Lows and Highs

A very disappointing meeting last night with nothing particularly resolved regarding whether Ryedale ArtWorks will continue as an organisation along with a flippant, stupid remark made to me by a member about my work with the anti fracking movement has left me feeling yet again really fed up. 

However, this morning saw me in Wakefield for 9.30 am, at the Art House http://www.the-arthouse.org.uk/  for a seminar organised by Axisweb entitled, Artist, Validate Thyself where we considered how artists are validated if they are working outside the established gallery hierarchy or working both within the system and without it.

I cannot tell you what a joy it was to be among these intelligent perceptive people, having rigorous conversation and exchanges about professional practice.  We are hoping that this exchange will continue in some way, that there may be more research undertaken about this subject because the report, Validation beyond the gallery, by Amanda Ravetz and Lucy Wright of Manchester School of Art for Axisweb is just a beginning.

I forgot to mention a few weeks ago that I had been accepted by the selection panel of Axisweb and am now represented on their web site. I am delighted by this, because the standard of artists represented on the site is high.  The work they do for artists is exceptional and I am proud to be part of it.

I'm off to Scarborough tomorrow for Ruth Miemczyk in conversation with curator Lara Goodband.  http://ruthmiemczyk.artweb.com/   http://www.crescentarts.co.uk/current/

I am really looking forward to it; I have not seen Ruth for a quite a while, her work is very good and it will be great to catch up .  While I am there I will pop across to the gallery at Woodend to see the exhibition Mono, which has just opened, where Ruth also has some work. https://www.artrabbit.com/events/mono 

Then a walk along the shore to get some fresh air before heading back home for the England v Wales match! 

September

September

September.  The beginning of Autumn, my favourite season.  Mizzle, dew, spiders webs across the pathways, fruits to harvest and chutneys and jams to make.

I have made the decision to stop fretting about making more new work for my upcoming solo show in York next month.  My 'Seasons' series will look great on the newly painted gallery walls and I have picked a large painting on paper to go in the window.  Job done, feeling much less stressed now.  When I do get some time, I will go out to the studio and work on the two large paintings I started some weeks ago and finish off the artists' books I have printed.

Meanwhile, I have embarked on a mammoth chutney making session; I am running a fundraiser bottle and jar stall for frack free in just over a week's time; so far I have made Autumn tomato chutney using my windfall cooking apples and some tomatoes I got at a reasonable price in a local shop.  There are vegetables soaking in brine as I write, waiting to be made into pear and ginger Piccalilli tomorrow and I will harvest apples and plums from the garden for more chutneys and possibly some jam.  Sloe gin, matured for more than two years will also be bottled up (in small bottles, I don't want to give it all away!).  Along with contributions from other people, it should be a successful stall.  It's strange to be talking about domestic things here; but that's what my life is at the moment.

October

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Books

I completed 2 artists' books last week.  I was planning to submit to an exhibition but then realised, with all the stress of balancing everything with anti fracking work, that I had missed the deadline!  However, when I informed Steff Mitchell of Staithes Studios Gallery, (http://staithesstudios.com/), she told me to post it to her and that she'd put it in the other gallery space even though the book could not be included in the main exhibition room. Better than nothing, but I really need to keep a closer eye on dates; it's hard when there's so much going on.

I have a few other books to complete when I next get out to the studio and ideas for others. I suppose I ought to start planning the work for my solo show too; I have some framed up, ready but I will need some more!  I think I should set aside a day to plan this properly, so that I know what I'm doing; it is rare these days to have a day that is not interrupted by something to do with fracking and I am having a bit of trouble keeping a healthy balance.

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August

August is nearly over.  

The fight against fracking in North Yorkshire is gearing up.  Most of my time is spent working for the cause.

Meanwhile I am making some artists' books and I have two large paintings on the go, that will complete my quartet.

My solo show in York will open on October 15th.  More later.

August

Working with Lucy Saggers

I recently had the pleasure of working with photographer Lucy Saggers to produce some shots of me in my studio.  It was a surprisingly enjoyable experience; Lucy made the process quite natural and stress free.  I will be using the shots for any publicity that I might need for future exhibitions and publicity.  The ones here are some of my favourites.

Lucy's work is rather wonderful and you can find it on her website: 
http://www.lucysaggers.com/

Art as a path to the sublime: Agnes Martin at Tate

I have a bit of time today, so thought I would talk briefly about the Agnes Martin show at Tate:
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/agnes-martin

Unexpectedly, I found I had a day longer in London last weekend than I thought, so took the opportunity to see the show.

I can honestly say, it is one of the best exhibitions I have ever been to, and I've been to many.  First up: the place was almost empty, which is the best way for a gallery to be, even better for an Agnes Martin show, which requires deep looking and thought in a peaceful environment.

The curation and hang is superb; Martin was in the habit of re-acquiring early work in order to destroy it, here we have examples of her entire life's work.  The examples of early work, while not as interesting to me; they are derivative of other artists's works and movements ( Surrealism, Cubism for example); they were useful as part of the context of her development, as with any retrospective.  For example, Martin's colours remained pretty much the same throughout her career:  neutrals or mostly very pale hints of colours; like looking at colours behind a veil. Where she use stronger tones the colours are still mostly neutrals although stronger colour is occasionally evident.  I was fascinated by this thread throughout her life's work.  It is interesting to see how her work changed when she moved to New York, becoming full of life, expectation and experiment and the moment when she cast off curved lines to embrace the grid, vertical and horizontal line.

Each space provides the work room to breath; the fact that the gallery was almost empty helped of course, but these works require time and contemplation and the hang enables this.  One of the rooms, 7 I think, had cleverly screened a floor to ceiling window with fine white fabric, filtering the light but allowing the grid of the window design to show through, echoing the grids of Martin's work.

Martin's works on paper are equally enthralling, room 10, "presents a retrospective within a retrospective", to quote Tate.  Room 6  shows a collection of silk screen prints published by Parasol Press in 1973 that she had worked on in Stuttgart the previous year.  I found these interesting because Martin had expressed a need to "straighten out her lines" because she could "never paint straight enough".  The slight waverings of her lines in the paintings, creating optical wobbles and movement is one of the aspects of her work that I enjoy; the imperfections of the straight lines reflecting the frailty of human existence and evidence of the artist's hand at that particular moment in time.  However, this desire to straighten out the lines provides us with an insight into her nature; I suspect she was not all sensitive and vulnerable; there is a doggedness, a determination about Martin's continual exploration of line, grid and surface that shows strength of mind and character, whilst acknowledging the frailty of her mental health.  You'd have to be bloody minded to keep on making canvasses of the sizes she selected and to continue exploring her themes as she did.

Room 9:

"My paintings have neither objects nor space nor time nor anything - no forms.  They are light, lightness, about merging, about formlessness, breaking down form"  Agnes Martin, 1966.

The highlight of the entire exhibition for me.  This suite of twelve paintings, The Islands, all white canvasses each 182.9 x 182.9 cm square, are utterly beautiful.  They are so sensitively curated; instead of the usual wire barrier that sounds an alarm should any visitor get too close, there is a platform about eight inches high all round the room beneath the paintings, keeping visitors the same distance from the work.  The walls are painted a shell like tone of palest lilac allowing the works to communicate without any visual struggle. These works require time and patience; I could have stayed in there all day and more. 

Tate describes them as Martin's most silent works.  Their surfaces require intense scrutiny to appreciate their surfaces and fine lines; Martin was interested in East Asian philosophy and spirituality and they reflect this.  I found myself becoming intensely emotional while looking at these works, it was a really profound experience.

On considering why this was so, I think it was the sheer scale of the group that reflect, for me, Martin's intense scrutiny of herself through painting.  I was not overwhelmed by them because I thought they referenced my scant knowledge of Martin's fragile mental health but because of the absolute commitment, determination and focus that these paintings express.

I am not going to describe the entire exhibition, I could not do it justice.  It is a wonderful example of how an artist can produce a profound body of work throughout their life by sticking with and honing one idea, building on it as understanding and experience grows.  I cannot recommend this exhibition enough, it is a "must see".

"You are what goes through your mind, whether you are aware of it  or not, you know, and if you can become aware of it and then if you can try and express it, you are an artist", Agnes Martin, video, Road Trip



(Quotes are taken from Tate literature and web site).

Interesting reviews:
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jun/07/agnes-martin-retrospective-review-tate-modern

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jun/01/agnes-martin-review-tate-modern-grid-paintings

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2015/06/agnes-martin-tate-modern

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-reviews/11643368/Agnes-Martin-Tate-Modern-review-immaculate.html

http://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/agnes-martin-retrospective-review-tate-modern-london

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/agnes-martin-at-tate-modern-a-zenlike-quest-for-beauty-10290161.html

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First 3D painting completed, more on the go!

First of my 3D painting experiments completed:

Not quite finished:

I am really enjoying the challenge of making paintings as three dimensional works.  I have some more boards that I might hinge together, but I am also in the process of making the final two large works to complete the quartet I began in 2012 and exhibited in 2013.  The scrolled piece on Chinese paper also needs completing. . . . I am busy!

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