E17 Art Trail

I have an exhibition as part of the E17 Art Trail this year, in Woodstreet library, Watham forest, E17 of the title.The Art Trail is running from September 2nd till Sunday 10th.There is quite a lot of space and I will show a range of my work entitled Symbols of Life , paintings, drawings, photographs and painted objects, all drawing on the natural world, ecology, and the inner world of symbolism, myth and spirituality.

I am quite excited about this possibility, it's always good to get a body of work together and to see the coherence in the work. This is particularly important for me because my work is not stylistically very similar. It's about my wanting to be free to present what I see in the way that strikes me at that point in time I think. Responding in that moment to what is both external and internal. I used to worry that it made my work not commercial for the usual gallery set up, but I don't worry so much now, in that I have accepted that my work probably won't be taken up by a traditional gallery anyway! So it's about finding other ways to get my work seen.

I've just had some of my SLR camera films back, a few pictures to show here. These are a couple from Brick Lane.

Hampton Court Flower Show

Another lovely flower show that I've been able to go to this year, I hadn't been to Hampton court before, but it's on my list to see the actual palace now. More shopping space than Chelsea! Some really nice water fountains made from columns of rock, glass lights and decorations in all sorts of shapes and colours. You can also buy plants from there, which meant buying one of those collapsible crates on wheels to put them in.

The train back to Waterloo was filled with plants as well as people and made me think about having a cariage like a garden on the train or tube. That would make the journey to work a bit different.

I was taking photos, a couple here, I have plans to use the photos I took at Chelsea and here in some way later.

Sitting in the garden the other day I was admiring the dark purple Morning Glory, and got out my pastels and watercolours to do some sketches. The sky was darkening over and the cloud formations changing every minute, I quickly dashed off a couple of watercolours of the sky as well. It's a good practise in just getting something down without thinking too much.

I've just got the leaflets back from the printers for the two urban arts retreats that I'm leading with Clare in the Autumn, getting the publicity out will be ongoing now for a couple of months, I'm thinking about the theme on the nature of perception, that we have for the December retreat and reading Dharma Art by Chogyam Trungpa

Michelangelo Exhibition

I was lucky enough to see the Michelangelo drawings on the last day, thanks to the kindness of a friend. The exhibition was packed as they tend to be these days, these drawings spanned Michelangelo's life and as I went round I was stuck by one aspect of his work, what seemed to be his striving to depict the spiritual, and what that did for his way of working.

There were some of his early male nudes, strong, active chalk and pencil marks,a facination with the body and it's movements. The amazing twists that Michelangelo puts the body in and the confidence of his mark making evoked an active energetic response from me.

Along side these types of drawings were some portraits, sensitive and much softer, and a number of religious studies that were less defined anatomically. The much later drawings of the crucifiction of Christ, including the final ones that Michelangelo made, were so different from his early male nudes that I might not have thought of them as being Michelangelos at all.

This is what made me start wondering about whether Michelangelo was seeking another way to depict the spiritual, the Divine in humankind. There are probably books already written on this matter, but I haven't seen them, nor am I particularly well up on knowledge about Michelangelo.

The problem I had with these Crucifixion drawings even though they were described as devotional drawings, was that I didn't think that Michelangelo had found as equally strong and vital way of working as he had for his human subjects. So was I criticising the great Michelangelo? I thought to myself. I suppose I was interested in just how difficult it is to try to depict the heavenly or Enlightened, as I in my much more limited way have been finding out.

It actually was quite moving to see the struggle in these final drawings and wonder what was going on in Michelangelo's mind at this time when he was nearing death.

Work in progress
I am still working on my Zodiac series of paintings, and trying to find a venue for the E17 Art Trail in September. I've had a few of my photographs blown up to poster size and that is quite exciting, seeing them much larger than usual. I'm hoping to get a show of them somewhere.

Artists Car Boot Sale

Just over a week ago was the artists car boot sale at the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane East London.I took a walk down Brick lane, from the Bethnal Green end, I hadn't been down there for a while and the area was heaving with people. I had't realised how popular the place had become.

The market space had extended to include people setting up "shop" on the pavements all the way up to Bethnal Green road. A few CDs, books or clothes usually made up the stock, with the odd broken bike or bits of electrical gear

Down Brick Lane there are plenty of designer/maker shops and the famous 24 hour bagel shop that I had to stop at on the way down, recommended.I had my digital and SLR cameras, still some what challanged by the fact that the only instruction book I can find for the digital camera is in French!

I and some of my friends have been thinking of an artists car boot for a while, but more like clearing out our studios, selling pictures, frames, materials ect that we're not using anymore, At this car boot it was more a case of artists selling cheaper multiples and having some fun.

In Gavin Turks case it was Rich Tea biscuits in perspex boxes, I could,nt quite bring myself to spend £25 on one. I wonder if there are any for sale on e-bay yet? I did actually like a lot of the stuff though. the glitter domes made in all kinds of bottles and glass containers, with plastic figures like a farmer and cows by Richard Glegg. If I'd had the money I would have bought one of those.


I don't know his name, but I liked the wit and inventiveness of one guy with his boot filled with oranges. They were 50p each with a free photograph( of an orange artfully arranged in a variety of settings. I went for two of those, very tasty oranges, and presented in an orange plastic bag.When Ruth gets back from France I'll get the first pictures up.
As I somehow managed to turn the audio feature of the digital camera on at some point and could't seem to turn it off,! most of the photos will be the old fashioned ones at a slightly later date.
I did however buy a mug, the one with the skull design from Sarah Lucas and Oliver Garbay, signed by them both, they seemed to be doing a roaring trade, there was a lot of the skull type imagery around as well as swear words on badges and goth type images.
It was very hot so I resisted the invitation to squeeze into a saloon car for a performance, but the people inside looked like they were having fun.

I liked a lot of the ideas there and the wit, and I came away with ideas, I was'nt sure what the car with all the black boxes was about, I didn't stop to find out, lets have more artists car boot sales anyone else up for that?