CPG

With several lights deciding to stay asleep on a grey and gloomy day at the studio, I have not been able to do much and certainly nothing requiring a good light. I didn't even feel that I could scrabble around in the semi-darkness continuing with the great clear up/sort out which has been a major activity recently.  I have therefore taken myself off to the Cafe Gallery to deliver 'Bleikur', a clay sculpture with the parts bolted together, for the 30th Open Exhibition. This is an artist led gallery which organises an annual show of small work which is crammed with an exciting and eclectic mix. It is set in Southwark Park so Polly got a good run too, mostly with pugs, after we had safely delivered the sculpture.

1. 
   

If you are in the area, the private view is on Sunday 23rd November so please come along. The show is on until the 14th December. 

Southwark Park, London SE16 2UA 

www.cpglondon.org

small and big

Last night was the wonderfully packed out private view for the Discerning Eye exhibition at the Mall Galleries in central London. My scorched wood sculpture 'Esclise' is on show and was photographed for the catalogue. With such a throng I did wonder to begin with whether my sculpture really had been selected as it was difficult to see through the crowds. However I did find it eventually and Esclise shares the plinth with Thomas Adam's 'Rock Study no 2'. It was good to meet up with some good friends and lovely family who had traveled down from Wales. As the photos from last night just shows a sea of heads,  I thought I would pop back today to see the show properly and take photos.

All the work for the Discerning Eye has to be a maximum 20" so the Anselm Kiefer show at the Royal Academy is at the other end of the scale, enormous work that is quite overwhelming in scale and swallows you up in the rich and complex textures.  

I was serenaded by Big Ben for the short walk from the Mall to the RA 

The Brancaster transcript

 http://brancasterchronicles.wordpress.com/
I was invited to take part in a series of studio discussions earlier this year. These have been a brilliant opportunity to really hone in on the paintings and sculptures presented by the artists;  we have had some extremely thought provoking discussions about the particular works as well as ideas and thinking that affects abstract art more broadly. This has been so successful that more are planned for next year. The link will take you to a transcript of the discussion about my two sculptures.

large boots welcome

 The small areas of clear floor has been extended! I now have enough clear space for someone with large boots to be able to walk about; no one can actually walk all that far, mind you and maybe it is just small steps but nevertheless, steps can be taken in relative safety. Still some way to go……

  

disaster zone tidy up time

It has been a quiet few weeks in the studio, quiet in as much as there has been little sculpture and a lot of sorting, clearing, chucking out and generally trying to make the place easier and more spacious to work in. It had not been hugely successful until yesterday, I kept pulling stuff off shelves, opening boxes and creating more upheaval before getting fed up and working on a piece of stone. I made myself stick to the clearing yesterday so that I can work inside in the cold weather and get some new work under way. The results so far are…….

 Polly admiring a bit of floor

 another clear bit of floor

That is it, as a percentage of the overall floor space this is not a lot, certainly still in single figures, but progress nonetheless!  The rest of the space looks like a disaster zone but will be super tidy next week. Really, it will………

the humdrum and the plans

Back in the smoke, symposium over and it is back to the 'busy' of regular life. I had a fantastic time in America, the symposium sculptors were amazing and I met some wonderful people. It was lovely that so many people that I met in previous visits turned up at CAI.
College is starting, some short courses are under way and the long courses start properly next week which is  always exciting, new students, fresh ideas and plenty of enthusiasm to start the new term. Meanwhile back in the studio it is turmoil, I dare not show photos of the studio as it is now, far too embarrassing! I think I will "just sort out this bit, get only part way through and move back to the sculpture. Today I found a small bronze that needed finishing so that was the end of sorting out for the day, I worked outside and listened to geese flying overhead.
I am meant to be having a massive clear out, I have promised myself that sculptures will be boxed, labelled and stored and I will be organised…..that is the plan anyway. It is always good to have a plan

Do not eat the soup

I am running a short 'taster' course in carving bone and horn, these needed cleaning up so out came the handy camping stove into the back garden. Polly the ever attentive spaniel thought her birthday and christmas all at once but she was the only one who was keen, the smell was so vile I thought I would have the environmental health team round - either them or the police thinking I was boiling up human body parts!