Smash Hits
Smash Hits, is a happy dose of Grayson Perry magic! Read about my visit to his all bells & whistles retrospective at the Royal Scottish Academy.
Funny, clever, beautifully crafted and full of punch! Say hello to Grayson Perry's riveting retrospective 'Smash Hits' at the Royal Scottish Academy!
I was lucky enough to see it last weekend on a special hop up to Edinburgh. Encompassing a plethora of mediums: pots, sculptures, bright and brilliant tapestries, huge woodblock prints and sketchbooks, Each piece takes you on a journey into the artist's mind, 'designed to mystify as much as explain.'
Grayson Perry's visual language has both an honesty and quality that, for me at least, invites an instant rapport. He isn't afraid to confront contradictions & confusion. He completely embraces a sense of the ridiculousness, and in doing so often grapples with the profound. Underpinning all, is a sophisticated sense of design, and consummate skill in how to tell a story.
I remember listening avidly to Perry's Reith lectures in 2013, where he likened the journey of young artists to choosing a bus route. No matter what the provocation or temptation to change, he emphasized the importance of sticking with it and staying your course. This is something that continues to deeply resonate with me 10 years on, with all the inevitable doubts and challenges that come up in being an artist. It is what inspired my painting 'I know where I'm going' a declaration of intent to stay my own path, albeit with frequent feelings of facing the opposite direction!
Thank you Grayson Perry for giving me a much needed dose of your lively wisdom and good humour. I always feel re-invigorated after seeing your work with a renewed sense of purpose and trust in myself.
Thank you also to the Royal Scottish Academy for putting on a beautifully curated show, which is on until the 12th November - so go and see it if you find yourself in Edinburgh! Click the button below for full details.
Better Late than Never
Read about my slightly belated trip to this year’s Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy and discover which artists stood out for me.
Better late than never!
I finally made it to this years Summer exhibition at the Royal Academy - just in time on its last day!
Happy to report that, aside from a couple of stock favourites of mine [Paula Rego and Chris Orr], most of the works I was drawn to were by artists completely new to me.
I have included a selection of my favourites, with the respective artists names & IG handles, so do go and look them up!
Puppetry, storytelling, and the playfully, at times sinisterly unexpected, seem to be the main ingredients of this selection, along with an appreciation for the skilled handling of medium.
They have definitely given me food for thought which I'm sure will inspire a picture or two in the coming months!
Thank you to @david_remfry_ra for his excellent curation this year and thank you to all the artists that participated, especially those mentioned here. Keep creating and keep sharing!
Why Graffiti Lights Me Up
A Trip to Lisbon, the Museu Banksy and my general musings on the power and relevance of graffiti and why I use it in my paintings.
Graffiti, the ultimate medium for taking familiar imagery or ideas and combining them in unexpected, playful ways, in a living, breathing, ever changing context. Beautifully unregulated and ephemeral, graffiti is an irreverent mixing pot of aesthetics and concepts, often satirical, offering a constantly evolving commentary on the social, political and economic cultures that surround us.
I’ve been mesmerised by it for years, and often find my eye on the hunt for these unexpected treasures as I walk around a city. No quirk of street furniture or structure is beyond interest, from sticker-plastered municipal bins to dilapidated walls, covered with graffiti, it all excites and engages my imagination.
I’ve recently returned from a few days in Lisbon, on a rare hop out of the UK. There were two particular encounters that gave me pause for thought. The first, a visit to the Tejo Power Station, where a contemporary art display left me feeling completely unengaged and unstimulated. The sterility and obscure, machine mediated concepts, of the display, surrounded by vast quantities of white walls felt quietly depressing. The second, and in contrast, were my happy wonderings up and down the streets of central Lisbon, I felt like Alice in Wonderland, discovering something interesting round every corner.
As if in celebration of this rich graffiti culture, Lisbon has set up the Museu Banksy , an immersive ‘Banksy’ experience, bringing together, through reproductions, some of Banksy most famous pieces. A walk around in time and place, charting work from the early 2000s around Bristol and London, through France, America, the Gaza strip in Israel, all the way up to the most recent pieces in the Ukraine. It really gave a flavour of the power and spirit of what graffiti can do and left me feeling very engaged and revved up!
As some of you know, I often weave graffiti into my paintings to visualise ideas and internal emotional states. The dynamic, raw and colourful quality of it, the serendipitous dialogues it strikes up, offers endless possibilities and seem a fitting language in which to visually discuss the human condition.
I could definitely write a lot more about this subject, but will leave it here for now and invite you to reflect on your own encounters with this lively medium, and ask, what your views on it are?
A Royal Academy Experience
An extraordinary collaboration, bringing together two of my favourite things in a truly magical way. Discover what Incognito Dance was doing at the Royal Academy of Arts last week!
On the 7th July something rather extraordinary happened.
An immersive drawing, dancing workshop in one of London's most prestigious centres of Arts and culture, inspired by David Remfry's wonderful watercolours of people dancing.
The Incognito Dance team and I were invited to participate and journeyed up to town on a beautiful summer's eve to dance in a whole new way, within the stunning rooms of the RA!
Our brief was to move in slow motion for the artists attending, holding shapes for them to draw. Used to the fast, dynamic energy of the dance floor, this was a novel and fascinating experience for us all.
Influenced by a dream-like mix of music, curated by the brilliant @tom_h_visualsound - we found ourselves exploring movement in a powerful and meditative way. It felt very calming and beautiful to see the subtle dialogues that emerged between us and the people drawing.
A particularly special occasion for me to see two of my greatest loves, dancing & drawing, come together in such a harmonious and magical way!
Massive thank you to:
For making this possible and to the fantastic enthusiasm of all the people attending!
Also huge love to the wonderful dancers from @incognito_dance
Jeff Tarpinian - @incognito_dance
Mia Amorbaila - @mia.amorbaila
Alex Boneva -@bonevaalex
Aliki Siganou - @aliki.siganou
Phil Araujo - @philippearaujo1
Jorge Gomez - @jorgeedugona
Deimante Politovaite - @diamonddancestudio31
Stefan Korac
Florian Naejus
Sean Jennings
Anthony
Introducing Albert Houthuesen
Discover who Albert Houthuesen was, how he is such a big influence on my own creative journey, and all the details of an exciting new exhibition of his work, just opened at the Danum Gallery in Doncaster.
I am going up to Doncaster this week to give a talk about Albert Houthuesen [1903-1979].
Who, you may ask, is this?
Albert is an artist who has deeply inspired my own creative journey, but who very few people have heard of.
My father was, throughout his life, an enthusiastic advocate of his work. As such I was brought up looking at and thinking about his art.
As a young man in the late 1960s, my father visited Albert weekly in Camberwell, to interview him about his life. This two year project resulted in a book called Walk to the Moon, which transcribed and compiled these conversations into a narrative, telling Albert’s story in Albert’s own words.
These words have and continue to provide a helpful anchor to me through my own quest to navigate life and art.
I also wrote about Albert for my university dissertation, looking at how dance became a powerful influence in the development of his painting. As you can imagine, this is something that strongly resonated with me. As did his general love of beauty and sense of wonder at the world around him.
After my father passed away in 2018 my family and I picked up where he left off, working closely with the Albert Houthuesen Trust to help raise Albert’s profile.
It is therefore with great pleasure that we can announce an exciting step forward in this endeavour.
After a 4 year dialogue with the Friends of the Doncaster Museums and the Danum Gallery, Library Museum, a new exhibition has opened celebrating Albert’s life and work.
The exhibition will run until 15th April 2023. For more information please click the button below:
Toy Fair Inspiration
Energised and inspired by another great toy fair at Sandown Park Race Course. Watch a little overview of my visit and discover the insights I learned.
Another toy fair visit!! This time I swapped my exhibitor’s hat for a visitor’s, wanting to be in ‘explore mode.’ These toy fairs have a very special energy, not only because of the brilliant mix of toys but also the warmth and passion of the people there.
There is a sort of shared sense of wonder and enthusiasm which sparks all sorts of interesting conversations. I always end up learning so much, discovering another little piece of the toy puzzle, helping me explain what it is about these objects that fire my imagination.
This time round it was appreciating the process, craft and detailed observation of subject that went into creating model figures and the amazing cottage industries of people who would hand paint them before mass machine manufacture took over. These people were often women at their kitchen tables but also, in the instance of Keymen figures, prison inmates.
Big thank you to Barry Potter for another great fair and to @victorianathanson for her excellent company!
A Special Book Recommendation
Find out all about the special new book I discovered this week; She's In Crtl by Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon. Wherever you are in your tech journey, whatever your relationship with tech, this book will take you by the hand and expand your knowledge with humour and poignant insight.
This week I attended the book launch of She’s In Ctrl: How Women Can Take Back Tech written by Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon.
A book that brings to life the importance of diversity in the STEAM [science / technology / engineering / arts / maths] industries and the role that women have and can play in this story.
I have only just begun reading it but can tell I am in for a super journey; one which not only informs and inspires, but will give practical, actionable steps as well.
At the book launch there was a brilliant Q&A between Anne-Marie and Audrey Indome [from the No Receipts Podcast] which cited, with grounded humour, the importance of curiosity, of asking questions, of getting involved in the conversation of what technology does and can do.
My own relationship with tech has been evolving over the last few years and I felt very honoured to have my portrait of Anne-Marie (enabled with Augmented Reality Tech) featured at this week’s book Launch.
I am fascinated by all the many ways Technology & Art can work together to build more meaningful dialogues and understanding between people and help inspire positive action.
The main takeaway from all of this is that anyone, whatever their understanding of Tech, can be part of this story. It all comes down to a mindset of learning, and a very good first step is to click the button below :)
You can also go along and hear Anne-Marie in London on Sun 23 October at The Southbank Centre, part of the London Literature Festival. Click button below for ticket info.
My Edinburgh Festival Highlights
4 jam packed days of joyous creative immersion! Watch a little overview of my visit to the Edinburgh Festival a couple of weeks ago.
A mini overview of my 4 day #edinburghfestivalfringe adventure.
Impossible to cram-pack everything into 1 minute but this hopefully gives a flavour of the atmosphere!
Thank you to all the amazing performers who poured their extraordinary energy into such fantastic shows! The joy, humour, innovations and - at times - sheer physical daring, endlessly inspire and energise me.
Featured performers, in order of appearance :
@lutrek_art - 'Juliette' / 'Old Blue Eyes' / 'Marie Curie'
@ameliacadwallader - Amelia Cadwallader
@bhoundp - 'Seeds of Memories'
@agoodcatchcircus - 'Casting Off'
@flabbergast_theatre - 'The Tragedy of Macbeth'
@interactearnest - 'The Importance of Being Earnest'
@benzeiulia - #ladywhistledown
@oldtroutpuppetworkshop - 'Famous Puppet Death Scenes'
@circo.goyo - Grego Richter
@melonthehuman - Thomas Stewart
@puppetstate_theatre - 'The Man who Planted Trees'
Paddy McCullagh - 'Paddy the Potato’
@thebananamanofficial - Matt Eberhart
@thejugglinggent - Matthew Kerr
@walkabout_eddie - Edwin Eddie Bond
@yannelvis - Yann Elvis
@lacliquetheshow - ‘La Clique’
@blackbluesbrothers - ‘The Black Blues Brothers’
I urge you to click and discover the pure magic of what they do!!
INTERESTING FACTS
🎉 The Edinburgh Festival is a 3 week performing arts festival that happens every August.
🎉 It started in 1947 and is now in its 75th year!
🎉 It includes a formal ‘International’ festival and a less formal - anything goes - ‘Fringe’ festival.
🎉 The roots of the Fringe were planted in 1947 when 8 uninvited theatre groups turned up in Edinburgh and performed outside the 'official program'.
🎉 The fringe society was officially formed in 1958 and still prides itself on not vetting shows.
🎉 This year the Fringe included 3,334 shows performed by artists from 63 countries!
🎉 My first festival encounter was in 2003 when I started my 5 year MA Fine Art journey in Edinburgh and it's been inspiring me and my artwork ever since!
Watch out for some sketching spotlights coming soon!
An inspiring visit to the Tate Britain
A day spent in the inspiring company of Paula Rego’s work at the Tate Britain. Watch a video showing a mini walk through this interesting encounter and read my thoughts about her work and its impact on me.
Do you know the work of Paula Rego?
She is an artist who takes you on a deep dive into the imagination, creating intense narratives drawn from ideas both personal and political, a dance of figures, props, toys, animals and plants; all inventively woven together in paintings and drawings that both invite and confront you.
Ever since I first saw her work when I was around 15/16 years old I have been moved and inspired by it. She speaks a visual language I feel instinctively in tune with. It was therefore a complete delight to visit the Tate Britain's major retrospective of her work this week.
Each painting felt like a conversation that opened my eyes and my mind a little more each time. They unlocked a door to space in my imagination that I had, for want of time, neglected for far too long, a space where ambitious narratives of my own are waiting to be painted.
Huge thank you Paula Rego for doing what you do so well and helping me re-engage with my own stories, giving them room to breathe and hopefully grow!