The Optimist - Opens with a Supportive Crowd

Last night saw the opening of the World AIDS Day exhibition The Optimist at the East Gallery, 214 Brick Lane, London.

A packed venue on a wet night saw conversations flow from the quality of art on display, the themes present within to the draw of three toned and semi-naked male models. Each with accurate interpretations of three of the selected artworks rendered upon their bodies, by world class make-up artists. MAC Cosmetics Charity AIDS Foundation was a co-sponsor of the event alongside Positive East whose intention was to raise awareness of the many social and health issues of HIV and hopefully raise money through the sales of original and a limited edition run of signed prints.

Show continues until the 6th December, go see!

Not one of the naked models.....

World AIDS Day Exhibition - The Optimist

New work has been delivered in readiness of the hang for the show, The Optimist. That opens on Thursday 1st December to coincide with World AIDS Day.

Opening ay 18.30 at the East Gallery on 214 Brick Lane, the show brings together 30 international artists that have created work in response to HIV. Work sold will raise money for Positive East and signed limited edition prints will be sold alongside the original works.

A further collaboration will see MAC cosmetics at the event recreating three of the selected works as body art on models.

Another New Home

A personally curated collection of nine, from the studio collections, have been box framed with no glass to be hung on a dividing wall in a North London home.

Work Gone to a Good Home

Recent sales have found their way onto the walls of the new owners in Sheffield (top) and Soho, London (bottom).

NEW Surfaces and New Marks

Best of Show!

The Palace Art Fair, previewed on Thursday 6th October with great numbers of folk lining up to come in and see the new Pavilion built on the lawn of the Fulham Palace and the over 100 exhibitors. The quality and diversity of work is once again a credit to the selectors and it was an honour to be selected from the many great stands, as the "Best of Show" Awarded by the Fair team and Sponsors HEAL's. Check out the link to see the fair blog.

Work Sells Well at Brighton!

New work taken to Brighton sells well. Last weekend was a success in terms of commercial outcome and conversations had. It was a pleasure to see some of the developments in fellow artists work. Alex Slatter, Natalie Martin and Sam Lock to name but a few. It was also great having a fellow SEOS member there and a great stand it was, Clare Palastanga's ceramic work was a treat to find amongst the avenues of the fair.

I sold some of the new convex forms and will be posting an image of then in their new home once they are hung in Italy.

The studio beckons me this weekend as I conclude the concave forms ready to take to Fulham Palace for the Art Fair. This will be the first time they are seen, so take the opportunity to grab some FREE tickets and mail me, first come first serve.

Brighton Art Fair 2011

I will be showing on Stand 3 this year, next to the entrance one stall on from last year. So please as you either enter or exit stop by and say hello!

We will be hosting a little reception on the Private View night on stand, so if you would like to join us for a glass of something then drop me an email. I also have tickets, subject to them running out.... to the Friday evening and 241 tickets over the duration.

Making Rabbit Skin Glue

As part of South East Open Studios this year I am demonstrating on the 3 consecutive Saturdays. The first kicked off, this Saturday 4th June, with a short workshop on the benefits and properties of priming and working with Rabbit Skin Glue. I then went on to work with the vat of glue I had prepared to mix Gesso and prime my new surfaces. To be posted later. However as promised here is the recipe and step by step instructions.

I had a need for a large quantity so the measurements I use produce 2 litres of glue. The proportionate quantities are below for smaller amounts.

RABBIT SKIN GLUE

Measure 140 grams of rabbit skin glue granules

To a large heavy bottom pan, add 2 litres of water

To the pan add the rabbit skin glue and allow to stand for about 30minutes

You can turn the water to ensure the granules

are beginning to soften

Then turn the heat up on the pan, bringing it to a simmer,

stir ensuring to mix the solution to an even consistency

(non lumpy, pre-soaking helps reduce this)

Work in a well ventilated room, as the glue has a reputation to smell!

Once you have a smooth mix, bring the glue to a boil then reduce the heat

The glue is now ready to prime your surfaces; wood, linen, canvas or other

Paint one coat on with a broad brush and allow to dry

Once dry it is ready to be lightly sanded a second coat applied

if necessary and then primed with gesso or other priming agent

to give you your ground

Mixing Proportions

Glue 7 parts 35g 70g 140g

Water 100 parts 500ml 1litre 2litres

Further Demonstrations will take place on 11th & 18th June from 1.00-3.00pm

For full list of days I am open click here and for an accurate streetmap location

Open Studio Guides Are Here!

South East Open Studio Guides have been printed and distributed via: libraries, tourist information office, arts/craft shops and other venues across the region, also available as a download. If you wish to receive a copy, become a Friend of SEOS here or complete this form and get one in return

I am open for the three weekends and some days in between. For full dates click here. Invites to the Private View available so contact me should you like to come. I am open a couple of late nights to help those looking to take a country drive of an evening and happen across a studio! and refreshments are often uncorked.

I will be demonstrating this year. The processes of mixing gesso, preparing and finishing a surface along with creating my gestural marks upon the ancient recipe. I will release a schedule of the demos and gesso recipe upon request, so mail me.

Look forward to welcoming you in 24 days..... and counting.

Studio Clearing!

With the sun out, and early seasonal pollen hot and peppery in the air like a bowl of Aunty Maureen's soup. I have taken to the cool, of the studio to clear and tidy ahead of taking a long look at preparing for Open Studios in June.

And great news received today, that I have been accepted for the Palace Art Fair in Fulham London. between the 6th -9th October 2011. I have been allocated Stand 1, in the new Pavillion on the main lawn.

Mail me for more information on both events and to be put on the invitation list.

New Work

Pairing the palette back to monochrome, once again I am exploring mark upon surface and the crude science of chemical and molecular bond the ink particles make within the protein and carbonate structures of the gesso. Marks penetrate the surface, repetition, over marking to point of initial trace obliteration, only to be revealed in the archeology of removing thin surface layers to uncover and lay bare the raw initial marks of my play.

Tondos bought from Chromos are the new obsessions.

My daily pieces continuing with a sparse brevity of line or colour that have a focussed relevance to my machinations. A little like musings on the back of fag packets or beer mats, when desirous of overcoming a block or planning world peace. It never leaving your mind until you fathom it out on whatever surface, at whatever time, in whatever form; text, scribble, lexicon of symbols or motifs to be enlarged and lived with on a different scale and pushed further with the luxury of time.

Work commitments are looking to end shortly with a return to attending to the journey across the drive to the studio. However I am left questioning a continual conundrum of the preciousness I feel I sometimes place upon the time in the studio, the materials to which I feel wedded and whilst mark making is a fairly new discipline for me; "how quickly I feel I may have become a 'Company Thinker'?"

So I continue with the sketch books, and permit into the mix; iphone images, margin notes from a meeting, questionably random doodles and perhaps a beer mat or two into the enquiry process and aesthetic decisions.

An Eastern Touch

A new home to a small gestural graphite drawing from the 'Studio Collections'.

Move it, Freeze it, Write it!

Class window, x-ray montage

Screen printed t-shirts/costume for dance workshops

I have started working with a dancer and a group of year 5 students on a Creative Partnerships project for the Royal Opera House in Grays Essex. We are enquiring through a movement and visual arts project how to improve students confidence in and have fun with literacy.

We have been exploring with the group the structures and processes of the body that inform movement and our thoughts and feelings towards creating shapes, 'body sculpts' and dance moves around a class led topic.

Dance moves, drawings from observing a full sized skeleton, animating the skeleton through space, interviewing the skeleton and creative story writing were offered alongside the designing, cutting and printing of stencils for their t-shirt costumes. Session 1 of 3 completed with surprising outcomes and eager anticipation of the next.

"Ceci n'est pas un tube de peinture" - Work In Progress

Ceci n'est pas un tube de peinture

South East Open Studios have asked members to interpret the 'paint tube' logo in their particular artform. The opportunity is to translate the familiar ident of the long standing arts organisation across the south east into a more inclusive image. A glass tube, welded metal carved stone, rag rugs, felt cushions, engraving or enameled silver, to name a few. Membership has gone above 300 for a second year running and it encompasses over 40 disciplines within the fine art and craft/making traditions. We are more than painters.

I am playing with casting tubes of paint and re-modeling with these contradictory mediums carved onto the label in text.

Entries will be used on the front cover of our guide and throughout the website and during the event.

Dates of which are 3rd -21st June 2011

Check out the website for individual opening times, artists trails and searching for a gift or start or add to your collection.

I Did It!

The Kaizen approach works. This Sunday saw me complete my first 10km run. The Ashford & District Road Running Club event. Training was made easier by the fabulous Lisa at RIE Ashford with weekly club runs and encouragement to improve, consolidate and stretch. Thanks also to my club chums.

My time was 1 hour and 6 minutes a Personal Best and one to beat at the next event.

Now to the studio and apply kaizen to the work.

Ditch The Resolution Habit

I, perhaps like many, started the year with a list of New Years Resolutions. Some were extensions of things I had started in 2010 and others developments of good ideas towards committing to a real action plan to achieve them over the coming months; a mix of the personal, professional, creative and social.

• Maintain running with the Run in England club on Saturdays
• Eat less and better; when sat at the desk able to graze the fridge, note to self to buy less rubbish and grow even more veggies in the garden
• Maintain and reward the working relationships from last year
• Nurture new professional relationships within the sector and amongst local and regional artists
• Keep work patterns to Tuesday-Thursday and to this end leave studio time for Monday/Friday and weekend bursts
• Make new work within the colour-chemistry research I have started and my ideas towards the archaeology of marks

Mindful of the pace of transition, I planned for small step changes and the need to rehearse and repeat a new thought or behaviour several times before it feels comfortable or the synaptic bypasses are created in the brain to reroute past an old habit. I wrote them down, turned them into a positive action and gave a sense of commencing and completion with an idea of what success looks like so as to measure progress and achievement.

However, I was physically reminded this week from a knee aggravation from wearing a swanky new pair of trainers for running, of the challenge of changing old habits be they physical or psychological. The correction of my slight pronation was causing a new set of muscles, the correct set of muscles and tendons to be turned on and work, when they had not been used to exercise. I was literally running at a new way of moving too quickly; suffering a physical stress and feeling less than successful and put off from returning and maintaining this new discipline.

Moving from a comfort zone of; “always doing what you have always done, to get what you have always got” to a stretch (of innovation or transformation) it is clear to find the correct amount of stretch and not overreach to a point of stress that it is so far out of the current experience it can be overwhelming or damaging.

Given some physiotherapy, exercises to practice and to support the re-training of a new physical habit, I was reassured to reflect on the progress made with my other new ways of seeing, thinking and doing. To readjust their scope with this new compassion for previously failing at changes and ‘grand new’ schemes and modify an annual approach to a continuous appraisal.

I am reminded of a Japanese technique called kaizen, which calls for continuous improvements.

Another Smiling Happy Customer

A new home for a piece of my work. This one is in stylish Chiswick and accompanies two smaller 10x10 cm pieces that were collected at earlier Art Fairs in 2010. I am very appreciative of my 'foot soldiers', who through word of mouth and viral marketing are growing interest in my work through their sense of pleasure and enjoyment of the work hanging on the wall.

Another Happy Punter

Continuing the theme of seeing the happy re-homing of artworks. Here you can see Architect Steve Machin with his piece he bought at the "@home" Show in December.

Gone to Good Homes

Started the New Year with a couple of pictures sent to me from lovely people who purchased work this year. I trust you will keep on enjoying the work. I wish you and everyone who bought a piece of my journey in 2010 a creative and joyful New Year.

(Top: New Zealand. Bottom: Stephen's dining room in Wandsworth, South London)