Canal Work

 

Following on from our day visiting the Birmingham canals I have worked up many sketches and now generated the first canvas on this theme. The picture below shows three stages of how the canvas was developed from the rough idea and then pared down to the essential elements I thought typified the landscape we walked through – simplifications of the reflected arch of the bridge, factory, chimney, with wooden panels and bushes scratched through the many layers of acrylic paint. Some of the glazes were worked using KY Jelly mixed with the acrylic as suggested by artist John Myatt. Two more canvasses are now on the go.

Jackie Mackay

Weekend Gallery Visits

Rig: untitled; blocks - Polystyrene, fabric, timber, cement
Overall installed dimensions: 720 x 1190 x 1040 cm / 283 1/2 x 468 1/2 x 409 1/2 in

Another visit to London this time to see the work of Phyllida Barlow, at Hauser & Wirth.  Barlow is inspired by everyday objects of the city and in this exhibition she has created a group of works that brings the cacophony of the gallery’s external surroundings inside.

Off then to visit the Saatchi gallery and have lunch before going to Shoreditch, quite a contrast to Sloane Square, but buzzing with lots of small gallery’s and quirky shops. Well worth a visit to speak to artists there and get to know more about the art scene in London. Its great visiting well known gallery’s but equally inspiring to visit the lesser known spaces.

Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, have a very inspiring group show The 43 Uses of Drawing. From a doodle on the phone pad to a hastily drawing of a map and directions, the contemporary drawing practice looks at the work not only of fine artists but of those with no drawing experience.  I was impressed by a selection of drawings by a surgeon detailing the procedures of various operations he had performed. The exhibition on until 29 October and is well worth a visit, followed by coffee and cake at a quirky vegetarian coffee house  Summersault . Avril Elward

Watercolour, Stone and Glass Exhibition

Last week we made a trip to the Art Barn at Preston Bagot to see the work of Graham and Ian Blaine and the stone carving of Nick Bragg a cathedral trained stonemason. Graham had filled the walls with his watercolours which sit well on the old stone walls and Nick had his ’Glasses Krew’ set up in a group on the mezzanine area of the barn. We thought the Krew looked like some characters from the Muppet Show. Both Ian and Nick were demonstrating their working methods outside in the glorious sunshine. We then adjourned to the Crabmill for lunch and critique with Avril blending very nicely in her lime green attire with the grape vine behind her. Maureen Toomey

Painted Gorillas in Bristol

Blackbeardorilla

Little Fluffy Clouds

 An exciting few days finding as many of the 60 painted gorillas as possible, only to find there was one at Birmingham Bus Station! The ingenuity and diversity of the artists' designs was brilliant.
A selection of the colourful life-size gorillas have swung off to London and are returning to Bristol to be auctioned off for charity on 29th September - check out the Wow! Gorilla website.

I fell in love with Blackbeardorilla, can I smuggle him into my garden? Steph

Jammers do the Saatchi

Folkert de Jong - The Dance

Today the jammers went to London and back for £2 on Chiltern Railways. We began our art jaunt at the Whitechapel Gallery where Cornelia Parker had made a selection of over 70 works from the Government Art Collection. The place is laid out like a rabbit warren and we had to ask twice in order to find the café.  It was an eclectic mix, grouped in colour ways, with my personal favourite being the very funny Print for a Politician by Grayson Perry – it showed civil servants being hung.

We were mesmerised on the tube journey over to the Saatchi Gallery by a man on his laptop concentrating so hard his tongue had taken on a life of its own. The exhibition here was The Shape of Things to Come – a selection of work from 20 international artists. It is playful, witty and colourful with the emphasis on the traditional sculptural concerns of form, expression and how we interpret the human body - great to see this as a move away from the piousness of some latter-day conceptual work. Coffee and critique (with much people watching) followed in the Duke of York Square, Kensington. Jackie Mackay

Oundle Exhibition

Last Friday evening I went to the opening of an exhibition of two midland artists Taz Lovejoy  and Mark Biddulph.  The title of the show Colour meets Monochrome, held at The Yarrow Gallery, Oundle. A fantastic space which the two artists filled with different bodies of work: Taz who is concerned with colour and how it affects and changes our environment, and Mark who is concerned with creating visual environments.

At the end of the evening they sold about 7 pieces of work and had a commission for another which was fantastic, especially for contemporary work which seems harder to sell. 

The Yarrow Gallery is part of the Oundle Public School, and if any one wants to book this space they are taking proposals for 2013. Avril Elward

The Pitmen Painters

We saw this great play the other evening and I would recommend it to anyone. From an artists point of view it really informed of how actually we as artists do think and react to our ideas and inspirations.  
The play is set in 1934, where a group of Ashington miners hired a professor to teach an art appreciation class.  The miners soon became an active group and abandoned the theory for practice. 
It is an hilarious, deeply moving and timely look at art, class and politics, and is on at the Belgrade Theatre until Saturday 17 September. Avril Elward