Self Portait Study I

Below, two close up images:

A working progress;

Bits o'bobs

 Tester prints/ideas for award winning poet Bethany Whittle, will post her poetry soon along with my drawings.

The Rise of II

This weekend is the II Festival, i'm very excited for it, we got given a talk on how young children learn within art late week, it seems so appropiate as I am doing a workshop with the young un's, unfortuantly the workshop is only an hour and half long, I wanted to plant life-size mythicals beasts in the trees and around the campsite, make dens and hang a perspect painting from one tree to another... but headdresses/masks it must be.

Peter Randall-Page has been in the Gallery today setting up his solo exhibition, usally that side of the exhibition is taken care of by gallery staff.

 I have been recently appointed Visual Arts Co-ordinator for the Arts Exchange.  A group I knew little of, I went along to a networking event with poet Louise Fazackerly and met people from the team.  The deal with appointing funding for projects and events.  If you are from the Wigan and Leigh area, have alook!

The Arts Exchange

On going battle

...will it ever end!  Maybe not on this painting, here is what I've been workin on today ...

lost and found

Iris Schiefertein

Untitled

Commision - Grand Arcade

Finished work after a 12 hour day producing 4 displays for Louise Fazackerly, poet and creative director of Talent Factory.  They will be in the Grand Arcade 13th - 15th May 2011 then on display for the Northwest Arts Exchange.

If only I could do that everyday!

NEW --- Oh! Emporium --- NEW

DETAILS COMING SOON!

Slim Fast

The Imploding Inevitable Festival

Set just fifty metres from the shore of England’s largest and most beautiful natural lake (Windermere), The Imploding Inevitable Festival, now in its 2nd year, plays host to a collection of the finest artists, musicians and poets in the UK at the moment. It prides itself in being one of the few totally independent festivals and reflects this in its ethos and attitude of favouring three main principles: creativity, integrity and originality. It is also one of the UK’s most intimate festivals hosting just 200 weekend tickets; it takes great consideration of the surrounding area being one the UK’s “Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty”.
It is also one of the UK’s least expensive festivals despite its line up, some of which have or are playing this year’s biggest festivals. We are very proud to welcome Hannah Peel, John Fairhurst, Francois & Atlas Mountains, Liz Green, John Stammers, Samson & Delilah, Kathryn Edwards and more to this year’s line up. And that’s before even the poetry has been spoken about! Hosted by Blank Media Collective, a multi-media Arts collective based in Manchester, they are producing a poetry/literature event that is experimental and inclusive in nature whilst also featuring some of the UK’s finest poets. Last year festival goers were involved in composing a huge ‘Exquisite Corpse’ poem [one in which each person submits a line of poetry randomly, based on anything that comes to mind...and completely surreal] and this year promises to be just as weird and wonderful.

Tickets are just £35.00 for the weekend, this includes campings! Not a festival to be missed, last year was amazing.

You can check out the festivals website: www.theiifestival.co.uk for photographs, line up and more!

Check the blog too: http://www.theiifestival.co.uk/blog/ where you will find the The II Festival tittering!

Recent goings-on

A few images of some paintings I am working on at the moment.  I have decided to paint a Landscape, Ive never painting one before.  Reminicsing about University throughout the day made me pissed off,  I  can't seem to find closure on the regret of going to study in Bath. and the bullshit of it all!  One of the worse feelings I believe is that of wondering what would of happened if you had just listened to yourself., so I decided to paint a landscape. 


They are all a working progress

1974

Destructive painting day

A series of videos featuring 6 Artist-in-Residence at The Drumcroon Gallery.  The first one features Faye Power and her beautiful work!

Here is a picture of me below infront of my work 'I'm Not A Feminist, But...' at BlankSpace.

 

I had only spent over 3 hous in the studio today, and in those two hours I destroyed a piece of work I have been working on for a few months now (picture below).  The piece, amongst everything else that is going on right now, has been frustrating me to fuck!  I could not get the composition correct, the paint kept bleeding, on the photograph, the paint looks texture-less which is my main aim..I want to 'delete' texture, I want to get as far away from a painting as possible...without using collage or print!

'Promising Norman' 2011 ...or was.

On a destructive research time of 10 minutes, I came across the two artists below.

 

Andrew McAtee

Airspace

                                                       Acrylic, gloss and spray paint on canvas
                                                                            92 x 92cm

 Iain Andrews

The Eat Me [2010]
Acrylic on canvas (500 mm x 600 mm)

Photos from BlankExpression2011

BlankExpression Launch, Thursday 27 January 2011
Photographs Courtesy of Gareth Hacking

 Ruth O, Promising Norman, 2010

Ruth O, I'm Not A Feminist, But..., 2010

Daniel Fogarty

 

The painting above is another working progress, they just seem to be building up!  It's difficult to manage, as making stretchers, especially with an MDF surface is expensive...and difficult.  I'm adjusting slowly to the lack of tools, that where once at our mercy when in university.  The one above has 8 days to be complete before I pack up and send it to London, the painting needs to be brought together and tidied up slightly. 

Sneek peak below:

Working progress

Sketches for a painting

Here are a few sketches I have done, relating to the post below.

Idea's for new work

Last night I watched the overly grim film Harry Brown, although I found it very distressing I have not seen a film that good in months or maybe years even! It has inspired my recent thinking (well, overnight thinking) along with the work of Francis Alys (especially his film ''Rehearsal II'').  You can view Alys work on the link below;

http://www.francisalys.com/public/rehearsal.html

I have always admired Alys work,  A few Years back, I think it may have been at MoMA Paris, I saw 'Patriotic Tales', 1997, in which Alys lead a circle of sheep around the flag in el Zocalo in Mexico City. (Image still below) I find the silence in his work mesmerizing, and it makes me want to stay put (and very rarely does that happen, I could have sat and watched it for hours.

Will be posting drawings shortly.