Paintings for ARCO 2009

Here are some of the new works for ARCO. You you will find them in the stand of Rubicon Gallery, HALL 10 Stand Number 10A40 - 02.




Beach, 2008, oil, varnish and coloured pencil on wood panel, 75.5x60cm






Territories X, 2008, oil & spray paint on linen, 61x50cm





Carnival, 2008, oil on linen, 46.5x36cm

Esta mañana...

Early Saturday morning I was awoken at about 6.00am by a horrific howling noise. It was the wind of course...I peeped out of the window and saw what looked like the end of the world! Objects of all kinds flying past, destruction everywhere, strange light in the sky...and for most of Sunday there was no electricity. All back to normal now though, and I was thinking in the studio this morning that every painting has its own kind of weather system, with clear days or storms. And a curious fact; in Spanish the word "tiempo" can be used to mean "weather" or "time" which gives it a special poetic force.

Cyclone

One of the worst weather events in recent years is about to hit Northern Spain. The authorities have issued maximum alerts as a rare cyclone phenomenon is expected to reach its greatest intensity at midnight. Here is a satellite image issued by the AEMET the spanish state meteorological agency. It's 20.10 now so just a few hours to go....

Completed

I'm delighted with this...

In process - storage

Well under way...(and well overdue) my new studio storage. It looks like it will be finished today!

Storage

Back from London. Work will start tomorrow on a new storage area in my studio. Here is an image of the area of the studio where racks/shelves will be built. They will look rather like bookshelves when finished. Currently the space is not being used very efficiently at all...

Londinium - wedding - drawings

Off to London for a long weekend for my younger brother's wedding. I treated myself to a decent pair of shoes for the occasion in Bilbao this morning and picked up scans of new drawings that will be on view at forthcoming art fairs. Scanning is so much better than using a camera. I'm astonished at just how good the quality is: colour, detail etc. Here are two of them:





Collecting, 2008, coloured pencil on paper, 32.5x25cm





Crows, 2008, coloured pencil & holes on paper, 29x23cm

Things seen - de keyser, Newman

Barnett Newman,“The Blessing,” 1944, oil crayon and wax crayon on paper.





Raoul de keyser, Untitled, 2005





Raoul de Keyser, Detail, 2005

Steady as she goes...

Bit less time for blogging in the last few days, I've been Preparing works for art fairs: Art Brussels & ARCO - Watch this space for images of works that will be on view at the fairs. I will also be changing my main website soon...a new look and hopefully more user friendly as the archive of images and texts grows. Until my next post here are two drawings I made in 2007 from a series titled "Sonbou" both are coloured pencil on paper (with elements of collage) 32.5x25cm:

Chris Ashley at Room for painting Room for drawing

Chris Ashley has just opened a show at room for painting room for drawing in San Francisco. He is showing a beautiful group of paintings called the "blue and green paintings" Here is an installation view and the invite with press text..

For our third installation at the gallery we are showing Chris Ashley's blue and green paintings in the room for painting and Scott MacLeod's pencil drawings from 1960/62 in the room for paper. The exhibitions open on Thursday, January 8th with a reception for the artists from 5:30 to 7:30, and run through Saturday, February 7th.

Oakland based artist Chris Ashley has gained respect from art world insiders over the last few years for a unique series of HTML coded drawings he posts daily on his blog. A year's worth of prints from this online body of work was recently exhibited at David Cunningham Gallery in San Francisco. Parallel to this effort, Ashley has maintained a disciplined studio practice as an accomplished painter. Over the last three years he has been working on a formally related group of small canvases, oil and industrial metalic paint on linen, which he refers to simply as the Blue & Green Paintings. We are pleased to be able to present a representative selection from this series. A catalog of the exhibition with an essay by James Harris will be available from the gallery.

Corrections - in process

A few images of things that are occupying my attention over the last few days. Painting can be so slow no matter how much time you invest, it's not all physical intervention either...a lot of time is spent just being around the paintings, looking and looking...but that's good, all part of the process.

In process - Territories XX

Luz Silenciosa

Luz Silenciosa is a film by Mexican director Carlos Reygadas. I saw it last night and I think it is a very beautiful film - really unlike anything I have seen before. I did think of Dreyer's Ordet but Reygadas' use of the specific qualities of place (northern Mexico) and people (the Menonite community) create a totaly unique environment and mood which give the film a great intensity.
Here is the trailer, though I feel it is important to say that there is no musical soundtrack in the actual film.




A bit less time in the studio over last few days. A number of smaller paintings are underway characterized by a central lens or viewing hole which is usually oval in shape. Here is one in process:








A studio view taken yesterday. "Luz silenciosa" coming into the studio at last, after weeks of dullness and rain:

Finally, to all those who visit this blog, very best wishes for 2009!

Territories IV (Rameau)

Studio view this morning with Territories IV.




It's taken a while to get this one how I want. Dark light, the sense of energized space, the criss cross of shadows forming a dense lattice etc. It measures 125x105cm.




A detail...

Territories XVII

Territories XVII (...and I watched you disappear), 1999-2008, oil & spray paint on canvas, 65x54cm





Studio view with Territories XVII...

In process - territories (shift)

This is one of the paintings currently underway at the moment. Quite airy, light and thinly painted. It measures approximately 125x105cm.

Territories III

Some paintings are more of a mystery (even for me) in terms of where they come from: their source. The space is almost urban...very dense. A urgent state of mind: the dominant yellow. This painting really is a place in its own right. A slightly earlier version was reproduced in the blog recently.

In process...medio día

Comments

Hopefully, this blog gives a glimpse of the processes surrounding my work as a painter. All manner of things might be reflected on, and in many ways the blog functions as a kind of online notebook. I won't be able to respond to all comments within the blog itself so for any extended comments, questions or reflections I suggest sending me an email (to the address on the left) and I will be happy to reply!

End of Autumn...Francis Ponge

A naked chestnut tree that I saw this afternoon on a walk in Zalla.

It has been one of the wettest autumns I can remember. Everyday it rains. I miss the sunlight. And nothing moves me more than those sharp sunny days of autumn with a light full of contrast and clarity. I am posting here The end of autumn by Francis Ponge. He knew how to approach the things of this world, disecting them and opening them up into new configurations, making us see things afresh:

The End Of Autumn

All of autumn, in the end, is nothing but a cold infusion. Dead leaves of every sort steep in the rain. No fermentation, no production of alcohol: we’ll have to wait until spring to judge the effects of a cold compress on a wooden leg.
Sorting the ballots is a disorderly procedure. All the doors of the polling place slam open and shut. Throw it out! Throw it all out! Nature rips up her manuscripts, demolishes her bookshelves furiously clubs down her last fruit.
Then she abruptly gets up from her work table. She suddenly seems immense: hatless, head in the fog. Swinging her arms, she rapturously breathes in the icy, intellectually clarifying wind. Days are short, night falls fast; there’s no time for comedy.
The earth, in the stratosphere with the other heavenly bodies, looks serious again. The lit up part is narrower, encroached on by valleys of shadow. Its shoes, like tramp’s, soak up water and make music.
In this frog-farm, this salubrious amphibiguity, everything regains strength, leaps from stone to stone, changes pasture. Streams proliferate.
This is what’s called a good clean-up, with no respect for convention! Dressed or naked, soaked to the marrow.
And it doesn’t dry up right away, it goes on and on. Three months of salutary reflection with no bathrobe, or loofah, no vascular reaction. But its sturdy constitution resists.
So, when the little buds begin to jut out, they know what they’re doing, what it’s all about. That’s why they come out so cautiously, red-faced, benumbed, they know what lies ahead.
But thereby hangs another tale, perhaps from the black rule, though it smells different, I’ll now use to draw the line under this one.

Translated from French by C.K. Williams in Francis Ponge – Selected Poems.