Im pottering in the shed – I may be some time!

Blogging has been an amazingly useful tool for me over the past twelve months or so. It has enabled me to get feedback on work that would never have seen the light of day and I have made contact with some wonderful people.

Most importantly though it has let me test myself and what I think about what my art should or can be. Saying something out loud (to the world!) has meant that I have had to really think things through.

Now feels the right time though to have an intense period of making. It feels right to stop blogging during this time. I think that it fits in well with some parts of my creative process but I almost feel that I will have very little to say (even to myself!). Blogging has helped me figure out what I need to do. Now I just need to do it. So rather than struggle to write interesting things I want to go away and come back with something exciting to talk about.

So thanks to everyone who has read and commented and good luck to all of you that are working on your own creative stuff! I expect that I will be back blogging towards the end of the year and I hope to have lots of exciting new work to share. There may be updates about “the Ebony Tower” project on Chantals Blog from time to time too.

If you want to get in touch you can still find me on facebook or email me daytonadean@hotmail.com.

cheers

Dean

let me just empty my head & my Fridge.

After the excitment of Varnishing Day I got to spend a great week in Langourla, a little village in Brittany, France.

As well as a good holiday and fun time with the Powells it also gave Chantal and I to start to discuss our “Ebony Tower” project. We took some interesting photos near the stream at the bottom of the garden, experimenting with movement and over exposure. Im sure there will be some shots featured both here and on Chantal’s blog.

My head feels in a bit of a spin to be honest at the moment. I feel like I have four or even five things that I would like to work on. Ebony Tower project , gloss designs, some more experimental gloss work and an idea I have had for years about transcribing glossy fashion images into large paintings. (Its an itch i just have to scratch). The ideas are all connected and one leads on from another. I think that they are really all about the same things too. I also want to develop more prints!

I might have a touch of the post holiday blues too. It was so good to relax in that environment. When you strip away all of the clutter of a busy life I found I could revel in the details and subtleties of relationships and my own emotions.

now all I have to do is communicate that in my work!

oh and my fridge has broken. Rubbish.

a more focused post next time with some images!

Varnishing Day – Royal Academy Summer Show

Yesterday was Varnishing Day for the 09 summer show.  A crazy morning of delayed trains and serendipitous meetings started my day. (thanks for the Champagne Helga!) I arrived fashionably late and could not believe how busy it was in the halls. It took me twenty minutes or so to find my piece (this was obviously more important than enjoying all the other work!)

It really was a crazy day and really hard to take it all in. Seeing Tracy Emin wandering around in the space where my work was looking at her own was almost too much for me. Not to mention the Academicians I met including Humphrey Ocean RA who was charming and kind.

I met an artist that had travelled all the way from Chile because she had a piece accepted. And to think I moaned about travelling from the mids.

Rocio Alcaman makes fascinating drawings, paintings and prints click here to have a look at her work. I wish her a lot of luck with it all!

In the evening I attended the Private View of Eileen Cooper’s show at Art First on Cork street. Being part of that London Art scene is always fun and eye opening for a small town boy like me.

The highlight of the day was seeing my piece included in the illustrated catalogue. Strangely seeing my name in the index excited me most of all.

I wasn’t really able to take it all in and will definitely still be processing it all whilst I am on holiday next week. It certainly has given me the encouragement to push on.

on the way back to euston I was chatting to a guy for a while before I realised it was John Prescott. Weird Eh.

Iris and Liquid Skin

Royal Academy – Summer Exhibition

It is really lovely to be able to share with all of the people that follow my blog the news that I have been accepted into this years Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.

My Invite to Varnishing Day!

its a crazy journey sometimes! The piece was “the Longing” a lino cut print.

bad photo of "the Longing"

The piece is about those moments that we are alone with our truths and our secrets, we remove our masks. In my mind its that five minutes in the dark before you go to sleep. Then , only the truth will be heard.

New Work In Progress. After the Fall

Since coming into some new canvases I have felt much more free to start exploring my ideas. I have had a battle with oil paint for most of my time as an artist and very often switch back to acrylics when i get frustrated. I work naturally with the drying times of acrylic but have rarely been happy with the finish.

So far I am enjoying working these peices in oils and far easier to have more than one on the go. It feels good to start to see some of the ideas that have been filling my mind start to appear in some small way.

a dark post fall secret garden. At midnight.

Annette Messager & Travelling Light

Had a really inspiring day in London yesterday (15th). After meeting up with a friend we went to see the Annette Messager retrospective at the Haywood Gallery. I wasnt really sure whether I would enjoy her work or not. Having only seen images in books etc I knew that it would be a challenging aesthetic for me, but I had read an interview with her in an edition of Art Review and found myself engaged with her ideas and thoughts.

The show was curated in almost chronological order and I have to say that I struggled with the first few pieces. For me the ideas were interesting and more millitant, obviously a reflection of the time that they were made and with a strong feminist attitude. I found that they were a good example of the kind of art that requires a statement to find a way into it. I did however enjoy the ideas in these pieces.

By the end of the show I felt that she was fully fluent in her visual language and funnily enough I felt completely at ease with it too. I really enjoyed the show and that is something I dont say to often about exhibitions. I enjoyed it because I didnt feel the need to constantly compare or even think about my own practice. Something which I find difficult to avoid when looking at painting or drawings. I also enjoyed it because it was entertaining. I really enjoyed the movement in the later pieces, they added both humour and pathos. Really wonderous at times.

Casino – Annette Messager

We then went on to see Travelling light.

“Travelling Light is an exciting collaborative project between a dynamic trio of female East End director/curators, Sophie Wilson of Pharos Gallery, Chiara Williams and Debra Wilson of WW Gallery. Intending to stretch the imagination of their artists through imposing size and weight constraints, the brief demands that work arrives by post for the London exhibition before being transported to Venice for the Biennale.”    taken from travellinglight09.blogspot.com

It was in intimate little venue. The size and weight restrictions produced some interesting outcomes and it was great to see Chantal’s work amongst it. Congratulations to all the artists and the organisers for a buzzing event!

Developing Idea – Sources

Inspired the The Ebony Tower I am develping ideas that have a different feeling to my usual. Still darkness but this time a place and a time seem to be the driving force rather than the figure. I am unsure yet whether the figure will appear in the paintings or not.

Bonnards Photographs of his model

bonnards photos

my modified version of one of the photos

In my next post I will try to talk more about my ideas

sketch book stuff.

I was playing around with some drawings in my sketch book and just adding indian ink. thought I would share the results. My ideas are changing and evolving all the time it seems to take a while for me to catch up with myself sometimes. My ideas are movingon but these ideas are still waiting to be developed.

Graphite and Ink on Paper

Graphite, Pen and Ink on Paper - "Cactus"

Graphite and Ink on Paper

graphite and ink on paper

Staffordshire Open

Against my usual form of not ever entering anything, I managed to talk myself into entering this years Staffordshire open at the Shire Hall Gallery, Stafford

These two small paintings got accepted.

If I Could I Would. I should I’m Sorry, Acrylic on Board 2008

She Swears to Christ She Wont. Acrylic on board. 2008.

The Show opens on the 15th May and runs through most of the summer.