Many Thanks

Finally got round to tidying up my travel diary and putting some thought into this new latest news blog. This year has got off to a flying start with a very successful trip to Belize and the prospect of an exhibition back here in the UK at some point. I hope this next bit doesn't sound too much like a speech but I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who helped me to make my trip one such a memorable one: especially Chris Minty, who set up the Artist in Residence; Vicki, Cat, Dave and all the staff at Pooks Hill Jungle Lodge for their help and support, (and for tolerating my more sarcastic moments;) Chapal and Lenny Gentle for their expert advice and generous donation of photographs for the exhibition I held in Belize; and Alex Tilley for providing an opportunity to spent time out on Glovers Reef and 'lending' me his archive of underwater pictures.

My other news is that I have been fortunate enough to acquire a studio space at the newly refurbished Coburg House Studios in Leith. I haven't actually spent much time there yet, but its great to think that I now have an proper working environment to slope off too, rather than sitting at my dinning room table staring out of the window and wondering what is on daytime tv.

The previous two entries contain a record of the pictures that I've completed in the six months, starting with the stuff from Belize, and a brief explanation about picture construction and the material used for each piece (yawn, yawn)...

Local Colour

Local Colour (2009) Exterior House Paint Colours of Belize
photo-collage on mounting board

This picture was inspired by the vibrant combination of house paint colours which are a distinctive feature of many buildings in Belize, a few examples of which are shown below....

Templates for New Pictures 2009

The style of four of the pictures I made in Belize were influenced by the template used for a recent magazine cover design. This commission was completed a few weeks before I took off on my travels. The simple format of juxapositioned squares can be cropped and sized very easily in photoshop, a tool I'm increasingly using in my work this year. Almost all the material I accumulated while in Belize was collected on a digital camera, and adjusted on the computer. However I have resolved that all the originals I create will still be printed out and framed on mounting board.

Cover design for the January 2009 Issue of the Society of Human Resources Magazine

the resulting original ....Multicultural Faces (2009)
photo-collage on mounting board

Below are the four pictures created in Belize which follow a similar format....

Green Shoots (2009) photo-collage on mounting board

Bark Study (2009) photo-collage on mounting board
photo credit for one square: Lenny Gentle

Abstract Lichen (2009) photo-collage on mounting board

Coral Study (2009) photo-collage on mounting board
photo credit: Alex Tilley

Edinburgh Festival: Pairs and Affairs (2008)

The brief for this picture was to explore an alternative way of summarising the experience of visiting the Edinburgh Festival, using the advertising posters and flyers with which the city is awash every August. I hit upon the idea of spelling out an interior message or story hidden within the assemblage, and what emerged was a narrative about a doomed festival affair. Don't ask me about my state of mind at the time, it was just the most obvious dialogue that presented itself while I was sorting through the piles of paper I amassed in the first week of the fringe. What also caught my eye was the number of pairs of posters which had similiar designs or themes. So I collected them together and positioned them across the final artwork, so that the pairs mirrored each other with as much space between the nominated squares as possible. The intention of the piece is to provoke thought about the process of attaching associations to what are essentially very disparate pieces of advertising, and on a more prosaic level, instigate a game of trying to pick out the matching pairs given a few clues......

Edinburgh Festival: Pairs and Affairs (2008)
printed material on mounting board (350 x 470 mm)

some of the squares which explain the basic narrative....


and a few of the pairs....