I think what I really love about painting is the way the picture emerges before my eyes. I’m constantly looking and asking what am I liking about the way this is developing? When is the right time to stop? It is like magic, and I think it is the reason I keep coming back to painting.
This is a work in progress, but I like some quality about it. I think I will do some quick works on paper along these lines and see what happens.
We visited the Turner prize 2011 show at the Baltic, Newcastle last weekend. Loved it. I can’t decide between the exuberant wallpaper and bath bombs, or Shaw’s sublimely morose paintings. Glad I’m not on the judging panel.
Walking into Karla Black’s installation, we are faced with sheets of polythene liberally smeared with paint which has dried and flaked off, the flakes of colour piled up on the floor. It is like walking into a magical grotto. Glimpsed through these painterly curtains, you can see the sculptural mounds and caves of what looks like crumpled wallpaper liberally coloured with bath bombs (judging by the number of bath bombs lying around). The effect is unexpectedly joyous, stimulating a bubble of sudden giddiness. I want to get down on my hands and knees and scribble. I want to put my hands in the piles of pastel dust and smear them around the floor. Most of all, I want to PLAY. My husband was affected similarly, he thought it was great fun.
By contrast, George Shaw’s paintings inspire a more sombre emotion. The paintings themselves are sublime, with their perfect composition and rendering of sub-urban Tile Hill in Coventry. The enamel paint gives them a soft shiny gloss that makes the surface as perfect as china. But the paintings seem to hint at loss, whether loss of people, places or a lost childhood it is up to us to interpret. There is a good review with pictures on the Guardian website.
I’ve got four little paintings, and seven monoprints in the Water Street Small Works exhibition, which incorporates ‘Just in Case’ – a huge selection of original artworks presented in a CD case. It’s a fabulous show, beautifully presented as always by Rosemary. If you can, go and visit. You won’t be disappointed.
Calderdale Open - my paintings
I have had two paintings accepted in the first Calderdale Open Art Exhibition, held at the Piece Hall visitor centre in Halifax, open 10-5 every day until 30th October 2011.
Swan, 2010, acrylic on canvas
I will be showing this piece in Brooklyn Studios Salon show. A percentage of the proceeds from the show will go to their chosen charity The Chernobyl Children’s Project.
Working towards various exhibition opportunities this Autumn. Here is a sneak preview of some of the work I’m doing. This is a monoprint, and is based on an image of myself layered together with a childhood image of Diana (yes, that Diana).
'Conjoined 2', Monoprint, 11.8cm x 13.8cm
We brought my paintings home on Sunday. It is good to have my babies back (literally). I’ve added a page to the gallery. And here are a few images of the show:-
My work is on the left …
My work in Vision On, 2011
And here is a video …