The Optimism in Lockdown

Spring Forward, 30 x 20 cm, egg tempera on panel, 

Figgy wants to watch optimistic films.  Our box sets tend to be dark. I remember after 9/11 I couldn't watch anything mean or scary. In the face of a pandemic it turns out my first instinct is to paint a harmonious world. 

The Man I Met in the Kerio Valley, egg tempera on panel, 16 x 24 cm.

One good thing about lockdown is people can't get away, so Patrick sat for me.  I had been wanting to paint him in that hat for months.

Odd Sunny Saturday, egg tempera on panel, 30 x 20 cm.

Certainly The Wild Cherry, pastel on book page, Nature Rambles,

And today I began filling a new sketchbook: Nature Rambles. Sketching in lockdown should help me to see the special views around me again.  The cherry tree is in full bloom, so full of hope.

Egg Envy, egg tempera on panel, 30 x 20 cm, 

I set up a still life on Monday morning.  No more frivolous trips to the supermarket to buy  fancy spring flowers. Here we are in 'lockdown and it's ''make do and mend, 'victory garden' and 'pick your own'. Luckily my bulbs are coming up and a new roadside egg seller sells scrumptiously beautiful pastel coloured eggs!

My Monday stilllife was not peaceful and I had a lot of jobs to do (including sewing a cloth mask) so I got through the day without beginning it.  It is difficult to settle down in lockdown. On Tuesday morning I began again.  This set up was easy on my unsettled eyes so I stuck to it all day and thought about it when I woke in the middle of the night and continued today. 

I never thought I would paint a cat figurine, but I hadn't expected my mother would carry a cat figurine from Orlando and give it to me for Christmas. She must have known that on a Tuesday in March we'd all be social distancing and I'd need a little pastel coloured light relief. 

Taking an idea through

Stalking Spring, oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm

Today I think I finished an oil painting. I haven't been painting in oils for months, maybe even a year or more. I love working in oil but getting started with it just seems to be a big commitment. I hate cleaning my brushes, I get paint all over me in a way no other media does and I have to move furniture to set things up to paint at an easel. I work in so many different media and lately it has felt like I have needed to work in those, for upcoming exhibitions. OIl has taken a back seat.  

I have heard myself telling people that what I like about egg tempera is that it dries so quickly and you can layer in the space of minutes, not days, like with oils. It isn't smelly and the clean up is simple. On Saturday I sat next to an RBA exhibititor at the dinner and she did intricate paintings with 'wet on wet' oils. I had already started this. I think I got out my oils because my last egg tempera felt like it could work better/needed a bigger scale. But after taling to Sue, I has a different attitude to the layers and the oils were different, not more cumbersome.

A5 oil sketch

 Before I began on the first day, I decided to do a small oil sketch on gessoed paper.  I have agreed to donate a few pieces (A5) for a fundraiser, to aid the animals that were affected in the Australian wildfires. I thought perhaps an oil sketch work.

working bigger

 I worked form life.  I realised I needed another motif on the left side, so added a bouquet on the second day to balance out the colour and shapes.

egg tempera Composition and Saint

This was the original idea,  painting.  I used a photo of a bowl/cup to imagine an alternative composition.  In the painting I have done the same.

Inside out and Sauerkraut

Inside Out and Sauerkraut, egg tempera on panel, 30 x 20cm

Sometimes when I set up a still life I get really excited because the beauty of the colour relationships and shapes just feels right. On Sunday, when I put this together (minus the tulips and plums) I couldn't wait to get started.  First I needed some tulips and some fruit. I raced to Stowmarket before the shops shut and had to visit two stores and there were only yellow tulips available. I thought the plums would work. 

From the start, this was a stop and go still life - I've had a busy week. Busy because the first three days of my week I leave the studio for as much as half the day: Once for life drawing; once for portrait group and once for Pilates.  This week I also met up with three artists.  And it was also the culmination of the Impeachment Hearings so my podcasts and live stream filled the studio with intrigue.  

I named the painting from a line in an opinion column, a line that seemed to me like the perfect metaphor for the world we inhabit at the moment. I don't find the radio distracting. Painting takes over and fills my brain -  I turn the 'inside out and Sauerkraut' into something else - dabs of colour on a support, that make me feel happy. Returning to the painting again and again, gave me the opportunity to look again and again and  time to think.  Yesterday I got to that place when I couldn't make what I was painting work and then I remembered that it was time to stop painting exactly what I saw in front of me.  I needed to create a version of the stilllife that had the feel that seeing the colours and shapes had instiled in me when I began.  That's a funny thing I find happens. The most exciting beginnings often become the longest toughest slogs.  Can you tell?

Getting down to Business and Out of the Studio, with Parker Harris

Yesterday I attended a workshop led by Emma Parker and Penny Harris, the founders of Parker Harris.  It was held at Trinity Buoy wharf, a place I had only dropped off at once, but never explored.  I arrived about an hour early so I could see the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize.  You can read more and see some of it here: http://trinitybuoywharfdrawingprize.drawingprojects.uk/index.php/news 

I was thrilled by the diversity of approaches to drawing and the range of marks.  I lingered a long time at Cornwall-based artist Shelly Tregoning’s drawing, Distracted, Distracted. I liked the current feel of the image, the gestural quality of the work and the unusual mixture of media.  There was lots of other good stuff to inspire me at the exhibition.

There were just under ten of us, I think, at the workshop, all with a range of experience in the art world.  The focus of the session was about THE BUSINESS OF BEING AN ARTIST. After meeting each other, Penny and Emma reminded us that we are the centre of the art world, as artists and that we should 'inhabit' that space. To inhabit the space, I need to do more of all the things that I know I need to do more of in order to be more of who I am, an artist. I need to visit even more shows and openings, go to more artist talks, go to more art fairs, read more art newspapers.  Basically, engage more, but not just go, go more purposefully. For me probably the specific thing I definitely need to do more of is to read more written by artists to embody the language of the art world.  Apparently, Grayson Perry and Anthony Gormley speak about art in a way that is worth paying attention to. 

It's funny, just before the talk began I was speaking to another artist, Laura Jacobs, http://www.laurajacobsart.com who had spent time in NYC. We had touched on the NY way of asserting oneself and the purposefulness it instills. By nature, I think I am purposeful so having a plan before I go to an opening, whether it is mine or anothers' is something I do because that's the way I am.  It was good to be reminded that there is a fine line between professional and officious, though.  I still wince when I think about the first time I had work in the Pastel Society and I was a little too keen to talk to John Tookey about my work - knew I stepped over the line and have felt annoyed with myself about it ever since… and that was nearly twenty years ago! 

In general, I really love talking to people at openings and see life as an opportunity.  If I had unlimited resources, I would choose to go to everything. When I have work in opens, I spend as much time as I can at the show, go to all the gatherings and love every minute of it. I talk to people who look carefully at my work and give out cards.  I could go to more artist talks and our daughter, who writes about art says she'll come with me (although alone is ultimately better).  So… I guess more of the same!

'LISTEN' as well as read carefully was a refrain of the day. Perhaps my wonderful year as drawing scholar with the NEAC gave me an opportunity to develop the skill of listening better,  and using what I experience later, but when it comes to reading and synthesising what I need to respond to… and specifically in the context of criteria and questions when applying for residencies and bursaries;  I find, inevitably when I re-read my answers to some of the questions on applications I realise that I haven't said what I mean to say clearly enough or answered the exact question and then I need to spend lots of extra time rewriting the exact answer. That is definitely something to be aware of and something which could be streamlined for me in the future!

One of my goals this year is to find a residency, apply and win it! Not getting through the first round of the Funded 1 Month Artist Residency in Rural Northumberland - Unison Colour, a residency I read about and worked really hard at was very disappointing, but without applying to more opportunities I will never succeed in this!

Something Emma and Penny spoke about, that I have grown to be aware of, is the need to budget, plan and have a goal.  By deciding what you can afford time/money to spend on applying, paying for gallery fees, travel to London (each time I go down it costs me £28-50 for the train, underground  £10, car park  £10 - 15…) you can make better choices and waste less time and money. My resolution that I was only going to enter two things in any opens, is one of those shifts I have made that has made me happier and feel more in control. It has also helped me to make choices about what my best work is. I do ask people to help me choose, though too.  On social media people like to choose between work.  Sometimes you get lots of different responses, though.

Reading about the judges is something I do but I'm sure I could plan that more by being conscious of all of those variables as I embark on making work that might be the piece I choose for the open.  Then, my work might have better chances of success.

Emma and Penny talked about the 'elevator pitch'.  I have only just started to say I am a 'visual storyteller'.  By thinking about my work, understanding what I like to paint and draw about and giving it a name, I feel better equipped to answer questions about my work. Certainly, one of the goals I scribbled in my book yesterday was to find a way to describe my work better - reading Perry and Gormley might help! Today when I had a studio visit by a group that I will leading workshops for/showing in I learned that on my website I call myself primarily a 'pastel artist'. I hired our daughter to come and help me redo my website last night (after the talk) so hopefully I will reflect myself to the world better after that. You can see my website here: https://www.rebeccaguyverart.com and send me suggestions here: 

rebecca@rebeccaguyverart.com

As far as social media goes, I do it, but I don't do it as well as I might.  I was sorry to miss Emma's talk on that last week, but I didn't think I could afford another trip to London, so will spend some time learning about it online. ONE DAY A WEEK on BUSINESS is an appropriate amount of time!

Emma's helpful explanation that in a hashtag, 1,000 is better than 1,000,000 because the stream goes by more slowly - is a game changer! I need to link up all my online shop fronts and get some new business cards printed, and postcards.

Another thing that I learned is that IT'S NOT CHEATING to put the solo shows that took place not in galleries as solo shows on my CV. and I should put my curatorial experience on my CV as well. 

As far as 'getting a gallery' I remember the old days when Jack and Bob were represented by Kraushaur and their lives revolved around that gallery. I guess it's not like that anymore, much. I don't have to get up and think I am failing because I haven't taken my slides around to galleries like I did when I was just starting out. Having a portfolio of opportunities may suit me best anyway. But what is important is that I set a few realistic goals again this year and I promise to take part, be efficient and be nice.

Thank you Emma and Penny, it was a great workshop!

The Discerning Eye 2019!

So every time I get selected for a London exhibition I am elated. The Discerning Eye at the Mall Galleries was one of the highlights of 2019.  I went down to the exhibition with Patrick early on the Thursday of the Artists' PV.  Parker Harris had already contacted me to tell me that I had sold my opened book, We Know that Light. I hadn't know there was PV before the PV...Because of GDPR, I will probably never know who bought the piece so I won't be able to imagine it in the future, but of course I was delighted.  

What was equally exciting was finding that Kwame Kwei-Armah had chosen my piece for his wall.  You can find out more about Kwame here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwame_Kwei-Armah

I loved the way he curated his part of the space and felt he told a story with his choices. 

I barely spoke to anyone at the PV, which is not my usual way, but earlier in the day I met a few people who stopped and looked intently at my drawing.  I saw lots of engagement with it, which was fun. Part of the reason I didn't speak to much of anyone except a fellow artist, Cathy Cooper, (who I'd met at the drop off and whose work was in Gill Button's selection),  was because there was a fire alarm and not a practice… so we all had to file out and wait until they discovered that it had been triggered by someone vaping in the toilet. 

We didn't let it dampen our spirit.

On the train going back I read Kwame's comments in the exhibition booklet: 

This Thursday I went back to see the show another time. I wanted to look at Kwame's wall in particular and to think about what in my work made Kwame choose it.  There were still plenty of people visiting, but I did manage to find a lull to take photos of Kwame's wall.

I noticed the breadth of Kwame's choices. There was the black and white wall which was beautiful in its quiet.  It ranged from isolation to race and was strong and graphic.

To the left of the B & W grouping, and what felt like the middle of the wall,  Helen Stone's One of Many, an evocative tactile sculpture, a child's jacket with tags spoke to me of how we won't share our world with everyone. Below the jacket, three beautiful paintings of people from the asylum.

To the left, Kwame has chosen lots of people, juxtaposed to spaces. Skin, faces, expressive, Brexit, the people we share the world with, a beautiful world, a barren world, a built up world, a broken down world. 

A pair of shoes, abstracted colour , an internal landscape... 

my work 4th from left

Perhaps Kwame chose my piece because of the colour, the view and the title which seems to admit that we all share the experience of living with all the inhabitants of the earth.  And man, isn't that light amazing!

Here we go again… It's time to choose between three!

Colour After Frost, egg tempera on panel, 23 x1 6 cm

Dahlia for Remembrance, egg tempera on panel, 26 x 20 cm

We Three Kings II, egg tempera on panel, 26 x 20 cm

If you follow my blog you will know that this summer I had two pieces selected by the RBA.  The selection process has come around again very quickly… they have moved the RBA's date back to its usual slot.  For the RBA, this change back was desireable and that means I need to choose something to submit by the end of this month.  These are my three most recent egg tempera pieces. I can submit more than two pieces but I have 'capped' my submissions at two. Which two do you think I should submit? 

Self Portrait in a Still Life

The Happy Couple and some of the Collection, pastel on board, 24x18cm

The things that I use as inspiration and motifs are part of me.  About thirty years ago my mother hooked me a wedding rug.  It is in our bedroom, underfoot.  My sister's is on her wall.  Mine is worn.  My sister's is pristine.  I know mine by touch. 

There's alot to think about when composing a drawing or painting.  The first thing is WHO IS THIS FOR? Although I do the occasional commission, for the most part my work is for me and then to show.  If I am lucky and I really like what I'm making, someone else usually does too.  My audience likes different things so I have scope to experiment and work in different media and motifs. Yesterday i wanted to have fun and steep myself in some of my favourite colours.

What I am working on begins with a question, or a puzzle or a delight or some colours that I need to fix in time.  Yesterday (and today's) drawing was about me, for sure, but it was also about where I came from, who I am here with and what I like, mostly.  As I chose objects I wanted to create a window into my life, how I see myself.  I began with the rug. I found a way to make a backdrop of the rug, first, then I began choosing objects. They were about eye height… boxes stacked on a plant stand with a piece of ply on top and then fabric, scarves, stuff.

My still life was going to be colourful, a bit whimsical, maybe frivolous but also solid and dependable (the apple and the book).  The story would be convoluted but pleasant with a little repetition and lots of pattern. It was so much fun to make!  My mother had made the aesthetic decisions in her rug and I was collaging the beautiful objects that are in my life already to compliment them.

This year's red pastel painting

Hibiscus Tea, pastel on board, 19 x 22

My garden in autumn gets very red.  There is raspberry, tomato, magenta, salmon, fuscia, rosehip, hibiscus…you get the idea.  So when I pick bouquets, inevitably it's difficult to work around red and pink. I arranged this still life a week ago but hadn't had time to draw it until today. Yesterday, hoping I would have time, I re-picked the bouquet. I have been looking at it all week, longingly. 

At the start of drawing ( I spent about six hours on it) it felt impossible to use the colours I saw to describe what I saw.  They were too intense, too overpowering. As I perservered and found the correct value, pattern and form the drawing needed it got more peaceful, that was my objective… to reflect back the joy and elegance of an autumnal corner of a house.

Selecting work for national open exhibitions

We Know That Light, pastel on altered book pages, 44 x 35cm (framed)
based on drawing in sketchbook of Preble Beach, Cranberry Isles, Maine.

Bring Back the Golden Days,pastel on altered book pages, 44 x 35cm (framed)
drawn on site outside Ware House, Cranberry Isles, Maine.

I am submitting for the Discerning eye open exhibition again this year.  I have never got my work accepted, I believe I have submitted four times. Above are the two pieces I selected and will carry down to London o Friday.

Here are the rules:

RULES

1. The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition is open to artists born or resident in the UK only.
2. All works must be for sale.
3. All works must be within the maximum size limit of 20 inches (50cm) including frame.
4. All works must be an original creation by the artist; prints (including prints from i-pad drawings), photographs, and sculptures are acceptable.
5. All entries must be accompanied by a fully completed, signed Entry Schedule and a fully completed Discerning Eye Work label.

As you will notice, there are no particular rules about what to submit. the exhibition has a particular way of selecting work and usually I google the selectors and think about them when I choose what to submit.  this year I have only just done that.

SELECTORS

The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition is selected each year by 2 Collectors, 2 Critics and 2 Artists.

Artists

Gill Button – Painter & Illustrator

Charlotte Hodes – Fine Artist

Collectors

Kwame Kwei-Armah – Young Vic Artistic Director

Tim Rice – Author and Lyricist

Critics

John Penrose – Past Chairman Discerning Eye

Louis Wise – Critic & Writer, The Sunday Times

I'm submitting two pieces because I think a pair is stronger than a single and although I agree with 'art tax' and don't object to paying to enter, I think it can be a bit like being a gambler… it's easy to add ad believe you will have a better chance with more. Because I am exploring opened books at the moment, I hoped I would make two of these for the exhibition. I haven't had much time lately but time pressure can be useful.

Having looked at the selectors… I think I might have chosen a different strand of my work… Below are the three opened books that I didn't choose. Wish me luck! I've already booked my train down to collect unaccepted work so don't fret on my behalf, though.

The Gathering Storm, pastel on altered book pages
Based on drawings made in Kenya

Lost in the Woods, pastel on altered book pages
drawings made in the Rockefeller Gardens, Mount Desert Island

Britains Structure and Scenery, pastel on altered book pages
drawings made on IBBAS paintout

Record what interests you (quickly), consider it, make changes and slow down

Tiger at the Table, pastel on paper 30x37cm

 I'm keeping up with my sketchbook drawings.  What I notice is that the energy of looking for something interesting (because I have to) and recording it so it says something exciting QUICKLY is opening up lots of possibilities for more sustained drawings like the one above, Tiger at the Table. It's not always possible to transfer the energy and excitement that comes from an quick sketch, but I think there may be a better chance to find that when you are doing lots of the quick sketches and only choose the ones that feels particularly inspiring to inspire the bigger drawing.

I visited the wonderful, beautiful Bonnard at the TATE today with Bridget Moore.  We were there for more than 2 hours and it was never unpleasantly crowded, really.  How inspiring to be beside them all. SO much to think about.

Add caption

Zooming, changing the focus, abstracting shapes

charcoal on paper, 16x14 cm

I have a bunch of ideas I want to explore and one of them is about memories of my young family. I began this project by looking through one of many boxes of old photos. From there I drew a memory by choosing elements from a few photos, creating a mood and story that never really existed but feels true, with lots of truths within it.

B & W print of oil pastel, crop

B & W print of oil pastel, crop

I am using lots of different media, including those fat oil pastels that are like using a big paintbrush to get a feeling rather than a detail.  Ultimately I want to paint from these ideas but for the moment I am trying to keep it open so I can figure out what I want to say and how I might say it.

B & W print of oil pastel, crop

B & W print of oil pastel, crop

watercolour and gouache on book page

pencil on paper 16 x 25 cm

oil pastel on paper 17 x 12 cm

Looking Down on the Garden

View from Katy's Room, pastel on paper, 16 x 16 cm

I was determined to fit a drawing into my day today and as I was getting dressed I realised I have never drawn from an upstairs window. It was 8:30 am and the shadows made sharp diagonals and that appealed to me.  There were reflections on the glass to contend with and I had to sit down to avoid the window frame obscuring my view… I always stand.  It felt complex as I worked but I tried to think about the rhythm of light and not to get too bogged down with naming things. 

pastel over monotype

monotype plate before printing

monotype (ghost) with release agent

pastel over monotype

Excited to explore pastel over monotypes again! I generated about ten prints today in life drawing as we had a series of five and ten minute poses.  This is the final 25 minute pose. The plate is 10 x18 cm, which is a nice shape for Marilyn. I did not draw 'backwards' so the plate is the way I saw the image. I had forgotten two items this time: my roller and my brushes but luckily Judith lent me a brush.  One brush is tough to work with and it was a medium sized flat.  I had no way to wash my brush and my colours got quite muddy. (i usually use different brushes for different colours). Usually when I use pastel over monotype I work in black first.  In fact, I think this is the first time I have worked over a colour print. I would have loved to have painted this pose.  Perhaps these three studies can be used to do that…

Exhibition round-up

It's been a week of exhibitions with the latest in Bermondsey, London.  Not so long ago I responded to an open call for The Concept Space's Winter Salon. http://www.theconceptspace.org/?exhibition=winter-salon-power-play and was delighted to be selected.  It was the private view on Tuesday so Patrick and I travelled down, arriving first! I had bought advance tickets and for some reason our return ticket was 8:30, so we stayed for an hour and a half but missed KB Stowe's little talk and the performance art. https://www.instagram.com/tconceptspace1/ I met lots of people, including Robert Fitzmaurice whose work was between my two pieces. It was remarkable how well the hang worked.

The weekend before,  was the Heart of Suffolk Winter Exhibition.  We didn't know it but the Bury Free Press did a write up and chose my drawing to showcase.  There were a seasdy stream of visitors and as well as each artist selling something, we raised almost £700 for Suffolk Artlink with our raffle and pop up cafe. 

The miniprint exhibition was in Halesworth over the weekend, but I wasn't able to visit it this time.  Lesley has found a venue in Bungay, so there is one more chance to see the work before the spring. The private view will be 6pm on the 15th.  

But before the Miniprint, it's Colchester Art Society's Winter Exhibition at the Minories.  I hope I have some work in that (not sure yet) but will be going along to the PV tomorrow (6pm) anyway.