Functionality of Maintenance 1

Painting

Last time out I was undertaking several pieces, ‘Just three words’ and 100 ways to say bollocks, in fairness it felt a little fake to me, going through some motions of concepts, I felt that I was being true to myself but I reckon I was just kidding myself. I was creatively lost, looking back  on it, the work involving writing the word bollocks using one and half inch nails and two inch 

 

nails was the final nail in the coffin. After hours of gluing nail heads onto a board something had to give, in this case I just put it at the back of the studio to gather dust – maybe to return when it felt right, it hasn’t felt right since that decision. Just three little words was just playing, thinking I was being cutting edge, witty, or in fact shoved up my own arse. So what now? Going back to basics, try and find something that I wanted to paint, had a go at looking into my past, the Ladybird book collection that was given to me as a present inspired some ideas based upon my Adidas samba painting,

no matter how I manipulated the images, played around with drawings, layouts and the rest, it didn’t feel right, so yet again in all honesty it was shelved, the result that I had lost my direction, creativity and interest in painting my own ideas.

I still want/need to paint, I’m my most happiest stood/sat in front of a canvas with a paint pallet next to me mixing colours and getting involved with the art of painting.

So what next, who knows, I’m currently undertaking work that has been asked, well, ticking over stuff, it seems that I have been working on wedding stuff, namely signing boards. The first, as a wedding present to my sister in law was a graphite drawing based on their journey together; it was a real challenge as they kept changing their ideas, making the mapping out difficult, but in the end I enjoyed the challenge, trying to make a piece of work that was suitable for the occasion and didn’t veer off to much from my own convictions! Currently, I have been asked, a suggestion from my good lady wife! That I produced a painting for a signing board for a relations wedding in Paris, through some email discussion I have started mapping out a painting, a slightly new approach acrylic on paper – not done it before discovered that with priming part of the paper caused some buckling but hopefully this will go as paint is applied. I will give updates on this as it progresses, the introduction of colour more than the three colours I have used previously is taking me into a new direction, hopefully by undertaking this it might provide me with a new creative direction, its certainly got me thinking more about my work and hopefully it will be the springboard for new work.

Trying to ‘keep my hand in’ over the last year or so, I have set myself a couple of painting challenges, I keep coming back to this word challenges, why is this? What challenges do I want to make in creating art? Do I want to improve my skills, becoming one of the top ten contemporary artists in line with D Hurst, Chapman brothers (previous thoughts about them on blog), it would be nice, but to be honest it aint gonna happen.

One of the reasons for lack of posting/painting on a regular basis will be posted within the ‘functionality of maintenance’ in due course; Pinner Rugby Club, but within the context of this post it is about art and painting I produce (is that the term I want to use?) connected with the rugby club I set up a competition 

Competition – seek and thou shalt find

Following previous successful competitions we have introduced another one. On the website there will posted this image

I know there is one on this post but there’s another one somewhere else on the website (very funny quoting this one!) nor is it the one in the ‘pelican brief’ that again is just advertising the competition – I give up!!

The first one to email me where it is on the website will win. The date it will posted will be Sunday 7th March. The prize…… something a little different; a personal graphite drawing 10”x 8” on paper of the winner in action, signed and dated. (personal choice of image and style) there are examples in the latest newsletter found on website as a pdf or a paper copy in the clubhouse

it has now been posted on the website, as of 8.13pm Good luck

things then transpired 

The final presentation was made by Paul Talbot who ran a competition on the website to locate a picture of Tommy Cooper wearing his famous fez with the Pinner RFC logo on it. For the first person to find it the prize was a portrait drawing, completed by Paul Talbot, this was extended by the winner’s request; Neill ‘Bullet’ King for a painting, not only of himself but with three of his first team mates

 

In fairness, the idea of making this painting did give me a buzz, using colour, trying out something different that extended me was great, I didn’t have a time limited, so as with most things it slipped away, the initial ideas, drawings etc got started but put in the recesses of my mind and studio. I have now come to the conclusion that I need to set my time targets, I work under pressure and with this I set myself a date to finish in time for the end of season awards, I finished it unfortunately, the winner did not turn up! Got some great feed back and may pursue this line of painting further, who knows might get a couple of commissions from it (always nice). 

not too sure about this

During my usual trails around the inderwed I happened across this artist. Took a closer look at what he was doing and on the surface looks like a great idea - mass art for the masses (update on Warhol I suppose). Then I went to the website to have a closer look at the work he actually produces.. to be honest the words that spring to mind are: quality? workmanship? I understand the concept, but I find the work produced is only worthy of the few quid he charges. Does it undermine the value of the work of others artists, who strive to produce work which shows integrity and a passion to create an artifact of personal value?

Roanoke College resident artist Steve Keene brings an assembly-line mentality to his work -- and passes the savings on to his customers.
New York artist Steve Keene, who has set up a studio in Olin Gallery at Roanoke College’s Olin Hall, creates dozens of paintings simultaneously, which he sells for $1 to $5. Keene says art should be available to everyone.
Keene has created album art, video sets, stage sets and posters for the likes of the Dave Matthews Band.
Steve Keene is painting at Roanoke College's Olin Gallery until Nov. 10, and since he arrived Oct. 26, he has painted more than 500 paintings.
Think real people can't afford real art?
People weren't just buying Keene's paintings. They were buying them by the fistful, by the armload. Broke young twentysomethings, college students, even a 6-year-old named Judah were snatching up paintings by the real, full-time professional New York artist (and sometimes dropping them, too). Other artists were buying Keene's paintings, as well. Artist Suzun Hughes of Roanoke had a stack of them in hand and was looking for more.
Why?
"It's fun," Hughes said.
It's also cheap. How cheap? Let's put it this way: If you're one of those people who hangs posters on walls instead of paintings because the posters only cost $10, it might be time to give Keene a try. His paintings cost $5. And those are the big ones.
The little ones are a buck.
"Anybody can have one," said Keene, resident artist at Roanoke College through Saturday. (His work will be on exhibit at Olin Gallery at the college for a week longer.)

How does he do it? Think Henry Ford, whose assembly lines brought automobile prices within reach of the common man. Keene is a one-man assembly line. He doesn't paint a picture a month, or a week or an hour. He paints 10 an hour, up to a hundred a day -- day after day.
"I really don't think of these as paintings," he explained, while taking a short break last week. "I think of it as a big sculpture that people are walking in. It's like Hansel and Gretel. You see a gingerbread house, and you take a piece of candy with you."

Fair enough. Walking into the gallery where Keene has set up shop is a little like stepping into a candy jar. Keene's paintings -- there are hundreds, maybe thousands -- are lined up on two long wooden racks that span the gallery. More paintings are propped against the walls. On opening night, adults and students and a few very small children circled Keene's wares at speeds ranging from contemplative to breakneck, sometimes pausing to pluck down paintings from the racks, as Motown music blared from loudspeakers overhead.
Meanwhile, between the racks, in a space marked off by yellow tape (the kind of tape you see at crime scenes that says, "Police line -- do not cross"), Keene worked. Keene paints on pieces of thin plyboard cut into rectangular shapes. On this night there were about 80 of them sitting side by side. Keene moved among them with his brush, making a slash here, a dab there, while half a dozen people sat outside the tape and watched.
Keene did not talk to them. Asked later what people were saying about his show, he said he didn't know.
"I don't interact," said Keene, who puts in 12-hour days painting. "I don't want to talk to people when I'm working."
200,000 sales and counting
Keene was educated at Virginia Commonwealth and Yale universities. Now a married father of two who lives in Brooklyn, he met gallery director Talia Logan when both were living in Charlottesville in the 1990s. Logan quickly became a fan. She estimates she has purchased more than 40 of Keene's paintings (an outlay for art that falls somewhere between the price of an iPod and a new pair of shoes). "They're addictive," Logan said.
According to Keene's Web site, his unusual approach to painting began to develop in the early '90s, when he was friends with many musicians and worked for a while as a disc jockey. Keene has created album art, video sets, stage sets and posters for the likes of the Dave Matthews Band, Soul Coughing and the Silver Jews. His painting borrows a lot from music, in fact, especially the improvisational kinds. Keene, who often literally moves into the gallery where his work is being shown and paints on site, considers his work performance art, and says people who buy his paintings (on the honor system -- there are payment boxes set up around the gallery) are "buying a slice of my time."
Keene has sold a lot of slices. He has done his art act in Philadelphia; Houston; Cologne, Germany; Los Angeles; Melbourne, Australia; London; and Florida, and estimates he has sold 200,000 paintings over the past 15 years.
What does he paint?
Anything and everything. Here are some of labels that appear on his pictures in hastily painted letters: "Hotel Roanoke," "Gertrude Stein," "Purple Rain," "Richmond," "Norfolk," "Virginia Beach," "Baseball," "October," "Rain in Salem" and "Sam's Club." There are pictures of the Beatles and Brooklyn and Athens and lots of flowers.
"Junk," Keene calls them, and "absolute nonsense." The point is to gather up objects, he said, in the spirit of Robert Rauschenberg -- who made art from dead animals and bathtubs, among other things -- and assemble them into a collage.
But one man's junk is another man's treasure. Or woman's. And whatever the reason, most of those buying up gobs of paintings at Keene's paintings at his reception were female.
"I just like his whole philosophy about art," said Julie Bivins, a Radford University graduate student whose husband works at Roanoke College. She had come to Olin Hall with friend Denise Valente, a respiratory therapist, and had a stack of dollar-priced "maybe's" in her hands. "I chose this one just for the colors in it. Our walls are kind of bare." Bivins was also eying one titled "Breakfast," with a dashed-off plate of bacon and eggs.
"I like the way a lot of them are funny," Valente said.
And Keene's prices? "Ridiculous and funny," Valente said.
Logan's take on Keene's art was a little different.
"It's absolutely inspiring," the gallery director said.