'Thomas of Gloucester', oil on canvas, 120 x 150cms, 2023
My frequent blogger activity, for over 10 years now, has certainly been usurped by my use of Instagram, but I do miss writing something a bit more thoughtful and coherent, and after a recent solo exhibition, I thought it was a bit overdue to write something in more detail. To stop, pause and rewind…
I finished June earlier this year having come through the month completing a whole host of different artistic activities. It was only as July began to arrive that I found myself looking back with a sense of relief on the last few weeks and saying to myself ‘did I really do all that in just one month?’. This is despite recovering from recent treatment in the form of major abdominal surgery for prostate cancer at the beginning of May.
'Thinking Of A Colour', oil on canvas, 120 x 100cms, 2024
In the first 2 weeks of June, I held a new solo exhibition at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum which I called ‘Like A Song with No End’. It comprised the most varied mixture of mostly new paintings and prints that I have exhibited. Many of the paintings on display had been completed in the last six months, whereas a few I chose to exhibit were a bit older. The exhibition included 3 key portraits of my nephew, Jack and my friends Richard and Ben, a van driver, social worker, and an artist respectively. The paintings depicting these men at work were based on drawings and photographs I’d made whilst spending time with them, usually at their homes.
I had approached these new ones differently, making a series of supporting drawings and photographs and spending more time with the sitters. I used to avoid any photography when I was creating portrait paintings years ago, somewhat bizarrely it seems now, but the rigour I held then in not using them was also very useful. I was just interested in recording the sitters face in a single drawing, which I would then use to inform the painting I would make back in the studio. I was a bit relentless, never wavering from quite strict imposed limits: just a drawing; same scale; no stories; no dramatic lighting, no background… I look back and reflect that I was a bit like the character of the Athlete interviewed by the protagonist journalist, Frank Bascombe, in Richard Ford’s novel ‘The Sportswriter’.
'So, You Are Tired', oil on canvas, 120 x 150cms, 2024
Another big difference in these portraits is that they are all based in different settings, with the paintings attempting to explore the relationship between the individuals and the places they occupy when they are working. I think this is most exciting in the portrait of Jack in his van where the two become really integrated, which is what the paintings are about, but I think they are all have a strength in this aspect, but ‘Driver’s Story’ has a more confident energy than the others. I think they are all interesting paintings though and they are different to anything I have done before. I’m now thinking of how I can develop this into a larger series.
'Driver's Story', oil on canvas, 150 x 120cms, 2023 at Rugby Museum and Art Gallery
Installation at Rugby Museum and Art Gallery
Three other paintings in the exhibition also contained the figure. These were in paintings where I had experimented with placing a figure in my usually unpopulated landscape paintings. The paintings, ‘Thomas of Gloucester’, ‘Winter Thoughts’ and ‘There Is a World’, held for me more personal reflections about three generations of the men in my family: my Grandad, my dad, and myself as a young man. The paintings all hold certain feelings of uncertainty, loss and transition and have a more romantic quality in their relationship to the tradition of landscape painting. This is a bit more present because of the inclusion of the figures, which also suggest some sort of narrative. The other paintings I chose for the exhibition were ones that I felt complemented and extended out from these key pieces.
'There Is A World', oil on canvas, 120 x 180cms, 2022-24
'Asleep Under Snow', oil on canvas, 80 x 100cms, 2022
I also hung a wall of smaller paintings, ‘Fallen Leaves’, that were an attempt to close in and extend the story in certain details in the larger pieces. Some of these were completed in the weeks just prior to the exhibition after my surgery and were enjoyable to do after the trauma of surgery but in the end, I felt the wall was just a bit too busy and the exhibition didn’t need them. Still…you try…
I had a nice private view, and the exhibition was received well by visitors who left some very positive comments. I was really pleased with the exhibition too. It had a more ‘homely’ and personal feel that I have been trying to mine in one way or another for several years. There was a wider range of work and themes running through the work on display with various threads to pick up and pull. It felt like it could be this, or it could be that, or it could be this again… and because of that it felt more somehow more ‘real’ and, for me at least, possessed undercurrents of being like a play, poem, story or film. At the end of the day though, I just hope that it was an engaging exhibition about painting. My very good friend, Amanda, who has been a huge support during these difficult few months, helped me write a good press release that expressed some of these ideas which I will share on a post following on from this one.
Yours truly on 'The Monkey Jamboree', Black Country FM Radio
I had chance to discuss the exhibition when I was a guest on Black Country FM Extra’s ‘The Monkey Jamboree’ Sunday night radio show, which is hosted by my friend Mark ‘Busby’ Burrows. This was my second time on the show, and I have really enjoyed it both times, because I get to select 6 of my favourite tracks to play, which is a real thrill. It’s a wonderful feeling when you hear some of your favourite music coming out of the radio. There was something quite moving about it too. This time around I chose music that had formed some sort of a soundtrack to the paintings. In case you are interested (and should you have missed the show!) these were:
‘Right Back To It’- Waxahatchee
‘Darkness and Cold’- Purple Mountains
‘Newcastle’- Lankum
‘Cool Water’- Kurt Vile
Marrs'- John Grant
‘The Open Window’- HR Smoke
‘Drowning in Plain Sight’- The Delines
You can check them all out on Spotify I’m sure, although it would be better if you bought the records so these great artists can make more amazing music…I also talked about my experience of being diagnosed with Prostate Cancer, which I was unsure and nervous about being open about, yet I was also keen to raise awareness of it for other men, as it can often go undetected until it is too late. 1 in 8 men are affected by it. I was, for once in my life, quite proud of myself for talking about it.
Me and artist friend, Ben Sadler in front of my portrait of him at 'Bostin' Midlands Painters' at The Moonraven Gallery, Birmingham
Later in the month I exhibited my portrait of Ben, ‘Thinking Of A Colour’ in an exhibition I was invited to participate in called ‘Bostin’ Midlands Painters’ at a new Birmingham venue, The Moonraven Gallery. It was a very diverse show of a multitude of painters from the region, including comedian and TV presenter Joe Lycett, and it was nice to be asked to exhibit. I told my mom Joe Lycett was in it too, but she was less than impressed. “His paintings are rubbish’ she said, so that TV glitter failed to work it’s magic on her. He never turned up at the private view anyway. But I went, had a drink and a look around and a chat with a few artists, including Ben who was also exhibiting, before dashing over to Redditch to play my bass for HR Smoke, the band I’m in, for a 45 min set at The Glastonbeoley Music Festival that evening. Rock n roll!
Bass playing legend...
Andrew Smith aka HR Smoke
Carl Taylor on guitar
Ed on drums
The week before we had also played a longer set at a local venue as a ‘warm-up’ practice gig too. The festival was great fun, if not a bit scary, but I’ve really enjoyed this extension to my creative activities more and more in recent months, especially now we are a four-piece band with the addition of Carl on guitar and Ed on drums, whereas previously, and for a few years now, it was just me and Andy, the singer and the songwriter, playing together. After the set at the festival, I felt a really nice sense of camaraderie with the other guys as we had our photo taken by Carl’s girlfriend, Suzie in the HR Smoke T shirts Andy had kindly had made for us for the event, that I struggle to find as an artist where I work alone. This all happened in the last weekend of June.
HR Smoke, the band...
I told you had done a lot… After my surgery at the beginning of May where I wondered whether I would be able to fulfil any of these commitments, I had done so much… what a wonderful month it had been. I owe a huge thanks to all those friends and family who supported me through it.
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