Art does sometimes need to engage, it never needs to dumb down, but it does need to engage a little more…

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A #365ArtDrop18 piece on Brick Lane, East London, November 2018

Some times it is good to get out beyond an art gallery, some of those galleries can be very unfriendly places, not all of them, but so many of them are rather unfriendly unwelcoming places, one of the things the #365ArtDrop18 piece is about is the people who choose to take the pieces that have been left hanging on the street, it is part of the point of the piece that people take them and enjoy being part of it all, it is about engagement, about the enjoyment both for me as an artist and hopefully for the people who choose to take the paintings. The hashtag on the back of the 365 pieces that will eventually make up the year-long #365ArtDrop18 is very important, as are the photos and the tales that other people post on their social media feeds and such. The paintings are all on material found on the street, things that people have thrown away, unwanted pieces of wood, old frames and canvases, things that were heading for landfill or were just going to be left there to rot (and when something is thrown out them leaves will grow, although others choose to see other things painted, I mostly paint leaves).

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A #365ArtDrop18 piece found, Brick Lane, East London, November 2018

Yesterday, 36 pieces, mostly painted on wood from a smashed up piece of wooded furniture pulled from a Hackney skip, were left hanging around the streets of East London (it isn’t about one piece a day, more about 365 over the whole year). of those 36 paintings left out yesterday we’ve heard of pieces being taken by people from Baltimore, from Rome, London, Manchester, from Jordan and France, we don’t hear about the fate of all the pieces of course, I guess some of them might end up in landfill anyway, we do get some great stories and some excellent photos from people though, a big part of this, the second year-long 365 art drop piece, is the engagement and the people.

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The latest #365ArtDrop18 paintings, November 2018

I love art galleries, they can be wonderful places, but they can also so often be aloof unfriendly, elitist attitudes, unwelcoming places, sometimes almost arrogantly so, art does sometimes need to engage, it never needs to dumb down, but it does need to engage a little more

 

 

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Columbia Road, A Cross For A Red Queen, three poppies, more art drops…

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The six week Cultivate Columbia Road takeover was, on the whole rather successful,  lots of engagement in the gallery, lots of interesting people, lots of good artists, four shows curated, lots of positive engagement, good conversation, sales (a piece of art sold is always a welcome thing, once a piece is finished it really is good to get it out of here, make space for the next ones). Columbia Road was good, the gallery, an old greengrocer’s shop that still had the old till and some of the fittings was good, the engagement with the locals was good, we thought it would all be about te flower market crowds on the Sundays but really it was about the locals who avoided Sundays,the real East End people, the Somalia family who lived around the corner and had never been in an art gallery before, the people who engaged with Emma Harvey’s Riot Grrrl paintings, the people who reacted to the stars in the window. Every space and place we take Cultivate to is different, different people, different feels, different crowds, really enjoyed the six week of the Columbia Road takeover, I like it when a show reaches beyond the art crowd, really must write in more depth about the takeover on the Cultivate website, thanks everyone.

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A #365ArtDrop18 piece left hanging in Hackney and now in Germany…

meanwhile the #365ArtDrop18 piece goes on, a year-long on-going piece of work in 365 parts, 365 paintings on found recycled material picked up off the street. Material found, cleaned up, painted on and them left hanging back out on the street for people to take should they wish to. It isn’t about a piece a day, the piece is about 365 paintings left out on the streets over the whole year. I see a piece left hanging under a railway bridge in Hackney last week ended up in Germany.

Yesterday at the studio, work in progress, yesterday being Sunday September 11th 2018, a larger canvas still being worked on… it seemed to be a fitting thing to be doing this on this of all weeks, indulging in something I love doing and being able to do so…

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Next stop, the first ever Christmas version the Art Car Boot Fair, it happens on December 9th down by new Port Street and the gallery district of Vauxhall, here in London, more details here…

Meanwhile a bit of gardening and some leaf growth around a cross, a piece painted a couple of weeks back, a piece that for a reason I shall keep to myself is called “A Cross For A Red Queen”, a piece on canvas, 70cm x 50cm, acrylic, brickwork, spray paint, gloss varnish. a slight revisit to the crosses of the summer and that Kensal Green Cemetery show that happen quite some time ago now….

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“A Cross For A Red Queen” – canvas, 70cm x 50cm, acrylic, brickwork, spray paint, gloss varnish

The Columbia Road takeover goes on, meanwhile pure has nothing to do with clean or the Brian Jonestown Massacre and who cares about artists disagreeing about the temperament of artists? More shows this Friday and through the weekend…

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Paintings at Shipton Street Gallery 

Part three of the on-going six week Columbia Road takeover kicks in this weekend with Maybe I Didn’t See It First, But I’m The One Who Wants It Worse at Shipton Street Gallery here in East London, meanwhile on Friday evening there’s an opening up in Clapton, just beyond the other end of Hackney, at Angus Hughes Gallery, more detail on the other side of that piece of record company paperwork there…

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“Who Cares?”,A piece quickly painted this morning, painted on an old bit of paperwork from the last century when I was silly enough to sign the Brian Jonestown Massacre back when I was stupidly running a record label and caring more about other people’s music than I did about my own art. Just delivered the piece to the Angus Hughes Gallery up in Clapton, East London where Paul Sakoilsky and Cederic Christie have show called Pure Has Nothing To Do With Clean where the two artists are disagreeing about the temperament of artists. The two of them have invited a number of artists to respond, the show opens tomorrow night… Who cares? Who cares about artists? Who cares if artists care? Why should anyone care? Who cares if two artists are arguing? Who cares what artists think?

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‘PURE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CLEAN’, Cedric Christie & Paul Sakoilsky are creating an exhibition based around a conversation Paul had at a…. “For the exhibition at Angus-Hughes Gallery, Paul Sakoilsky & Cedric Christie are disagreeing about the temperament of artists in this present time. What does it mean to be permanent and what it means to be in flux. The pros and cons of these positions. Cedric says ‘You’re permanent when you’re dead, you don’t move a lot.’ And Paul would like to know where he is going to be tomorrow. Both of these positions hold a particular energy in which work is made – an inquiring as to whether one is at the end or the beginning. The exhibition is based around that statement”, A number of artists have been invited to respond… the show opens on Friday evening, Friday October 12th at Angus-Hughes Gallery, 26 Lower Clapton Road, London, E5 0PD The show is open Thursday to Sunday 12-6pm, or by appointment, there’s a Kunst Clown Performance happening on 19th October 6-8 pm. and an artist talk 4pm and Finissage 5-7pm Sunday 28th Oct. Anton once threaten to shoot me, he made the threat on stage at SxSW, so far he hasn’t carried out the threat. The last time I painted a heart, it was for the cover of the BJM single, I don’t think I’ve painted a heart in this century, although others insist that’s all I ever paint. More details of Pure Has Nothing To Do With Clean via the Facebook event page

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James Bell on the plinth at Shipton Street 

Meanwhile the Cultivate Columbia Road takeover goes on this weekend at Shipton Street Gallery, with Part Three and a slight evolving of the work on the walls, a final chance to see those Emma Harvey Riot Grrrl paintings as well as a last look at some of the recent star paintings of mine before we complete change things over for Part four and the final two weeks of the residency down there by the flower market, part four opens on Thursday evening, Thursday October 18th. The Sundays have been brilliant down there, all kinds of interesting people dropping in as they head to the flower market, we’ve been letting it spontaneously flow, we love a space that attracts more than just the already aware art crowd, we’ve had some great conversations down on Shipton Street. Every gallery or space you work in brings different people and different tales, i must you about Mrs Thatcher’s old butler who came in last week..

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I Saw It First, I Want It Worse, halfway through the Columbia Road takeover, different hats and…

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Wearing several hats this week, most of them have paint on, I try not to get paint on anything other than the thing I’m actually painting. My curating hat is being worn quite a bit at the moment with the Cultivate Columbia Road takeover and a six week residency that we;re currently in the middle of, a residency at East London’s Shipton Street Gallery that runs until the end of October. There’s been two shows at the space so far, both documented on the Organ webpages and the busy Cultivate website – there’s plenty of words and images and thoughts on the other artists and their art over there on those pages, we’ve had some exciting art on the walls as well as impressive performance and installation, Emma Harvey‘s Riot Grrrl painting are looking good on the wall right now alongside Jessica Scott‘s pieces and James Bell’s slice of luxury. I rather like wearing my curator’s hat, there’s as much of a buzz to be had in showing other people’s art or discovering new exciting artists as their is in showing my own work. we must be getting close to curating something like two-hundred shows or events now, exhibitions and such that have featured the work of well over a thousand artists by now – it can sometimes be tense, stressful, frustrating, and Joshua Compston‘s thing about feeling like an aircraft carrier that people just land on, use for a bit until they’ve got what they want and then fly off without so much as a thank you does ring true – wouldn’t it be wonderful if artists actually worked together and supported each other just a little more, putting on art shows can be a thankless task. Putting on art shows can be brilliant as well though, especially when a show works and people are engaged, when people come in and react to the art or the artists tat we’ve invited to be part of it all. Hang on, stop, today isn’t the day to go into it all…

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Hang on, stop, today isn’t the day to go into it all, the second Columbia Road takeover show is happening right now, a show called I Saw it First, I Want it Worse (yes that show title did come from a Seven Year Bitch lyric), the current show along with the first one and the art and the other artists involved is all documented on the Cultivate pages and the Organ pages. here’s a taste or two of my art and the fresh stargrowth and the leaves and the the new layers and the notions of the Cheap Art Manifesto and the daily paintings and the beautiful old till and such – the gallery was once a greengrocers shop called Sylvester’s, back in the 60’s, I’m having lots of interesting conversations with people who lived in the area back then who can remember it, that might be something to revisit in the space later in the year… For now then, a taste of what I’ve been doing with my art in the space so far, there’s more to come before it all ends on October 29th, I do love painting, I much prefer my painting hat… Oh and by the way, just updated the on-line shop again, do please have a look, I’m going to need to buy a new hat before the cold weather kicks in…

The year-long artdrop piece went on at Deptford X last week..

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The Deptford X leg of the #365ArtDrop18 piece, Part 188/365, September 2018.

The on-going year-long #365ArtDrop18 piece continued over in Deptford, South London, last week as part of the 19th Deptford X art festival. The (always carefully carefully placed) drops we’re a part of the Fringe this year, the plan was for 43 paintings to be left as a response to the invitation to take part, the reality was only 22 were hung on the streets of Deptford – unfinished business then, we shall be back in the next few days. There’s simply just not enough days in the week or hours in the day right now, Deptford X on one side of the London, the Cultivate Columbia Road takeover happening at the same time on this side of town, it just wasn’t possible to be in two places at once last week. And so only 22 pieces of art, but hey, come on, 22 piee of art left for people to take, 22 paintings on found recycled material left hanging on walls around Deptford during the Deptford X festival.

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The Deptford X leg of the #365ArtDrop18 piece, Part 185/365, September 2018

We don’t hang around after the pieces have been hung, just leave them, take some photos asa record and then quietly go, we could see as we retraced our steps that  some pieces had been taken straight away, indeed one piece almost as we were hanging it (great conversation about Deptford and art and people with this guy who came over and asked about what we were doing (as I keep saying, a big part of what this piece is about is engagement)/ Others pieces were still there when we left, there to be claimed later as we saw via postings from people who had found pieces and posted images on their social media feeds in the days after the drop –  there is the #365ArtDrop18 hashtag on the back of each piece, engagement and people posting photos is a big part of the piece, it is encouraged…

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The Deptford X leg of the #365ArtDrop18 piece, Part 191/365, September 2018.

Here then are some images for my small part in this year’s rather imressively expansive Deptford X…

Please click on an image ot enlarge or to run the fractured slide show..

The first show of the Cultivate six week Columbia Road takeover, the King’s Cross paintings, the Silent Stars series…

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The busy week goes on, the first show of the Cultivate six week Columbia Road takeover kicks off at Shipton Street Gallery here in East London this Thursday evening. Every week is a busy week of course, but this one is particularly busy, still coming down from the fun of the fair and we’re off again with the first show of the residency on Shipton Street, a show called Intention, an intimate group show we’ve pulled together. The intention is to kick off the six week take over with a short sharp group show, a mixed media show featuring the paintings of Emma Harvey, the intrigue of James Bell, performance and artwork from Marnie Scarlet, sculpture and assemblage from Mia-Jane Harris, a leaf or two from me, the very painterly photography of artist Sofia Martins and attitude of mixed-media artist Suzie Pindar. Expect cross-pollination, expect busy walls in an intimate space, expect an artist-led art show delivered with the usual Cultivate attitude. We open on Thursday evening, everyone is invited

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INTENTION: Cultivate at Columbia Road – the opening group show at the first show of the six week Cultivate residency at Shipton Street Gallery, Columbia Road, East London (just off the Hackney Road and right by the flower market and such) . Opening night Thursday September 20th (6pm until 9pm) , then Friday September 21st until Sunday 23rd (11am until 6pm). Entry is free, everyone is welcome, no need to get on lists or any of that nonsense, do bring your own drink, we spent all our money on paint. This will be the first of four shows at the gallery from Cultivate over the six week period

And then on Friday, Deptford X starts, I shall be there with 43 more parts of the ongoing year-long #365ArtDrop18 piece left hanging on the streets of Deptford and South London as part of the Fringe at Deptford X over the ten days of the annual art festival

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Meanwhile the Cultivate on-line shop has been updated again, some of the more recent smaller more affordable paintings and pieces, no bread this time, but as the the Cheap Art Manifesto says, you can’t eat it but art will feed you….

here’s some of the recent smaller paintings and pieces from the last few weeks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so the Art Car Boot Fair happened, the Cheap Art Manifesto was posted, leaves and stars went on their way and…

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2018 Art Car Boot Fair, King’s Cross, London, September 2018

And so the 2018 Art Car Boot Fair happened in the sunshine of Granary Square over at Kings Cross, here in London. Here’s a for tastes of the view from my part of the Cultivate “boot”. We didn’t really escape from our boot all day, things were rather full on and wonderfully non-stop, so not so many photos of other people and their art this year (sorry). Excellent day, lots of good people, lots of sales, sales are always nice, lots of good conversation (sorry if I didn’t manage to say hello, things were very busy at times). I love taking part in the annual Art Car Boot Fair, I like that are gets to relax a bit, hair let down, pretentious thoughts kicked into touch for the day. Not everything is perfect about the day, of course not, bit the good things far outweigh the bad and well we had a great time under the big red Cultivate gazebo.

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2018 Art Car Boot Fair, King’s Cross, London, September 2018

The Why Cheap Art Manifesto isn’t my piece of art but I did have it pasted up as part of my presentation at yesterday’s Art Car Boot Fair. A couple of weeks ago a gallery I won’t name, run by an artist I won’t bother naming either, told me art was just a business – needless to say I won’t be working with him any time soon. Had a great day yesterday at the fair, a great day meeting people, selling paintings for the price of a good loaf of bread, original pieces of art really should be for all, if you ever catch me saying art is just a business then please do take my brushes and pencils away. Great day at the fair yesterday, big thanks everyone, Here’s a photo or two…