Exhibition opening this weekend

The new exhibition, celebrating the first birthday of Camden Image Gallery, opens at the weekend, and above is one of the new pieces I'll be exhibiting. It's been a few months since I last exhibited, as I've had a lot of other things to focus on, so I'm looking forward to showing work again.

Camden Image Gallery has been very significant for me over the past year. The managing director is one of my close friends, and I've made many new friends through the gallery too. I remember, over a year ago, the first time I saw it before it was open to the public, and the way that it has grown over the last year is inspiring. Elena works extraordinarily hard, and I'm very proud to be associated with this gallery.

I'm really excited about the new pieces - I was intending to keep these drawings in charcoal only until I was asked to be part of this exhibition, but I feel that using colour has also been really effective. I love how streaks of vibrant colour come through in certain places, and I love the build up of layers, as in my paintings. One thing I'm really enjoying is the freedom to make mistakes and blur them again, and being flexible with how I build up layers. I'm really thinking of this body of work as experimentation, and maybe that is aiding my process.

Something I've really picked up on in these drawings is the texture that can be developed from constantly screwing up paper and drawing more layers. In the image above in particular, the final layers of pastel look like tracings of texture, and this is something I'm very keen on. I'm now even more enthusiastic about working on paper for a while, and drawing rather than painting. I have an idea for a large and intricate piece of work, totally different to previous pieces, that I plan to work on when I get back to Sweden next month, and now plan to incorporate colour into this piece, as well as monochrome charcoal drawings. 

My recent work, as well as being pieces in their own right, has also been serving as preparatory work for the new idea, and it has really inspired me. I've learned a lot about which types of paper work best, and the different results that different papers can yield. I've now been working with the theme of weathering for just over two years, and it's amazing how the idea has grown and developed in that time. Using paper allows for lots of new possibilities, and I want to keep working with this.

This exhibition is also significant, because it is likely to be my last exhibition in London for a while. On 2nd January I am going back to Sweden, and this time should be staying for the foreseeable future. I'm looking forward to producing more work, and exhibiting in a new country.

My European Tour

I recently got back from a trip away, where I visited Stockholm, Amsterdam, and Barcelona. It was particularly nice to go to Barcelona as it was the only place on the list that I hadn't been to previously. A lot of people told me beforehand that I'd love Barcelona because of the art and architecture, and they were absolutely right.

Whilst I was in Stockholm I visited Moderna Museet, the modern art gallery, and it was brilliant. When I go abroad I really enjoy being able to see work by artists from overseas who may not have actually reached England - this is something I really loved about visiting galleries in Finland. This was definitely the case at Moderna Museet. The show at the time was by a Swedish artist, Nils Dardel, who I understand is very well-known within Sweden, but was not someone I had heard of before. I found it really interesting, as the artist had worked in a range of styles throughout his career, but with consistent themes, and it was interesting to see how the style had changed and developed over time.

Added to that, the permanent collection was very impressive, with work by some very famous names. It took quite a while to get through the entire gallery but it was very worthwhile and I would definitely visit again. The museum is set in a lovely park area by the water, and outside the gallery there were some sculptures that were also really exciting. The area was very green, so the colours of the work outside cut straight through the environment and really stood out.

I didn't have a chance to see any exhibitions in Amsterdam, but when I got to Barcelona I was particularly excited to visit Fundacio Antoni Tapies. Antoni Tapies is one of my favourite artists, and was a significant influence for me when I worked more with collage. His work still inspires me to be bold and expressive within my work, and this feeling was renewed when I visited. Unfortunately I actually found the gallery quite disappointing, as I had expected it to be bigger and to contain more work. Perhaps part of it was shut whilst I was there, but there was only one room of Tapies' work, and another with a temporary exhibition by another artist. I enjoyed what I saw but felt quite let down by how little there was of it. I understand that the pieces by Tapies are shown on rotation, which leads me to think that it literally is just the one room. I would probably visit again to be sure, but the whole thing took about 20 minutes to get around and was a bit underwhelming.

I obviously saw a lot of Gaudi's architecture in Barcelona, and I loved how vibrant and colourful it made the place seem. I'm really keen to visit Barcelona again in the future as I really enjoyed myself and would like to see more.

Whilst I was away I took a sketchbook to document my adventure, and this has become an ongoing piece of work now that I'm back home. I always have a sketchbook with me, and working in sketchbooks is something I really enjoy doing. As I have a large number of sketchbooks, some for my own practice and notes, some more like this to document particular experiences, I'm considering exhibiting these in July. This isn't something I've done before but they do represent a significant aspect of my practice, and it presents an alternative to pieces hung on the wall that the viewer can't touch or directly interact with. Now that I'm home and settled I need to get back to the felt pieces I was working on prior to going away, as these could be an additional element to an exhibition. My holiday was absolutely amazing, and I'm glad that the actual experience has given me something to work with at home.

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.

Call for artists

I'm looking for artists for a group show I'm curating, the gallery is spread over two floors and located opposite Camden Road station in Camden. Any style/media will be welcome, you do not have to be London based to participate. The show will take place between 15th February and 1st March. For more information please contact me at tamsin@camden-image-gallery.co.uk.

Visit to the Saatchi Gallery

 On Wednesday I went to the private view of "Body Language" at Saatchi Gallery, and really enjoyed it. I always enjoy the shows at the Saatchi, but this one was of particular interest to me, as my own work deals with the human form. I always like the fact that there is so much variety within the show, and there's always a number of pieces that I really love. I particularly enjoyed the gallery with the installation on the left, the images on the wall were of engraved headstones, and the wooden headstone sculptures in the centre of the room really made an impact as soon as I walked into the room. I loved a lot of the work, but I found this installation particularly impressive. Definitely worth a visit, and I think I'll probably go back to see the show for a second time.
I really enjoyed seeing the human form described in so many different ways, and I came away with a few things to think about in relation to my own work.
In regards to my own work and shows, I'm in the final stages of a new piece for the exhibition in Camden, and I'm quite excited       about it. I'm planning to show this piece alongside the two smaller pieces that were made in Iceland, and I'm looking forward to
getting my work into the gallery on Friday. This week marks the start of a very busy period for me, but I'm pleased that there will be so much going on.

Vibe Gallery exhibition and other shows

The exhibition at Vibe Gallery was, I understand, a great success. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend as I was in Edinburgh, but I'm told that the private view was very busy, and there was a lot of good feedback about the show. My friend Alison curated it, and from what I can tell she did an amazing job. I really wish I could have been there, but nonetheless I'm really pleased that I was able to be involved. The space is great, and this was my first opportunity to exhibit the two canvasses I brought back from Iceland.
I have a couple of other exhibitions in the pipeline that I'm really excited about. From 7th - 17th December there will be the first ever exhibition at Camden Image Gallery, a brand new gallery opening in Camden Town, owned by one of my friends. I went to see the space for the first time on Wednesday evening, and I'm so impressed. My friend Elena has worked really hard to get this together, and I'm so proud of everything she's done. I'm really looking forward to exhibiting in this show, alongside a really varied selection of artists, I think it's going to be really successful, and encourage everyone to come along and see the gallery and show. I'm also acting as Promotions Manager for her, so I'm hoping that lots of people come along to see the gallery for the first time. More details will follow soon.
I'm very proud to announce that in January I will be having my very first solo exhibition, a pop-up show in my local area. I'm still in the planning stages as present, but I can confirm that this will be happening on 18th and 19th January. Again, this is a great opportunity that I'm really happy about.
I feel that things have been really exciting, and moving very quickly, since I came back from my residency at the end of September. The residency gave me a lot of time to reflect on my work and how things are going, and I definitely came back feeling extremely motivated. To a certain extent actually making work has taken a back seat for the time being, as I have a lot of work to do in terms of setting up shows, but from January onward I'm planning to get back to focusing on this, as well as continuing to exhibit as frequently as possible. Things are going really well at the moment with my work, and I feel that a lot of excellent opportunities are coming up. My renewed motivation has probably helped to actually bring up these opportunities; yet another benefit of my residency experience!
More details will follow about both of the upcoming exhibitions. At the moment I feel quite snowed under with work, but I have no doubt that it'll be very much worthwhile!

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.

Finished weathered work

 

The weathered piece is finally finished!
It's been a frustrating process at times, but I'm happy to have finally finished it, and I'm happy with the results. I'm planning a similar piece, and I think it's likely to get done more quickly seeing as it's now autumn and the weather should be more tempestuous than it was in early September when I started this.
In this piece I've also used embroidery to pick out some of the background colour blocks, as I like some of the strong shapes there. I'm also really happy with the intensity coming from the hanging threads being concentrated in a particular area.
This concept is definitely something I want to push further and experiment more with. I'm hoping to exhibit this, and others works made in this way, early next year.

Today I'm planning to get started on a second piece in this style. However, there will be a couple of differences. To push the idea of being weathered and damaged by life experiences a bit further, the next piece will be a portrait of myself as a child. My mother has kindly sent me some photos to work with.
Additionally I'm going to move away from using continuous line drawings. Instead I'm planning to use drawings inspired by Frank Auerbach. I saw his show at Marlborough on Friday, and found it really inspirational. Since then I've been experimenting with some sketches in his style. I'm planning to build layering up in the work with sketches in charcoal and chalk, and I'm interested to see how this will be affected by natural weathering, even after being fixed.

Weathering

 

I'm finally seeing some results naturally weathering a canvas! There's been a lot more rain recently, and there's now a significant amount of dirt splashes on the canvas. This wasn't the kind of effect I originally expected, but I do like it. The canvas seems to have become saturated with water in some places, and I'm interested in how this will alter the canvas.
I've definitely learned a few things from working this way, and I'm keen to make a second piece in this way, but using an image of myself as a child. I hope that the effect on the second canvas will be more extreme, and I hope that an image of a child will push the concept further. I'm hopeful that a second piece will not take so long to complete, considering that the weather has become more extreme recently. Waiting for something to happen with the current piece was very frustrating for me.
I'm not sure how much longer I should leave this canvas outside for, but when I'm ready with the second portrait I think it'll be time to bring this one inside and begin embroidering it. Hopefully these canvasses will be ready for exhibition soon.
I'm happy with my ideas at the moment but I need some more motivation to actually get on with them. I'm thinking it's time for a trip to a few art galleries to try to get myself going again.