Going to the private view

Going to the private view at Blackhorse Lane Studios last night:

Later on it got too busy to take pictures. It was well attended!

It was great to see everyone!

Julie Caves on E17 Art Trail Blog

Me on the E17 Art Trail Blog

Thanks Valerie!

Travel is easy for getting to the Open Studios

The tube is running the weekend of the Open Studios! YAY!
(Scheduled works are the following weekend and the planned tube strike is the day after.)

When everything is working it is easy to get to Walthamstow.
We are the stop before last on the Victoria line, just 15 minutes from the West End. (the Vicky line is speedy!) Just 5 stops from Kings Cross.
Blackhorse Road Station.
Buses and the overground go to the Blackhorse Road station as well.


Follow the signs to walk 5 minutes north on Blackhorse Lane. We are on the right as you come around the corner.

Google Map

What’s on? BHL Open Studios is!

Blackhorse Lane Open Studios is listed in the What’s on section of a-n Artists Newsletter.

Art in the Corridor website is up!

Blackhorse Lane Open Studios and Art in the Corridor
Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th September, 12-6pm each day
Preview Evening: Thursday 2nd September, 6-9pm

The Art in the Corridor website with the images of the 62 works is up!

There is a nice selection of styles and range of prices for this affordable art exhibition in the corridors of the Open Studios.
Original art from £45 to £400.

E17 Art Trail buses

E17 Art Trail buses will be stopping at Blackhorse Lane Studios!
But it looks like only on Sunday.

Barbican Arts Group Trust (no 4) (that is us!), The Page (no2), 27 Thorpe Cresecent (no24) and the William Morris Gallery (no 31) are bus stops on Sunday 5th September, and The Page (no2), and the William Morris Gallery (no 31) are bus stops in our area on Saturday 11th September.

Drawing Residency workshop exhibition

Natuka Honrubia will be showing her amazing huge drawings created during her time as the Artist in Residence at Blackhorse Lane Studios.
Her exhibition will be in the Artworks Project Space 2 – 5th Sept during the Open Studios (and 9th to 12th as well with a public talk on the 11th at 4pm).

The Drawing Studio Residency Workshops Exhibition with work by members of The African Caribbean Women’s Development Centre and Leyton Joint Community Day Services that was run by Natuka Honrubia during her residency will be held in studio UF_15 and will run during the Open Studios. There is a preview for this on Thursday 2nd September at 2pm.

Natuka Honrubia. Sin T¡tulo (untitled)

Open Studios Facebook events page

The Blackhorse Lane Open Studios
has a
Facebook events page.

It is now just 23 days away!

Open Studios listed on Axis

The Open Studios has been listed in the Events area of the Axis website.

It is now just four weeks away!

Open Studio invite is ready!

Thanks Francesco!

Countdown to Open Studios 2010

My to do list to get ready for our open studios five weeks from today!
update 10/08/10: only 23 days away!
update 16/08/10: only 17 days left!
update 19/08/10: two weeks left!
Update: It's TOMORROW!
I will be ticking things off as fast as I can. Lots to do!
(I have a feeling I will be adding a few more tasks as well.)
Is there anything I have forgotten?

For the art:
-Finish making work. Leave time for oil to dry. Pick a day to stop painting so I can start on the rest of the stuff.
update 09/08/10: Still painting!
update 15/08/10: Still painting!
update 19/08/10: last day of painting will be Sunday.
-Varnish
-Sign
-Paint sides if needed
-Buy timber and brace wooden painting panels
-Attach hanging hardware if not framing and if needed
-Photograph
-Name the work and add to records
-Frame some works on paper (6 big A1) have ordered frames and measured for mounts
-Make reproduction prints? No.

For the studio:
-Take down winter draperies
-Put unfinished work in the loft to store it
-Remove old screws from walls and patch and paint
-Repair canvas storage rack
-Decide on work to hang and placement, install. Put rest in loft.
-Make labels and price list
-Package unframed works on paper and put in the print rack? -No.
-Make copies of CV, etc.
-Write statements about 2 series of work: Place and Elusive Memory
-Tidy and pack away
-Scrub floor
-Ladder and light bulbs
-Make book table display
-Prepare refreshments
-Take photos
-Chose outfits

For Art in the Corridor Sale:
-Choose 2 paintings, and replacements if those sell
-Take photos of my work
-Send photos and label info for website and labels
-Deliver for hanging

For open studio committee:
-Schedule
-Rota
-Post hard copies of all info on bulletin board
-Reminders
-Write door and sales procedure signs
-Final decisions on invite and press release
-Organise prizes for Kid's Quiz

For publicity:
-Invite everyone!
-Send out press release.
-Announce/post show everywhere
-Tweet/post regularly
-Post invites to galleries
-Create Facebook event page

Other:
-No new phone to Tweet from til after Sep. :(
-Get contents insurance sorted
-Install dust filter in corner

Open Studios is just over 5 weeks away!

Who: 30 international artists

What: Blackhorse Lane Studios Open Studios - part of E17 Art Trail

Where: Blackhorse Lane Studios
114 Blackhorse Lane, London E17 6AA

When: Sep 2-5

Website: http://www.artworksproject.com

It's in the mail

Starting today I will be writing more letters.
I have dusted off my lovely collection of stationary.
I plan to write a letter a week to family, friends and perhaps the occasional minister.
Doing my part to support the postal service. Since many of my letters will be going to the States I will be supporting the fantastic postal service there as well, which is also threatened.
Plus, everyone loves to receive a letter! They will really know I love them.

Freya Douglas-Morris

Freya Douglas-Morris makes gorgeous paintings. Dreamy landscapes created from combining partial memories of places.
She has a wonderful understanding of colour as evidenced in her painting Water Lillies.

I met her yesterday at an arts event. We hit it off right away and started talking about painters we like. We simultaneously said that Peter Doig's early work and Chris Ofili's recent work are both gorgeous and somehow related. Although our paintings are different Freya and I are on the same wavelength!

Speaking of which: does anyone know where I can see images (or the real thing) of Ofili's 2009/2010 paintings?

Eleonora Schinella

Eleonora and I worked at an after school arts programme together for Rowan Arts a few years ago. Happily I just reconnected with her at an arts event today! And found her lovely website.

Artisanal Pencil Sharpening Service

David Reese offers Artisanal Pencil Sharpening Service (pencil included, and print).

My paintings at the Abbey Summer Show

Last weekend was the always amazing Abbey Summer Show in Barnet, North London. If you were there you know what I am talking about!

Work was on display in a few different places including the clock tower, open studios and workshops, and Lisa Freeman made a gallery out of the glass cases along the wall of the arcade.

My new paintings were in the 12th century barn/church.
I took these pictures without a tripod so they are a bit blurry.
You can see better pictures of the paintings on my website. The series is called Elusive Memories. As always, the main concern is the investigation of colour. The wood panels are heavy with lots of layers of paint and some are really shiny.

London is London, England is England exhibition

Solo exhibition of new work by Jonathan O'Dea at the Vestry House Museum.

Two different jobs with the same name

I like this:

"It’s more that there are two different kinds of people involved in a job that has the same name. There are people who work in the arts because they want to make a lot of money, and there are people who are genuinely interested in art. They happen to be selling it, but they could have done something completely different in that field, like writing or curating."
-gallerists Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers

From an interview in The Art Newspaper.

distill a lifetime of events

I like this:

"paint's unique ability to distill a lifetime of events rather than photography's glimpse of a frozen moment".

From the essay by Charlotte Mullins at the beginning of Painting People.

Exhibition at the Abbey

I will have a few paintings in an exhibition in the old church at the Abbey Art Centre on July 17th and 18th. That is where I used to have my studio, if you recall.

Artspeak

If you don’t understand what is written maybe you haven't made an effort.

If a reader doesn’t immediately understand something they are quick to blame the writer for using unnecessarily “big” words. I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news but most of the time if you can’t understand something easily it is because it is not easy. It is written for intelligent people who will take the time to read something complex and difficult rather than dismissing it because they didn’t understand it immediately. Much popular writing is written to be easily consumed on the train, to the reading level of a ten-year old. But that writing isn’t about big ideas or new ways of thinking.

When an artist uses the language of their profession it is often dismissed as "artspeak". Other professions are not ridiculed for using terms that relate to their work. Engineers are not accused of deliberately using difficult language when they speak about their subject. Physicists talking about complex topics are not told to simplify their language so that everyone can understand. But artists and art critics are derided for their manner of writing and speaking about art, an often difficult subject. It is commonly accepted that those writing about art try to make it “sound important” and purposefully use complicated language in an attempt to hide the fact that they have nothing to say or to be exclusionary.

Writing about a piece of visual art is a difficult thing. Do you describe it, judge it, explain it, talk about the maker or all of the above? And who are you to judge it or explain it? If a picture is worth a thousand words then what about a complex picture with ten years of build-up behind it? How do you write about a mind-mending, multi-faceted, hard-to-grasp concept, about something you understand with your eyes, not with words? Art writers are making the word-less into words. To simplify the idea I will modify the anonymous quote: Writing about art is like dancing about architecture.

If an artist works at expressing a new philosophy visually it may take ten years of making work about that set of ideas to get to a point where the artist feels the idea is well communicated. If it is a complex idea then why would someone writing about the work not need to use complex terms? If the artist took ten years to explore an idea and then shares the results with us, why would you think it could be explained in a paragraph that could be read in one minute? The artist put in the effort, the writer put in the effort, if you want to know what they are talking about you will need to put in some effort, too.

Sometimes understanding a work of art is easy but writing about it might be difficult and reading that writing might be difficult but will probably be fascinating. Sometimes understanding a work of art is hard so reading what someone has written about it will probably be hard, too. It is fashionable to bash “artspeak”. But, the next time you hear someone doing it think for a minute about how hard the artist and writer worked and ask the speaker if they actually tried to understand it.

Oh I Do Like to Be...Beside the Lee!

Oh I Do Like to Be...Beside the Lee!

Exhibition of artwork themed around the Lee Valley Nature Reserve and Lee River.

In the Lee Valley the city jostles with nature. This beauty, variety and contradiction have inspired artists from the Waltham Forest Arts Club to create and exhibit their work at the WaterWorks Nature Reserve and Golf Centre.

6-26 June 2010
Launch Party 6th June, 3:30 - 5:00pm

at the WaterWorks Nature Reserve Golf Course Cafe in Lee Valley Park.
Lammas Road, London E10 7NU. Off Lea Bridge Road near Rig Approach.

ArtWorks Open 2010

ArtWorks Project Space Exhibition
at Blackhorse Lane Studios in Walthamstow (a 5-minute walk from Blackhorse Road Station on the Victoria line.)

11th to 25th June 2010. Check site for opening hours.

Selected by Graham Crowley and Timothy Hyman.

This is a small work exhibition: all work will be 50x50cm or less.

Lisa Peachey - A vestige, ghosted - exhibition

Lisa Peachey will be at the ArtWorks Project Space at Blackhorse Lane Studios May 27 to 30.
Her work is really beautiful.

Open times: Friday 28 to Sunday 30 May 12-6pm.
Private view: Thursday 27 May, 7-10pm.

A vestige, ghosted

Ideas are to objects as constellations are to stars.
Walter Benjamin.

A silent thing. Enjoyed only because it is, and continues to be, there. But what is it for? It has no purpose. It is a remnant of a previous place, where things made meant something, signified something: something shared. When figurines dancing on weary shoulders hushed a city. When god was seen in a block of marble. When things were worth their weight in gold.

It endures. And it is cherished, sometimes. Sentiment, ritual, habit (or market force, for some). Beyond a lifetime, perhaps. Or in a timeless minute of unrecognised care, like being carried by my father in moonlight.

What’s yours is definitely not mine. But you will persist in dusting it. I just hope that it at least ends up at the Salvation Army, instead of being put out with the bins at night.

The object’s tender silence leaves me dumbfounded. Yet from it I gain a sense of identity, and identify with it – despite, or because of, its immutable inaccessibility, its dissolubility, its seemingness only to warm momentarily to my palm. As if in an anechoic chamber, the absence of any murmur of response only focuses and reverberates internal conversations until it appears to whisper volumes, greater than its infinitely empty core.

The works exhibited have one small, domestic thing in common: I made them. They are of me, over time. That is all. They mimic those things that I live with: that sticky brown care of a chair over-varnished and over-polished day after day; the light and shadow of a winter, spent looking for meaning for them in the only place I can – the place where they are. They have a familiar presence. They cannot claim a purpose, or a meaning, except that unspoken and insular lament that objects often conceal – that we chose them and loved them and they couldn’t love us back.

Lisa Peachey studied at De Montfort University, Leicester (1996), and The Slade, London (2006). Previous exhibitions include Olympolis Project, Litohoro, Greece (2008), and the Jerwood Drawing Prize, London (2006). In 2008 she was shortlisted for the MaxMara art prize, in association with the Whitechapel Art Gallery. She has also curated projects, including ‘In its wake’, at Elevator Gallery, London, and has written texts for Moot, Nottingham and Site Gallery, Sheffield. She lives and works in London.

Beyond Words

I will have two paintings in Beyond Words - an exhibition of art relating to the word, in its broadest form, from the printed word to its most abstract representation, taking in artists books, paintings, prints, installations and sculpture. This show of work by artists of the Waltham Forest Arts Club in timed to coincide with Literacy Week and aims to show that communication goes beyond words.

The exhibition will run from the 15th to the 23rd of May, 2010. The opening hours are Saturday and Sunday from 12 till 9 and weekdays from 5 till 9. Opening event on Saturday the 15th from 6pm.

Ye Olde Rose and Crown Theatre Pub, 53 Hoe Street, Walthamstow E17 4SA . A five minute walk from Walthamstow Central on the Victoria line. The exhibition is in The Red Room in the rear of the pub.

Because it is word oriented and will have artists' books you'd naturally think I would have books in this exhibition. But my paintings have story/word-focussed titles: Once Upon A Time and Secret Word.

Hope to see you there!

Vote for policies not personalities

This great website lets you compare policies from the six major UK political parties on a range of key issues: Health/NHS, Economy, Immigration, Europe, Welfare, Democracy, Environment, Education, and Crime. Pick the ones that matter the most to you.

Since you do it without knowing who wrote the policy you can be unbiased. It looks like a lot of people are surprised by their results.

It takes a few minutes if you want to read the policies properly, because some of them sound similar at first. But it is worth the time.

Take the survey at Vote For Policies to find out who you should be voting for.

There are people trying to fix things.

Really great discussion/interview on Art:21- Must art be ethical? I am so glad to hear there are good, intelligent people working on this stuff.

Jennifer Dalton says:
"Here’s a sampling of the ethical concerns that have been raised and discussed at #class:
* Do different ethics apply to the art world than to the rest of the world?
* Is individual artistic ambition compatible with collective artistic activism?
* Is the commercial art system elevating the best art and artists? If not, should we try to change it?
* Should we work to expand access to art beyond the wealthy/well-educated/big-city-residing elite?
* What can be done about commercial galleries who don’t pay their artists?
* What can/should be done about gender inequities in the art industry?
* Should galleries be regulated? Licensed? Would this ensure better business practices?
* How does one define success in art? Is it reasonable that even “successful” artists have day jobs?
* Does anyone benefit from the proliferation of artists getting MFA/BFA degrees aside from the schools?
* Should artists work for free?"

Go read the rest.

E17 Art Trail - Save the date

The dates have been announced for the E17 Art Trail.
The 3rd-12th September 2010.

There will a a launch party on the first evening.

Blackhorse Lane Studios (where I am based) will be participating with a 3-day Open Studios Sep 3rd to 5th. Our launch party will be on the Thursday before: Sept 2nd.

More announcements to come!

I am started to get excited already!

We should have been able to have it all: science and jena se qua.

A few weeks ago I heard some announcers on Radio 4 (didn't notice who) showing their ignorance by laughing at Prince Charles (for whom personally my feelings are ambivalent) because he said in a speech that he was not in favour of the Enlightenment or we should take another look at it. They said he was waaay behind the times and essentially wanted to go back to the Dark Ages. Although its name makes it sound like all that went before it was darkness, it is a name the supporters chose and could be seen as a propaganda tool. It is foolish to believe that because they named their movement The Enlightenment that the ideals espoused by the leaders of the movement have to be correct and superior. Fascists have given the name "Freedom" to their movements and we didn't believe them. The remarks of the announcers show how accepted the values of the Enlightenment have become.

I have been thinking about this for a few weeks. Everything I hear seems at the moment to relate to this idea. This blog is what finally spurred me to write this post. "Art for Life’s Sake: The Necessity of Making and Viewing Art" In this blog post they ask "Why should contemporary humankind, which operates in a culture that prizes left-brain competencies, care about fostering right-”brainedness”?"
Prizing these "left-brain competencies" is directly related to the Enlightenment values being accept wholeheartedly as the correct structure of our society.

Most bookkeeping uses the values of the Enlightenment and so you only see actions and assets that can be measured in a concrete way. That is never the whole story. Many other things happen in a business but because they cannot be measured in a "scientific way" they are not counted, are invisible.

In Tacita Dean's book Place we learn that the word "place" was a hot topic of concern for the ancient Greek philosophers as it meant many things that were hard to grasp like "sense of place" and "place in society and the world". They said it was the fundamental thing to think about, because if you didn't solve the problem of "place" you couldn't go on to anything else. Everything started with "place". (The word was rich enough to write a whole book about.) It is nearly impossible for us to understand this now as the meaning of the word was changed completely by the Enlightenment. Valuing only that which could easily be measured they robbed the word of all its richness and meaning and replaced it with the easily defined and measured meaning of "location". The other parts were left out because the inflated egos of the Enlightenment fathers were insufficient to the task of measuring it completely. So they left out what they were not capable of, what was too hard. To leave out that which is inconvenient to your theory seems a bit like cheating, doesn't it. If they were really good we should have been able to have it all: science and jena se qua.

This leads me back to Prince Charles. Radio 4 announcers: your ignorance, lack of philosophical education, and assumption that the way things are done/thought now is the only way they should be done/thought, is a disappointment. A world made of only bare-bones, measurable, concrete ideas with no room for nuance, colour or flavour should sadden us all.

The Prince Charles story, the post on the Venetian Red blog, the accounting series on Radio 4 and the book Place are all causing me to think about this recently. But for some time I have been thinking about it in relation to the great colour scientists of the past. They left out the mysterious part of measuring and describing colour and made it seem simple. But everyone today still has a really hard time with it. Because their systems are insufficient. Science alone is not good enough. How do you measure my feelings about ultramarine blue or compare them to your feelings about crimson?

If I wanted to change the world, have everything be based upon my values, get rid of that pesky Romantic way of seeing the world, simplify things (by getting rid of the interesting parts), it sure would be clever of me to call my philosophy "The Enlightenment", wouldn't it? That would set everyone straight!

you know this is where you belong

Quote from Jackie Battenfield: "Let's face it, no one chooses to be an artist for the money...you keep at it because you are driven to create and can't imagine doing anything else with your life. For better or worse, you know this is where you belong."

The Dying of the Light, 2005, Julie Caves, 40x40 inches, acrylic on canvas

Food, Inc. trailer

get more creative

10 Benefits of a Recession

* It causes you to get more creative.
* It forces you to make the tough decisions.
* It thins out the competition.
* It makes you realize you can’t take anything for granted.
* It reminds you that real wealth isn’t about the stuff you own.
* It fosters out-of-the-box thinking.
* It makes it easier to abandon business-as-usual.
* It brings you back to the basics.
* It accelerates change.
* It causes you to be less wasteful.

From the Howie's Brainfood blog.

Victoria Lucas video about Collect

Victoria Lucas curated the Collect exhibit.
Axis Arts interviewed her for Artist Stories and here is the video.

It is an exhibition of works using paper, including my artists' books. The video shows Petulant = Pouty about halfway through.

Collect runs until 10 February 2010 at the Westgate Studios, 55 Westgate, Wakefield, WF1 1BW.

a-n Interface: Collect Exhibition

More coverage of the exhibit I am in in Wakefield.

a-n Interface: Collect Exhibition

'Collect' Sneak Preview

'Collect', the exhibit I am in, is featured on Sneak Previews on Axis! How exciting!

Collect exhibition

I have been invited to put three bookworks in a show at Westgate Studios called 'Collect'. It is a paper based exhibition featuring artists from around the UK. The exhibition runs from 27/01/10 - 10/02/10. The opening night (27th January 5-9pm) also coincides with Wakefield's bi-monthly Artwalk.


COLLECT

Louise Atkinson
Julie Caves
Katherine Johnson and Stacey Allen
Steffan Jones- Hughes
Simon Lewandowski
Victoria Lucas
Andy Singleton

Collect is an exhibition that features the loved object created using paper based materials. The artists selected are all concerned with the passionate interest we have for personal possessions, and the objects of the everyday.

Collections are extraordinary instruments that allow us to learn about the civilisations we live in, past and present. They allow us to rationalise the passage of time, putting our fears surrounding the constant loss time demands temporarily at rest. Most of all they tell us something about ourselves, allowing us to place ourselves in the real, to remember, and to make ourselves feel more alive.

Text by Victoria Lucas, exhibition curator.

COLLECT is a free exhibition. It opens on 27th January 2010 from 5-9pm.

Links:
More on the Westgate Studios blog.
On Arts News
There is a Facebook Event page for this show.

Pieces out in the world

I have been thinking about my work that is no longer with me, that has gone out into the world. If I really like a painting, if it is really good, it is hard to let it go. But I have these photos left. And I really am glad that people liked these paintings enough to take them home and live with them. These mixed feelings could be a definition of bittersweet.
This painting is Calligraphy 1. 50x70cm, acrylic on fine texture linen canvas, painted in 2006. It was my most popular painting that year. Everyone loved it! It now lives in a home in North London. My first proper, fine-art-price sale in London. The picture is rather poor, I'm afraid. Now I take better pictures. A bit better.


This untitled painting is approximately 30x40cm, acrylic and oil pastel on watercolour paper, painted Aug 2007. It sold in December 2008.

This small painting sold Dec 2007. Acrylic on canvas, 12x16 inches.

Oh Tanenbaum!

Went to the Tate Britain today to see Tacita Dean's tree. Doh! They took it down before the Christmas break. I hear it was lovely...

Happy Holidays!

I hope your holidays are cheerful and the new year sees your dreams come true!

(Image is from the Christmas card we made this year!)

Private View Dec 4th, Waltham Forest Arts Club Winter Show, Vestry House Museum

My small painting "Twilight No. 1" from the Twilight Series, in the lovely Walthamstow exhibition. Some really good work on show and nicely hung.

Waltham Forest Arts Club Winter Show, Vestry House Museum

Waltham Forest Arts Club, that infamous and mischievous bunch of creatives from NorthEast London, is proud to present a Winter Exhibition with an eclectic mix of works in print, paint and sculpture as well as an interactive piece and film.

at the Vestry House Museum
Vestry Road, Walthamstow E17 9NH
Wednesday to Sunday 5-24 December, 10am-5pm

We cordially invite you to our opening night on Friday 4 December, 7-9pm.

We hope to see you there!



Martin Adams
Roan Allen
David Barette
Valeria Bateson
Anna Bisset
Janet Bowstead
Julie Caves
Monika Cilmi
Brenda Coyle
Nancy Crowe
Ashleigh Dix
Cheryl Dix
Sieglinde Dlabal
Duncan Evans
Pauline Evans
Diana Furlong
Amy Henson
Wayne Keenan
Kim Kirby
Jo Landau
Wendy LeBer
Yvonne Overton
Anna Pczuska
Nadiya Pavliv
Helen Porter
Shirley Pountney
Katja Rosenberg
Sono Scott
Christina Sibley
Anna Spain
David Sullivan
Pete Tomlinson
Trish Willock

The latest news

October and November have been quite busy.

* I finished the 2 series' for the #MailArt project and posted them off. I have been receiving the exchange cards almost every day and have been scanning them and posting them to the Flickr page.

* I will have a small painting in the Waltham Forest Art Club Winter Show in December. One of the Twilight series.

* I am making a big painting to take to the States next week. First time to roll a painting. Will be good to learn how that works out. Especially since the oil will not be bone dry.

* The CREATE conference in Gargnano, Italy was fantastic. Lots of conservation science. Really fascinating. And gratifying to know there are people out there devoting their time to preserving art, old and new. I have plans to work with some Italian scientists to look at the longevity of some of the materials I use. We also have a collaborative art project going and I am working with some great people, it should be interesting.

* The Twitter 140 Art Show finished its exhibition in Arizona and is looking for its next home. Anyone with ideas please contact me.

* I participated in Ryan Gander's We Are Constant project at the Frieze Art Fair. It was my favourite piece at the show.

* I attended an intensive workshop on colour with Jane de Sausmarez. It was great to do all the exercises I had read about in all the good colour theory books like Johannes Itten's book. We did 20 hours of exact mixing and painting of charts, ruthless.

* I ran out of the studio last night just in time to make it to see the last of the Guy Fawkes Night fireworks in Victoria Park. Beautiful, reflecting on the canal. Ooh, ahh.

* It looks like the Colour Group of Great Britain will not be having an exhibition in December as planned. Don't know when, now.

Artist of the Week

I am Artist of the Week on the Twitter 140 Art Show blog.
Sheree Rensel has done a great job!

#MailArt2

At this stage of making the postcard paintings I have painted the fourth layer of acrylic paint, still wet.

This is 3 of the 10 postcards sent from the series Leaves From My Street.


The #MailArt2 mailart project was organised on Twitter. In September and October 2009, the 29 participants in my group, from the USA, UK, Ireland, Australia and Canada, mailed each other art.

Each artist made 28 unique postcard-sized artworks and posted them (without an envelope, so they would show the signs of the mail system and wear and tear).

I made two series:

Leaves From My Street is a series of 10 unique pieces.
The postcards, made from 300lb smooth watercolour board, are painted with layers of transparent acrylic paint and acrylic resin gel, built up over a few weeks. This creates a depth that gives a three-dimensional aspect to the paintings. The lower layers create a green landscape with blue sky. The top layer has the branch of a tree painted in the foreground. There is also a small autumn leaf embedded in the top layer of clear gel, floating above the scene. A poem about blue skies and trees is handwritten on the back. They are each signed and numbered.

The Whole Picture is a painting cut into 18 pieces.
I cut the 22x30 inch painting, made by pouring and layering transparent acrylic paints and resin gels onto gessoed 300lb smooth watercolour board, into 18 pieces. Each was given an identifying code as to its place in the picture. Each postcard is an individual painting, but it is also part of a greater whole. The pieces were posted to 18 different cities in four countries. Perhaps one day they will be re-united and the recipients can see the whole picture.


This is the original image intact, 22x30 inches. Acrylic on gessoed 300lb paper.

This is the painting cut in to 18 parts for the series The Whole Picture.

A detail shot, some of the 18 small paintings / postcards.

CREATE at Lake Garda!

I will be in Italy next week for the next CREATE training conference: Training Course 5: Colour Heritage and Conservation, hosted by the Università Degli Studi Di Milano. A whole week at Lake Garda (think: backdrop for the last 007) learning and sharing ideas about colour! Heaven!

4 year blogiversary

It doesn't seem possible but I have been writing this blog for four years now. Wow.

Not working builds up pressure

"When an artist is not working, there is mounting pressure that nothing can relieve but work." -Julia Cameron

This quote was tweeted on Twitter last week. The sentiment is true for me. I get more and more difficult to live with (or so I am told) if I go through a patch, for some reason, where I cannot go to the studio and work. I think it might be this: I use a part of my brain when making work that I do not use in regular life. When this part is used it keeps a balance in my brain. When it is not used I become "unbalanced". (Mostly irritable and snappish).
That's my thinking on it for today anyway.

Tiny Touring Print Show

I have a 5cm square print, Autumn Leaf, in the Tiny Touring Print Show in Bristol. It is a group of tiny prints exhibited in a travelling trunk. Its first stop will be the IMPACT print conference in September. Then it's off to see the world!

The Collective Egg

The Giant Egg Event: Artists, Writers, Architects, Photographers, Poets, Working together to help Save the Rainforests of Madagascar has been organised to draw attention to the now extinct Elephant Bird.

Tim Grosvenor has also started up the Collective Egg, a group of artists organised through Twitter, who have given him art and words to include on one of the giant decorated eggs commemorating the Elephant Bird.

I have an egg-themed piece on his website.
Eggsistential Crisis by Julie Caves 2009

Twitter 140 mentioned

The Twitter 140 art show was mentioned on Moshe Mikanovsky's Art Blog in an article on using social networking tools.

Twitter Art Show Opening Night Pictures

I have a painting in the Twitter 140 art exhibition in Arizona.
This picture is from ZephyrusNYC's photostream on Flikr. More on the group's website!
(Mine is the white framed square with the coloured overlapping circles.)

IMPACT print conference in Bristol

My panel discussion went very well yesterday.
I wasn't sure if people would find my talk interesting but I had so many people come up to me afterward to tell me how much they enjoyed it, that it seems it was! Turns out that an artist telling people how they do things and why, giving insight into the thought process, how the work is approached and how decisions are made, is fascinating to people! Who knew.

I had to miss the rest of the print conference to come back to London. They are doing some interesting workshops today including colour management (which I need), so I am sad to miss it. Because the topics are relevant and it is such a lovely bunch of people, I do plan on attending the whole thing next time!

I will start saving for the airfare now...

IMPACT

Blackhorse Lane Studios Open Studios

The 3-day weekend of open studios has been great! Lots of good conversations and I have met some great people. Today is the last day, I am going there in a few minutes.

Someone has bid on one of my paintings in the Silent Auction! Very exciting!

The image is of the display I have up in my space, this is the left wall looking through my door.

E17 Art Trail Blog

I have been interviewed for the E17 Art Trail Blog. It is a good blog, a commissioned project for the trail. Thanks Valerie!

Open Studios, so soon!

This weekend I hung half of the paintings for the Open Studios that begins next Friday at noon!
The rest I will hang this week. As well as doing the signs, labels, copies of cv and the table of my book works. Hope I get a chance to mop the floor...

Open Studios at Blackhorse Lane Studios

E17 Art Trail

Our studios at Blackhorse Lane will be having our annual open studios event for 3 days (Sept 11th-13th) during the E17 Art Trail. The Art Trail website has just listed the loads of other art exhibitions that will be going on for the full 9 days of the trail.
You can also download the Trail Guide.
It's a really good website that lets you download all the events, check for events by date, check by a map (not quite finished yet), shows accessible events, and more.

Silent Auction at the Blackhorse Lane Studios Open Studios

Today I chose the 5 paintings for the Silent Auction and got them over to the designated area for photographs to be taken. Soon they will go up on a website with other work in preparation for the Open Studios Sept 11th-13th.

Cafe Gallery Open Exhibition 2009

I had a small oil and acrylic on canvas painting "Twilight No.2" in Southwark Park at Cafe Gallery Projects. This is at the end of the exhibition, just as things were being taken down.

New studio!

Moved into the new studio at Blackhorse Lane Studios yesterday!

I will post pictures when I have unpacked a bit.

Waltham Forest Arts Club

Today I joined the Waltham Forest Arts Club.

It sounds like they have a good membership and are active in exhibiting. I can't wait to meet everyone!

E17 Art Trail

The E17 Art Trail launched in 2004 as a one day event. The annual event now covers nine days with over 150 exhibitions and events already listed for September 2009. The art trail exhibitions feature professional artists, cultural industries, community projects and local residents work.
The fold out map is no longer sufficient and this year the guide will be an A4 magazine. There is a loose theme of At Home in Walthamstow.

Blackhorse Lane Studios will be having our annual Open Studios as part of the E17 Art Trail 11-13 Sept.
32 artists will all have their studios open for the weekend. There will also be a silent auction, starting at just £80 for work by the resident artists. A huge selection of work will be lining the corridors. It sounds like fun and auctions always get exciting at the end - I am sure I will find something I cannot live without!



X marks the spot of the Blackhorse Lane Studios in North East London. (Walthamstow)

Twitter 140 Art Show

In Sept. I will have two small paintings about the Twitter experience in a group show called Twitter 140 at
The Grandon Art Gallery
20 N. Leroux
Flagstaff, AZ 86001

Then it will travel to the next, as yet unknown, destination. Like Twitter, the show will make friends along the way, connections and communication.

All Change Please, All Change.

When this year started I thought it was going to be the best ever. I think I was feeling super positive because Obama getting elected meant the world was a good place.

It has turned out to be a very changeable, expensive, sad and devastating year, so far, for me and mine. Topsy-turvy and tragic.

I have not been painting as much as usual (which is often everyday). I am not one of those painters like Maggi Hambling said she is, when I saw her speak in Soho a few years ago, who paints to get through the hard times, who soothes themselves with the act of creating. When I am sad, it is difficult to find the place I paint in, I have less access to that part of my brain. I have been experimenting with oil painting on gessoed paper and on wood panels. I have done a few nice paintings. If you came to the Open Studios at the Abbey Art Centre a few weeks ago, and came all the way out back, you may have seen some of the new work.

I will have even moved studio twice in 4 months! My paintings are so big and so numerous that it takes 2 huge van trips. Which is both expensive, and exhausting. Moved house, too. Also expensive and exhausting. Still waiting for the phone to be connected so no broadband. Will upload some new paintings when it is set up again.

I have been fortunate enough to be accepted by the Barbican Arts Group Trust and I am moving to Blackhorse Lane Studios in a few days. It will be very different to the Abbey, which I will miss, it is so beautiful there. I was there such a short time but I feel honoured to be a part of the history of such a great place. The new studio is close to home so more painting will get done and then I will feel myself. We are having an Open Studios in Sept. Come by and see the new work.

Twitter:140 Art Show

24 Artists who are active on Twitter are organising a show about all things Twitter. It is the subject of the work and the 140-character statement! My piece is a small painting about the overlapping circles of engagement. It was thought up by and is being coordinated by Sheree Rensel.

http://twitterartshow.blogspot.com/

Portrait Competition by Kim Barker

Win your own free mini portait by Kim Barker at Laketrees.blogspot.com

I have entered the competition because her work is great!
Good luck to everyone who enters!

Phenomena of Change

'Phenomena of Change'
Alexandra Blum’s drawings of Dalston construction 2008/9.

July 3-10. Check the days and hours on her site, they vary.
Labyrinth Tower, off Beechwood Road, Dalston Square, London, E8.

Alex is a friend from my former studios, the Chocolate Factory N16.

This Will Kill That

This Will Kill That is a showcase of new talent emerging from Camberwell’s BA Illustration course. 2-5 July in Shoreditch.
My friend Sine Skovsen is in this!

Camberwell Summer Shows

Just back from Camberwell's BA shows. Some good stuff. Very warm inside...
My friend Sine Skovsen did Illustration.
Sine is showing 6 of the 17 illustrations for a children's book she will be putting together this summer.

University of the Arts London Camberwell : 2009

July Mail Art Project

I will be participating in a mail art project with Mark Philip Venema next month.

The rules state that each card must be unique (so not all 30 cards the same) and must be sent through the post (so not in an envelope) so that the handling process is visible on the work and perhaps even part of the concept, and all 30 made and posted in a one-month period.

I can’t wait!

At this writing there looks like there is still room in the group.
The limit is 30. (Then I think another group will form of the next 30.)

Playing for change

IMPACT print conference

It looks like I will be speaking at IMPACT in Bristol, about a painter's approach to colour when making digital prints (original work, painting reproductions and artists' books.)

Impact 6 : International Multidisciplinary Printmaking Conference

Open Studio Dates!

The Open Studio dates for my new studio group have been announced.
We will be opening the grounds and our studios to visitors on July 11th and 12th.

The Abbey Art Centre
89 Park Road,
New Barnet,
London
EN4 9QX

The nearest tube is Cockfosters on the Picadilly line.
The nearest overground is New Barnet.
Street parking is very close.