Thoughtful Accumulation

Finally, a good week  

In which one painting gets rejected. but five are chosen.

Space, contained
50 x 50 cm
Acrylic on Canvas

I completed this painting a while ago, for a competition where the works had to be 50 cm round, to fit on the tops of wine barrels at the exhibition. Out of 80 entries, 20 were chosen, and this poor guy was not chosen..

The theme for the competition was Space and spaces, and in keeping with my recent marbles theme, I thought it would be perfect to do a detailed work of the inside of a marble. As kids we always believed the insides of marbles looked exactly like space, or we'd go so far as to believe that they had somehow managed to capture a little piece of the heavens inside marbles (after all, who really knows how marbles are made?) But alas, the curators cared not. Which leaves this guy locked up in a store room for a month before I can collect it, which is a sad fate for something made to be seen.

On the upside, all five of the paintings - mentioned in my previous post - at Absolut Art Gallery sold in one week, to two different buyers. Which actually leaves me in an awkward position, as I only had one new piece to replace the five with! 

But what a fantastic sense of relief. It's a wonderful start for my relationship with the gallery, if I had 20 available pieces to give them, they'd take them all at this point! And it's one of the greatest feelings to sell my favourite paintings, as opposed to commissions, the buyers and I are seeing eye to eye, even though we'll most probably never meet. 

And that's great since I'm continuing the marbles series. Right now I'm working on a large piece for an upcoming group exhibition at Everard Read - it's invites only, but even the chosen artists' work have to be approved before-hand, so I am upping my game. I don't know if they expect that, but I think it's good to challenge yourself. And so in this painting there are colour reflections of the marbles in their shadows, and the trees and sky's reflection actually pattern the background, instead of the flat grays I tend towards. Of course, I have no idea how different it will turn out, I have to figure it out as I go, and anything could happen. 

I'd like to keep pushing my use of reflective surfaces like the brushed steel, copper and glass, and perhaps some patterned materials as well. I realised recently that the paintings I like, the work that I'd buy, is radically different from the works that I produce, and I want to bridge that gap, and experiment a little. Anything that pushes you is good, I figure!

And so, drinks are on me! And have a gloriously productive and joyful week!