Snooters B4 Looters

How sickening to see the footage of an injured man being helped to his feet by seemingly caring fellow citizens whose real intent was to rob him. But it’s not true to say we haven’t seen anything like this before…….

               

Remember the blatant and unjustifiable greed of many of our Councillors and MP’s who thought nothing of stealing from their own constituents? They mugged by stealth, winning people over with charm and promises, whilst robbing them all along.

They too helped themselves to what ever they saw fit, from TV’s and Hi Fi’s to duck ponds and moats, DVD’s or the employment of servants. Their outrageous behaviour also totally and unequivocally unacceptable. They didn’t seem to care, showed such disregard, dishonesty, contempt and a total lack of respect for others.

Their behaviour, a kind of upper class looting, ‘snooting,’ I call it, was also criminal activity that should have been dealt with ‘robustly and with the full force of the law.’ Instead many Snooters continue in their trusted positions whilst others were rewarded with more booty, considerable bags of cash, tax payers money, for not standing for re election. It is grotesque that groups of trusted citizens could indulge in such ‘recreational’ snooting.

The snooters have contributed in their own vile ways, to us loosing our homes, our jobs, our services, our sense of belonging and our hope for a fair and just society. The gangs of snooters hung out in Champagne bars, dealing privileges with impunity and marauding through our communities, untouchable, flouting the rules of morality and justice. They flaunted their second homes, their wisteria and soft furnishings like bling and showed no compassion, no shame and no regard.

They too are responsible for what they are now calling “Broken Britain.”

Castles In The Sky

I have just returned from a visit to Bodelwyddan Castle in North Wales where the aim was to explore their extensive grounds and gardens and paint some quintessential English landscapes and visit the National Portrait exhibits displayed in the castle museum. The only set back to my plan was that the castle is a rather excellent hotel with leisure club, entertainment and fine food which tended to stifle my creative processes. When I did manage to drag myself away from the spa pool, I wondered into the victorian styled gardens and surrounding natural woodlands to find a dreamlike experience of cultivated exotic plants and unspoilt wildness. I did have time to sit and do some watercolour sketches and, although they are not very exciting, the process was rewarding because of the conversation I had with myself:

ME: Why are you sat painting wishy washy watercolours of scenes that can be better represented by a good photograph?

MYSELF: Because by sitting and sketching (it is only a painting if someone says 'I would like to buy that.') I can work out what might work and what might not

ME: And have you worked it out?

MYSELF: Yes, wishy washy watercolours won't do it for me. They are OK for illustration and greeting cards but I want to put tangible richness of colour into my work and capture the imagination.

ME: Wow! You are starting to sound like someone who knows what they are talking about. Have you been on a course?

MYSELF: No. I have taken some time to sit and think about what is important to me and what I want to do rather than trying to be something I am not. Maybe becoming a famous artist and having major international exhibitions is all 'castles in the sky' -  an impossible dream but I may be able to produce a series of works that I can be proud to exhibit and that will be good enough for me.

ME: That won't pay the mortgage though will it?

MYSELF: You can't think like that! That sort of talk will lead to commercialism and I have visions of myself cutting the card for another set of greeting cards and displaying my watercolours of local scenes in the church hall.

ME: So the plan is?

MYSELF: The plan is...to get a plan. No, planning is structured and uncreative. Each idea should just 'happen' and the 'happening' will be spontaneous and expressive of my mood.

ME: Sounds a bit hippyish and all very nice and that but will it work?



Thomas Arnold

by Thomas Phillips
oil on canvas, 1839
48 in. x 39 in. (1219 mm x 991 mm)

© National Portrait Gallery, London



MYSELF: You will never reach the castle in the sky if you don't even try to get there and the journey will be exciting anyway. Also, I might get run over by the number 7 bus tomorrow and I don't want to be lying on the road wishing I had done something I could have done in the time I was given.

ME: Well you have convinced me. Now get on with it!

Before I left Bodelwyddan, I visited the castle gallery and had a good close look at the magnificent display of portraits from the National Gallery. I say close look because this is what I like to do. Get up real close and study the process the artist has used to create the masterpiece. I like to see brushmarks and blobs of paint. I am desperate to see splashes of paint going over the edge of a line and I especially want to see disportionate hands or feet. All these things make the artist human and the paintings become a repesentation of what the process of applying to paint to canvas can achieve bringing me a step closer to my castle in the sky.

A Turner Off Prize

OK class, today we will be working on our submissions to the school Art Prize and, if we have time, we will have a quick story entitled 'The Emperor's New Clothes.'

Now who is going to show and tell their ideas first? Karla Black! Will you stop messing around with that rubbish and pay attention! Oh sorry Karla, I didn't realise pet that is your art work. What is it dear? Is it finished? Oh it's an abstract assemblage using everyday materials juxtoposed to create interest and form is it? Well I am sure the headmaster will be pleased with it. Oh you have a note from a friend you would like to display with it have you? OK let's put that with it and maybe that will explain everything:

Karla Black’s work draws from a multiplicity of artistic traditions from expressionist painting, land art, performance, to formalism. Her large-scale sculptures incorporate modest everyday substances, along with very traditional art-making materials to create abstract formations. Black chooses her media for their tactile aesthetic appeal: the familiarity of the texture of cellophane or the scent of cosmetics bridges the experience of tangible matter with the intimacy of memory or the subconscious. Black’s process is intensely physical and this energy is conveyed through her work’s ‘impromptu’ staging; this suggestion of performance psychologically involves the viewer with the making process, provoking instinctive responses to her precarious assemblages.

Saatchi Online Gallery

Well Karla, it's lovely dear I am glad you have put to good use all the art techniques we have been discussing over the past few years. Now who else would like to show us their efforts? OK Martin what have you been up to? You have been cutting out bits and sticking them together again and hanging them from the ceiling. Is it a cot mobile Martin? Oh sorry, I should have realised it is a landscape is it? And you also have a note from an adult explaining what you have done have you? OK let's hear it:

Martin Boyce: Deserves to be the runner-up. Boyce frequently makes elegant sculptural forms which are based on modernist design - spiky, abstracted things that often look a bit like a cross between an abstracted tree and a piece of free-floating calligraphy

Rob Sharp. The Independent Newspaper

Well I am sure we all recognised the 'abstract tree' and can instantly recognise the 'free-flowing calligraphy.' Well done Martin it looks beautiful in a starange sort of way. I really want to move on because I have a feeling our story today, 'The Emperor's New Clothes' may resonate with a few of us. So who else would like to show us their work? Yes Hilary I do have an overhead projector and yes you can borrow it if you are careful. Well I'm not sure whether they are using theirs next door, do you really need two? OK let's see what you have.

I think you must have your photos mixed up dear. Never mind perhaps you could bring in the proper work when you find it. Oh I see, they are meant to be all mixed up boring urban statements. I have some photos like that on my phone when I got a little tipsy at the teacher's staff meeting the other day, do you want to include them in your little montage? Ah you too have a note from a very important art person which means that it must be good, lets hear it:

In three of the works assembled here the artist's collaborators are seen carrying out various tasks in what appears to be the same newly finished building: two men move through each other's legs; a woman repeatedly builds a house of cards; a man lies languorously on the floor tearing magazines, which gradually fill the space around him. The varied pace of their movements and activities establishes a rhythm between the works, while the echoing space creates a distinctive yet unifying soundtrack.

Tate Britain

Well Hilary, I guess you have really stretched your imagination and have

produced something so monumentally profound that no one will dare to question it. You will get a ticking off from the IT technician though for turning the monitor on it's side.
OK time for just one more before our story and it must be you George, what have you been up to dear? Painting! How daring of you! Oh and these are pictures of..erm let's see...a garage, a row of garages with grafitti, another garage, some brick walls and another garage.

Great George you have really got the feel of the garage, I am sure the headmaster will want these hanging on the wall. What paint have you used George? It appears to be peeling off in places. Modelling paint and the reason for this is? You just happened to have some lying around. OK and you have a little note too from someone who knows what they are talking about. Good let's hear it then George:

It is there not just in the seemingly mundane subject matter, but in the almost realist style, a style that, in lesser hands, could teeter into kitsch or even folk art. It is there, too, in the sheen of the paint on the wooden surface: the now famous Humbrol sheen. In his choice of paint – Humbrol enamel of the kind used by generations of children to coat Airfix model planes, the miniature Spitfires and Hurricanes they had laboured over for hours – Shaw made his own almost imperceptible nod towards conceptualism, towards the supremacy of the idea and the process behind the art.

Sean O'Hagan, The Observer

Well you know what George? I actually think you might be on to something here. I mean this applying paint using a brush technique and 'almost realism' thing might just catch on one day.

Well class, I am sure you will all join me in congratulating these four with their very fine efforts and wish them luck with the competition. They are all very deserving of the £25,000 prize aren't they? Now are you sitting comfortably? Then I will begin our story. Once there was a very gullible and vain king who didn't want to appear stupid by saying he couldn't see something that wasn't there. Ring any bells?

Sculpture or Installation





Oval with Points, (1968-1970), Henry Moore Foundation



I have this idea to create a piece for my Lancaster exhibition that will compliment my paintings, fulfil my desire to break away from my traditional ways of working and put into practice some of the techniques I explored whilst at university. I am not sure whether you would call the piece a sculpture or an installation and I will have to explore the differences between the two. I suppose an installation is specific to the exhibition site and would have some way of interacting with the viewer whereas a sculpture could be moved to any location and deliver the same viewing experience.

So are Henry Moore's large casts sculptures or installations? Are they not site specific works that the viewer interacts with, observing the landscape through the voids Moore placed in his work or wondering at the scale and smoothness of curve in the natural light? I don't think I have heard Moore called an installation artist though.

Follow this link for a good discussion on Installation Art by London based art critic and art historian Claire Bishop http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue3/butisitinstallationart.htm . I deduce from this that true installation work requires viewer interaction or active participation so the piece has 'relational aesthetics' according to cultural critic Nicolas Bourriaud. I also deduce that the trend is for the installation to alter perception or cause friction between the viewer and their surroundings which perhaps sets it apart from what sculptures can achieve.

So what of my piece? I have collected interesting pieces of wood from the beach and forrest and piled them in the garden. Now I am waiting for the wood to talk to me. I have some idea of what I want and I know where the piece will be placed in the exhibition. The piece will interact with the viewer as the natural light from a window it will be placed in front of will fall through acetate coloured with acrylic inks. The time of day and the weather conditions will alter the viewing experience each time. A sculptural installation perhaps?

I am considering putting an entry into this year's Sculpture By The Sea event in Australia.

https://picasaweb.google.com/118338774493048868745/SculptureByTheSeaCottesloe2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCNb-vr39j7fPVA# but I think I might be trying to run before I can walk.

The art of social unrest

I have just completed a painting I have been working on for the last three months and I am now wondering how to market this piece. My painting depicts the recent student protests in London and I have used a classical style as I thought the events that unfolded on that day were like scenes from a Greek play. I wanted to record the social unrest as an important historical event and used works such as The Oath of Horatii by Jacques Louis David (pictured below) as inspiration.

I find these works intriguing as they carry so much symbolism and narrative. In my painting, I have merged events from the day into one scene and I am sure that the classical artists over emphasised the drama and placed relevant people and objects in their scenes to depict the story. For example, I have placed Nick Clegg and David Cameron at the edge of my scene. They are treading on a tablet of stone with the Latin word 'Spondeo' etched into it. This roughly translates into 'pledge' and the tablet is fractured or broken so they are breaking their pledge to the students not to raise the tuition fees.

I was also intrigued by the media coverage during the protest and the use of videos taken by mobile phones so i incorporated this into my painting as well. Camilla Parker Bowles and Prince Charles are being confronted by the mob, as they were on the day, but their 'attacker' is brandishing a mobile phone to capture the moment for publication on You Tube or other social media sites.

There may be a backlash from some people (probably the police) as I have shown them as pigs. I have no intention to be disrespectful to the police, who I think handled the day admirably, and I used the pig as a symbol of a beast in a titanic struggle with the 'hero' as the classical artist have done. I have shown one 'pig' to be attacking a member of the mob but I have also shown one being pushed to the ground by the surging crowd so I believe I have balanced the scene.

Is there a place for this type of work to be shown? My painting carries images that may upset or offend. The banners carried by the mob read F**K FEES as they did on the day and I am wondering whether the newspapers will print this although they did print many photographs of the protests for days after the event. It will be interesting to get some reactions and I suppose the best thing that could happen is that I get some bad publicity as then I will know I have touched a nerve!

So here is my painting 'Spondeo Infractus.' I would welcome your comments:)

Art Exhibition - It's official!

So now the exhibition is being advertised http://www.williamsonpark.com/pages/gallery.html I am starting to feel some pressure. I suddenly feel the need to produce some more work, something different. It is probably a natural feeling that what ever I have will not be enough. Now that the weather is improving I am looking forward to working on my installation piece outside. I have never quite understood how artists make money from installations but I am hoping that my piece will attract media interest (positive hopefully) and therefore bring people to the exhibition.

I am also working on another project that I now think I can apply for some funding. I have joined a-n magazine http://www.a-n.co.uk/ and found funding opportunities and exhibition possibilities on their website very useful. Working on two different projects (and they are very different!) means that i can paint in the appropriate style to suit my mood of the day:)

How to be a successful artist

coloured inks, PVA resist & cotton between acetate

Today's art offering is some work from my sketchbook of ideas for an installation piece in my summer exhibitions.


In my quest for knowledge and the magic formula for becoming a successful artist I have been trawling the social media Art forums (which, I believe is one of the criteria for being successful) and I chanced upon a compilation of ideas put together by Richard Eaves Woods on Linkedin. I aim to use this as a model business plan for myself and reproduce it here for others to benefit from:

Make distinctive work - develop your brand

Determine your audience, your target market

The work you like might not be what sells. Satisfy your customers. Get a sense of who likes what and why

Listen to customers, both buyers and browsers
learn how to present and market your work
practice presenting and marketing your work


Create big and small items, something that appeals to everyone

Galleries and agents only show art they think they can sell.

Consider all opportunities, even if inconvenient

Use social media, coupled with a website
blog
Facebook
LinkedIn

Watch your website statistics and see what spikes visitation.

Copyright work before posting online

Send out a newsletter

Find an art writer to work with you on PR and promotion

30% - 50% time spent on marketing

Or go with an agent and pay extra fees

Persistance
rejection is part of the game

Patience

Find the right market for your work, what sells in one venue, may gather dust somewhere else.

Think outside the box - look for new applications for your art. Possibly Corporate sales?

Start and maintain a permissive marketing list. Always get a name, contact information, and notes on what they liked from those who take an interest in your work.

Work in groups, collaborate with other artists, writers, poets, musicians. film directors, photographers, philosophers

Cut down on costs

Make a plan. To make your art into a business, think like a business
with short and long-term goals,

Create a portfolio, prints, not slides, send it out to galleries and art dealers (artdealers.org)

Provide good-quality images of your work, and a short bio.

Set reasonable prices, and be ready to answer how you do it.

Enter art and craft fairs, but choose wisely. Make sure your work fits, and that there isn't so much competition you are lost in the sea of work

Design promotional materials such as business cards, postcards and catalogs for handouts or to be mailed.

If you must work, get a job with a flexible schedule

At art fairs, be personable, and be yourself. Getting to know the artist sometimes means as much to the buyer as the art.

At art fairs, learn to show your work in ways to make it appealing to potential buyers.

Talk and write about your art in ways people understand, regardless of how little or how much they know about art. This includes how to convince people to appreciate your art and feel like it's worth owning.

Document your work in ways to increase its appeal to potential buyers

Decide how you will respond to criticism of your art, role-play it.

Decide when you will have enough art and enough of a selection to start showing and selling your art.

Barter or trade your art for goods and services

Discover where to send those press releases by raiding the resume's of all your favorite artists. Chances are that if a journalist writes about one artist, they might write about another.

Resume's are also an excellent resource for potential venues and grant opportunities.

Openings and receptions are a great way to reconnect with past clients and to meet new people, and to learn how well your work is communicating. It's disappointing for your audience to attend an opening and not have a chance to speak with the artist. Get out there and shake hands.

The Art of Lancaster

Here is my piece from my Lancaster visit. I am pleased with the result because it marks a new way of working for me - using a wetter brush and completeing the picture in one go.

I have to prepare an artist statement for my exhibition promotional material and I find this very difficult. What is it that people want to hear about an artist and who is my audience? I can't deny that I want to sell my paintings and so I feel I should write something that potential buyers want to hear. Maybe about how I have suffered for my work, starving in an attic and having mad fits of emotional turmoil. How my paintings are so important to me that anyone who purchases them would imediately become a member of a select group of 'those-who-know-what-a-good-painting-looks-like-and-have-great-taste' and they must vow to only show their purchases to other potential buyers art lovers. Or I could write something that would attract the Gallery owners and curators that are obviously going to be queing to get in. Something about how I will be consistently turning out new and dynamic works in series and how I have collectors from all over the world begging for me to paint for them and that they will no doubtly be offering me money to exhibit in their galleries rather than stealing 30-40% commission!!

Art as a business

So, at the ripe old age of 50, I am going to make my art my business. What will this look like? What I mean is that I intend to market my art and myself as an artist. I have a number of works, a website and I have set up a couple of exhibition venues for this summer so what could possibly go wrong? Surely I am on my way to stardom!

I was in Lancaster the other day and after visiting Arteria Gallery 23 where I have some work on display, I had half an hour to kill before meeting my sister in the excellent Whale Tail Cafe so wandered into the Lancaster Museum and their current exhibition of Hilary Carr works. I am endeavouring to work on some watercolour studies of my local area and I will be happy if my efforts can turn out like Hilary Carr's clean and characteristic studies. The museum holds a fine collection of historical landscapes and they are exhibited as you climb the stairway so you can get a really good close up look. I was particuarly interested in paintings of the Ashton memorial in Williamson Park as this is where I am holding my exhibition in June. A subject probably painted a million times but I managed to take some photos of the memorial building whilst the winter sun was bright and I intend to work in a new way for me with wet oils and fauvist palette.