Turning inwards

The great thing about art – apart from the passion & the way it rips you apart and sticks you back together again – is that if you’re not in the mood you really don’t have to face people or the outside world with it. You can just withdraw and carry on without losing anything. Doing this from time to time might even make you a better artist!

Well I don’t think it does you any harm anyway. For me at any rate it’s essential. I might be “researching”, internalising, musing, thinking instead

….call it what you want, or maybe I’m just hacked off for a while with the whole damn thing. Whatever it is I need it.

I desperately want a new approach!

Back with Zak

Derbyshire Open Arts seems a distant memory now. Very enjoyable this year with lots of visitors and it’s always great to meet new friends and network. But to be honest, and I feel a bit guilty saying this, it was quickly forgotten – or rather eclipsed – by events subsequently. Nothing to do with art, and I don’t usually let the outside world intrude, but meet Zak…..

Zak is my new grandson and 10lbs of urgent human demand. Gorgeous though he is everything else in our family, including my artistic endeavours, blogs etc,has taken on a distinctly secondary perspective over the last few months. I expect things will gradually resume their normal course, and even though becoming a grandfather again is one of those “life-will-never-be-the-same-again-moments” once the novelty dies down even my blogging should pick up again.

Anyway I must get some painting done first. At the moment it’s still life which I seem to have discovered a real feel for – this is what I am working on presently, Marbles but it’s the colours that really have me hooked. Still life is a great observational discipline.

Bye for now!

 

 

Derbyshire Open Arts 28th – 30th May

A week today Derbyshire’s annual arts festival kicks off with venues spread across the county. Generally I don’t do many festivals as I find stallholding a bit of a chore, but I do like meeting people and discussing all things arty. So I make an exception and support my county and the DOA effort.

This year I will be with dozens of other artists/makers spread across three venues with G2G (Cromford Studio & Art Gallery, Florence Nightingale Memorial Hall and Studio 61, Holloway) – you will find me at Florence Nightingale Hall which is the village hall in Holloway. I will be there with whatever original works, prints, cards & mugs I can get into the space allotted. Unfortunately I think we are barred from hanging work on the walls (surely not! what a strange thing for an artist to want to do) so like everyone else I will be limited to tabletop space and easels etc. But despite the constraints you will find us in good heart and with plenty on offer. Many of us will also be working on our latest pieces live during the day – me included. So if you make the effort to spend the day with us, or at least part of it, you will not be disappointed. I for one am looking forward to it.

Hope to see you there!

 

 

As promised yesterday this is the latest of my work-in-progress of a Marrakech orange grove started recently. Hoping to develop it further soon! don’t know why but I feel really pleased and comfortable with it so far. A new style for me with a bit of luck.

feels like I’m back there when I’m working on it!

After the Lord Mayor’s show.

A few weeks have now passed since my London exhibition with Hornshaw Gallery and all the hullabaloo of fetching and carrying paintings to and fro has died down. I still have my two pieces that were in the show and although they were well received and looked the part in the Brick Lane Gallery no further interest has been expressed since….so onward and upward. I enjoyed the experience and hope there will be many more!

All this fuss with exhibiting is a distraction though and I find it takes me quite a while afterwards to find my painting rythme again, and so all my fine intentions at the start of the year about loosening up my style and trying to quicken my pace a little have been hampered a bit. I currently have at least 4 new canvases on the go and a couple of further ideas I’m playing around with but I’ve been a bit stymied by my recent double portrait of son & daughter in law and my inability to “get” the likeness as I want it. It can be frustrating particularly when you are fully committed in the latter stages of a piece of work and it is more difficult to change tack. I suppose all artists have to go through this pain barrier-portraiture can be such a nightmare! Picture when I am satisfied.

Of the new pieces one is a still life, one a landscape and one is from a view of an orange grove I was taken with when I was in Morocco recently, and it’s this last one that I have real hopes for. It doesn’t look much at the moment I admit but when I’m working on it, as I was today, it has a real nice feel to it. This is my last pic of it in progress – but this is a very earlier shot, it has progressed a bit since then.

I’m hoping I will be able to finish this one off in a looser style than I have so far managed, and I am quite hopeful. I’ll keep you posted….even if it all goes horribly wrong. And it remains to be seen whether I can quite carry off the challenge of working on 5 or 6 different canvases simultaneously. We shall see. A bientot!

“Looking to the stars”

This week has been a special one for me. I have long cherished the chance to break into the London market. Patience has finally paid off and after many months in the planning I have made my debut at the Brick Lane Annexe E1 in this exhibition which launches the new Hornshaw Gallery.

As requested I delivered these two pieces, “Kiss” & “Visage”, on Monday last and “Looking to the stars” got underway from Wednesday – with an official launch party in the evening.

 

 

Last day of the exhibition will be on Sunday 10th, so it’s been short and sweet. If these two remain unsold I will be collecting them the day after the exhibition closes. I suppose I should be disappointed if that happens, and it looks likely, but the launch was so well attended that I’m just glad for that kind of exposure. So thank you Sarah Hornshaw and the staff at Brick Lane Gallery. Either way it will have been worth it.

…..and it does break my London duck!  I hope to be back.

Here’s to next time!

 

 

 

Looking to the stars

Well here it is, finally after a long, long time in the making the new Hornshaw Gallery – of which I am part – is launching with an exhibition “Looking to the stars” at Brick Lane Galleries in London. I’m approaching it with some trepidation. Not only is it my first appearance in a London gallery, it’s also my debut at an official launch event on Wed 6th April. I’m really hoping to meet many people who like my art….or at least can give me some valuable & expert advice.

Here’s the link to the gallery with the flyer that’s been used to promote the event…

http://thehornshawgallery.com/

….and TWO of my artworks are featured on it! how cool is that?!

These are the two that have been selected for display. I will be sorry to see them go but I hope they sell and find good homes.

Tomorrow I’m off to London to deliver them. Wish me luck!

 

 

New website

A few days ago I went live with my new personal website- http://www.martindavisartist.co.uk

Before I did so I thought long and hard about what I wanted it for, so when you visit you will not see all of my back catalogue, nor will you see any overt signs of hard sell, no prices nothing. Yes you can contact me about any of the work there or use my commission prices to help think about what I can do for you. But it is NOT primarily a selling site. What I want is for my website to be a personal window onto my world and I have endeavoured to pare down any unnecessary details or gimmicks which in my view only serve to distract away from its main purpose ie. contemplation of the art itself.

What you will see mainly though is images of my art that I think best represent what I do in different genre and they will change over time, slowly like an evolution. Remember this is not to show you as much stuff in as little time as possible. I never wanted that for my art, but I do want you to enjoy it.

I would love it if you would visit the site and use the contact form to leave me feedback about what you have seen – good or bad. At least I will know then that you have looked and reacted to it.

Is art a delusion?

Not sure this got through to many, so here goes again!

martin davis artist

I’ve been re-reading Oscar Wilde’s “Picture of Dorian Gray” recently. Apart from being just a fantastic piece of writing it is also a goldmine of quoteable art quotes such as – All art is quite useless. How provocative and pithy is that?

But this piece really got me thinking –

“I cannot help feeling that it is a mistake to think that the passion one feels in creation is ever really shown in the work one creates. Art is always more abstract than we fancy. Form and colour tell us of form and colour – that is all.”

I can’t be the only artist in the world who finishes a piece of work one day, on top of the world, elated about the achievement wrought – only to be a bit disappointed the next day when the true result is seen clearly with fresh eyes? makes you wonder whether…

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Is art a delusion?

I’ve been re-reading Oscar Wilde’s “Picture of Dorian Gray” recently. Apart from being just a fantastic piece of writing it is also a goldmine of quoteable art quotes such as – All art is quite useless. How provocative and pithy is that?

But this piece really got me thinking –

“I cannot help feeling that it is a mistake to think that the passion one feels in creation is ever really shown in the work one creates. Art is always more abstract than we fancy. Form and colour tell us of form and colour – that is all.”

I can’t be the only artist in the world who finishes a piece of work one day, on top of the world, elated about the achievement wrought – only to be a bit disappointed the next day when the true result is seen clearly with fresh eyes? makes you wonder whether that sense of excitement and wonder experienced in the act of creation is ever really felt by anyone but the artist. It’s happened to me a lot I know.

But being an artist to my core it just makes me want to try again. That breathtaking breakthrough may be just around the corner……maybe the next image I paint!? Ever the optimist eh?