A quick update, in a rush, always busy, these are productive times, painting all night every night, lots of fresh fruit, lots of new leaf growth in the warm sun. Someone asked me about my paintings and why the need to paint layers on things found? I live in Hackney, right in the middle of the city, the destruction, the pollution, the evolving buildings, the broken walls, the real lives, that’s why i paint like I do – if I lived by the sea like I once did (and really hope to again) then I’d be painting the space and sky and the line where the sea meats that sky, but I can’t see that line here in Hackney, here I see the fractured streets and the layers, the leaves that push through the concrete, the fruit on the market stalls of East London, the weeds, the thorns.. The street artists think I’m some kind of stuck up over-thinking contemporary gallery artist, the contemporary art people see me as some kind of uneducated street art hooligan, really I’m a classical seascape painter trapped in Hackney buying my fruit off the street markets, I love market stalls, I love fruit stalls, art stalls, I love the interaction of an art stall…

The Art Car Boot Fair last month was as special to take part in as ever, a big big thanks to everyone who came along, said hello, bought art, took photos, i wrote about the day for Organ, here’s the link and a bag load of photos  –  ORGAN THING: And so the 2019 Art Car Boot Fair happened – different, defiant, same as it ever was, you have to love it…

This coming weekend we take the Fruit Shop to the Whitecross Street Party – the street party is ten this year, a weekend of live art, street art (I think there’s a couple of dozen artists painting live over the wekeend), contemporary art, urban art, galleries, live music, a poetry stage, music stages, sound systems, art stalls, food and more,  For this weekend (July 13th and 14th) the Fruit Shop will take the form of a market stall,, you’ll find lots of the recent fruit painting, some new ones that haven’t been seen yet, some fresh leaf paintings, new layers painted on old unwanted vinyl or wood or pizza flyers or CDs, lots of what we’d like to think is very affordable art.

The notions of the Cheap Art Manifesto still apply, the weekend will include a new piece called “#14WhiteStarz”, a piece of work in 14 parts, 14 paintings on found recycled wood picked up off the London streets. Each of the paintings will be for sale on the day at a price of just £5 (I like to do a litlte more than just churn out a coldhearted over-priced over-slick print release before an event like this weekend’s) .
Hopefully I shall be painting over the weekend at the part on material found during the day – entry t othe event is free by the way, miday until 5pm on both days, here’s a TimeOut feature –

“You’ll be able to see more than 40 artists doing their thing in the street, alongside giant sculptures and a bacchanal art parade. Or get stuck into den-building, a craft market, a tea party, free strawberries and cream and sets by Solution Sound System, local musicians, comedians and spoken-word artists. It’s free financially as well as spiritually. There’ll be plenty of village fêtes across the UK this summer, but we doubt any of them will be quite as eccentric as this. ”

Once this weekend has happened we shall get back to pulling together the next Cultivate group shows, we have several in the pipeline, we’re also preparing for Hackney WickEd and Deptford X, this year at X we shall have another of the #43ArtDrop pieces, a curated piece of work in 43 parts from me featuring guest artists like Emma Harvey, My Dog Sighs, M.O.B, and more. I do believe we’re heading off to Margate with the Art Car Boot Fair in September, more about all of those things next time.

Please do forgive the rushed nature of this quick update, there aren’t enough hours in the day to paint let along write, (although I do write lots about other people’s art over on the Organ pages) , By the way the Cultivate on-linem shop has been updated again, I will refresh it some more after the weekend. If you are at Whitecross do come say hello, once again a big big thanks…Sean…