"Scapes" exhibition at the Balman Gallery

   I've busily working on some paintings for the latest exhibition at the Balman gallery in Corbridge.  The exhibition which began last weekend, is showcasing the varied and diverse interpretations of "Scapes", including land, sea and urban.  The artwork on show ranges from traditional to abstract, by leading regional and national artists.

 Whilst I'm probably better known for my cityscape painting, this new body of work will concentrate on imagined, abstracted townscapes.  I'm interested in the relationship between manmade structures within the landscape, whilst removing familiar landmarks that would normally hint at a particular location. 

 The exhibition runs from 23rd October till 24th November.  

  www.balmangallery.com 

  

Sydney Harbour

Next commission, once the NewcastleGateshead Art fair is out of the way .... and an exhibition at Brighton Road Studios ('In the Beginning')....... and an exhibition at the Balman Gallery ('Scapes').
And for once, it's not the Tyne Bridge, but the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  

Another two commissions

 Tower Bridge at Night

Just putting the finishing touches to a long run of commissions.  Perfect timing, as the NewcastleGateshead Art Fair is next weekend, and I've got some new paintings to complete for the event.  If you would like tickets for the event, let me know, I still have some spares.  The VIP evening is on Thursday 30th September (6-9pm), followed by Friday (11-6pm), Saturday (10-5pm) and Sunday (10-5pm).

Anyhow, this is what I've been working on recently, a recent London commission, acrylic on canvas 107 x 54cm.

Staiths

Another commission I've been working on lately has been for a new NHS primary care centre in Blaydon, which also incorporates a leisure centre. I was commissioned to paint the Staiths in Dunston, whilst incorporating other Gateshead landmarks (Angel of the North and Scotswood Bridge).  Painted on canvas, 1 x 1m.

Recent commission - Westminster

Been running a bit behind on the blog. Here's what I've been working on recently, a new commission of Westminster, painted on canvas 130 x 70cm. The brief was to include the Houses of Parliament, Westminster bridge plus Battersea Power Station in the background. Painted in the warm hues I do, with the receding light of a warm summers day. I was also requested to paint a black cab below Big Ben. Quite pleased with the result. Now on to my next London Commission of Tower Bridge, more to follow soon ...

Great weekend at the Late Shows

Well, the Late Shows is over for another year, and what a great weekend it was. We had alot of people come down to the Mushroom Works, and thanks to everyone who was able to make it down. It was a perfect excuse to drink far too much wine, two nights in a row, and to drunkenly slur unprofessionally at prospective buyers.
The theme for this years event was 'Weird and Wonderful' and we were asking you to let us know who or what is the most weird or wonderful thing [or person] at Mushroom Works, with 2 stickers. I think the winner of a sticker collection for the weekend had to be the unusual woman in a jar, who was accompanied by a man on stilts. Nick James was also there doing his fire breathing.

I got a few stickers of my own, not just for the pieces in the gallery, but also for work in my studio. I got more 61 Weird sticker to 40 Wonderful stickers, is that a good thing to get more weird ones? Probably. Whilst walking in the Ouseburn yesterday, after picking my daughter up from school, I came across a 'Wonderful' sticker on a drain. It was a wonderful drain, and someone obviously thought so! Interesting to think that a drain was chosen over all the work on show at the Mushroom Works. Great weekend, could've done with one more night.

Weird and Wonderful

Just a few more days till this years Late Shows takes place, and the Mushroom Works once again opens its studio doors for an evening of entertainment and several glasses of wine. I'm looking forward to opening my studio doors, drinking far too much, and attempting to talk (possibly slur) about my work.
The theme of this years event is 'Weird and Wonderful', which should be interesting, or a little strange. Guests will be entertained by fire breathers and a lady in a jar - which I'm very curious to see. The exhibition in the gallery will follow this theme, and the artwork (alongside the lady in the jar) will be judged as to whether its weird or wonderful. I think there are prizes, I hope so. Along with a few of my paintings, I've also included a couple of oddities from my studio.


Firstly there's a huge slab of acrylic paint, that has been building in size for years. Whenever paint becomes too dry on my palette or becomes dirty, I scrape it off and add it to this big slab, rather than it going to in the bin. It's important to think how much paint goes to waste, and try and put it to a better use. Well, at least give it a purpose. Eventually, would be interesting to chop it in half and see the different striations of colour, that have built up over the years. In the meantime, I'm just going to let it grow (very slowly). It seems to take on a form of its own. A very slow sculpture. Surprisingly heavy as well. It's positioned on a plinth alongside my paintings, and they seem to complement each other. Not only from the matching palettes, but it also gives the paintings an origin, linking to the process.


My final bit of weirdness in the exhibition, is my unusual collection of washers. Been obsessively collecting metal rings off the road for years now, like finding treasure! Most of the collection picked up on my route to my studio at the Mushroom Works, down St Lawrence Road. Passing numerous garages on route, who seem to part with alot of spare parts, rubbish and oil on the side of the road. Once again, I might as well give some purpose to the waste on the roads. For a while I was collecting cardboard as well, but managed to break that (slightly autistic!) habit.
Spent years wondering what to do with it, and now its 4 metres long, stacked together. Thought it was about time I revealed it. Simply arranged on the plinth, it comes across quite snake like, as the washers taper from large to small. I thought of it more like money being stacked, which eventually collapsed under its own weight and height. I used to love counting out the loose change from my piggy bank as a boy. Stacking it up, the uniformed bands of metal. Similarly with this, there's something really curious about the different bands of rusty and shiny metals. Occasionally a flash of colour.

The Late Shows 2010

The Late Shows 2010
Mushroom Works,St Lawrence Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 1AR, UK
Friday 14th May 7 - 11p, Saturday 15th May 7 - 11pm

The Late Shows, NewcastleGateshead’s legendary free culture crawl, returns THIS WEEKEND for the fourth year running and promises to be bigger than ever! The Mushroom Works will once again be joining in the celebration. We will be hosting a Meet the artists e...vent as well as holding some rather weird and wonderful events. We have invited some very special [and slightly strange] guests to entertain you for the evening, Fire breathers and ladies in bottles will all be there to ensure you enjoy the night. we will be asking you to let us know who or what is the most weird or wonderful thing [or person] at Mushroom Works.This is the perfect opportunity to meet some the regions most wonderful artists and makers and enjoy a drink with them in the comfort of their studio.

Hope you can make it.

Further Snail Portraits

I mean't to add another Blog post featuring a new selection of snail portraits, in the run up to the new Mushroom Works exhibition. But, as usual, I got slightly sidetracked. Been very busy with commissions that seem very difficult to complete.
The new exhibition at the Mushroom Works is called "Home Sweet Home". Thought it was a perfect opportunity to paint some more snails, using some fellow Mushroom Workers as models. Small, individual personal homes. The numbers on the shells, whilst relating to racing snails, represent the subjects house numbers. The snail shells are slightly larger than the first self portrait, but still small enough to be a challenge. The non flat, ridged surface caused me alot of problems, let alone trying to get the likeness of the subjects right. The Mushroom Workers who were kind enough to let me paint them on a snail were (pictured from L to R): Lara Robinson, (myself), Sarah Blood, Nick james, Bethan Laker and Michael Armstrong. Thanks to sarah Blood for the heads up in finding empty snail shells. The original Self Portrait I located, empty, in the garden. Maybe the next challenge would be to paint a shell that's in use.

Self portrait, snail shell

I used to have a neighbour who would paint numbers on the backs of snails, to catalogue them, and see if they would return. This did me no favours when they used to cross over to my garden and eat my sunflowers. Even more annoying when I used to find number 86, and wondered where the other 85 were! Anyhow, I was talking about this recently with someone close to me. And the conversation went on to my pet tortoise Colin. We were joking about what to paint on Colins shell, and we thought a self portrait would be funny. As that would be mean to Colin, a snail shell (empty, for now), was the next best thing. Quite tricky to paint though, as its a lot smaller in scale to what I'm used to. A fiddly self portrait.

Commissions aplenty

Oops, been gone for some time. And keep forgetting to keep the blog uptodate. Well here goes. Been very busy with commissions lately, which is always a good thing. Although now I'm a little snowed under. Just finished this one of Newcastles three main bridges. And I'm just about to finish two paintings of the River Tyne, one Upriver, the other Downriver. Should crack on. The sooner the commission backlog is out of the way, then I can crack on with some more abstract work.

Ouseburn Open Studios 09

It's come to that time of year again. The last weekend in November sees the return of the much-anticipated Ouseburn Open Studios and this year’s weekend promises to be bigger and better than any before!

The studios in the Ouseburn Valley are home to a wide range of artists and designers. This year there are eight venues opening their doors to the public, located across the breadth of Ouseburn Valley. I have a studio at the Mushroom Works, and I would love it if you could come along and take a look. This weekend gives you the opportunity to talk to me about my work and learn what goes on behind the studio doors. It’s also a great chance to talk about commissions and there is always a wide variety of work on offer to buy, adding some relief to the tedium of Christmas shopping.

And don't forget out special 20x20 for £20 offer!
Original artwork that won’t break the bank! Now considered an Open Studio tradition, Mushroom Works will be offering the fantastic opportunity to purchase artworks (measuring 20cm by 20cm) by leading North East artists for the special price of £20.
Perfect for unique Christmas gifts!

Friday 6pm - 8pm (preview night)
Saturday 10am - 5pm / Sunday 11am - 4pm
Admission is FREE

www.ouseburnopenstudios.org
www.mushroomworks.com
www.jimedwardspaintings.com

Newcastle Gateshead Art Fair 2009

The largest commercial art fair in the North East returns to the Sage Gateshead, 1st - 4th October 2009. Once again I will be representing myself at this years event, at the Jim Edwards stall number P9, just at the top of the main central stairs. I will be exhibiting my most recent cityscapes, coastal scenes and abstract work, aswell as my new range of prints. This year, I will also be showcasing the ethereal, mutilayered paintings of Natalie Bell. It would be fantastic if you can come along and see some of the artwork on display. If you're interested, I have a number of VIP tickets for the event, which can also be used for the entire weekend. If you would like me to save you some tickets, contact me on 07946643306 or email jimedwards1@hotmail.co.uk.

www.ngartfair.com

Thursday, October 1st VIP Evening, 6 - 9pm (invite only)
Friday, October 2nd 11am - 6pm
Saturday, October 3rd 11am - 5pm
Sunday, October 4th 11am - 5pm

Hope to see you there.

Berwick Exhibition

Walls and Bridges - 150th Year commemoration of the death of Robert Stephenson

As part of the Stephenson 150th anniversary festival, commemorating the life and work of Robert Stephenson, the Gymnasium Gallery in Berwick-upon-Tweed will be hosting an exhibition on the theme of Walls and Bridges. The exhibition will include selected contemporary artworks by local, national and international artists inspired by the architecture of the town. The Gymnasium Gallery is located on Berwick-upon-Tweed’s walled Ramparts in a town with four distinctive bridges. I have been invited to submit four large canvases for the exhibition. As a cityscape painter, I am very interested in the iconic scenery of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in particular the bridges and the red rooftops. And this forms the basis of the proposed paintings. As with the attached incomplete picture, the four paintings are in progress and will (hopefully!) be finished by the end of the month, ready for the exhbition which runs from the 7th October.

7th - 24th October 2009 Wednesday - Sunday 12pm - 4pm

Proximity II

I've fallen behind on keeping the blog updated, so here I am overloading it with posts!
I haven't been working much with concrete lately, as I've been concentrating more on painting and turning art into money. The picture above is of my most recent concrete piece, 'Proximity II'. I made it as aprt of an exhibition with the theme 'Sustainable Environments', but I ended up putting some other work in the exhibition, as this piece was too heavy to hang on a wall that wasen't strong enough to take it. Its size is 60 x 35.5 x 3.5cm. As its a wall piece filled with holes, it also comes with concrete forms that fill the holes, so the background wall doesn't show through.
The sculpture explores overcrowding within a cityscape, where too little personal space is being shared by too many people. The hollow forms in the concrete represent reduced human spaces overlapping one another. I was also interested in the research of E. T. Hall, who introduced the term proxemics, to investigate people's use of personal space. Hence the title of the piece

Holy Island

I got carried away painting Holy Island recently, and am presently working on painting no.4. If the 4th works out well, I may get a print done. Each time I've finished a painting of the island, I've been driven to paint a different version, whilst remaining quite similar compositionally. Its really just a change in atmosphere, whilst trying to improve and have a better understanding of the subject matter. It's unusual for me to repeat a theme like this, as it would normally drive me mad. I usually like to be done with a view, and move on to something else before I get bored. I think I'll stop at four for now, perhaps come back at a later date. Take a look at the website at www.jimedwardspaintings.com to see the different versions I've been working on.

Print

I'm beginning to put together a collection of prints, taken from my favourite, most recent paintings. The most recent is 'Free Trade View II', is a small run of 145 prints. If you're interested in this print or another one, and want more information or even want to purchase online, then take a look at my website:
www.jimedwardspaintings.com

Newcastle Artists Society Launch Show

Richard Ling Gallery
14 Lansdown Terrace
Gosforth, Newcastle Upon Tyne

01 August - 30 September 2009

I'm presently exhibiting some of my paintings, along with other artists from the Newcastle Artists Society, at the Richard Ling gallery in Gosforth. Had a great opening preview last night (1st August), and sold a few prints. And hopefully some paintings will go over the next month. For more information visit
http://www.newcastleartistssociety.com

www.jimedwardspaintings.com

Ive updated my website, so take a look at
www.jimedwardspaintings.com
I was having a few problems with the last set up, but I will be able to update this one more effectively, take contact information from those who are interested in my work, and even make sales online.

Sustainable Environments

Grid XXIV


Grid XXIII

Sustainable Environments
Mushroom Works, Newcastle Upon Tyne

6th June - 11 July 2009

With World Environment day taking place on 5th June, Mushroom Works presents an exhibition which asks, should designers, makers and artists consider the environmental, sustainable and ethical concerns of modern day society within their work?

Good design, within and of our buildings and homes, is an important way forward in addressing the environmental challenges of today. Too much waste, not enough energy, too many people, not enough resources, complaints and worries we all hear.

I will be exhibiting 2 new abstract canvases for this latest exhibition, continuing on the 'Grid' series. These paintings are very much based on the urban environment whilst holding onto the roots of abstraction. The paintings for the exhibition will explore overcrowding within a cityscape, where too little personal space is being shared by too many people. The blocks forms in the paintings represent reduced human spaces overlapping one another.

1st Quarter III

Above the Oxo Tower

Quayside I

For a while now my cityscape paintings have been dominated by heavy, bold lines. In my new series of paintings, I've attempted to reduce the heavy lines, to not be controlled by it. And where the lines become broken and less fussy, there's a more interesting play between the blocks of colour.

Concrete Block

There is mean't to be lots of blocks of varying sizes, but I had to leave it at just one. It's relatively large and heavy, and took alot of bags of concrete to make, so space in the studio would be an issue. But it doesn't work aswell by itself. I was too impatient to make it hollow, and so it's a solid block. I underestimated the amount of concrete I would need to fill the space, and completely ran out. So to bulk it up I filled it with 2 tins of tomato soup! Not for any Warhol reason, it was the only thing in the studio that I didn't mind loosing in a giant block of concrete. At least it's always there for an emergency if I'm ever a starving artist, I can always crack it open and have a feed!

Quarry I

I've always had a fascination with opencast mines and quarries. I grew up near several in Wales, which I explored as a child. There's something amazing about the manmade marks made to a landscape on such a huge scale, almost like an inverted sculpture or building. I love the 'Manufactured Landscape' photography of Edward Burtynsky, and recently came across a book of his on Quarries.
This wasen't directly in response to this book, but more in response to wanting to dig out the contents of a plaster block (with concrete on the bottom). I'm obsessed with digging holes in the sand whenever I go to the beach, and this was similar in some way.

Newcastle VI

I've been away from the blog for a while. It's about time I uploaded some images of the paintings and sculptures I've been up to.

More Concrete Grids

This is a practice piece for something I've got planned, which I'm hoping to try out soon.

London Stretch

Newcastle I

Grid V

Grid XII

Take the 3rd Left

Half an Hour Wait

High Level Bridge

Above the Bridges II

Another concrete Grid

I've finished playing with concrete, for a while. Returning to the paint with some fresh ideas. I've got some other ideas for concrete, which I shall put on the backburner for now. Got a couple of commissions to get through first.

Sequential Plot

Sequential Plot, painted a few years ago, based on thumbnail sketch (see below).

Thumbnail sketch

Here's the initial sketch for the triptych painting 'Somewhere'.



This reminds me... I need to do a painting of the thumbnail at the top of the page. I painted the other a couple of years back.

Grid I

The 1st of The Grid paintings. It's turning out to be a long series, mainly because I keep coming up with good/new related ideas.

Grid in concrete

I'm mean't to be painting chubby bridges or something. Something constructive that I can sell. But at the minute, all I want to do is play with concrete. I'm having a Richard Drefuss moment (Close Encounter..), and I'm driven to do my abstract 'GRID' ideas in concrete. It's trying to tell me something, to go somewhere, and it's not Devils Tower! Maybe NY? I'm enjoying doing something sculptural, for a change, something that involves alot of process. I've been working on some other things, which I will put on the blog over the next few days (if they're any good).

Somewhere Triptych

I Went to an Investment bankers yesterday,to photograph an old painting of mine they had on their boardroom wall. It was the first large (triptych) I painted, back in 2002. Part of a solo exhibition I had at the Biscuit factory. It was my first attempt at abstracting the cityscape, based on a thumbnail sketch I did in Amsterdam. (I will have to try and find it). I was interested in the markmaking in the initial sketch, and was trying to reinterpret those marks in paint. Not the best splicing together of 3 seperate images. The stretchers have bowed a bit, since I painted them, and dont align so well anymore.

Grid XX

I'm juggling with a few ideas for new abstract paintings, continuing with the 'Grid' series. I've even been experimenting with different media, including more sculptural forms (cement and plaster). Partly inspired by Natalie Bells sculptures, who I just happen to be in a relationship with (and share a studio). I will try and remember to take some photos of my experimentations, and upload them. Maybe tommorrow.

Gateshead

I've finally put the finishing touches to an epic four panelled painting (polyptych), commissioned by Gateshead council. Measuring 50 x 160'', it took the best part of two months to paint, and it stretched from one end of the studio to the other.
It's my own interpretation of Gateshead, featuring familiar landmarks from the Shipley Gallery to the Tyne Bridge and Newcastle in the background. As with all of my cityscape paintings, the composition is worked out from memory. Certain buildings are altered, moved or forgotten, giving the painting a unique perspective.
Over the next month, Gateshead Council will be unveiling the painting in their newly refurbished 'Bridge Room', at the Civic Centre.