2023 Achievement
My painting “ Keep Them Safe” was selected by Art Boxy to be shown on screen at EuroAirport Basel during Art Basel Switzerland alongside a beautiful catalogue of my work, which was part of the prize. This gave me the amazing excuse to visit Basel and go to Art Basel myself which was something I had wanted to do for a long time. The Fair was far larger than I expected it to be and only had time to see half of it. I was amazed at how close you could get to some very valuable artworks. While I was in Basel I also visited the Tinguely Museum which I highly recommend if you should find yourself in Basel it was an unexpected highlight, a gallery with a sense of fun in beautiful surroundings.
I am a visual artist and the most important lesson for me is that my work should speak to the viewer visually. I don’t have to be able to write the most wordy, eloquent, statement to describe my work, if my work doesn’t work on an immediate visual level, then for me, it is worthless. – Far too much importance is put on academic achievements. I don’t think Picasso, Modigliani, Cezanne, Rembrandt or many famous artists had masters or spent their time writing artists’ statements. It’s the art that you create and not long, wordy, incomprehensible, statements about yourself or your art that are important. Leave the analysis to the academics, the curators, future art historians and most importantly the viewer to asses and interpret your work. It’s also always good to leave some things to the imagination.
2024 Goals
Having a sizeable body of work I would like to spend some time in 2024 photographing, and cataloguing my work. Like many artists, I am extremely disorganised as soon as I have finished a painting that was once my centre of attention it is put to one side and all my focus becomes centred on the new piece I am going to create. Putting off photographing the finished work and collecting all its vital statistics, when it was created, medium, size, weight etc. is not a good idea as it all eventually runs into complete chaos. When you are applying for anything in the art world these days, knowing everything about your work including its DNA matters! Like many artists, I am extremely disorganised as soon as I have finished a painting that was once my centre of attention it is put to one side and all my focus becomes centred on the new piece I am going to create. Putting off photographing the finished work and collecting all its vital statistics, when it was created, medium, size, weight etc. is not a good idea as it all eventually runs into complete chaos. When you are applying for anything in the art world these days, knowing everything about your work including its DNA matters!