'The Wrestler'

I’ve just been to see The Wrestler, the new film directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Mickey Rourke. I really loved it. Mickey Rourke’s performance is just totally mesmerising, but I really enjoyed the way it was filmed. It had a terrific naturalism and , with a great eye for detail. Qualities I really admire.

Mickey Rourke’s body was fascinating too. It was a landscape of scars, cuts and bruises and corned beef like skin. His whole life’s story seemed to be held in it, particularly his face. It was very moving. I’d really recommend it.

I found myself questioning the violence that the sport celebrates , which was graphically represented in the film. Our young nephews are both obsessed with WWE and collect all the toys etc. It is so marketed at kids and a young audience that you do have to question them celebrating the values of smashing someone violently around the head with a metal chair (or an artificial leg)!

It’s all a far cry from the likes of Big Daddy, Mick McManus and Kendo Nagasaki, the wrestling I enjoyed as a kid on Saturday afternoons. For fans of that era and this peculiar strand of British sport, I’d recommend Simon Garfield’s book, ‘The Wrestling’.

One of the other things I liked was the New Jersey locations in the film. I love those post- industrial, bleak and banal places, often captured almost romantically in the songs of Springsteen. They remind me of places like Sandwell in the Black Country, where I grew up; places always on the tipping point of survival, with lots of faceless industrial units and giant supermarkets. Funnily enough, I’ve recently discovered the wonderful landscapes of Rackstraw Downes. He depicts locations like this in a wonderful, unflinching way.

Springsteen contributes a great song to the closing credits of the film, which can be found as a bonus track on his brilliant new album, ‘Working On A Dream, which I’ve been enjoying all week.

'Ken', etching with aquatint

Finally! My first decent print from my time on the AA2A Scheme at Wolverhampton University. After about three months experimenting with different things I decided it was time to stop messing about and produce something half decent. This is still an experiment, my first aquatint etching, but I’m pretty pleased with it, and I’m going to develop these further. I spent the afternoon preparing another ten plates with hard grounds to work on.

It was interesting news about The Public in West Bromwich today. They have had their further funding request turned down by the Arts Council. I’ve been pretty discrete about my own experience of exhibiting there last summer, but I think it’s fair to say that this news is not a big surprise. At the end of the day it’s such a shame for the people of West Brom who I think have been really let down.

January 2009

I’ve been working on a couple of new paintings over the last few weeks. Whilst painting I’ve thought a lot about an artist friend of mine who I studied alongside on my MA in Fine Art at Norwich School of Art between 1994-1995. Jamie Wallace was a really gifted painter, and was one of the first people who introduced me to the ideas behind a lot of abstract painting. Up until this point I’d been a bit sheltered from these things, as in my own work I’d been very much interested in making large scale figurative canvasses in the tradition of European history painting. Jamie held very strong opinions about art, what it was, and perhaps more importantly what it wasn’t, that often used to wind the other students and staff up (which I think he secretly enjoyed). Over tea in the School’s great refectory, he would spout forth about what he loved about a certain painter or approach to painting, and what he hated about others. I found myself sitting listening with increasing paranoia as most the things he seemed to hate were the things I was doing! But I was really interested in his ideas about the power in the material itself, and the expression to be found there, and the painting being this thing in itself: not a version of reality, but its own concrete reality. These are pretty traditional ideas now in painting, but at the time I was the one way behind, still trying to paint that version of reality, and these ideas were new to me. I liked Jamie’s paintings a great deal, and indeed have a couple at home. He’d spent a month on about 10-20 canvasses and then just threw them all out thoroughly depressed with what he’d done. Painting can be like that if you work liked we did. One thing we had in common was our ability to produce lots and lots of work, continually experimenting, with one crisis after the other, until you might get one decent painting. I wasn’t depressed by Jamie’s paintings though and duly jumped in the skip after them. Jamie never commented much on my own work. Some artist’s think its bad manners to comment on your work or show, unless asked, but I don’t hold much truck with that. But in Jamie’s case, as he walked through my studio space past my giant canvasses to the communal sink, his silence seemed to speak volumes. I wasn’t really bothered though. I had enough problems in my work without having to worry about these things too.

Anyway, to get to the point, if there is one, I find my approach to painting these days very much more aligned with the ideas behind abstract painting that Jamie talked so passionately about, despite still trying to create a form of representational painting. Over the last ten years or so I’ve been influenced a lot by American painters like Alex Katz, Fairfield Porter, and Jane Freilicher, who after the post-war dominance of Abstract Expressionism, very much struggled to create a new form of representational painting that shared the values of abstract art, rather than the tired, figurative painting that persisted, with it’s insistence on trying to breathe new life into old traditions. These other artists and others very much opened the door for so much contemporary figurative painting celebrated today, such as the work of Chuck Close, Luc Tuymans, and Elizabeth Peyton. They too offered me a desperately needed route out of the corner I had painted myself into in my Edinburgh studio at the time. I’ve found some of these ideas being particularly played out in these current paintings of mine which are based on studies of flowers and trees. This is why my thoughts have drifted to remembering Jamie.

I read recently an interesting article by Hilton Kramer, the New York Observer Art Critic, on an exhibition by Freilicher, where he discussed the influence of the Abstract Expressionists on her work and that of Porter and Katz. He remarked that ‘in the long term, representational painters may have derived greater benefits- pictorial, aesthetic benefits- from the Abstract Expressionists than abstract painters have.’ I certainly count myself amongst those that have. Fairfield Porter, a critic and painter was according to Kramer obsessed with this idea of influence, to the point of, in writing about abstract painting, he often went looking for its subject matter, and in writing about realist painting, he was mainly concerned with pure pictorial form.


Looking at my new paintings, some of the qualities in the mark-making strangely remind me of the work I made in Norwich. I’ve unfortunately not seen much of Jamie and his lovely Danish wife, Mette since the MA as they live in Copenhagen now. We just send each other the odd email. Despite the differences in our ideas about painting during that year, we became firm friends though. One of the few compliments I got from him was at the end of our MA year. We had had to put on a show at the Norwich Gallery and a seminar was organised chaired by curator Linda Morris and critic Sasha Craddock. Craddock was really dismissive of my own painting in the show, and in the pub after Jamie could tell I was a bit chewed up about it. He turned to me and said, ‘Shaun, these critics think they know more about what you’re doing than you do. And they don’t. It’s a good painting. Forget about it’. My anxieties immediately evaporated. Jamie’s brilliant words of wisdom saved the day this time. I always carry them with me. He has a great website now where you can see examples of his paintings which he makes from a studio in Sweden. Just follow the link below:

www.jamiewallace.com

2008 Pictures, Words and Noises

I really enjoy poring over all the different reviews of the best cultural events of the last 12 months at this time of year. This year, what with having my own blog now, I thought it would be a nice opportunity to share some of my own experiences of things I have particularly enjoyed in 2008 rather than just keeping them in my notebooks where they take the form of endless lists and scribbly reflections to myself.

Unsurprisingly I’m always visiting exhibitions of some kind. I think we are pretty spoiled in the Midlands with good galleries and venues and most months there is always something to seek out. At the Ikon Gallery this year, I enjoyed great exhibitions by Jurgen Partenheimer, Ruth Claxton, and I also the urban/industrial sculptures of Martin Boyce later in the year.

The exhibitions at Compton Verney are some of the most intelligently curated shows around, and a brilliant show this year was The Fabric of Myth, which drew together artists, ideas and influences from a hugely diverse range of sources in this wonderful exhibition of textile art. I normally enjoy exhibitions at BMAG’s Waterhall Gallery too, but the current show ‘The Art Of Birmingham 1918-Present’ seemed incredibly tired. As an artist working in this great city, I felt thoroughly depressed by the whole experience as I nipped in the other day for an hour’s respite from the Christmas shopping.

By far the best exhibition I’ve seen this year was Alison Watt’s ‘Phantom’ at the National Gallery. It was the culmination of her experiences as Artist in Residence there, and her enormous canvasses of folded and twisted fabric inspired by paintings in the Collection such as Ingres’ Madame Moitessier’ and Zurbaran’s ‘Saint Francis in Meditation’, I found incredibly moving. The work possessed a real honesty, sensitivity and sense of engagement which I think can be hard to find in lots of contemporary art. Indeed it was certainly hard to find in this year’s John Moore’s Painting Prize at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. This year it was selected by the Chapman Brothers, Sacha Craddock and Graham Crowley. There were some really interesting pieces, (I loved Julian Brain’s painting) but equally so many looked like they had actually been painted by the Chapman Brothers themselves. I felt rather cheated by it all, having expected much more from this, supposedly the premier painting exhibition in the country.

My other real artistic highlight was a trip to Florence in October with my wife, Diane. There are too many things to mention here and by the end of the week we both felt like we had overfed ourselves on Renaissance art. How wonderful it was though to visit the Brancaci Chapel, and the Monastery at San Marco to view the Fra Angelico’s. I also loved Pontormo’s Mannerist deposition masterpiece in the Church of Saint Felicitia. It seemed absurdly but magically enhanced by the way it was lit up when I put my euros in the little pay box.

Books I’ve enjoyed this year are largely older ones I’ve caught up with rather than ones from this year. These include ‘Come On In’ new poems by Charles Bukowski; ‘The Road,’ by Cormac McCarthy; and ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’ by Jonathan Safron Foer amongst others. I’d really recommend this funny and moving account of a boy seeking clues about his father’s past after he dies in 9/11. A great one for all lovers of New York. I also greatly enjoyed ‘Chuck Close: Work’ by Christopher Finch, a huge, brilliantly produced monograph on one of my favourite artists. A visit to the Francis Bacon retrospective at Tate Britain also prompted a re-reading of his famous interviews with David Sylvester. I’ll catch up with some of this year’s books in the next year or two.

Television and films seemed to pass me by this year, apart from the brilliant Dexter. Like many, I think I may have to enter the world of the DVD Box Set. Most the films that seem remotely interesting are on such a limited release or not around at all in Birmingham. I feel frustrated that I’ve not been able to see ‘The Hunger’, directed by Steve McQueen and will have to wait for a DVD release, which is not the same experience. It will be good when the MAC re-opens it’s doors.

And finally, my musical highlights. These have been many and include Fleet Foxes and ‘Seldom Seen Kid’ by Elbow, ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ by Bon Iver, ‘Tell Tales Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol 8’ by Bob Dylan, as well as discovering Bob’s earlier ‘Saved’ and ‘Shot of Love’, and listening to all 50 of the first season of Theme Time Radio Hour’ during the summer in the studio. Bob proved great company and a musical education about early American music. And what can you say about his brilliant jokes? I also enjoyed ‘To Survive’ by Joan as Policewoman, the superb Felice Brothers, and the brilliant ‘Third’ by Portishead. My album of the year though has to be Glasvegas’ debut. A record so stirring and full of heart that it just has to be played at ear-splitting volume in the car whenever possible. Well it has been by me anyway.

I’ve seen some great live gigs this year too from Jah Wobble’s Chinese Dub (amazing!), to Henry Rollins’ spoken word, to Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks all at the Glee Club. Goldfrapp at Symphony Hall, to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Cardiff Millenium Stadium. There is nothing to add there really- he just is The Boss. But the best live act I’ve seen this year was Leonard Cohen at the NEC. I wasn’t sure how Leonard would work in such a venue, but he did. It was one of the most incredible and also moving concerts I’ve ever seen.

Phew! I think it’s best I leave it there. Happy New Year!

Alan Davie

I was reading the new painting magazine, ‘Turps Banana’ (not sure what the title is all about) the other day and was delighted to see an interview with painter Alan Davie. I’ve always been a huge admirer of his work but not seen much written about him for ages. He always seemed to be in a place with his painting that I used to regard with both great joy and great envy. I still do.

Alan is now in his late eighties, and continues to paint every day. The article mentions how in the sixties he said that his work had absolutely nothing to do with self-expression and that self expression and art were irreconcilable. ‘That’s the antithesis of art, self-expression- one’s got to lose one’s self to produce art really. The expression of one’s self is only of use to one’s self,’ he says. It’s a point of view that I’m really sympathetic with, although I think it also highlights the complexities of painting and one’s motivations in doing so. As a painter I’m very interested in removing myself from the subject. No subject is more or less important than another. I try to look at things totally objectively in order to get to the core of the thing I’m trying to represent. I think it’s important to also create a space for the audience to bring something of themselves to the painting and in a sense ‘complete’ it, without my asserting a greater authority. And yet I am trying to present a certain aesthetic through the work but this is more to do with an interest in the personality of the artist being present than a form of ‘self-expression’. As I said, it’s complicated….

I’ve gotten into a slightly more philosophical ramble here, when all I wanted to say was how much I love Alan Davies’ work!

December 2008

Welcome to my new website. I hope that it will act as a useful and informative forum for my artwork. I aim to update the site fairly regularly as I produce new work. I hope the blog will be a creative tool in itself in discussing the development of things at various stages; from the ideas and influences, to how things evolve in the sketchbook or studio. I hope it to also encompass discussion on a broader range of artistic and cultural issues. We’ll see how it goes!

Over the autumn, since completing my commission for Joseph Chamberlain College, I’ve been occupied with a few different things. I’m currently participating in the Artist’s Access to Art Colleges Scheme, where you as an artist can use the facilities at one of the countries many universities. I’m currently working at Wolverhampton University in the printmaking department. I’m trying to get to grips with printmaking more successfully after many false starts, in an attempt to develop the portfolio of drawings I created for the ‘Seek My Face’ commission in West Bromwich. I’ve been experimenting with drypoint and etching to date. I’m enjoying it, and it is really getting me to think with much greater rigour about drawing and the marks I make when describing form. The drawings I am working from were done in pencil which is much more forgiving than the etched line. I’ve not created anything I’m pleased with yet, but it is very early days. I need to be patient and to keep exploring the process to get to grips with this first. I’ve got to be careful here- I sound like I’m talking to one of my students! As a lecturer for many years, you forget how easy it can be give the advice, but not how difficult it can be to act on it.

One of the reasons I’m also trying to develop these drawings into prints is that I have the idea of trying to create a book of prints based on the portraits of ‘Seek My Face’. Hopefully, it could be kept in a place like West Bromwich library in the archives department, as a visual accompaniment to all the rather more dry archived material. I think it would be great to create a more permanent reminder of this work (I created around 60 individual portrait drawings- a wealth of material!) that could be kept in the town for local people to view in the future. I recently met with Sarah Chubb from the Sandwell Archives department. She was enthusiastic about the idea, and she agreed that it would be a great shame if these drawings were lost to the town. As with most things though, I just need to source some funding to develop it any further. I’ll keep you posted.

Every autumn, I always say to myself that I’m going to develop some paintings inspired by the autumnal trees and their colour. I find it a beautiful time of year, but over so quickly. I don’t use photographs in the creation of my work, preferring to work from direct observation only. This inevitably places restrictions on the creation of suitable studies that I can develop, particularly in having the time, as I lecture four days a week. This autumn I got a little bit nearer though by making a couple of small paintings of a tree in my street outside the house. I was really struck by this beacon of colour in this very ordinary setting. It would be nice to explore this in some larger paintings.

The other week I made my first portrait drawing since the summer. ‘Jeanette’ is a service user at the Day Centre that my wife, Diane, works at for people with learning disabilities. Jeanette has been nagging Diane for ages about posing for me. I’m keen to do more work about this seemingly ‘invisible’ section of our community. (‘Sara’ from the ‘Seek My Face’ project was someone who used a day centre in West Brom), but getting people able to consent to pose is a difficulty. I enjoyed working with Jeanette, but my initial drawing will need a lot of refining before I think about making a painting from it.