Craww @ George Thornton Art, Nottingham 5.11.11

My final show of the year!

I’m excited to be showing a selection of new paintings @ George Thornton Art in Nottingham. The show runs 5th – 15th November and as well as the new paintings on paper, will feature some of the work I’ve done on different media over the past year.

Some wood panels, paintings on old drawers and doors and for the first time I’ll be making some original sketches available.

Contact george@georgethorntonart.com for prices and availability

I’ll be there this Saturday for the opening so if you are in Nottingham, come and say hi!

A taster of some of the new work and sketches:

Funeral Party Favourite:

more moleskine

Since getting back from SF, I seem to have become addicted to sketching in the moleskine. I’ve done a couple of new paintings, but I’m really enjoying letting the ideas flow and not worrying about the detail.

I’ve got a bunch of ideas waiting to start on once I’ve got the studio sorted. At the moment it seems like my paints are never in the same place I am, so having the sketchbook to hand has been a bit of a lifesaver.

I also took the opportunity to mess around a little with some digital work, I’ve not touched photoshop (to paint with) since last year – I had to try and remember what to do, but pretty happy with the results.

Keeper:

and some sketches:

 

Spoke Gallery, and SF fun

A little late posting pictures, but the recent trip to San Francisco was awesome!

The opening night for the September group show was a great evening. I was stoked to finally meet Charmaine, Tatiana and Handiedan as well as Ken Harman who did a great job of putting the show together and taking care of us all.

Nice to see Handiedan’s work in person for the first time. There’s so much textural detail to her pieces that is missed in the shots you see on the internet, I was really digging the darker tones of some of her newer work too.

Speaking of black, Charmaine Olivia’s work was equally impressive and by way of contrast, Tatiana’s paintings were buzzing with vibrant colours and energy. Beautiful work!

Opening night:

The rest of the trip was spent hanging out and checking some of the galleries and opening nights. Special mention to Brett Amory’s show at GalleryAD in San Jose which blew me away. Awesome work, haunting and ethereal but still firmly rooted in urban reality.

Other highlights: Hanging with Tatiana and Han and sketching over coffee in the morning. Visiting Charmaine in her studio – inspirational, I HAVE to get a studio sorted. And Ken’s collection of sneakers. We only got to sample a few of them but heard many stories. The guy is obsessed.

Craww @ Spoke Gallery SF Sept 1 – 22

Time to post about some new work and an upcoming show!

I’m very excited to be part of a new exhibition at Spoke Gallery in San Francisco. I have 4 new paintings showing alongside work from Handiedan, Charmaine Olivia and Tatiana Suarez. All the work is based around different interpretations of the female figurative and I’m stoked about how the differing styles  complement each other.

Opening night is September 1, 6pm – 10pm, showing through September 22 at Spoke Art, 816 Sutter Street, San Francisco CA. I’ll be there on the night so if anyone can make it, come and say hi!

email spokeartgallery@gmail.com for details and enquiries

Have a peek at one of the pieces below – “Soon I’ll let You Go” will also be available as a ltd edition of 50 print. Hope you like it!

moleskine scrawls

A couple of weeks back i finished the final painting for an upcoming show and with a deadline out of the way, wanted to head off in a different direction, at least in terms of media.

I’ve been spending a lot of time painting for various projects and I’ve been getting a bit uptight about various aspects of what I’ve been doing and my abilities to do it, so thought it would be cool to just spend a couple of weeks exploring a sketchbook, just scrawling whatever came to mind, rather than worrying about a bigger picture (pun intended).

I’m really enjoying it. It feels liberating to just make marks and not give a fuck!

The crow girls are back, with a future project half in mind, and I’m happy to see them again.

19.07.11

So, overdue a post. Take this: recent work for an upcoming show in September (more details soon).

Shelter:

And i woke up early this past Sunday, 6am or something. I actually really like getting up early (apart from the knackered feeling!) and painting. Early mornings are second only to late nights for painting potential. Anyhoo, there was a chunk of wood idly sat in the Kitchen, so i decided to give it some skull love.

For no other reason than it seemed to need it. Excuse the crappy iPhone pic.

Oh yeah, if you are interested in work in progress doodles and random pics, and I guess have an iPhone, I now have an instagram account. It’s a cool little app – kinda like Twitter but pictures, and I get on with pictures way better than words. Fer-real.

guilty pleasures & modern vices @ london miles

I’m really excited to be showing alongside some amazing artists at London Miles’ Guilty Pleasures and Modern Vices show opening June 23rd to June 27th 2011.

My piece is titled “Vanity” and will also be released as the second of my prints from 1xRun on 24th June. Again, available for just one week!

The first print run, “Somewhere” went really well and they did a great job with the prints and shipping them all out, so I’m really looking forward to the second release. Hopefully it will be equally successful!

Finally, I’ve just got back from mailing “Eli” to G1988 in LA. It will be part of their annual “Crazy for Cult” show later in the summer. In the past they’ve shown some awesome work by a great selection of artists, so I’m really honoured to be included in line up.

eli

Something from last week, inspired by the film “Let the Right One In”. Acrylic, printed material and graphite on wood panel.

new stuff, a couple of shows

Hey. Enough with the wood malarkey – I’ve been back painting on paper. For the record, Rives BFK is the shiz. It can take so much water and still dry flat. Love it

Anyways, here’s a peek at a couple of all new pieces for some shows coming up this month.

First up, the first work I’ve done for London Miles in (duh) London. I’ve been working on something for the “Literal.Eyes” show opening on 12th May and man, I suffered for this one. It’s actually the 3rd piece I did with the show in mind.

The way I work is very much “make it up as i go along”. I start with half an idea and kind of get in a groove, the painting finds it’s own voice. With this (and a few other upcoming pieces) I’ve been working to fit a theme for a group show and it’s been a f**kin painful process! In this case the theme was art inspired by literature.

Hand on heart, my literary awareness probably extends as far as spiderman comics, but there was something in the idea of Shakespeare’s Hamlet that I though could work with the vibe I was in. Well, I’m pretty damn happy with where I ended up anyway.

Alas:

I’ve also been working on a piece for the good folk at CAVE Gallery’s upcoming 3rd anniversary show, opening May 23rd. I’ll post a proper pic nearer the date, but here’s a peek at a detail for now.

Garden:

messing around with wood

I called in at Jones’ place the other week and managed to make off with some lovely chunks of old oak. God knows what they were originally, but they seemed destined for some attention in one form or another. Some paint/glue/graphite led to this:

Keyholder

The other chunk in the pic is next on the hit list. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks fooling around on found bits of wood, doors and suchlike. With mixed success, but it’s fun to mix it up a little.

Also looking forward to a timed print release with 1xRun They’ve been really cool guys to work with and have released some awesome prints recently, so super excited to be working with them. Print drops next Friday April 22nd and will only be available until the 28th – so get those orders ready or miss it forEVAH!