Arts Meridian workshop and Peer Group and Professional Development Workshop.
This was a day organised by Arts Meridian at Cleethorpes Discovery
Centre. It began with an artist talk by
painter Steve Ingman followed by a Professional Development Workshop and
finished with a group crit.
· Artist Talk
Steve Ingman is a Nottingham based artist who works largely with oils, but gains
inspiration from the world around him which he explores, like myself by walking
when he uses a camera to record his observations which are the interpreted in
paint. He studied for his VS at Lincoln
and then in 2014 began an MA at Wimbledon College of the Arts. He is part of the Arts Meridian sponsored
Arts underlined project and is collaborating with local artist Dale Mackie to produce
a body of work on Cleethorpes which will be exhibited at The Discovery Centre
from January – March 2018.
He moved to Nottingham in 2008 and set up a studio which he
admits is messy but allows for creative freedom. From 2008 -2010 he worked on his first BOW:Night Light which comprises night scenes
of cityscapes painted in oils using both brush and palette knife. I thought the work was reminiscent of Van Gogh
although he says he was inspired by Edward Hopper[1] . One painting: Lego Brick Bollard employs a photographic technique where a car is
given an impression of movement by representing it as though it had been
photographed with a long exposure. In Department Store (2010) he tries to
portray the idea that the department store is the new church and consumerism
the new religion. Very rarely are people
included in his work as he prefers to put more emphasis on the environment in
which we live.
Between 2010 and 2012 he moved his focus to the village
where he grew up and the woods and old military installations which were his
playground; his wilderness. He produced
a series of paintings entitled Widerness. One particular painting reminded me of the
final image of Silver birch trees in my BOW. I had a print of the image which I
showed later in the crit and both Ingman and the rest of the group agreed. The foundations for his works are completely
abstract and then he builds his painting onto that abstract base.
Influenced by Peter Doug’s Concrete Cabin (oil on canvas 1994), a painting of an abandoned modernist
building which at the time was rapidly becoming rewilded, and also influenced
by the recession, austerity and now Brexit, Ingman produced a series of
paintings based on empty shops.
Interested in the natural world around him, He began, in
2013, to work on a series he refers to as the Wanderer. This included paintings of the crash of a B29
bomber in 1947 on Bleaklow above Glossop in the Peak District.
In 2015 he began work on a series that particularly
resonated with me: Temples of Ruin. He is interested in the meanings of
wilderness, urban and rural. He had
discovered an old lime kiln in the Peak District near Buxton and was fascinated
in the way it was being reclaimed by nature; rewilded. He saw it as the remains of a modernist temple. The results of his Labour’s, whilst obviously
being a lime kiln is very reminiscent of the ruins of an Aztec or Inca temple. He researched painters who had worked with
ruined archaeology and came across David Schnell from Leipzig. Ingman's Temples
of Ruin series explore the relationship between the natural and man-made (nature
v culture?). He argues that the term ruin can mean different things to
different people; there are different connotations. Research began to centre on ruin: artists and
philosophers. He recommended to me Paul
Virilio's Bunker Archaeology. The
Nazi architect Albert Speer had developed a theory of the value of ruins. He argued that a ruin in 1000 years would
signify greatness in the past. Buildings
that become runs are a message to future generations of past greatness. This body of work Temples of Ruin formed his MA degree show.
Another resource he recommended was Ruins published by The Whitechapel Gallery and on the Guardian
website Brian Dillon on Ruins.
I felt drawn to Steven Ingman's work and philosophies as I
felt that we had much common ground. Two
things sprang to mind regarding my own work is that I would like to make it
less figurative. One current approach is
to concentrate on micro-landscapes: micro-wilderness.
· Professional Development Workshop led by Linda Ingham
1. Creating Opportunities
·
Building networks are important
·
Group/partnership working; designing a project
·
An element of partnership is present in all of
Linda's successful funding bids
2. Making Approaches and the Importance of Research
·
Galleries and other organisations such as
stately homes and outside spaces
·
We need to be confident and ambitious
·
Research of exhibition venues is vital
·
Attend openings and make contacts. Who you know and what you know is very important
·
Research competitions and opens: gallery,
judging panel, previous work selected
3. Useful links
Group Crits
As always I found it fascinating
to discuss other people's work and with me being the only photographer it
really broadened my experience. Work
included graphite drawing painting, ceramics, rope sculpture, oil painting,.
Again it was valuable to share my
own work. Ad mentioned previously
talking about your own work really helps to get to know what it is about. I had taken mounted A3 prints of a selection
of my BOW. Remarks bout the quality of
the prints were positive and extremely encouraging. It was suggested that either grey or white
mounts would be more suitable with black frames. I was pleased that I had mounted them as
these comments will be useful when it comes to producing the images for my
final exhibition. I had mounted them
with no white showing between image and mount, but wondered whether a narrow
white border would be more suitable. All
agreed that no white would be better. I also had the introduction to my work
with me as I’m SYP A1 and enjoyed talking about it. This generated an interesting discussion.
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