A Picture from BABE

(Bristol Artists Book Event)
Last weekend was the first of many book fairs at the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol we hope! It went very well. Saw lots of wonderful work and some old friends! This is a picture of my table.
P.S. Happy Birthday Elaine!

Celeste Art Prize public on-line vote

I am in the Celeste Art Prize on-line voting at http://www.celesteartprize.co.uk/2007/publiconlinevote/artist_2.asp
I have a 120cm x 150cm painting called Going Out of Business that is a result of my thinking about Darwin's theory of the survival of the fittest and if it is true anymore.
Voting ends 20 May.

BABE (Bristol Artists Book Event)

BABE (Bristol Artists Book Event)
Arnolfini, 16 Narrow Quay
Bristol BS1 4QA

I will have on display, available for handling, books from my Serendipity Press.

Over the weekend more than 50 artist bookmakers, dealers and small presses from Bristol and around the world, will come together at Arnolfini to show and sell their work. The first ever event of its kind in Bristol, BABE has been organised by Arnolfini in conjunction with the Centre for Fine Print Research at the University of the West of England. BABE provides a great chance to meet and chat to artists about their work and to buy works of art; prices start from just a few pounds.

I make big paintings and little books.

Colour Matters

I will have about 20 large paintings in a 2-person show in East London for the month of May. Some from 2005, one or two from 2006 but most are new ones, some of which I am still working on!
Here is the invitation and press release:

Press Release
(London, April 2007)

Colour and a Breathing Sculpture Converge

A dynamic contrast between the active inflatable sculpture of Rachel James and Julie Caves’ painterly exploration of colour is featured at the Oxford House Gallery in Bethnal Green from May 3-29, 2007.

One is immediately greeted by the visual impact of “Colour Matters” as the gallery space becomes a panorama of colour filled with the painterly and expressive work of Julie Caves that leads you through the high sunlit room and then down to the lower gallery. Of these paintings she says that “Viewers often feel that they are seeing a vast landscape but at a magnified level, like a universe inside a drop of water”.

Julie Caves received her MA from Camberwell College of Art and works in East London where her practice involves an investigation into colour, ways of seeing and the act of painting.

The visitor is ultimately led to the dramatic finale “Col de Alba“, where they are met by the expanse of a living, breathing, imposing sculpture that appears to be alive as it rhythmically inflates and deflates, expanding to fill the space around it. The union the artist felt between the landscape and her yoga practise during time spent in Catalana, Spain, inspires the piece. The breathing effect created in the sculpture echoes the feeling of the expansion of the breath within the body and our own connection with the earth around us.

Rachel James has been exploring the inflatable medium since 1997 and is one of the few artists pushing the boundaries of this medium as an incredibly diverse and exciting form for artistic expression. Incorporating movement into these pieces intrigues her and this quality has individualised her inflatable work.


Venue:
Oxford House
in Bethnal Green
Derbyshire Street
London E2 6HJ
(+44) 020 7739 9001
www.oxfordhouse.org.uk

May 3-29, 2007

9 AM - 10 PM Monday-Friday
10 AM - 6 PM Saturday & Sunday

Private View: Thursday May 3, 6-9

Public Pages Exhibition

The web site is now up for the Public Pages Exhibition.
Public Pages is an exhibition of Text Art and Visual Poetry bringing together contributions from poets, artists and makers of works which explore the visual and cultural impact of the word, the sign, and the slogan in public space. I have my 50% Happier piece in it.

Oxford House Show

I am very excited to say that I have a big show coming up! The curator at OH! Arts loves my paintings and I will have about 25 large ones up in the big space. I will be sharing the space with a sculptor who has one enormous white or colourless inflatable piece that will be downstairs. I am working on 2 very large pieces for the biggest walls and five 150cm paintings for the other walls. There also will be an assortment of paintings from the last 3 years, sort of a survey.

I think I will call it Colour Matters. It is a lovely space with a high conservatory roof for the upstairs, so lots of light. And interestingly 1 wall upstairs and 2 downstairs are different shades of red.

Watch this space for more information. I still haven't met my co-exhibitor yet, so there will be lots more info coming about her! I also have so much work still to do! So excited!

Oxford House is in Bethnal Green in East London. The show will run from May 3 to the end of May 2007. Private view is set for May 3, 6:00 to 9:00.

This is a snapshot of the corner of my studio yesterday, the paintings are piling up and the in-progress work is everywhere. I see many long days of work ahead of me for the next few weeks, materials to be delivered and canvases to stretch, and lots of painting. This show is going to be great!

Rowans Arts - Holloway

This month I started helping with the Arts Games programs put on by Rowan Arts at the Whittington Park Community Centre.
There is an Over 60's art group that could use some more participants. If you know of any seniors in Islington who might like to attend, we would welcome them.
There is also a children's Art Games after school group that is lots of fun. The groups are both run by Anna Boggon an artist whose work I really like.
The two groups meet at separate times on the same day but see and talk about each other's work regularly and at the beginning of the summer the two groups will join together to make a project based on the theme of Games for the Holloway Arts Festival.

Hackney Winter Salon

Pictures of the Hackney Museum show of small paintings and my orange one in the centre of the right wall.

"Where I Go When I Get Wet", 2006, 30x30cm, acrylic on canvas

Snow Day

February 2007, North East London
Pretty snow, not common - so fun!
(But I learned from a heavier snow a few days later, the hard way by ruining shoes, that it gets wet and dirty and slippery as it melts...)

A bike I passed on my way to work and snow at the studios!

Sitting Room

Sitting Room, 2007

A traveling artists' book exhibition dedicated to the art of sitting and reading, the books will be displayed in a domestic environment specially created in the gallery.

Permanent Gallery & the Permanent Bookshop, Brighton, UK.
Venue website

Start date: 01-Feb-2007
End date: 18-Feb-2007
Private view Wednesday 31 January 2007, 6-9pm


The setting is a carefully re-created Sitting Room within the Permanent Gallery interior, complete with comfortable armchairs, standard lamp, wallpaper, coffee table and gramophone. Visitors are encouraged to choose an artists book from the bookcase, make themselves at home and enjoy this rare opportunity to handle and interact with the limited edition artists-made book works.

Curators Tom Sowden and Lucy May Schofield, part of the Righton Press Group, based at Manchester Metropolitan University, conceived the idea for the show through a frustration of exhibiting their own books within the confines of glass cabinets. The primary benefit of using the book form as their chosen medium is to allow direct contact between the work and the viewer; the experience of reading and interacting is paramount. Sitting Room will allow the books to be read in a relaxed and cosy
environment.

Artists from the UK and throughout Europe were invited to create books based around the theme of Sitting Room and designed to be handled. Interpretations include books on domesticity, the act of sitting, reading, seated journeys, chair-related ephemera, conversations on the settee, ejector seats, superficial housework, family photograph albums, observations and viewpoints from the living room and a day in the life of a sofa. This eclectic mix of artists books represents work by acclaimed artists of national and international standing, and promises to be a truly welcoming show.

Public Pages exhibit

PUBLIC PAGES EXHIBITION
Friday 30 March – Friday 13 April
9.00 am – 6.00 pm
Cube3 Gallery, Portland Square,
University of Plymouth
Private View:
Thursday 29 March 6.30 pm
I have a piece from the Have A Nice Day series in
Public Pages, an exhibition of Text Art and Visual
Poetry bringing together contributions from
poets, artists and makers of works which explore
the visual and cultural impact of the sign and the
slogan in public space. Designed as a complement
to the academic conference Poetry and Public
Language, this exhibition will show works which
engage with the placement and displacement
of text on the page, that articulate the twodimensional
surface, that integrate visual and
textual elements in a composition and consider
the page as a public space, addressing a public
and entering into public debate.

There will be an on-line format soon.
Public Pages is curated by Mark Leahy.

I like coffee AND tea

I like cats and dogs.

I like movies and books.

I like sweet and savoury.

I like art museums and Star Trek.

I like oil and acrylic.

Pictures of the Marmite Prize for Painting show

The Marmite Prize for Painting exhibition pictures of the opening night are up on the
Residence blog page.


Here are 3 of them:












You can just see my lavender coloured painting in the centre.



I am in green, with Gary and Lisa behind me and we are being entranced by Claire, doing whatever it was she was doing!

Winter Salon at Hackney Museum

I am in the Winter Salon at Hackney Museum. Another show of small paintings. It runs from 14 December 2006 to 25 February 2007.

Marmite Painting Prize

I am in a painting show next week at the Residence Galley at the top of Victoria Park.
It looks like it will be a lot of fun. It is an exhibit of small paintings. (Then why is Julie in it you ask? I have made a few smaller pieces... on occasion..., I say.)
Come along if you fancy it!

Peace Camp is a hit!

Peace Camp's private view last Friday was very popular. The overflow from the gallery filled the street and there was a sea of umbrellas on both sides of Brick Lane. As it was such a crush that sardines would have felt crowded I didn't get to see much of the work (except the little cars downstairs which I liked) so am going back this afternoon. Hundreds of pieces are displayed and it may take hours to see them all! I will be looking for the poof (footstool) shaped like Iraq, though I understand it may have been used as seating for watching the band at the private view and so may be a little worse for wear.

Art For Art's Sake EXTENDED

The Art For Art's Sake exhibition in the Bar B Low in Bloomsbury, has been extended until January. See The Ground Floor Group site for more details.

Peace Camp

I am in Peace Camp, a group show hosted by Bob & Roberta Smith which explores our perception and vision of Peace, at the Brick Lane Gallery from 2-31 December 2006, Private View: Friday 1 December 6-9pm. I chose to show my Have A Nice Day book instead of a painting because the subject matter was more in keeping with the show. It is on display on a shelf with some postcards that go with the book.
The exhibition will bring together over 100 established and emerging artists including Wolfgang Tillmans, Bob and Roberta Smith, Gavin Turk, Jason Shulman, Shane Bradford, Mary Zygouri, Mattia Paganelli, Ellie Howitt, Keith Ball, Alan Miller, Brian Dawn Chalkley, Andrew Mummery, Ryan Booth, Thom Driver, Sue Golden, Rebecca Taber, Rebecca Meanley-Eyre, Velika Janceva, Mike Newton, Eduard Bigas, Mark McGowan, Maria Chevska, Seb Patane, Lucy Harrison, Julie Caves and Leigh Clarke all treating the notion of Peace through different mediums and disciplines.

Art For Art's Sake

I have donated a painting to an auction taking place on 23 Nov. to help raise money (I hope) for a musical production of the life of Sister Wendy the TV art critic. The event on Thursday is called Art For Art's Sake. Buying art to help fund more art! What a lovely idea!
Update: ended up being a one week show, everything was left on display.

Chocolate Factory N16 Open Studios

Superb ceramic art and high quality paintings feature amongst the fascinating attractions at the two Open Studios weekends at the Chocolate Factory N16 in Stoke Newington, North East London. The public is being given open access to over 20 top and upcoming artists in their studios on two weekends: Nov 25 & 26 and Dec 2 & 3 (from 10-6 on the Saturdays and 12-5 on the Sundays).
The art on view will range from a variety of painting styles to functional and non-functional ceramics, from performance art to exclusive designer lampshades.
There will be sculpture, drawings, artists’ books, photography and textile art.
As well as the chance to view the artist’s studios and artwork, there will be the opportunity to buy or commission a unique creation. The old building and cobbled yard will be full of life. There will also be a preview of the new studios building, nearly finished alongside, that will double the spaces and artists in the complex.
I hope to have some new work finished in time, wish me luck!