Cascading Epics

At Present, my painting is going very well. I’m actually getting a hit from painting. It’s a case of enjoying the "now-ness" of the process without worrying about where the picture is going to go. Just finishing the thing off whilst knowing it is going to end up somewhere positive.
Its a tall painting about the water mills just outside Bharmor. It’s a craft piece or whatever you call them. Something on the way to being a definitive statement in my life as a painter.
The whole thing definitely warrants a follow-on, (maybe two!) without too much justification needed.
One spin off is a kind of passage underneath a waterfall, which is kind of an elaborate doodle from 1998 and fits the flowing water thing very well – a trend which I don’t feel I am about to check. Its an image that certainly "got away" at the time. I was painting a lot about caves or that sort of feel and this is of cascading water over a shelf in a cave-like area.
I have a oil paint pad – cheap from Aldis which I am using my unused paint upon – also unused ideas!
It should provide a set of pretty fresh images – almost a show somewhere.
Another theme I am currently thinking about is epics. Only in miniature form. The aim is, that from a small image it is apparent that there is a big story involved. I plan to publish a gallery on face book of about a dozen of them shortly.
Some of these are collages, some ink.
I am also doing a fair bit of small scale collage work - a product of re-sorting through folios and files and finding piles of unused image fodder.
I have just recently put a gallery out of images of my studio which I aim to add to.
The link is:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150224013601424.351810.707526423&l=8917fccbf5

As I write this, this painting has in fact advanced a lot further, although as yet, it is still unfinished!

A Short History of Me

A short history of me
I am an artist, it is what I feel my life is about.
I am primarily a painter although I do get involved indeed am also trained in other forms of expression.
I was born a baby boomer in 1951.
I grew up in Shepherds Bush, London surrounded by Bob Dylan, the Beatles and Psychadelia, this shaped me and has remained there ever since.
My father had a cross cultural background, he was a prominent figure in the Indonesian Embassy which was formed in Grosvenor Square after the overthrow of the Dutch after the second world war.
My desire to travel and meet people is a strong one - probably following on!
I lived in London until I was, I then moved to Cardiff and met my wife, Anne. We lived there and also spent possibly more time during that period abroad: a couple of years in India and time in Thailand and Indonesia.
Moving to an apartment in Istanbul for three years.
With the birth of our son, Aydin we settled in Birmingham, England, with two dogs by a lake near Spaghetti Junction.
My family owns about 8 acres of bog-land in Pembrokeshire, a long way from anywhere. We bought it, and have lived on it since 1970. I have returned there constantly throughout the years
Following which, I took on a post degree M.A. course which changed my out look and my sociological life, interacting with a lot more people and participating in a lot more projects and events.
I am slightly maverick and can be a bit over sensitive.
Although at present I am home based, I do like to move about, I like to have my fingers in different pies.
I am fairly gregarious and on occasions, I can "team lead" and organise events, shows and publications.
I like to be outside, I have a couple of dogs, I do a bit of gardening and a fair bit of cycling albeit not particularly for pleasure.
I'm good at collecting and archiving, I was a finds assistant for a while.
I like to play and work hard.
I can get upset if a day goes by where I feel I haven't achieved anything.

Highbrow Folk Art

About my artwork, for Art 3000

All pertanent art must be about " the times" – otherwize it's just an expression that may or may not hit the mark.
Even statements about " the perpetual nature of----" must be seated from a contemporary perspective.
I consider myself to be very much a product of my time , which hopefully is reflected in my work and life as it passes through changing times
Artistically I came into being on the cusp of post-war Britain.
I contain the observations of a baby boomer, in fact one that is seeing that contemporary post war issue getting old – becoming what it was rebelling against
Times of want instead of times of need.
A chance for art for art’s sake all round.
I feel my work is partially about coping with rapid change in an old fashioned way.
It falls between very different schools of thought, starting off in an old fashioned painterly note and then colliding with many elements of post modern thought.
Although, I feel I could take post modernism back to the mid sixties where things were generally being changed and shaken up. A period in which you didn’t have to be part of the art establishment in order to have your say, produce art, just do it.
Kind of Joe Public becomes Da Da.
Dealing with and skirting around new technology issues – maybe even perverting them to fit into slightly dated trains of thought and statement. From/with eyes that initially knew a very stable, gradual line of invention.
Practically speaking, I am basically a painter, but I do have other arrows to fire. I like to have a selection of various skills at hand.
I like working with my hands, building things, fitting into situations.
I'm pretty prolific and don’t feel comfortable when I'm not producing things.
My work often comes out in a full-on eidetic fashion, part of that process that I grew up with.
I wonder nowadays how necessary is it to even have skills: as an artist.
I like to scavenge and recycle – a sign of the times.
I like working with my hands, building things, fitting into situations
On the face of it, my work can seem to be "outsider art" – but, outside of what? Possibly outside of current ways of portraying stuff.
I do feel that it is very much comment coming from the ground upwards what ever format it appears in.
I often deal with unbelonging and displacement, a thing that seems to happen a lot too much at present.
My work often comes out in a full-on eidetic fashion, part of that process that I grew up with.

A Long Train Journey

This piece of work was started in Folkestone in 1983.

Its all largely recycled.

Nothing has ever taken me this long to produce - it has been through three phazes!

Its a product of the times.

I try to recycle as much stuff as possible - I spend my life looking for "useful" things.

I see it as a whole.

The frame is as important as the image.

It has all been built with a certain amount of love and care,

to the point where it feels pleasant to hold/ touch/ lift etc.

I'm after a homely feel.

(A better photo is needed!)

This was written for the possible inclusion into an open art exhibition

- something that didnt happen.



What ought to be an epic?

What ought to be an "epic" for a large built up painting with plenty of detail, layers and depth.
Generally eidetic but with a simple basic tonal/colour composition - something that could initially be designed with a quick collage.
An epoch,
An historical piece,
The story of/from an era,
A monumental yarn of today
---with many openings and exits.
It could almost be stage-like with the action and its own story, the audience with whatever is happening there, the entrance, toilets, stalls, corridors and exits. This format would make a good "epic house."

It could be the battle for the oil stations in Eastern Libya -with trucks everywhere, roads to Bengasi and Tripoli, palm trees, guns choppers, camels, cowering families, dead bodies.

It could be a royal wedding within a cathedral, with audience, the public, carriages, helicopters, horses, the press, security and a procession.
It could be a chance to place frail mankind in the hands of nature.
Either that or putting him in a very minor position, which he had forged with his very own hands.