the dynamics of the painting up, to add something almost alien to the piece, and kind of unexpected. It kind of acts as a visual boundary, and also as a distraction. When trying to concentrate on a small area of the painting, you are distracted by the bright colour, and that acts nicely as a boundary and I think, at the moment, that it works with my ideas. Using shapes work in contrast to the rest of the free mark making too, I like it at the moment, but I need to be careful not to go too far. I think that I can easily go in the wrong direction here. I've been looking at 'Bad Paintings' too, I think that's where the bright colours came from.

I've also been working behind the stretcher, with canvas basically stretched the wrong way around, and then with a layer of translucent fabric stretched correctly. I've been making holes to expose the layer underneath, which adds quite a bit of depth to my work. I think I like this. I'm working on a big version right now to see if it works on a large scale.

I got some nice fabric the other day, and I look forward to using that later this week, I plan to make up some more translucent pieces different framework. I’ve also been adding wooden ‘bars’ over the top of some smaller canvases, and to my surprise, it looks like it might look ok.

Originally Posted - 12 November 2008

It's been a whole month since my last post, longer than I had planned. I actually went through one of those phases that we all get, thinking that your work is going nowhere and that all your ideas have gone stale, feeling that I was repeating myself and struggling for motivation. That probably makes it sound worse than it was. I do believe that those phases are important though, and have told myself that alot over the last few weeks.

During the schools half term break, I stayed away from the studio, in the hope that I would return with fresh eyes. I also went to the Freize art fair, which was tiring but worthwile. I was sure that I'd overdosed on art that weekend and drained me over the next week, hence the struggling phase I guess. The last couple of weeks have been good though. I've continued to push my ideas forward and have been adding bright colours to my work as a kind of visual boundary/distraction. It kind of works and looks odd at the same time, I like it and don't like it at the same time. I've been using paper and making rubbings and cutting holes in the canvas too, exposing layers underneath. I think my work is looking exciting again which is good and a relief. I think some of the 'ripping up work' tasks that I've been doing in the class room is having a positive influence on my work too.

Originally Posted - 11 October 2008

I'm reasonably happy with how my work has progressed since the last post. I removed the extra frame piece from the canvas that I'm working on, and I'm quite satisfied with the raw unfinished quality that this work has. It's very empty and imperfect, and I like that. I'm just going to leave this canvas and live with it for a few weeks or months and see how I feel about it. At one point, I did put a translucent panel in front of it, and that did something for me, so that's another avenue to explore. The double canvas thing is also progressing, albeit at a slower pace. It needs another larger panel to be added behind it, maybe an off-square shape, and maybe a small panel in front, it will probably move on a lot over the next couple of weeks.

I built and began working on a 3 layer painting/drawings during this week. It’s an idea I’ve been wanting to act on for a little while so I headed into making this piece of work full of optimism. This idea would present a different way of working and thinking about things such as mark making and space as I would be working in layers and in a slightly more three dimensional way. So far it hasn’t really worked, I’ll need to think about using different materials, I still want to explore this way of working as it fits in so nicely with my ideas.

I also began working on a larger painting with a translucent surface this week. As I’ve mentioned earlier in this blog, I am interested in the stretcher/support and I believe that it can be as important as the paint on the surface. The cross bars and stretcher frames form a layer of a painting in itself, and can be seen as the skeleton of a painting. Anyway, for this piece I added extra pieces of frames (including that extra frame piece that was originally on the large canvas piece) and this both constructed and fragmented the pictorial space before the first charcoal mark or splash of ink was applied. The extra corner piece serves to extend the pictorial space and presence of the painting, and breaks the boundary of the rectangle. I limited myself to just using black on this painting, and I was happy with how it was progressing. I then turned the painting around, exposing its frame and structure and it came together really well, especially with the extra frame in the top corner. It’s more successful this way. Is this now the way forward? I then added a small translucent panel to the larger structure, adding yet another layer, and that was a good move, this is definitely the way to go. It’s interesting because I never thought that this piece would develop quite like this.

Originally Posted - 10 October 2008

I haven't made a post since the end of September, I think I was struggling with my work last week so I didn't want to make a post but now I feel pretty happy about my work as I head into the weekend after the 6th week of the residency. I seem to have written a lot so I will make a double post to stay within the word count. I spent week 6 getting new work off the ground which involved stretcher building and discovering whether or not my ideas were going to work.

After my last post, I did a one day project with 6 pupils from different year groups. I wanted it to be a drawing day, and for it to be something quite straightforward. I decided that we would be drawing pears, and hands holding pears, and I was very happy with the results. Initially the group did some quick ink sketches using sticks which they enjoyed, and idea was to spend the first few hours making lots of quick work, and then the afternoon would be devoted to making a large final piece. I was impressed with how talented the kids were, and they really took to drawing with sticks and painting without brushes. I was guiding them a lot throughout the day and was constantly on the move, but it was really enjoyable. One pupil thought she was struggling and found it hard to like her work, but eventually I think she came round, and I think she probably got the most out of the day and has been back to look at her work. All the work produced was on display during the schools open evening, and there were lots of good comments about the work from current staff and pupils. Some of the kids from the one day project even brought their parents in to show them what they'd done.

After the collaborative canvases from arts week, I've been thinking about control and how you can create a piece of work both randomly and in a controlled way. For an hour long session with some members of staff I designed a game using these ideas. Each person had a large piece of paper that was divided into 30 squares. You then had to pick 2 cards, the first had an instruction such as 'drip blue paint', 'make a rubbing of a wall' or 'draw your hand using charcoal' and the second card told you which square or squares to use for that particular instruction. It's another way to generate a starting point for a piece of work, and in that respect, it works. There were some interesting pieces of work. It's an idea that I've had for a while so it was nice to try it out on a group of people. These pieces of work will be used to initiate a more substantial piece of work next time.

Originally posted - 29 September 2008

The fourth week of my residency was quite a different experience from the first 3. It was arts week at the school and I agreed to set up 3 canvases in the studio and do a week long collaborative project. The idea was, every break time and lunch time, pupils and students and staff would come to the studio and make a mark on one of the 3 canvases.

Monday was crazy, it seemed to be really popular and I believe that there was a que to get in to the studio at one point. It was more of a free for all in terms of mark making, something that I changed for the rest of the week! The canvases did look a little sorry at the end of the first day, and I was a little worried. For Tuesday a 3 second rule was applied (you had 3 seconds to make a mark) and the materials were limited, the canvases now began to take shape, it was still really busy, but I had help for some sixth form students which was great. The 3 second rule worked very well so that remained on Wednesday and Thursday, but with further material limitations and rules such as 'draw a line', and 'draw a square or a circle', although one pupil continually insisted on drawing a chicken, so there may be a hint of poultry on each canvas. Friday was probably the most difficult day, trying to finish the canvases and guide the pupils into completing them, but they turned out pretty good, and interesting pieces of work. Strangely, adding rules to the mark making definately allowed for more creativety.

Another notable moment from the week was when a group of pupils came to see me with drawings of my work in their books, along with a list of questions and comments. That was great, I've never seen anyone make drawings of my work before.

My work has also continued throughout the week, I've been working on large pieces of paper and also on a new canvas as well as the double frame thing that I started last week. I've added an extra mini frame onto the corner of one canvas to extend the presence of the space. It seemed to work until I started to draw on the canvas. It now just looks odd, so I've got some serious re-thinking to do, I think the idea still has mileage, but the drawing works only on it's own, not with the extra frame. I'm sure things will move along this week though. I feel the need to start more work so I can work across several pieces at once.

Working with the pupils has already had a positive impact on my work. I've even been copying elements from their drawings and incorporating them into my work, I'm doing a one day project tomorrow with another group, so I'm interested to see what happens there.

Originally posted - 21 September 2008

Once again, a bit a gap between posts. I went into week three with my four finished pieces of work. They were still a little wet, but finished enough to be displayed on a rather nice wall in the science block at the school. They actually look quite good considering they were produced so quickly. The translucent ones worked really nicely, but one of the canvas peices was still a little too painty, the kind of think I wanted to get away from, but nonetheless a good starting point for the rest of the term.

The rest of the week was spent talking to groups of sixth formers and planning next weeks after school clubs. I did some very bad drawings and generally found it a bit of a struggle to get into my work, but I had expected that.

Thursday was a slight breakthrough. I spent the day playing around with frame making and trying to get an interesting start for my next piece. I went through lots of different layouts that I had sketched in my notebook, but ended up with a free standing double panel 3d object thing which looks really cool. I've yet to paint or draw or do anything like that to it, but it's a start. I kind of want to spend the first part of next week building some more of these structures before I get stuck in with the marks. I'm sure that this is the way forward, as it is extending the pictorial space in the way I need it to. The best thing was, I left the studio on Friday evening with a smile on my face :)

I went to Cambridge yesterday to see the Roger Hilton exhibition at Kettles Yard. It was well worth the trip, really great stuff. Probably the best painting exhibition I've seen in quite some time. I really liked the openess in his work and the way that it looked so easy. I think I will continue to work in a traditional square/rectangle format as well as my new way of working.

Originally posted - 9th September 2008

Sorry for the delay since my last post. I have started my residency, and have been busy making new work for the last couple of weeks. It all seems to be going well.

Before I started at the school, I decided I would pop over to the Tate Modern to see the Cy Twombly retrospective and pick up some inspiration, it was something that I had been meaning to do all Summer, so it was good to finally go and see some big paintings. I'm a fan of his work, and I think I really enjoyed the show, but it also really stressed me out for some reason. Whenever I go to see work of this calibur I always seem to worry about my own work and panic that I'm not as good/will never be as good and I always feel inadequate, which I know is a really silly way to feel, but there you go. It was good to see the show and I'm glad I went.

But yes, it's been a good 9 days, and everyday seems to be a little better than the last which is nice. I've agreed to put some work around the school next week, so I've been rushing together 4 new paintings for that. It's nice to have a bit of pressure to paint to, I have to make decisions quicker and act on my instincts with the materials. It really makes a difference spending everyday in the studio as opposed to the scattered working pattern that I had before. The new work that I'm doing now is my 'adjustment phase' work, it's all a bit random and is kind of a mix of what I was doing earlier earlier this year, but using mainly drawing techniques as I mentioned in my last post. Two of these pieces have translucent surfaces, which are working well with charcoal and oil sticks, it's a really 'fast' surface.

I asked myself a question in my last post, along the lines of 'Why am I trying to add a 3d element to my work?' I'll add that I plan to start this mini project next week, and that it will still be wall based, so quite 2d, but with an object feel to it. It looks great in my head. The work is all about boundaries and passing through layers which I intend to convey by the use of mark making, fragmentation and constructed pictorial spaces. So that's my idea for a starting point.

Originally Posted - 27th August 2008

It's been a week since my last post, and although I still have a few days until the residency begins, I thought it was about time for another update.

I updated my website the other day, and I mentioned on there what my initial plans regarding my work would be. I mentioned that over the last few months, I've become increasingly interested in extending the pictorial space of his paintings. This includes the support and what is behind the 'canvas' as well as extending the work out into the space as a 3D object. I plan to use this idea as the starting point next week, but why do I want to go in this direction? Before I try to answer that question for myself, there is something else that has been bugging me about my work this summer.

I've often referred to my work as drawing with paint, or even just drawing with charoal and pencils on the canvas, I rarely ever used a brush, so my work had a great drawn quality to it with layers of charcoal. Something changed in my work earlier this year whilst I was making a new body of work for an exhibition in Bristol, everything got a little to 'painty'. At the time I didn't really notice it, maybe due to deadlines and the fact that for me it was my 'new exciting work with colour'. It wasn't until much later, at an open studios weekend, that I saw a selection of my new work and my old work next to each other. It was clear to me that my new work was lacking in that certain something that my older, more drawing like work had, and that moment was definately a bit of an eye opener for me. Some of my fellow artists from the studio also pointed out how interesting my previous work was. So that was it, I knew I needed to get back that raw quality that previously existed. I guess it's one of those things that happens from time to time, you just get too involved with a way of working and forget to step back and properly evaluate what you are doing. It is my hope that this blog will help me to do that. At college of course, you'd have your tutors there to advise you, but outside of that environment, you have to keep your wits about you. I think it is an important process to go through as an artist.

So as well as the idea of extending the pictorial space of paintings, I will also try to recapture the excitement of my work from a couple of years ago. As for that question that I asked myself at the beginning of this post, I'll come back to that in my next post.

Originally posted - 20th August 2008

I have about 12 days until I start my residency. I've successfully relocated from Bristol to Stevenage and moved out of my studio in Bath. It feels kind of strange being inbetween studios, as I work on mostly a large scale, a studio is essential to allow me to make work, so I'm having to make do with note making, jotting down ideas in my sketch books and researching stuff on the internet.

Since I began my journey into the world of art back in 2002 when I started my foundation studies, I've only had a 5 month gap where I've been without a studio. This was immediately after finishing my BA and being stuck in the big world without any idea of what to do. I was really fortunate to get a studio so soon after graduating, as many of my friends were never so lucky, and it allowed me to continue and develop my work. Now I'm without a studio, albeit very temporarily, and I actually feel as if there is a massive void in my life. I really cannot wait until I have my nice new space to realise all my new ideas in.

Writing a blog is something I've been meaning to do for some time now. I've got no idea if anyone will read it, but I think for me it will be an extension of my notebooks and a space for me to gather my thoughts and document my ideas.