Acrylic – The Consulting Artist

Record Store Day : Free Art Drops

Saturday 21st April 2018 is Record Store Day in the UK. I’ve made some free art drops to mark the occasion. These are the first pieces of art I’ve made using acrylic sprays and stencils. Trust me, all the cutting is hard work! I think its been worth it though, and I’ll be hiding these in the local area over the weekend.

The vinyls have no obvious connection to the designs I made, with one exception. Happy Talk is sprayed on to a copy of South Pacific on the Music For Pleasure label. Captain Sensible covered this song, and the title of The Damned’s second album is…Music For Pleasure 😉

Update: I’ve added one more vinyl into the mix – heh heh.

We Are All Artists : Free Art Project Second Anniversary

Start something. Keep going. Be Curious.

The next free art drop is about to hit the streets. So what? This one feels a little special to me, as it marks the second anniversary of the We Are All Artists free art project. 104 consecutive weeks of making and hiding art, most of it in and around Wallington and Carshalton, with occasional trips further afield. There are 151 pieces of my work in the collection so far, plus an additional 7 made by other people.

I’ve been working on this second anniversary piece all week, and it’s now finished. Here are some photos of the work in progress.

This is the biggest piece I’ve made for the project so far, a 40cm x 80cm canvas showing a koi, a Japanese symbol of good fortune. It might prove a little tricky to hide, but I’m looking forward to finding a super sneaky place to leave it.

Thank you to everyone who has supported and taken part in the project so far. It grows into itself, and beyond too. When I look back at my work over the past 24 months I can’t imagine being without this experiment, it currently informs so much of what I do.

In case you are interested, the symbols in the lower left corner are my attempt at Chinese calligraphy. They signify ‘developing, becoming different.’

Footnote

I thought you might like to see a photo of where I eventually hid the art (long story short a mix of bad weather meant I tried and failed to hide this piece on two previous occasions – this was third time lucky).

Sometimes The Angels Punish Us, By Answering Our Prayers.

I’m in the final stages of preparation for my submission to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. In the run up to a decision like this, there’s a strong whiff of doubt in the air…will I be able to come up with anything vaguely good enough…?

At first I had it in mind to rework a failed experiment which you can see emerge here a couple of days ago, and I thought it was the one. Since then I’ve been reminded of this piece (painted in October 2017) which I am considering…

…and then with just a day or two remaining I made this, a return to my recent angel designs. This is the largest of them to date, painstakingly crafted onto an 80cm x 30cm canvas.

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I like them all. Now here I am – with too many choices, and only a day left to decide. Sometimes The Angels Punish Us, By Answering Our Prayers.

On the plus side at least I have choices to make, much better to be in that position than staring at a blank canvas at this very late stage! This deadline has galvanised me to produce some interesting work.

Footnote 1: For completeness, this is the other painting I am currently considering. Acrylic applied with fingers and a palette knife, on a 75cm x 50cm canvas.

Footnote II. Re: Winged Angels, in other news it’s the 20th anniversary of the unveiling of The Angel Of The North this week, cool huh.

Footnote III. I opted for the black and blue piece, titling it ‘The Gathering’. Let’s see how I get on…