Practise

So, I recently started entering open competitions and as such had to update my Artists CV and Artists statement. Your artists statement is a general description about your practise, and I find its pretty handy to revisit it every now again, to ask yourself: 'What am I doing, and why?'

It also helps me to place my work in a larger context of how it relates to other peoples work ( people past and present, those I know and or admire) and also to see if, when written down in black and white,  does it make any sense?

Its fairly easy to get lost in what you're doing. I like painting buildings, so I could paint them all the time, but why am I doing it, whats the point? Its good for me to ask myself these questions so that I don't end up wasting my time, going round in circles or disappearing up my own arsehole.

It turns out I'm painting these things because:

• they make interesting subject matter

• I want to record whats here before it goes

• I want to communicate how my surroundings look to me and to get to know them better

So now I know, and so do you.

As you may or may not know I recently moved from Penge, South London (where I grew up) to Bristol and I think as a result my paintings have become a lot more exploratory than documentary, but theirs still a bit of both.

I'm also doing a screen printing workshop and getting into that, thinking about lino-print and small-run comix and about to start work on a paper cut idea, which will feed into stencils and printing again.

I was trying to get away from the black line that I use in all my work, but I'm happier with it now so it won't completely go and I'm missing having a badge maker.

I've also been gradually going through my work that travelled up with me to Bristol from London, fixing it up or finishing it where needed, framing some pieces and as such will have a lot for sale soon. I'm also going to launch a patreon page with an increasing discount depending on amount of payment a month and have compiled a newsletter ( you might be reading this because of a link in the newsletter).

Bristol is a very creative city, and very beautiful and now I'm settled I'm really starting to love it. I have my eye on a studio complex, but no spaces as yet. 

Life is good, hope the same goes for you!