ØRESTAD STREET ART COMPETITION

The Ørestad street art competition invites artists from all over the world, to submit their vision for transforming a 271 meter long wall in Copenhagen, Denmark, into a spectacular work of art. Application concept: Title: Acceleration of Colour From distance viewing Ørestad is a fast moving and horizontal city, with new urban architecture and modern city planning. The wall is an integral part of the visible experience of the transport system, both road, rail, and pedestrian. The length of the wall and the distance from ‘start to finish’ presents an dynamic for pictorial design that will operate in ‘snatches’ but also as an integral whole image as viewed for example, from the train. In addition the work will function as a moving artwork as the viewer is positioned in transit. The sketches submitted have identified three sections for each element but in realisation the dimension of shapes in the design will stretch over five, six or more panels as the possibilities for the viewer are identified. Acceleration of Colour will be made in response to the place and location of the city of Ørestad featuring elements of the cityscape as initial idea shapes for the design. This follows recent commission projects where reference to place and location led to a new way of identifying pictorial structure. The project would involve drawing and research on location as angles, shapes and forms from around the town are identified for subject matter. Click here to view the two design sketches.

’WAVY BANNERS’ PROJECT 2013 - ET4U

Banner exhibitions 2013 In four villages in West Jutland, Denmark: Humlum Nörre Snede Sdr. Nissum Nees-Skalstrup - or Vorgod-Barde. The banner exhibitions 2013 will be part of the cultural festival ‘The Wave’ August 17. - October 19. 2013 organized by the Cultural Collaboration in Mid and West Jutland. ET4U is an artist-run non-profit artist run organization based in West Jutland, Denmark, whose main purpose is to create network among artists and to promote contemporary visual art in the western part of Denmark – the banner exhibitions is one of the ways for ET4U - to bring contemporary visual art out to anyone living in these rural areas. ET4U has invited artists from Morocco, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Pakistan, India, Brazil, Ecuador, Scotland, Wales, France, Italy, Serbia, Spain, Portugal, USA, Canada, Lithuania, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and Denmark. Following invitation, research is now under way. With the theme of the Wave it is hard for me this time not to work from the ocean, Tremadog bay, that is right on top of the studio. It is a cliche for a them of 'wavy' or 'waves' to use water and movement of water, but, this time the visual possibilities are not to be ignored. Digital files have been made and these first digital sketchbooks will form the basis for the development of the designs - in the first instance.

Primed Supports for New Work

New painting supports made: 17 small mdf supports cut and primed with one coat. One further coat needed..

New Gouache Works

This autumn a new series of gouache works on fabriano extra white HP 300g paper are underway. In challenging previous work size of 'colour arena' has been readjusted and the component elements multiplied.

Past, Present, Future: 10 years of the Regional Print Centre

A celebration of work by Regional Print Centre patrons, associates and members from the past 10 years.

This 10th Birthday retrospective exhibition (Oriel Wrecsam, 6th October - 1st December 2012) and publication has been curated by the Regional Print Centre Coordinator Jim Creed and celebrates the artists who have contributed to the success of Centre over the past decade. It showcases the diversity, development and innovation of printmaking as a creative process whilst highlighting the traditional roots of the medium. Screenprint Orange Level features in the exhibiton, made at RPC and toured extensively in South Australia with Le Chiele Wales/Ireland Print making exhchange (see previous post).

Bangor University Degree Show Film

Andrew talks about the programme in a film commisioned by Pontio and made by Culture Colony. The film features four graduates from 2012 talking about their work in the Bangor Museum and Art gallery. the film is made and edited by Pete Telfer of Culture Colony.
(Film no longer available as Culture Colony is closed).

Interview with Eli Acheson from 'The Art Lounge', Môn FM

Here is the link to the Andrew Smith's in depth interview on his art work and his work as fine art subject leader on the expanding Lifelong Learning Fine Art programme and the recent degree show. Interview with Eli Acheson from 'The Art Lounge', Môn FM. Her show which features local artists and goes new on local art shows in broadcast every Monday evening 20.00 - 22.00 87.9 FM Digital radio.

Ar Ymyl Lliw • Edge of Colour

Exhibition Installation of Gallery 1 Bangor Museum and Art Gallery can now be viewed here

Ar Ymyl Lliw • Edge of Colour

The exhibition in Bangor looks good, I am very pleased. It may be worth mentioning here that the three large paintings were made with this exhibition in mind. The gallery has absorbed all the proposed works and is a fine accommodating space for the work. Mike Knowles gave an excellent introduction to both Ann Catrin's and my show at the opening. Complete works can be viewed here. The exhibition is on until 9th June. Installation shots will be posted nearer the end of the show. Now, as the studio is empty, it is time to repaint the floor and back wall white...

Edge of Colour Exhibition Part 1

Edge of Colour Gallery Statement

“If I were a painter, I should paint only colours: this field seems to me freed of both the Law (no Imitation, no Analogy) and Nature (for after all, do not all the colours in Nature come from the painters?).” (Barthes) The principle that art defines the way we see the world has been well established, the maker and viewer are equipped with cultural knowledge: “Our senses have an age of development which does not come from the immediate surroundings, but from a moment in civilisation”. (Matisse) The process of making has, over time, led to colour being the only real direction for my painting. Working with drawing and colour, at once apart and yet inextricably linked (what are two lines without the defining space in between?), the edges of colour define the parameter of the image and by inherent irregularity involve the external environment in the experiential manifestation; the outer edges are no longer formatted. For pictorial operation colour needs colour. The interaction of the quality of colour is both the image and the structure. The structure of colour is its literalness, it is no longer contained in the painting or the apparent shapes within, rather it operates on the outside of the image working against and with, drawing, surface and depth. But, then there are new criteria evolving through process. The use of chromatic grey and areas of colour that directly support others to maximise the potency betray a practice starting as analytic. But through realisation, my painting is essentially to do with the innate instinctive energy of colour. It often feels that the work has developed on its own accord into an area of self manifestation. It is true that there is a suspension of belief in the making and an unconscious state linked to instinctive drive . Painting is an ordered chaos, the result of the paradox of conscious intention and unconscious act. The energy of colour in the larger paintings must be different from that in the small works. The increased area allow for a depth and permeation of colour through the painting as well as across the surface. Despite the illusion of organisation, colour has led the way and continues to do so, overriding shape and redefining the pictorial space on its own terms. In pursuing light (sensation) even the conscious decisions to upstage the conventional fade as the painting reaches a state of fusion , something I describe as totality. At this point, when the painting is at a stage of resolution, the process has to be left because familiarity enters the arena. Above all, colour must be felt. It is something instinctive. “Colour has its own meaning”. (Kelly)

UNEARTHED: the creative remains of a brownfield site

Distance of Colour is the work made for Unearthed that explores the creative legacy of Carpenters Road studios now park of the Olympic village. The work tracks the distance in time and physical space that my main concern of colour has travelled since the studio era to the present. Click here to visit Unearthed.

P STOP - THE ODYSSEY

Concept of the project from the organiser: Stoppage complex as a standart and functional object is always against its surroundings. This man-triggered gap is now softened by using transparent partitioning in modern design, through them you can see the surroundings. Unfortunately futuristic design of stoppage complexes in Perm together with semi transparent plastic they are made from, have made stops modern, but rather tight environmental objects. This entire “figures of silence” we want to turn into the objects of active communication. Stoppage complexes in Perm will be transformed into a field for representation of art, namely “П-stoppage – 3” of new ideas, images, feelings. This experiment allows not only to create another one route for the contemporary art in Perm, but also to formulate new expectations and tasks for functional objects from the city. Concept of the artwork: ODYSSEYBased on the classical Greek poem, the story of Odysseus journey is transferred visually into 6 separate stops along a given route through the city: LOTOPHAGI, POLYTHEMUS, NEKUIA, SIRENS, THRINACIA, ITHACA. Designs are printed with inkjet onto transparent film for adhesion to the stop. Click here to view the series. From this proposal Ithaca was chosen in the first round and with the initial plan of 119 stops due to increase to 600, the others may follow for printing. Museum of Contemporery Art PERMM, within the Public art Program realisation. Perm Center of Developement of Design.