'Stolen Car'...

I was out drawing on location last night. I was working in a spot I’ve been returning to on and off for years just under the M5 motorway outside West Bromwich. It’s interesting for all sorts of reasons, including the way the road, river, and rail all cross over each other there. It’s quite a bleak spot, and the railway crossing has seen a number of suicides over the years, and not the safest place to draw (I was firmly locked in the car with my sketchbook).

I’m fascinated by the huge structures that form the underneath of the motorway and the atmosphere of the place . Last night I was trying to develop some drawings I’ve made of these for an idea I’ve had about doing some nocturnes of this particular landscape. These are partly inspired by my memories of walking under these structures as a shortcut on my way home in the dead of night as a teenager from a night out or band practise. It was always a foolish thing to do, and drawing there last night I relived some of these feelings, but was really excited by the light and colour and my attempts to capture these.

I was listening to Springsteen’s ‘The River’, as I drove over. I particularly love the track ‘Stolen Car’, and have often imagined that the words of the character in the song are whispered from a location similar to this one. What a beautifully sad song…

Joan Mitchell

I found the coverage of the Joan Mitchell retrospective exhibition at Inverleith House in Edinburgh on last night’s Culture Show really interesting (although that presenter is a bit irritating).

Joan Mitchell, 'Cypress', oil on canvas

I’ve been a bit of an admirer of Mitchell’s paintings for a few years and always really enjoyed them whenever I’ve seen them (they have a great one at Tate Modern), but have never known much about her and neglected to look further. Which apparently is not surprising according to last night’s feature. She is often overlooked when the Abstract Expressionists of which she belonged, and more than held her own in the notorious Cedar Bar fights and drinking bouts, are discussed. She was also, it is said, terrible at discussing her painting (but isn’t everybody? And those who can do all the talking are often the ones that can’t do any of the making in my experience…).

And yet I’ve often had a sly eye on these wonderful paintings, and certainly held them in my mind, when I’ve been developing my more painterly nature paintings in the last couple of years. Mitchell’s work, although almost entirely abstract, based a lot of it’s inspiration on her relationship with the natural world and used this a s a vehicle to express a range of different psychological states.

Joan Mitchell, 'Chord VII', oil on canvas

I’ve found myself doing this too, but one I’ve found surprising to be exploring as I’ve tried to avoid psychological readings in my work, claiming the ideas in them are purely visual ideas. It’s only in retrospect that I’ve realized how deeply psychological some of the recent work I’ve created is, and how richer the work is for this. The Joan Mitchell paintings in their power and beauty have invigorated in me an underlying desire to push this aspect further across all my work. I think I’ve been afraid of this in the last ten years as I’ve tried to create some distance with my previously heavily narrative paintings which had lost all meaning for me. But changes have crept in without me being too conscious of them, which it is time to take further… I think I’m ready to get out of my comfort zone and some of the corners I’ve painted myself in….

'Crispy Realisation...'

I went for a walk in the Wyre Forest today with my wife, Diane and our son, Isaac. Despite the rain, it was great to get out. We all love the outdoors. I was glad of the opportunity to clear my head, after an intense day painting yesterday amongst the turps, linseed and oil paint of the studio. I completed a new portrait, ‘Rayhana’, that is a follow on from the previous one, ‘Safeera’. Again it depicts a young Muslim woman, and was an attempt to develop the formal ideas explored in ‘Safeera’. I’m going to try and develop these into a bigger, more unified, series over the next few months. This is something I haven’t done in a long time. The next painting won’t be part of this though. I’ve got something else in mind based on some mono and relief prints I’ve been playing around with in the evenings this week.

‘Crispy Realisation’ is a line that comes from one of the songs on Bon Iver’s ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’, which I've obsessively played in the studio for over a year now at the start of a day’s work. I love it, and that phrase jumped out and stuck in my head yesterday. I also listened to Bob Dylan’s ‘Blood On The Tracks’, which must be one of the greatest collection of songs ever recorded. I’ve previously blogged about rituals and superstitions, and yesterday when listening to this I was reminded how a few years ago I painted a series of ten portraits where I found myself ritualistically playing this album at the start of each painting session. It was the start of a much deeper relationship with Bob’s music, that I’ll probably blog about more at some point. I’ve spared you this so far…

'Art In Empty Spaces' with Dave the Butcher

I’ve been in Queens Square, West Bromwich today installing a selection of my ‘Seek My Face’ portraits in a series of empty shops there. It’s part of an initiative by Sandwell Arts called ‘Art in Empty Spaces’. The shop fronts have been re-fitted, together with another unit which has been turned more into a ‘white cube’ gallery space, with the aim to exhibit artist’s work in the region and do something more creative with these once busy retail units. My paintings have been used with the hope that they may raise some interest by local artists in putting proposals forward for exhibitions and projects.

I enjoyed seeing the work in such a different context such as the old butcher’s window, after some initial uncertainties about the idea, particularly after the paintings have already been shown twice in the town at the Town Hall and The Public. The portraits are all based on people from West Bromwich though, and I have a firm conviction that they should be more widely seen in the community they reflect. This seems like a great opportunity in this regard, and they certainly attracted a lot of interest from passers-by.

Before hanging, I had all 30-odd paintings spread out along the arcade to help me select. They looked great, and I’m kicking myself for not photographing this. I eventually chose nine, and am hoping to go along each week in the two months they will be up to change one or two of them. I think it help keep the installation a bit more active with this passing audience.

It looks almost like a West End Gallery in the picture above...!

I stored all the unused paintings in the empty butcher’s behind the exhibition walls. It’s a fascinating and eerie space, with it’s bloody history indelibly printed in the walls. My nephew Luke, who helped me hang the work, said it was like something out of the ‘Saw’ movies. Creepy….

'Anwar'

...and this is Anwar, who posed for me earlier today. This is at my request. Anwar is another student at JCC who is from Etritia. He is a big bear of a guy with a very sculptural and complex face.

I found this drawing much more difficult, and I'm not sure about it at this stage. I think I overworked it, but I think I can develop it further in another study, perhaps in charcoal. When drawing from observation the sitters head tends to move a little over time. This can be seen in this drawing, where the planes of the face appear a little flattened and distorted as the angle of the head has shifted slightly. And yet Anwar has a very unusual face, which is why I was keen to draw him which I need to remember. You see these faces everyday, but you don't 'look' in the same way that a drawing forces you to do. I'd like to think a large painting can be made of Anwar, but I think there is alot of work to do beforehand to develop this study. I'll pin it on the studio wall, and live with it a while...

'Mohammed'

I made this pencil drawing yesterday of Mohammed, one of my students. He’s been nagging me if he could pose for the last two years of his course after seeing my ‘Audience’ paintings of staff and students at JCC. I finally relented in his last week of study.

I think we were both very nervous, me especially as I hadn’t made a portrait drawing in ages, but we were both pleased with the results. After a bit of a break I’ve been slowly finding that portraits are coming back into focus as a subject in my painting….

Art Tastic!

We held our second Summer Arts Festival at Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College where I work, over the weekend. It was great fun with lots of different activities ranging from printmaking, pinhole photography, pottery demonstrations, badge-making, origami, textiles, portrait drawing, and textiles. This was held all alongside different exhibitions and stalls by professional artists and craftspeople as well as our annual exhibition of student work. I must say the standard of student work was really strong this year, and I felt very inspired by all sorts of different things but in particular by some of the printmaking on display such as this small collagraph portrait.

My personal highlight of the weekend was the Student Fashion show on Sunday afternoon. It was great to see such imaginative and creative costumes made by the students studying Textiles under the guidance of Sally Cartwright our excellent Textiles lecturer (or Genius and Master Weaver as she is known in the office!). The girls looked so glamorous as they paraded around the catwalk/college gardens, and were obviously loving the attention. It was wonderful.

Ceramicist Serge Sangheera who I have previously mentioned in relation to our Christmas Art Fair was also there, and gave some excellent performances on both days. I love his ceramic vessels. Since buying one of his pieces at the last fair it has become one of my favourite things at home. Here’s an excellent photograph of Serge in action with his samurai sword taken by my JCC colleague, Danny Pardoe. Danny took most of these photos.

Here is a photograph of yours truly with Safeera Hickson, in front of one of my recent paintings in which she is the subject. She has been a lovely student to work with and her work won the ‘Best In Show’ category in our end of year exhibition. Safeera will be studying a BA (Hons) in Photography at Coventry University next year.

I found myself buying a couple of pieces over the weekend too. I bought a lovely collection of framed animal badges by my illustrator friend, Chris Cowdrill for my son, Isaac’s room. I also bought a drawing in oil sticks of the Catalonia landscape in Spain from my friend Marian Edwards. This was part of a series she completed in 2007 and are rooted in her experience of having lost most of her sight five years ago as a side effect of her MS. Below is a photograph of some of her drawings and a statement explaining the work and her experience of sight loss. I used to work with Marian and she has been a big influence in my life, especially in my appreciation of art.

Once lost, sight, seems a faculty miraculous and precious. Drawing has helped me to ‘record’ what I can now only barely see. It gives form to a fleeting, visual experience which is all the more illusive when sight is seriously impaired.

To learn to draw is to learn to look and drawing has helped me recover some of the disorientation sight loss presents. ‘Oil sticks’ provide an instant medium alongside graphite, charcoal and watercolour.

Well, as you can see it was a pretty action packed weekend! And this is a pretty action packed blog. It was a great event for kids, and here’s a nice drawing to sign off on made by my friend and Head of Department, Pat’s daughter, Jasmin, that shows Pat, myself and Chris all working hard… Sorry for the lame title of this blog- I just couldn’t think of anything smarter!