Archive for December, 2009

PARTY – 12Feb – 18th April -( The New Art Gallery – Walsall

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 It’s been 10 years since Te New Art Gallery, Walsall opened its doors to the public and they’re having a party exhibition to celebrate. Should be a pretty cool series of events I think and an accompanying exhibition with some pretty big name artits in like Peter Blake, Martin Creed, Gilbert and George, Chris Ofili, Paula Rego, Sam Taylor Wood, Juergen Teller and Gavin Turk. I’ve got a piece in the show too and they’ve asked all the artists to do a birthday card for the gallery which will also be exhibited alongside the rest of the Party themed work. Here is my card which is a “Party Tape”, the kind of thing we used to take to house parties back in the student days or give to people you really liked. I think there is quite a growing nostalgia for party tapes in the digital age.

  ( Click on the image for a closer look at the track listing)

December 29th, 2009

CHRISTMAS OUTING

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 I went for a kind of “works do” with some artist friends – ( most from the Plus One Gallery) just before Christmas. It’s the kind of year when artists miss out on office parties because we work generally in isolation which is why Simon has set up a festive piss up. We went around the German Market by the town hall which has really taken off and I think is now the biggest in Europe. It’s a great festive atmosphere and a boozy time was had by all. (Chris, Simon, Tom, Steve and me)

December 29th, 2009

New Commission – Author Alan Garner OBE for the Grosvenor Museum in Chester

 

I’m currently working on a portrait commission of the fantacy fiction author Alan Garner OBE for the Grosvenor Museum in Chester which has come about thanks to a grant from the Victoria and Albert museum in London. I’ve been up to visit Alan and his wife at their wonderful old cottage near to Jodderal Bank – (is that how you spell it?) He’s famous for many books like The Wierdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath and som o his works have been turned into TV shows. There’s more information on Alan at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Garner and http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/alan-garner/

Their cottage is just fantastic, almost like a Hobbits house with log burners, broken tiled floors, anchient furniture , old doors and books and lots of archaeological findings from the grounds of the cottage. There’s huge potemntial in this portrait so I’m really enjoying it. I’m not sure about revealing updates , I’ll haveto check when it’s ok to post a few , but this is my current project. ( the photo is just a photo, not my portrait of him)

December 29th, 2009

Sean – A1 in size – charcoal, graphite, carbon and ink.

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Here’s a recent drawing that I made of a friend of the son of a friend of my wife. It’s a portrait of Sean aged 17. He’s got quite an interesting face, I think a little like a young  Damon Albarn, although I know that Sean isn’t keen on that comparison , though he is into really great music for someone quite young, he’s certainly done his research. Anyway, I wanted to make a picture of somebody who was of an age / juncture that their life was at a certain crossroads so I used a background drawing New Street train station in Birmingham as a visual metaphor for this “crossroads”, an area which we were both familiar with. I juxtaposed this with the line drawing of Selfridges as an iconic symbol of Birmingham. It’s quite a serious loking portrait which I tend to go for and I think the lighting  / modelling on Sean’s face adds to the atmosphere.

 

 

December 29th, 2009


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