Red Tide East China Sea, fused plastic with stitching, 20x20cm

This project needs a bit of research. Today I woke with the idea of 'red tide'. We have more and more red tide in Maine over the summer.  We can't gather mussels or clams most of the time anymore.  One year fish washed up on the beach. We have more jelly fish.  The water is warming. I wondered whether there were any historical paintings of red tide but couldn't find anything. I did find a work auctioned at christies in Hong Kong by a young painter, Na Wei called 'The Red Tide Landscape'.  Incidence of dinoflagellate red tides in the East China Sea is on the rise too. 

I looked at scrolls from the Quing Dynasty and thought about living in Singapore. I find the result a little dystopian.

 I took this in an earlier form to Patrick and gave him a little context - 'the theme is the sea,' I said, 'where is this and what could it be about?'  After a pained look and a little grief he replied 'Japan.' I'm not sure why it should matter but for some reason I seem to think art should communicate something universal.

Exciting new project to prepare for!

Nocturne in Turquoise and Gold, fused plastic collage and stitching (responding to Whistler) 

I met with Michele Webber last week to discuss one of her latest events. She is coordinating and participating in a show at the Minories in August and asked me to take part as one of the artists with a 'solo show' taking over a room upstairs. The theme is plastic pollution around East Anglia and particularly on the beaches/oceans. I will be showing fused plastic and opened books.  Sometime in August I'll also be doing an interactive demonstration about my plastic process.

If you folllow my other blog: https://virtualdrawinggroup.blogspot.com you will know that I haven't been focusing on my plastic so much lately, although I did have a piece in a show in Hailsham, East Sussex recently which coincidentally was about the sea 

Plastic Flotsum, for Vital Water Week, fused plastic collage with stitching

For the show at the Minories my first thought is to make a series of pieces responding to some of my favourite sea paintings, using found fused plastic. Nocturne in Gold (top) is my first piece using this idea and it is in response to Whistler's nocturne number 5.  Obviously we will have to see how that goes but I loved really looking at Whistler, thinking about the way he breaks up space and the marks he makes - finding a language to describe what whistler says and does using plastic is a different kind of challenge. Now I need a title for the body of work I am imagining making.

It's all about the packaging!

Lured by 'French Toast' Turquoise - fused plastic collage & stitching 15 x 15cm

When Patrick returned from Ethiopia he brought me some presents.  Although they were beautiful, I have to admit being as least as excited about the plastic bag.  That bag formed the basis for this collage.  

While Patrick was away I had been doing a big pastel drawing of a 2 meter long still life I had put together in the studio. The dominant colour is red so the red polka dot bag that the Ethiopian earrings came in spoke to me. I also found two balloons this week, fuscia and pink and that was perfect too as there is a fair bit of both those colours in the follow-on six-canvas-painting of the same still life set up. The final main colour in the still life is turqouise and as I gathered my plastic this week it was the plastic I bought because of the packaging that made this collage relate so perfectly to what I've been thinking about in my painting and drawing.  The intention happened somewhere in the middle of selection. 

I was sick while Patrick was away and pretty much ate leftovers every day and night but I did go to the grocery store on one occasion. I shopped purely by colour, though. I found myself walking down the biscuit aisle and chose something I have never bought, never imagined buying and had never tasted - 'french toast'.  It is quite sweet and I wouldn't buy it again, but I did eat it all and so it was obvious I would use the plastic this week! The turqouise wrapper of the 'french toast' is a little shimmery too. 

The collage and the painting have a similar sort of ratio of colour. Gillian Ayres was whispering to me.