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GENSO exhibition

I am in Paris to attend two exhibitions. The first is the GENSO exhibition organised by Shoji Tanaka and Hugues Gillet. It is two years ago since I was last in Paris when I exhibited with Shoji’s group, the IFAA from Japan. This time however, I will be a visitor instead. I look forward to seeing Shoji again and to also enjoying the quality exhibition that he has organised. He and Hugues, a Paris native, have assembled an impressive array of artists, including the likes of Claude Verlinde, HR Giger and Gérard Di-Maccio.

The other exhibition I will be visiting is the “Phoenix and Dragons” exhibition organised by artist Lukáš Kándl and his wife Françoise. Lukáš’ exhibition projects involve a select number of artists. The invited artists then work to a specific theme.

Through an number of email exchanges I organised for Shoji to meet with Lukáš and Françoise as their exhibitions are happening in very close time frames. I felt they all have similar aims and would benefit from meeting each other, and if they take a liking to each other, then perhaps more opportunities will be opened to the each other’s projects. I am very much looking forward to seeing how this meeting works out.

I am also very much looking forward to visiting Paris again.

I had to recently send some artwork off to an exhibition. However, I decided that the small canvases would much better with frames. So off I trooped to the local hardware (super) store. Eeek! Basic wood materials are expensive. I have my ever growing wood pile in the corner of my studio. Where possible, I always like to use recycled materials, for two reasons.

1. It reduces some of the waste in the world.
2. Its usually free.

My friend Pierre came through with some materials for me, others I found lying around in forgotten corners of the building and yes, ultimately, I did also purchase some wood materials. I bought several cans of spray paint to coat the frames and give them a finished look.

Back in the studio I set to work. Part of the trick is working out your workflow with your materials and reducing production time, otherwise the time you devote to building the frames is not recompensed once you sell the final framed artwork. It took a little refinement, but now I have my production line.

The frames are basically a box like arrangement with space between the canvas and the frame which results in the canvas being inset. I cut a sheet of ply or particle board slightly larger than the canvas. That becomes the back. I cut strips of thin wood that then are glued to the backing and each other. I don’t bother with 45° diagonal cuts for the corners as that results in too much work. I simply butt the wood at 90°. Then with some wood filler and sandpaper, I smooth the joins over and any rough wood grain on the cuts.

Then comes the fun (but toxic) part of spray painting the frames. I spray the outside of the frames first. It is easier then with masking tape to cover the outer painted sides and spray the inside. I choose a colour for the inside that will offset that of the outside and emphasise the effect of the canvas being inset.

Once all is dry, it is time to mount the canvas inside. To do this I screw the backing of the frame onto the wooden stretcher frame of the canvas. I can also optimise this by using the same screw to attach the hanging fittings to the back of the frame. The fittings I use are a hinge like arrangement that allow me to tie a wire between two of them. I can then hang the painting on nail in the wall. But the hinges also have metal loops which then allow the painting to hung on a professional gallery hooked hanging system; the best of both worlds.

With the frames the paintings look complete and worth the price I put on them.

One of my favourite artists and master draftswoman, Laurie Lipton, has just released a limited giclee of her most infamous image, LOVE BITE. There is more information on Fantastic Visions.

Tim Roosen and Isabelle Hackars

This past Easter weekend artist and gallery owner Tim Roosen paid me a visit in my studio while he was here on business in Berlin. It was very fortuitous as it meant that I could give Tim at least one of my paintings for the forthcoming “Light Fantastic” exhibition at his NovaBelgica Gallery in Belgium.

The second painting that I intend to send is still in production and the clock is ticking. There are a few more layers to add yet.

I will be exhibiting alongside the following artists.

Christine Morren, Claus Brusen, Jacek Lipowczan, Krzysztof Izdebski-Cruz, Magda Francot,Marcin Kolpanowicz, Olga Gouskova, Peter van Oostzanen, Raoul Chanet, Sigrid Nepelius, Tommas Jorgensen, Jef Bertels, Christien Dutoit, Dirk Bosschaert, Els Wenselaers, Roland Menten, Steve Kirkham, Jo Pirard and Tim Roosen.

The details for the exhibition are as follows.

The Light Fantastic

Opening: 13th May 2011
Closes: 19th June 2011

NovaBelgica Gallery
Wildebamp 19
B-3800 Sint-Truiden
Belgium

Tel: +32 (0)495 689485

www.novabelgica.com

Work in progress - 90 x 120 cm, oil on canvas

I can’t say definitely that I’m there yet. As I sit on my comfy studio sofa (many thanks Lia!), I contemplate the day’s work. There is something starting to take shape, a tantalising more complete definition. Extend this here, darken that there, bring this colour in there and viola, there is the final painting. Ah, but some hours, perhaps days or even a week or two to go yet.

“When do I know when a painting is finished?”, I’ve often been asked. It might seem like a silly question, but often the way I work, there is no preliminary sketch or reference materials that I’m working from. It all comes out of my imagination and what is already there on the canvas waiting to be discovered. It is certainly not a new way to work. Even many non artists have laid on the grass and gazed at the clouds in the sky and imagined animals, faces or whatever. As a boy, I used to do it a lot with friends. We all took delight in trying to identify the visual fantasy of the other. It was sometimes very surprising how differently some one else saw the same thing. I still take pleasure in this when people discover something in my own work that I haven’t seen.

Artistically, I’m not alone in this method of visual inspiration.  Everybody is familiar with the results of Dalí’s paranoic critical method, whereby one thing becomes another if you look at it in a different way. Even Leonardo Da Vinci was fond of the day dreamer’s gaze, or the thousand mile stare.

“It is in my opinion not useless if you pause in the realisation of pictorial forms and look at the spots on the wall, at the ashes of the hearth, at the clouds, or in the gutter: on careful observation, you will make wonderful discoveries there, which the genius of the painter can turn to good account in the composition of human and animal battles, landscapes, monsters, devils and other fantastic things which you can use to your advantage. These confused things awaken the genius to new inventions, although one must have learnt well how to do all the parts, especially the limbs of the animals and the forms of the landscape, its plants, and its stones.”
From Leonardo Da Vinci’s treatise on painting.

So here I am staring at my painting, filling in the gaps, or rather, it is filling in the gaps for me. But then I come back to myself, sitting on the couch, taking a deep breath I quit my repose and walk to the palette and brushes. Now its time to fill the gaps with a brush and paint.