Me at Beans Love Greens

Today I hung my latest showers, Flowers and Rocks at Beans Love Greens in Shoreditch.  The exhibition was originally due to show in September but for various reasons it was delayed and was hung and open today.  It is on until 18th December at Beans Love Greens which is on Calvert Avenue, just off Shoreditch High Street and a short work from the station of the same name.  Please go and have a look, have some of their delicious coffee and cakes, and tell me what you think of the work and if you're feeling expansive, then buy one. 

Sharp eyed frequent visitors to this website may have noticed that the show was originally called Pattern Recognition.  That is because the original idea was that I would display some of my Pattern paintings. However after consultation with various parties I was persuaded that I should show my strongest work, and while I like my Pattern paintings and enjoy doing them I have to admit they are not my strongest work.  I have shown my landscapes twice already this year, and will do twice again before the end of the year (more of that later), so I decided to have a go at showing some of my Still Life paintings. The show would be in two parts.  Part one flowers, such as the two above which are the largest pieces.  

And these two.  All four were produced using the same method.  I would sketch in pastel a bunch of flowers.  Then on either canvas or wood (there are two of each) I would prepare a black coloured ground.  Once this was dry I would then paint, from the pastel sketch using thick oil paint and impasto medium. The advantage of doing thing s this way is you have already made a number of the necessary creative decisions in the pastel sketch, and of course the sketch doesn't wilt mid painting.  

The other four paintings were all basically monochrome still life painting.  I bought on an impulse some Vine Black.  It is quite satisfying using this as the main, or even only colour to produce an entire painting.  The first of these my father demanded and was rendered to him.  The second is the Coffee Pot.  I have a collection of rocks a like painting so I hit upon a theme of rocks, arranged with other objects and a flash of colour.  There are currently three (although  a fourth is in production) of which one; Rocks, Bottle, Red you can see above red. 

So today came and it was time to hang the paintings,  all wrapped with various hanging tools and ready to go.  When it came to it the cafe was pretty full and I had to squeeze between patrons to hand things.  In such an environment the wielding of a spirit level is not really tolerated and so this was abandoned.  Pre-installed hooks made the hanging of the canvas very easy but the wooden boards were more tricky to install.  Again hammering and nailing wasn't really on the cards in such a crowded environment, fortunately I could go to my back up plan of sticky Velcro. 

The largest canvas went on the largest wall and the second largest, piece, but the most colourful went on the back wall so that it could be seen from the street. 

Also on the back wall I put the final flower painting, and I have to say my personal favourite.

The Girls 2019 calendar by the way is not mine but a permanent sales fixture.   In the remaining space I put two of the remaining three Rocks paintings.  There was not room in the Cafe for all three. This is not necessary a bad thing. It is often a good idea to take along more paintings than you intend to hang.  This gives you choices and if you end up hanging all of them all well and good.  I considered trying to stuff them all in anyway but rejected this plan so had to choose. Eventually I decided on Red and Blue (above right).  Blue is new and not even up on this website yet. 

People don't look that much at art in cafes so I am not expecting to make any sales.  I had the same expectation of my last two shows and sold things from all of them, so who know.  You never now what will happen, and nothing will if you don't put your art up there. 

Having assembled everything, I bought a cake and left.  The show is up until 18th December. The address of Beans Love Greens is 8 Calvert Avenue, London, E2 7JP.