A flurry of activity to finish off the year!

I’ve just finished a couple of commissions and I have pictures on display in 4 venues this month.

There are 5 ‘Mansion House’ pictures at the new Brevon Gallery which has opened near Christchurch in Doncaster.

There is a motley collection of Venetian and Renishaw work at Higher Rhythm on Netherhall Road in Doncaster.

Another mix of Venetian and Mansion House work is in the Cupola Gallery’s Christmas Show in Hillsbrough, Sheffield.

And a batch of 5 new Venetian drawings and paintings are briefly on show at the Workstation, 14 Paternoster Row, Sheffield.  This is the first group show by ‘Eight’, a select band of survivors from the Doncaster Visual Arts Co-op (DVAC) which was founded in 2004.  Look at my ‘Press Releases’ page for more information.

I’m very excited about the new work which has been very well received at the Workstation exhibition.  Some people have said it is a new departure from my previous style, and it is much more free and vigorous, but the brush and pencil marks link directly to some of the Venetian work of 4 years ago while the concept of trying to represent the space between viewer and subject can be traced back to some of my earliest work.

I love the old shop fronts in the drawings.  They look very old and on the point of dereliction, but the buildings they occupy are far older and have probably housed many earlier shops.  It’s as if the place is resting, pausing for breath before being transformed to a new purpose within the same old framework.

The paintings, based on a late night gondola ride through the narrow canals behind St Mark’s Square, are bigger, brighter and more lively than the tightly structured work I was doing earlier in the year.  I don’t want to lose the structure in my work because it is very important to me but these paintings (and the ones I’m working on at present) are great fun to do!