My first exhibition - the unframed

As you hopefully know I am having my first solo exhibition on Saturday 19th August in Stoke Newington.  Today's post is part plug, part update on where everything is.   

The publicity drive is in its first stages with twitter, instagram, facebook and linkedin,  all corralled into pumping up enthusiasm for this hopefully ego massaging event.   I have also had fliers,  designed and produced for me by the excellent Owen Smith, printed and I think they look really good.  I have already begun to distribute them.  

I am getting and have got a number of pictures framed,  but I for the larger paintings I have decided not to have them framed.  I think if I did they would be enormous and potentially overwhelm everything else as well as being heavy and cumbersome.  I thought I'd give you a sneak preview of some of them.  One thing I do is create patterns using Gouache and pen.  Using one of these I created a much bigger, oil and canvas version (below).  I call it fire place. 

Cornwall is often an inspiration for artists and thus it proved to me.  I think there will be at least 5 paintings either take from or inspired by the landscape there in the exhibition.  3 are below.  The two abstract ones (below left and below top right) were inspired by cockles and mussels attached to shiny wet rocks on the beach of St Ives.  The roadscape (below bottom right) was a magical headgebound road that we walked down on one gorgeous summer day.  

Continuing the theme of views inspired by holidays this canopy view (below) was inspired by a sweltering holiday in St Lucia and the blessed relief of a lovely day spent wandering around the inland rainforest.  I was captivated by the light filtering through the tall trees and tried to replicate this when I got home. 

Sometimes you have just got to go nuts.  I have had for a while a couple of squares of cooper lying around.  I have tried to paint on them with no notable success. So utilising that well known painting aid, no-more-nails,  I stuck it to a large canvas and then slapped on thick solid lines of colour (below).  It is one of more left field pieces and I will be interested to see what people think of it. 

Finally,  I am currently working on a number of scenes from around London,  most of them focusing on the Regent's Canal and specifically the part that runs through Islington and Hackney.  Many of these works are still in progress. Hugh Mendes is away and has left me his studio keys so they are the main things and I am working furiously on over the next month.  The picture that kicked off this obsession and will, I think, end up being the lynchpin of the whole show is a view of the basin by the Kingsland Road Bridge (below).

There will no doubt be more.  Come along on 19th August to see them all in person.