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.