Upcoming exhibitions and work in progress

There's a lot going on at the moment, I haven't had time to update this blog for a while. I finally have a couple of days to focus on actually producing new work, which I'm quite excited about.

A couple of exciting exhibitions are coming up for me. I'll be showing at Parallax Art Fair in London from 20th - 22nd February, and I'm looking forward to the exposure that this will give my work. Tickets can be purchased at http://parallaxfeb2014-eorg.eventbrite.co.uk/. This will be the last occasion for now I'll be exhibiting the work I made in Iceland, as I've shown this extensively since I got back to London. I'll also be showing a couple of older pieces that complement this work, it'll be nice to see recent work shown alongside some pieces that were made a few years ago.

I'm also currently curating a show for Camden Image Gallery, to take place between 15th February and 1st March. It's a lot of work but I'm enjoying the process, and have been sent a lot of really great work. I'm really happy with the line-up of artists I have so far, I feel that the works are going to be very cohesive together, whilst also showing each artist's individuality very clearly. There are still some spaces available at an affordable rate, if interested please email me at tamsin@camden-image-gallery.co.uk. Any style/media is considered.

I also have some work in progress at the moment that I'm getting very excited about. A couple of weeks ago I started a piece on a slightly larger scale than usual, with 10 layers of painting, drawing, and weathering, using a combination of natural and deliberate weathering. After painting the background colour blocks I immediately started intentionally weathering the canvas, and was really impressed by the effect this had on the surface. 

Whilst the piece was naturally weathering outside the frame was damaged quite significantly, and now the canvas is kind of twisted and asymmetrical, which brings a brand new effect into the work. I'm not sure how the work will look when hung, as the canvas isn't straight, but I think this will really emphasise the weathering aspect of the work. I'm ready to start painting the actual portrait now, and I'm really looking forward to seeing this piece completed. 

The effect of weathering the surface before the paint dried has really inspired me, so I'm going to work on some abstract pieces made in the same manner over the next couple of days. I loved the background just as it is, so I think these pieces will turn out well, and will also really emphasise the use of weathering in the work. These pieces, along with the portrait piece, may be exhibited at the upcoming exhibition in Camden.

The final exciting thing at the moment is that my work was featured on the Artpromotivate website earlier this week, which has surely exposed my work to a much wider audience. I'm really pleased about this, and the artist spotlight can be viewed here.

Two more finished pieces and an exhibition!

 I'm pleased to say that yesterday was a really productive day for me, and I completed two pieces. The first is a new experiment on paper, which was placed outside whilst the paint was still wet, and I love how gravel has stuck onto the paper as a result. This piece weathered quickly, and needed to be fixed up with embroidery, and I'm very pleased with the outcome.
The director of my residency has invited residents to participate in an exchange exhibition with some artists in New York, the theme being the idea of a faraway place, and the work being a letter to the viewer. I think this piece would be ideal, as it literally contains a small part of Skagastrond, so I plan to leave it with her before I go back to London on 29th September. This particular exhibition is still a work in progress, so more details to follow.
Yesterday I also finished the second canvas I was working on, the same one I needed to retrieve from the cliffs in the morning. When I looked at it more closely it had become scratched from being dragged along the rocks, and the paint also has some fine cracks

in it. The weathering in this particular piece is more subtle than in the first canvas I completed, but I'm still happy with it. I wanted to the outcomes to be different for each canvas, and I think the subtle effects in this piece contrast well with the bolder first canvas.
This means that I have one canvas left to work on, and I hope to work on that tomorrow. At least by now I'm much more aware of the problems that working in this manner can bring, and I'm more prepared. I feel optimistic.
I'm also still working on some small experiments on paper, wood and foam board, to see if and how the results differ from my work on canvas.
I'm also happy to confirm an upcoming exhibition at Vibe Gallery in London from 25th - 29th October. Details can be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/events/1416556288571477/?fref=ts

My residency has begun!

I arrived in Iceland on Tuesday, and in Skagastrond yesterday to start my residency! I really am so happy to be here, and just having a proper studio space again after quite some time is inspiring me to get working. As soon as I arrived yesterday afternoon, despite being exhausted, I got started on my work, and already I've manged to get a few things done. This is exactly what I want, as my time here unfortunately is limited, and therefore I don't want to waste a moment.
So far I've done a few sketches in preparation for the first two paintings I'm planning, and have made several abstract pieces on paper, which have been left in various locations in the village to become weathered. Already, after less than 24 hours, I've noticed that most of them are becoming damp, and hopefully this will have an affect on the surface. Working in this manner is also giving me an opportunity to gauge which locations work best for what I want to do.
As I was walking back from the studio last night I unfortunately found that one of the pieces had been torn up! It would appear that this was done intentionally by an unknown person, as the conditions have certainly not been extreme enough to cause this naturally, and none of the other sheets have been affected at all. This morning I gathered the ripped up pieces, and got to work. As I stated in my proposal for this residency, I'd be keen to look into embroidery as a means of repair where necessary, and this was certainly necessary. The paper may not have been weathered naturally, but there was certainly an effect. I suppose that's a risk you take when leaving work in public.
I've spent a good few hours today reassembling the paper - working out which piece went where was surprisingly challenging. I find the result quite interesting, even though it was not what I had initially had in mind. I'm looking forward to seeing the progression of the other five works that are outside, and looking forward to getting canvasses outside too. I'm planning to start the background for one or two pieces this afternoon, meaning that I can complete the portraits soon.
All in all, I've been here a very short time but I'm already so glad to be here. Although I wouldn't choose to live in Skagastrond on a long term basis it really is beautiful, and I'm really enjoying myself. The other artists here are all really nice, and I'm so grateful to have this time to focus on my work, and to think and reflect more generally. I hope that my whole trip is as successful as the past couple of days have been.
For more images of the work I'm making here please visit my Facebook page.

Pre-residency Experiment

Prior to my residency, I've tried out natural weathering on paper, as I hoped that paper might react to the elements more than canvas did. This piece has been on my balcony for quite some time now, and I'm impressed with the result. There was a massive downpour yesterday, and the paper was completely soaked. Over the past couple of months the paper has been rained on and dried out on several occasions, which has affected the shape of the sheet, I'm pleased with this result. As it rained quite soon after I first put the piece outside, some yellow ink has spread slightly.
Unfortunately the results have still not been overwhelming, as the weather conditions in London just art extreme enough. I'm hoping this will be the fundamental difference that will make my work on this theme more successful in Iceland. The first thing I intend to do is to place several abstract pieces on paper, very similar to this one, in various locations around the village I'll be staying in. It's a good starting point, which will allow me to gauge both where the best locations are for weathering the work, and also to ascertain quite quickly how the weather is going to affect my work, and how successful I'm likely to be in my endeavours.
I'm really ready to go now, and can't wait to start working. I've been writing a lot more recently, plus it's difficult to paint when I've sent my paintbrushes to Iceland, so I'm really excited to get back to painting and drawing.

New experimental work

I was really inspired yesterday by some work I saw by Rosy Keyser at Zabludowicz Collection, and was really keen to work as soon as I got back home. This piece is completely different to anything I've done previously, and it was very refreshing to experiment with something new.
I was also inspired by other work I saw in the show, of contemporary, progressive painting, and started off with a small canvas that hadn't quite worked out previously. It's just been sitting around, so it was really good to re-purpose it. I built up a lot of layers of blue, black, and white ink, and once it had dried started with my usual approach of deliberately weathering the canvas.
I wanted the canvas to be really shredded, and my usual method just wasn't harsh enough on the surface, so I took to ripping and splitting the surface in as many places as possible, and then putting it back together in a new way.
Since I started working with the idea of damaging the canvas, I've become more and more interested in affecting the shape and physicality of the canvas. I don't think this particular idea would work for a portrait, as the image would end up completely unreadable, but this was a really fun experiment for an abstract piece, and is something I'd definitely be keen to try again.