'CONCRETE TRILOGY' DEBUTS IN 'BEST OF BIRMINGHAM' 2018

Timed to coincide with Birmingham's inaugural Design Festival 2018, and the opening of furniture manufacturer Allermuir's design show-house in the Jewellery Quarter, the 'Best of Birmingham' show was hosted by the Birmingham Architectural Association, and curated by Mark Kelly and the team at Gensler's Birmingham office.

Featuring myself plus other artists from the Midlands, the exhibition was held during an uncharacteristically hot June ( by UK standards ). 

CONCRETE TRILOGY in the bar of the rooftop event space, below.

The final part of the CONCRETE TRILOGY ( below ) , may still be a work-in-progress, and subject to alteration once the exhibition is taken down.

My artwork was featured in the beautiful rooftop bar in the Allermuir Building in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. Opening Night, below...

...and then two weeks later on presentation night, which happened to be on the evening of the Summer Solstice, the weather was still uncharacteristically Mediterranean...

Below: 9pm June 21st, Birmingham Skyline, taken from the roof of the Allermuir Building.

NEW PAINTING

As Yet Untitled, acrylic on canvas, 50cm x 50cm, June 2018.

( Photo taken at midday. )

Same painting, different angle ( photo taken at sunset. )

NEW WORK IN PROGRESS

PROGRESSIONS

Untitled, acrylic on canvas, 60cm x 60cm.

Below: Extreme Close-Up,taken today [ 23rd Jan 2018 ].

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Below: Close Up, angle shot Dec 29 2017

Below: Jan 3rd 2018

Below: Jan 4th 2018

Below: Jan 23rd 2018

2017 ANNUAL REPORT / 1st QUARTER REVIEW

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JANUARY 2017: ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL REMIXES OF ABSTRACT PAINTINGS

Above: Stealth, as a Digital Vector Image ( with texture )

One of the obvious down-sides of creating a painted composition, is that once it's sold, the design is no longer in your hands. In the case of my work, it takes months to finely balance a piece ( it's a form of automatic composition, in that apart from a starting grid, everything is ad-libbed until the picture 'feels' finished ). On that journey, many interesting forms and motifs may evolve. In late 2016 / early 2017, I decided to painstakingly go about re-creating some of my recent paintings in digital 'vector' form. This allows me to do two things: 1 ) Significantly enlarge the composition without loss of quality or pixellation; 2 ) Deconstruct my artwork so that it can be remixed, recoloured and recomposed.

Below: The original Stealth and Encryption, Acrylic on Canvas, 40cm x 60cm

Below: Stealth, as Digital Vector Image ( with texture )

( For more examples of vector experiments, see the link to January 2017, here )

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FEBRUARY 2017: BLISS IN CONCRETE, Acrylic On Canvas, 60cm x 60cm

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MARCH 2017: Up-and-coming American folk singer SYDNEY ROBINSON uses 'WOMAN DISROBING' for her debut digital single artwork.

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[ANOTHER] KIND OF BLUE

The great thing about being an artist is that even when you bunk off work, you are still technically at work. I finally got to experience some 'British Summertime' today, so I absolutely made the most of it.

YESTERDAY [ 09 05 2017 ]

Below: Current work-in-progress, photographed with bright sunshine coming through the studio blinds.

TODAY [ 10 05 2017 ]

Found this amazingly huge ceanothus bush just off a busy road in Worcestershire.

Studio colleague and my blue Kona bike.

My variation on a Greek salad: Slice loads of grapes and blueberries and throw those in with the leaves, olives, feta cheese, olive oil and vinegar.

SEE ALSO: A KIND OF BLUE [ MAY 2014 ]

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

I've found that one of the more amusing ways to pass the time while invigilating the current show, is to observe certain colleagues' reactions to my 'painting of some trees' ( Daphne Francis Gallery off-site exhibition at The Jubilee Centre, Birmingham, this week ).

Colleagues who know my background, and who are aware that I occasionally do representational art ( ie: art that looks like what it is ) in order to challenge myself, may like the art, or they may not. They are comfortable enough to make an honest comment about it.

Conversely, those that are not familiar with my oeuvre, seem to spontaneously develop a constellation of slightly alarming ailments: Firstly, a nervous facial spasm, accompanied by a pronounced stutter. Secondly, a shuffling gait, where they awkwardly stagger away from the artwork, as if suddenly suffering a deterioration of motor skills. To round off the symptoms, a wholesale deletion of memory seems to take place, until a few moments later, they exit the trance-state, and emerge, blinking and bewildered, with no recollection of having seen the painting in the first place. They then carry on looking at the rest of the show as if nothing has happened.

This phenomenon is probably a right-brain / left-brain conflict, brought on by intense academic study, perhaps? The considerable demand on the brain's language centres, means that when faced with a painting of an actual tree, the inevitable cognitive shut-down occurs. This renders the observer temporarily off-line, as signals around the cerebellum are re-routed to take up the short-fall in capacity.

Meltemi II, Acrylic on Canvas, 60cm x 60cm, 2016

This artwork can be seen at the Jubilee Trade Centre, Pershore Road, Birmingham B5 6ND, as part of the Daphne Francis Gallery's WITHIN THE LAND exhibition.