Category Archives: Paintings

If you ever catch me saying something like that, please please please take me out back and have me shot, what a depressing way to talk about your art…

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Love that photos up there, more about it and the end here, but first, did a fellow artist really just tell me that art was “just a business”? Really? Did he really just say that? Really!? How depressing, do artists really think like that? Is “building a business” the only reason to put on an art show? “I’m building a business here” he said, really? Is art “just a business? If you ever catch me saying something like that, please please please take me out back and have me shot, what a depressing way to talk about your art and the shows you put on. I need to get that thought out of my mind. Of course you need to think about the reality of paying bills and eating and the rest but “just”? Really? It wasn’t Hamish by the way, I’m just getting to know Hamish, we were both invited to share the gallery walls by the people over at no format, no one mentioned business, they just extended the invite and offered the space, I didn’t know of Hamish Macaulay or his art until we were both invited to make use of the walls on no format gallery last week, looking forward to seeing what he’s been doing in there later today and them maybe reacting to it in some way. nice to actually some together with a gallery and another artist, makes for a refreshing change, Mr. “art Business” back there really didn’t get that notion, I guess now, thinking about it, his art kind of  reflects his attitude. I wonder when the ideas distilled through punk rock forty-odd years ago will ever filter down to the art world? Is it really just a business?

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Last week “Eleven” was part of an installation under the trees in a wood as part of an outdoor show as part of the Leytonstone Arts Trail, it spent two weeks being explored by foxes and blackbirds, this week the piece, painted on eleven pieces of a broken bed will be heading for a white-walled gallery called no format gallery over in Deptford, the show, Unframed? opens this coming Thursday evening July 26th

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Fresh leaf growth, new layers, starz and that big silver wooden frame that someone dumped on the street in Hackney last week. And when a frame is thrown out then leaves will grow in that unwanted frame. This painting was concluded late last night, I expect it might be on show at no format gallery next week as part of the #Unframed? show ( I didn’t say my work would be unframed, we’re just thinking outside the frame). The painting is acrylic on wood in found frame, 90cm x 65cm.

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Here it Comes Again – acrylic on wood in found frame, 90cm x 65cm. (July 2018)

The week of Unframed? is upon us, Hamish is working on some larger format prints in the space today ahead of Thursday evening’s opening, I shall be going over to see what he’s done and do some work of my own later . meanwhile I shall be hanging some of my recent paintings on the gallery wall and at the same time finding new things to work with and paint on during the week. Expect the year-;long #365ArtDrop18 piece to carry on south of the river during this coming week. Keep an eye on the walls around the area during the week. The idea is to find material that had been thrown out, clean it up, painting on it, and then hanging it back out there on the streets for people to take should they wish to. This particular piece was left hanging on a wall near no format gallery last week

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A #365ArtDrop18 piece left hanging in Deptford…

The excellent photo at the top of the page just arrived from Belgium, a shot taken outside the Stella factory so it seems, a brilliant photo of one of the finders of a #365ArtDrop18 piece with the painting her and her partner found, love this photo. One of the important aspects of this year-long piece of work in 365 parts, 365 paintings on found recycled material, is the photos of the finders with their pieces and tales of where the paintings have got to. This one was painted on a found piece of wood picked up off the street here in Hackney, it was left hanging on a wall somewhere in Shoreditch, East London, earlier this year, and now it has turned up in Belgium, this kind of thing is exactly what I was hoping would happen to the paintings and the #365ArtDrop18 piece, keep sending those photos in or posting them on social media so we can find them and share them.  Art? Just a business? What a sad way to think about it…

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Out in the woods in Leytonstone, eleven pieces of a broken bed, next stop Deptford for a show called Unframed?

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Sean Worrall – Eleven (July 2018)

I’m kicking myself for not taking a photograph of the broken bed base as it was when I cane upon it on the street in Hackney, the wooden bed had been smashed up and dumped on the street, I couldn’t resist the wooden struts that were left lying there unbroken on the pavement (other bits of wood from the smashed up bed have become artdrop pieces). Really am kicking myself for not taking a photo of the wreckage on Mare Street, it was one of those days when I head out from the studio in search of something to paint on, my rule is that I can’t come back home until I’ve found something, should have taken a photo of the pieces of wooden bed on the street, I have taken lots of photos of the painting process. The eleven pieces were cleaned up, sanded down and all eleven were painted together, there weren’t painted to fit together, they were all painted at the same time, painted together, all started and finished together, several layers grown on each one over a period of around three weeks…

The thinking was that they would appear in several different situations, all eleven as one piece, Eleven, it is very much one piece of work. Eleven made a debut two weeks ago at Wild, at outdoor installation/sculpture show in the woods at the back of the Quaker Meeting House out in Leytonstone, as part of the 2018 Leytonstone Arts Trail (always a pleasure to be invited to take part in the Arts Trail, this was my fourth year out there in E11). There’s some documentation of Wild and the twenty or so artists who took part this year over on the Organ website. Eleven was left under some trees deep in the woods, left for the foxes to run over,and the Blackbirds to checkout, it sounded brilliant in there for the two weekends that the show was open for.

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Eleven’s next appearance will be over in Deptford, south over the river over there in London SE8 and a and a show at no format gallery (they like is to all be lower-case, don’t get all proofreader on me now). From the floor of a wood and the light through the trees in East London to a white walled formal gallery in South London. It happened like this, the gallery had a last minute week with nothing going on so an invite came our way. I must confess I didn’t know of print-maker Hamish Macaulay until last week when the people at no format extended the invited and suggested we might like to collaborate

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HAMISH MACAULAY and SEAN WORRALL – Unframed? – no format Gallery, Deptford. London, SE8 5JN –  26th – 29th July –   Unframed? will open on Thursday July 26th (6pm until 9pm), and will then run from Friday 27th until Sunday 29th (midday until 6pm)

Unframed? One painter, one print-maker, two artists coming together to share a white-walled gallery space for one week. Hamish Macaulay and Sean Worrall, two artists, invited to takeover Deptford’s no format gallery for one week. The unframed plan is for the two of them to experiment in the space, to spread their work out, to play with installation and hang their work in the space at the start of the week, and then to see how things develop. Who knows what will happen?

The two artists (who didn’t know of each other until last week) will begin the week with the blank walls. Their plan is not to work together but to share the space and to see what develops. They plan to use the space for the first three days of the week, see what happens, and then open the doors to the public on Thursday evening for a formal yet experimental art exhibition.

On Thursday evening Unframed? will open with a “private” very public view (everyone is welcome, just come along). The no format gallery will then be open during the day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The show might stay as it was for the opening on the Thursday night, then again, it might continue to evolve? This is an unframed experiment, who knows?

Unframed? Will also feature work from a small handful selected guest artists, artists invited to show in the space by Sean and Hamish. (guests t.b.c).

Click on an image to enlarge or to run the fractured slideshow and shots of Eleven in the woods over at Wild…

 

 

Thinking aloud, recent paintings, the real ones, not the throwaway pop art things…

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Sean Worrall – “You Might Recall” – acrylic on found plywood, 70cm x 29cm (June 2018)

Busy clearing up, sorting out, making sense, making no sense. clearing out. The notion of a painting concluded every day goes on, day 543 today, a painting on a wooden cherry box, and this year’s art drops go on, about 120 so far this year, I expect there will be quite a few more this weekend – smaller paintings on found material, but this isn’t really what I really do as a painter/artist, Someone said to me the other day, another artist actually, that they thought the daily conclusions and the art drops were all I did, that they though I was all about mass producing leaf tags with spray paint, bits of pop art mass production on old bits of wood, that and leaving things on the street. No mostly I slowly paint bigger paintings, pieces that slowly evolve over the months,sometimes years that I then surround myself with while I run out of space….at the moment painting the series of star paintings is what I do, the rest of it, the art drops and such,all that stuff is just throwaway. Take no notice, I’m just thinking aloud… and not that i think anything I do is throwaway….

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Some of the more recent paintings

Found a piece of wood lying on the ground on Emma Street…

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Found a piece of wood lying on the ground on Emma Street, here in Hackney, a piece of wood can’t be left, it can’t just go into landfill (maybe it still will in the end?). a piece of wood found and painted on….

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“Emma Street Again” (May 2018), Acrylic, brushwork, spraypaint, gloss varnish on wood, 51x12x2cm.

“Emma Street Again” (May 2018), fresh layers, new growth, a painting on a piece of wood found lying on Emma Street, Hackney, East London. For when a piece of wood is thrown out leaves and layers (and starz) will grow on it it. Acrylic, brushwork, spraypaint, gloss varnish on wood, 51cm x 12cm x 2cm.

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“Emma Street Again” (May 2018), Acrylic, brushwork, spraypaint, gloss varnish on wood, 51x12x2cm (detail) 

 

Another painting, there’s always another painting, for paint is lifeblood and to not paint isn’t an option…

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Another painting, there’s always another painting, for paint is lifeblood and to not paint isn’t an option.  “Herb Robert” (May 2018) – Acrylic, brushwork, spraypaint, starz, gloss varnish, on recycled found plywood, 45cm x 45cm

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Sean Worrall – “Herb Robert” (May 2018) – Acrylic, brushwork, spraypaint, starz, gloss varnish, on recycled found plywood, 45cm x 45cm 

 

More leaf growth, new layers and the on-going year-long #365ArtDrop18 piece, 365 paintings on found recycled material…

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#365ArtDrop18 – 62/365, a leaf left hanging in Hackney, East London. May 2018

More leaf growth, new layers and the on-going year-long #365ArtDrop18 piece, 365 paintings on found recycled material, material picked up off the street in 2018, 365 paintings on found piece of recycled material throughout the year, 365 painting left hanging on walls, in tunnels, by canals, on fences, left for people to take should they wish to.

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#365ArtDrop18 – 72/365, a leaf left hanging by Columbia Road Market, East London,, May 2018

The weather is improving, the better weather means more drops, there’s been 73 so far, expect an explosion of paintings left hanging as the summer starts to kick in. The piece is all about engagement, the breaking down of those barriers that gallery doors (and attitudes) can so often throw up, that and of course questioning how wasteful we are, questioning why we don’t give a second thought to the things we just throw in skips to leave on the street or don’t ever dream of re-using or handing on to others…

Part 61 to 73 of the #365ArtDrop18 piece, click on an image to enlarge or ot run the slide show…