Just seen the Picasso Prints at the British Museum. You are allowed to take photographs of them, which I did for some to use for reference purposes. Very pleased about that, as I like to spend as much time as possible looking at others work, if it inspires, and certainly many fine etchings DID inspire.
Having just been to see the “Picasso and Modern British Art” at Tate Britain, (for a price!) with the annoying restrictions of once entering the exhibition, having to stay there (no exit and re-entry) it will be nice to swan in and out and return as many times as desired to the Picasso Prints at the British Museum. The “Picasso and Modern British Art” was good to see, yes, but it’s hard not to feel stung by the price. Certainly I think for £15 re-entry should be possible, unless the exhibition is so overcrowded that this is not possible.
“He never gets away from the object, but through it. The object is not a symbol for anything, it is everything” Quote from Myfanwy Evans in “Axis” A Quarterly Review of “Abstract” Painting and Sculpture No 2 April 1935 Reprint Tate Library and Archive Z03205
My favourite painting on display: “The Source” 1921. Oil on canvas. I like this classical subject, and the female figure which appears as the personification of rivers, a reference backed up by the title and the amphora, is something I have made a note of. I feel the absence of the human figure in my work right now. I am gathering notes and thoughts about what kinds of figures I might experiment in the future with, when I decide to focus myself on painting objects and dealing with recognisable subject matter. I love, just love the colours in the painting.
This leads me to the sculptures in the part of the exhibition “Henry Moore and Picasso”. I have always been very interested in Henry Moore’s work and it was one of the most interesting sections of this exhibition in my opinion. I found “Composition 1943″ in cast concrete grabbed me. Both the material, which was unexpectedly beautiful, and the relationship between the components of the piece were the main draw for me. I would like in the future to experiment with concrete as a material. Yet another desire to join the never ending queue! I spent a long time looking at “Seated Figure 1930″ in Alabaster. I like the way that the original shape of the stone is retained by the way the composition is worked into it. A lovely attractive blockiness (is that a word, if not, it should be!). Amazing carved wood sculpture too, completely amazing. Having tried out a little wood carving myself I could appreciate better the achievement.
I made a lot of notes and spent around three hours, keen to get my money’s worth, though I do not feel that this is the best way of experiencing an exhibition of this kind. Far from it. I was interested in the rooms on Duncan Grant and Picasso, Ben Nicholson and Picasso, and Henry Moore and Picasso. I was NOT interested in Francis Bacon and Picasso, Graham Sutherland and Picasso, David Hockney and Picasso or Wyndham Lewis and Picasso. There is something I really DON’T like about Wyndham Lewis’ work. I feel quite repulsed. I am not sure why, and I won’t spend the time analysing it. It was a delight to see “The Three Dancers” in the flesh, and there are lots of other notes I have made on various works and my thoughts about them. It’s a pleasure to be able to go to an exhibition like this and take so much away. The only problem being there is never sufficient time to explore my ideas because I have too many. Never mind.
This is a VERY good read on the Picasso and Modern British Art exhibition, far better than I can produce with my less inclined will and the desire to spend as much of my time as possible painting, along with the necessary household chores, which never disappear.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n06/tj-clark/false-moderacy
Also popping in and out of the National Gallery as much as possible.
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/giovanni-girolamo-savoldo-mary-magdalene
As for my own work, after a computer disaster, I have got a little behind with the processing of images. But a disaster has turned into a blessing, because though I have lost my Photoshop software, I have been forced to try out some freeware, much of which is proving great fun to use. It maybe even better for what I am now tending to use digital photography for, which is record keeping mainly. I am missing many aspects of Photoshop but it’s doing me no harm to try out some different software, and I’m very impressed with the batch editing I am now getting rather carried away with. This has enabled me to quickly and easily produce websize images which serve the purpose of providing a helpful record of areas of paint on my current paintings. I have three non-object acrylic paintings now completed, and here are samples from them:
Acrylic Painting Sample from recent paintings by Contemporary British London/Surrey based painter Jenny Meehan. See www.jennymeehan.co.uk for more examples of non-objective and representational british painting
One of many images taken from recent paintings. Enjoying batch editing!
I fancy making a more ridiculously long title, but this will do for now.
Just put a video on YouTube of the exhibition currently running at Leatherhead Theatre. Do come along and see it. Nice cafe opposite the theatre too. There are 40 works on show, not all of them are included in the video, as there is also work hung in the Mezz Bar area. The hanging went well. Ideally I would have liked a little more space in between the pieces, but as we had a lot of work it was a bit of a squeeze.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5ZPhgA8CcA
As I am now up in London a couple of times a week, I am taking the opportunity to visit various galleries and see exhibitions, and en route to my destination I pass by Llewellyn Alexander (Fine Paintings) Ltd. This is very handy as I have gained a lot from my time spent looking at the last two exhibitions and I intend to continue my visits. While my own painting mainly non representational right now, I do love subject matter of the more obvious and external kind, and through looking at the work of other accomplished painters with more experience than myself, I am getting a strong sense of what exactly I value and admire, both in terms of emotional and psychological content as well as formal features.
I enjoyed some excellent paintings by Jeremy Barlow recently. I don’t like busy street scenes and cafe scenes at all, and so I was surprised to find myself drawn INTO the gallery. I had spotted some of the quiet, soft and sensitively painted landscapes, blissfully free of crowds of people, and also some quite magical paintings of Venice with a kind of psychological depth which I always find attractive.
I have also seen the exhibition at Hauser and Wirth, London W1J 9DY. I have often admired Joan Mitchell’s painting and the exhibition “The Last Paintings” was time well spent. I enjoyed the scale of the paintings. I am sad I do not have the facilities to make wall size paintings (what size is a wall?!) because I think with the non objective painting I’m busy with right now, it would be very interesting to try something out on a large scale.
See: http://abstractcritical.com/2012/01/joan-mitchell-the-last-paintings/
and http://www.hauserwirth.com/exhibitions/1223/joan-mitchell-the-last-paintings/view/
I am starting to think of a body of non-objective painting through which I can really throw myself about and achieve the satisfaction of experimenting without any restraint. Sounds good, but, well, not quite true, because I find restraint is the very necessary ingredient to make a visually cohesive expressionistic work, so maybe that is the wrong word. Rather, I will have some space, and within that space, establish the limitations required, without narrowing down the elements I experiment with. Well, that’s the aim anyway. Thankfully, a nice opportunity has presented itself to exhibit some non objective paintings at Allied Healthcare in Chessington for three months from September this year. A fine white wall is available, and I look forward to seeing some paintings hopefully breathing on it!
Enjoy a read from time to time:
http://www.axisweb.org/dlFULL.aspx?ESSAYID=17
Cross to find I have missed this exhibition, but the video was excellent. I seem to be managing to feed myself intellectually right now.
http://abstractcritical.com/2012/03/danny-rolph-michael-stubbs/
As the children are getting older, it is becoming more possible to spend longer blocks of time in the studio and this has meant that I am also listening to a lot more music. It does stop things from getting too intense to have music on while painting. Particularly enjoying listening to my husband’s “Trent – Live at Spring Harvest” CD right now, and singing along to my favourite song “Perfect Sacrifice”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jievt_72IKA&feature=related
While rather tired from the effort involved in the last few weeks with the painting and drawing exhibition at Leatherhead Theatre “Some Kind of Narrative…” I still had the energy yesterday to pull together a poster for it, to go on the outside of Leatherhead Theatre so that passers by know that it is there. I am quite pleased with it, bearing in mind it was a last minute effort and done rather quickly. Amazing what you can do with Photoshop. Here it is:
Getting that pre-exhibition buzz. Better than the days before it, when you trash your work in your head and wonder what you are doing it for. Even Picasso has these downs, I understand he didn’t even come to some of the private views of his own work because he felt so awful about it!!!
Today is packing up the work day and I find that corrugated cardboard roll is the best thing, along with bubble wrap if work has glass. Lots of people have said they are coming, and I am looking forward to meeting new people and catching up with people I already know, but haven’t had the chance to chat with for a while. Stephanie and myself are leaving the hanging decisions until tomorrow when we hang the work, and that itself is a very creative process which I enjoy immensely. I plan to take some images of the exhibition when hung and maybe a video if I get the time. The work on show is a mix of both non objective and representational paintings and drawings.
I think this exhibition will be a really good one. Stephanie, who is better with words than I, has prepared a little intro…
Many thanks to Leatherhead Theatre for hosting this event!
Enjoying the sunshine. It’s excellent for drying acrylic paint quickly and this has been fantastic for me as I have started working on some non objective paintings in acrylic on canvas to be displayed from September 2012 onwards. Before that though is the joint exhibition of painting and drawing at Leatherhead Theatre. It runs at the same time as the Drama Festival, which means that a lot of people will see it.
All are welcome to the Opening Night on Saturday 28th April 2012. It’s from 6pm until 9pm. Visiting Information: Leatherhead Theatre 7 Church Street, Leatherhead, Surrey Kt22 8DN Tel 01372 365141. Email me at j.meehan@tesco.net if you would like more details of the exhibition and/or visiting information. We have used some representational painting for the flyer, but the exhibition is a mixture of both non-objective and representational work.
Affordable Art Fair, Battersea Park, 2012 – Tired Feet, Tired Eyes, but Fresh Discoveries; The BEST being Philip Maltman
March 22, 2012
Lots of impressionistic scenes.
Lots of weak non-objective painting.
Those were the negatives for me.
But each to their own, and if it sells, it sells, and that’s what this event is all about. And we all have our own likes and dislikes. I won’t complain, I won’t explain.
BUT!!!! Standing out for me, oh JOY, I found myself meeting two paintings by Philip Maltman, who I have not come across before. I liked “No Leaf” the best. My heart! How inspiring to see painting like this! Philip Maltman’s painting was at the fair via ArtDog…
Other bright lights for my visit:
John Scarland ”Large Picnic”, Dooze Storey “Red Bow” Charlie O’Sullivan “Gathering Thoughts on an Incoming Tide” (Nice Title too!) Roisin O’Farrell ”A Moment of Truth” De Angel “Power Struggle” Nicholas Chistiakov ”The Red Room with Two Visitors” Relton Marine “Low Row II” and Russel Frampton ”Winterbourne, Droves Road”.
They will be in my notes, for sure. What interesting work. I find it vital to identify artists and particular paintings by them, in order to spend time looking and learning from the evidence of their hand and eye. Skill is learnt, and it takes years of experience and years of study. “Gift” is not something which you are just “given”; there is an element of that, yes, but it must be grown and developed, and this takes practice. I am finding at the Art Fairs I am making a point of visiting right now that in some painting, the years of work reveal themselves…You can actually see it in the painting. It’s an almost tangible sense of what the eye has seen and the traces it has left on the painting (and this is the same for non-objective painting!). I think it’s about inner vision, being communicated. Wether expressed through recognisable objects or not, there seems to be a point at which you can say this has been successful or not, and it is the somewhat mysterious “point” (which maybe is the meeting of the emotion and intellect) along with the drive, of the artist, and the meeting of that with the materials, which creates a kind of joyous and beautiful creation.
My visit to the Affordable Art Fair has pretty much sealed my decision to concentrate on non-objective painting this year, even though I struggle internally with the feeling that I OUGHT to be painting objects! If people don’t have the eyes to see non-objective painting, if they don’t give it the time, if they don’t give themselves the time, then let that be their loss. Not mine. One has to stay true, and I haven’t signed a contract with myself not to paint representational paintings; there is a time and a season for everything. I can always indulge myself with a little obvious subject matter, if I please.
I think it more pressing right now to work on developing an intimacy with my materials, and I feel that through this, whatever I do, my painting will benefit. There is also the need, whatever goes on around me, to bury myself in what I am painting in the moment I am painting it. I loved the painting of all those painters I have listed, and I will, as always, take the time to find out more about their work and see more of their paintings. It’s on my agenda this year to widen my awareness of what is going on around me, and I am already learning a lot through this process. It’s helping me steer my own way ahead, and enabling me to develop more focus and direction in my painting.
I’ve also been to see “Die Harder” 22 Feb – 6 April at Southwark Cathedral. An amazing sculpture by David Mach RA. The blurb says: “The figure of Christ in paint and anguish pierced by thousands of spears, that single body acting as a conduit for the cares and woes in the world. That body can feel everything and the hangers don’t just pierce: they stand on end, electrified like thousands of antennae transmitting messages out into the word and receiving them back simultaneously”
http://www.davidmach.com/precious-light-2/
I’ve started another blog, with Blogger:
http://jennymeehan.blogspot.co.uk/
It’s going to have pretty much the same as this one in it I expect.
I’ve just seen the Joan Mitchell exhibition of some of her later works at Hauser and Wirth http://www.hauserwirth.com/ and LOVED the scale of them. I also noticed a little iridescent paint on one of them, which I am experimenting with myself at the moment. I have been drawn to her painting for some time. I love the sheer single-mindedness of it.
All this researching on the net is great, apart from the major problem of it using up time when I could be painting, but I have uncomfortable feelings and thoughts shifting here and there as I negotiate my way into thinking about the state of the “Art World” as it is so often put. So the essay below was a fine find for me, and yet another hearty read:
http://www.abstract-art.com/abstraction/l5_wordings_fldr/l1_lyr_abst_proposal.html
I’m sensing a new liberty in my approach and thinking about painting.
This painting; “Land and Sea Scape” painted 2011 is one I have finally got around to framing recently.
There are some good reads on the Abstract Critical website:
http://abstractcritical.com/2012/02/ha-ha-what-does-this-represent/
While I oft times would rather forget the theory, as it holds no relevance for me at the actual time I paint, I do find it good to read from time to time others thoughts and as I didn’t myself endure a Fine Art degree, I think it doesn’t do any harm once in a while.
Here’s some more painting now photographed and prepared for the net.
“Til The Cows Come Home” above is painted on canvas with acrylic and glass beads. It was inspired by the phrase “Til The Cows Come Home” which was used by Pryle Behrman, Curator of Art Projects the the London Art Fair this year. It just stuck in my mind. Maybe I felt a bit like a cow as I made my way with the group from stand to stand at the London Art Fair? I was thinking about hoofs making marks in soft sticky mud as I painted it. The guided tour by Pryle Behrman was something very enjoyable, and he said that he would be happy to talk until “the cows came home”. I am still waiting for “the cows to come home”, and so the talk I imagine is still in progress…
Oh! Just found this today!
Looks as if it has lots of interesting links to follow.
“Fallen” Oil on canvas. Painted in 2010 which is a while back now.
I’ve started writing a book. Not sure if anything will come of it, but I like writing so I hope to keep it up. I think it might be better than writing too much about individual paintings, and rather than treating work in isolation, it will place (some of them) in their context within the narrative which I guess is my life. Even the most abstract painting is part of a narrative. Thinking of narratives, here is the flyer for the exhibition coming up in April/May 2012. It’s a while away, but time flies.
Edward Burra Exhibition at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, Sussex – Jenny Meehan Contemporary British Painter WordPress Journal
February 23, 2012
Just looking at my notes from a recent visit to Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, Sussex. A favourite gallery, especially as they chose to exhibit one of my digital C prints a few years ago as part of their St Winifred’s Hospice/”Outside In” Open Art Competition.
In the display of Edward Burra’s paintbox, there was a “Guitar” tube of paint! I remember them! Only one, the rest W&N.
My favourite work is this one:
http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk/work.aspx?obj=21322&tid=132414
I liked the contents of room 15 “The British Landscape” most in the exhibition.
I find emotional charge in landscape very inviting.
Currently busy with preparing some work for the next exhibition “Some Kind Of Narrative” (Stephanie Greenslade and Jenny Meehan). I am looking forward to this very much, and it is delightful to me to be working with a friend on something, much more enjoyable than putting something on by myself. More interesting, more to talk about, more to reflect on. It will be at Leatherhead Theatre, Leatherhead, Surrey. I will put more information up soon.
Back From West Dean College, Sussex – Woodcarving with Ted Vincent – Jenny Meehan Contemporary Artist’s Journal
February 20, 2012
“Contemporary Artist” Mmmm. Images of pretension stand before me, and I don’t like them. But when people look for visual art on the net, they look for “art” and “artists”. So I have to settle for that.
Back from an excellent course at West Dean College led by Ted Vincent. “Woodcarving” was great…I like wood, I had a feeling I would (Ahhh! I did not intend that pun!) and I learnt some very useful things, most importantly for me how to sharpen my tools and which tools to purchase. I will carry on, maybe not in 3D…I liked working in 3D, but I have been wanting to try out some woodcuts. It’s a logical next step forward.
Here’s an image of my produce. I am playing around with how I like it best arranged, and since taking this image, I think I have found a better way, but here it is for now. I also have some small adjustments to make. I have to admit to a certain complacency on day three of the course, as I had done the majority of the cutting, and I wanted to practice sharpening tools. So I faffed about. I liked the polishing wheel and the grinder: it brought back memories of my Dad, a Locksmith and Toolmaker, and I spent a fair bit of time first making tools blunter than they were when I got hold of them, and finally making them sharper.
Still have some adjustments to make. Was a lovely course, great tutor, really helpful and encouraging. Did a fair amount of research over the time there too. Looking at Paul Nash (again!), examples of Japanese pattern/printmaking, and Christian symbolism.
