Apocalypse!

In January I made a trip to London to finally see the John Martin exhibition Apocalypse as well as a few other exhibitions. 

John Martin, The Great Day of his Wrath 1853

I haven't looked into John Martin since my degree. An obvious choice some might say as an influence for my work, however I really hadn't looked at him in any greater depth, mainly because while I was interested in him in general, I wasn't particularly interested in the religious significance of the apocalypse. Nor has history painting really held much importance for my work.

Individual exhibition rooms were based around a chronological system, charting his life through his work. The works themselves had as much impact as they must have had when they were first unveiled and it was interesting to learn that while popular with the public, Martin's works were lampooned by the critics.

Certainly many of his subjects had a historical or religious basis or inspiration, however although signs of the apocalypse that follow these inspirations are well known there was also certainly a significance for the time it was created. Scenes of fiery apocalypse echo that time of extreme change and industry.

Yet it is not all fiery apocalypse.

As well as the large paintings of implied death and destruction there are also images that are of seeming peace and tranquillity, showing the peaceful aftermath of the storm that brought the great flood or angels taking the good to heaven. There are even a number of small works that are more rural and of the natural landscape which owe more to Claude than the Bible.

In all though it is obviously the fiery apocalypse that is the focus of the exhibition. But it is great to see the breadth of the artists work. Many of the apocalyptic paintings have a certain sameness about them, especially the ones that rely on an almost exclusively red palette. Many as we know come from historical and/or Biblical stories and both of these work best when the subject of the story is placed in such a way to accentuate the emotion and drama. As such the feeling of the imagery being staged is almost inescapable. Indeed Martins works do feel staged, critics of the day commented on this glossiness, in fact the staged nature of the works was much greater than might be initially seen. Martin would also replace minor characters with important figures of his day, possibly highlighting something about these people in relationship to the parts they played in his paintings.

Certainly in an era that was embracing romanticism and the sublime, Martin gave the public the most spectacular and shocking portrayal. In many ways this extreme unreality reminds me of the nature of the postcard. Granted no one would be encouraged to visit these places but falseness they had in spades.

Even with this falseness the details are astounding. Harsh almost textural paint creates the most tiny of details. Sometimes the detail reveals more about a falseness of the image from over accentuated waves to lightning strikes that sit like knife and rule slashes in the fabric of the canvas. I found the lightning particularly odd until I realised that at this time society had only just leant what electricity was, additionally it was a phenomenon that lasted mere milliseconds with none or very little photographic information to reveal its detail and true nature. Martin would have to have relied on his own memory of such events, which would be flawed at best, as well as other potentially equally flawed renditions of it. In his later paintings the use of lightning has changed and appears far less angular and unnatural.

Finally a word should be said about the title, a title that both seems appropriate and over the top. Appropriate because he is very well known for his paintings of biblical destruction, however the exhibition is by no means just about these fiery images. It includes a range of works that describe the man as artist, but also as civil engineer, businessman, father and brother. His life was by no means an apocalypse but had it's ups and downs like anyone else. Maybe by calling it by a title that can never be lived up to (Apocalypse being the most spectacular of ends, but it is also one you don't come back from) it reminds us that he is just a man and is as apt to failure as anyone else. It also makes me think of the split between commercial and public success vs. the critical disdain his works produced.

In addition the timing of this exhibition seems highly coincidental. The choice of a time period that extends into the first few weeks of 2012, a year that has been highly publicised (even to the extent of having a film made about it) as the year that the Mayan people apparently predicted to be the end of the world. Again this choice seems to cash in on the publicity and hype surrounding this significant date making the work by a successful (for his time) commercial artist even more commercial. 

John Martin The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah 1852

But maybe my cynicism is showing through. All and all I liked it and found the works to be highly engaging and interesting. It was good to see the scope of his work and I found the imagery about a time long ago to be exciting and relevant to our age as much as it must have been to his. Which just goes to show that many of the stories from the bible ad history continue to resonate with us. While the specific historical nature of his works still don't appeal, this idea of themes that transcend history is something that does and is worth looking at within my practice.

Sketchbook project 2012

For those of you that don't know, ArtHouse Co-Op in Brooklyn, New York has been doing a yearly sketchbook project, where for a relatively small fee (compared to the usual entry fee for UK exhibitions) they send you a A5ish sized sketchbook which you can alter almost anyway you like, a project title and will then exhibit the sketchbook around the USA and store it in the Brooklyn Art Library forever for people to look at.

For 2012 the project is also getting toured overseas, so my sketchbook should be available to view not only throughout the USA but back here in Blighty as well.

Pages 6 and 7

There were a selection of topics to choose from, with my love of postcards and subverting the traditional postcard image I chose “It's Summer Where You Are”. I intentionally wanted it to be quite free flowing like a sketchbook should be, also like a journey and work with images and postcards that were from places I had travelled. I was tempted to use postcards I owned to present some kind of story from a fictional person on a journey but felt that it seemed a little forced for the idea of the sketchbook. It is after all meant to be an exploration of ideas as well as a body of work. There needs to be some experimentation. Additionally I'd tried previously to produce my painted postcards with reverses, this seemed like a good idea but in the end it just served to make my point about these paintings being postcards too bull headed. Of course there is always a exception to the rule as Greetings from the Mantelpiece showed.

Pages 8 and 9

In the end I dumped the writing idea completely leaving just a few examples on pages that were meant to be more about unformed ideas than actual semi finished work. Which in the end was just some musings on all the various ice cream trucks I had encountered on my travels over the last 5 years. The rest became a mix of small scale biro drawings, a few unusual or interesting photographs and printed on postcards.

Roughly the sketchbooks journey started with an exploration of places around the coast. I'd been to Southwold very recently on a summer holiday and as one that reminisced heavily from my childhood holidays with my parents it seemed an obvious place to start and spend some time/pages on. Moving on, the sketchbook visits Portsmouth (including Portchester), Cowes and from the boats of Cowes to the boats of Venice then through other foreign places including India and Tenerife. Returning back to London and following a route west towards my home, through Kew Gardens, Windsor and Virginia Water.

Pages 16 and 17

The inside back cover and front cover are the same image done using two different methods that both had heavy use in the sketchbook. This image of Brooklyn Bridge was taken by me when I visited New York in 2005 and is one of my favourite images from the trip. I wanted to include it as a homage to the sketchbooks final resting location and organisation that created the project. The original idea for the book was to have the book reflect the actual physical journey it would go on but I felt uncomfortable trying to reproduce images of places I had never been. Nor at that time did I know if I had postcards from each of these places. I still am unsure but thats a story for another day.

Pages 18 and 19

Many of the methods used you will recognise. The biro drawings I have been doing for a few years now. I was interested however if I could do them that small and in trying to push myself technically.

The photographs were chosen because of an inherent oddness or importance to the visit I made. For example on page 9 I have a photograph of a sunny Southwold with an obvious and somewhat ominous rainstorm on its way (No photoshop by me, this was real and I got very wet that day). On page 16 there is photograph of a pair of entertainers in Cowes week, dressed as sailors they arrived and created an utterly surreal air about the place. It was fantastic and really set the tone for the rest of the day.

Pages 20 and 21

The printed on postcards embraced a number of methods depending if I already had produced a plate for another purpose of that place. There is a postcard of Southwold beach huts that has on the reverse a print from my Southwold Beach Huts etching. There is a postcard from Tenerife that I have printed on using a solar plate of Tenerife and there are a number of postcards that I have used the polymer plate lithographic process on including Venice and the front cover showing Brooklyn Bridge.

The method of printing was fairly immaterial, polymer plate won out with the newest plates only because it was cheap, quick and very graphic. Mainly I was interested in the idea of printing imagery on the reverse rather than words. It seems subversive and can produce some aesthetically interesting combinations. While imagery, it still retains this contrast from the highly detailed photograph.

The tour starts in April in New York. http://www.arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject2012

Images are my actual sketchbook.

Pages 24 and 25

Getting into it - Photo project 2012

So it is time again for a new photographic project. The idea that has been brewing for some time is an extension of the looking at reality of a place, however instead of trying to find an objective reality, this time I want to use photography to look at views that would be unfamiliar from a human perspective. I'm not interested in photoshopping my images beyond some gentle cropping as it is the idea of the camera as a true medium, if that makes sense, that interests me more, certainly when a photograph is the end product, rather than a painting.

Perambulation: 28th Oct 2009

One thing I do know about photographing is that an unusual angle is often more interesting than shooting from human head height. The Perambulation project reinforced that in me, early photos of fungi are from above with me standing or only leaning down, later ones might even have me spread eagled on the leaves and I think we can agree which are best.

Perambulation: 6th Oct 2010

I like the idea of manipulating reality using camera angles. Of going more extreme than that to produce images that might not be immediately known what or where they are. Predictably my life is all over the place already and it's only just 2012 so for now I either have to be flexible about when and how often I get these images or I have to be flexible about where.

Perambulation: 29th Jan 2010

So,

Option 1: a full 365, time fixed like Welcome to Simons Wood, of where ever I am that day and time. This would be looking more of a subjective reality of my life rather than a particular place. It is interesting, but why would I want to complicate it with the challenge of finding unusual angles.

Option 2: a project like Perambulation, 6 days a week not time fixed. I'd probably stick to nature as my backdrop but might find a few other ones here and there depending on what I find interesting that day. It has the potential to be interesting but feels like it might be a little unfocused and I know work will get in the way massively.

Option 3: probably a 52 although I am tempted to define it as twice a week rather than once. Not date or time sensitive but would focus on one place or one type of place. Certainly won't be objective in any way.

Perambulation : 1st June 2010

For those of you with long memories the seed for this idea has lasted over a year and was known once as Secret Project 3. (Secret Projects 1 and 4 were revealed to be my Postcassettes and my foray into Printmaking. Both now on the website. Secret project 2 ran into technical difficulties.)

I'm going to go with Option 3 although Option 1 might become it's own project one day. Mainly because after the restrictions of Welcome to Simons Wood I feel the need for a relaxed project with the potential for large creative output. I also wanted a project that would challenge me as well as not interfere to much with work. 

Perambulation: 26th Aug 2010

 

Photos: some examples from Perambulation, plus below, the first image of the project.  Find it on Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/noblueskies/sets/72157628733339427/

Photo Project 2012: 5th Jan 2012

 

Happy New Year!

Just in case I have loyal followers here that don't use Facebook or Twitter (or do and have never found me there) and also aren't on my mailing list, here is a link to whats coming up in the New Year for me.

http://www.gemmacumming.com/dec_newsletter.htm

I hope you all have a fabulous night tonight and that 2012 is your best year yet.

Happy New Year!

Balloon!

Printmaking updated

Does anyone remember the blog post way back in February, where I explained the current series of prints? If not feel free to read it again: link

It's now December and I recently put the last of my monthly prints up on the website. An image of Cowes, it's original photograph was taken in June 2008 during Cowes week.

Sunny Cowes 2011 drypoint on tissue paper, handcoloured

Since starting printmaking at South Hill Park I've learnt a great deal. I've had to put it on hold during the last term due to financial and time pressures, but hope to get back to it in the near future.

Since last I spoke about it, the reasoning behind the prints has not changed at all. However after doing 14 different images I felt I wanted to explore other ways print could be used within my practice. Print after all has a great variety of processes, some of which suited the postcards on tissue and others that didn't but had other intriguing qualities.

As well as drypoint, I learnt how to etch plates which was one of the few processes I had done once previously at University. It worked quite nicely for the postcard prints, two plates were made using this method, a Venice and a Southwold image.

Beautiful Venice 2011 etching on tissue paper, handcoloured

The display of the tissue prints was an issue until I came across clear frameless acrylic frames from Muji that are both extremely unobtrusive and very clever. I would have them suspended in front of a window allowing the transparent qualities to shine through. Obviously in a home setting this isn't always entirely possible, after exhibiting them recently in this fashion I now understand the rate that the inks lose their colour. This can be only a matter of months for obvious discolouration, so in a home setting you might want to actually hang them out of direct sunlight, maybe even in a different sort of frame that has UV protective glass.

Southwold Beach Huts 2011 etching on tissue paper, handcoloured

There were two other print processes that while they didn't work for the postcards on tissue were very interesting nevertheless.

Solar plate is a process that uses a photo sensitive layer on a metal plate. It is then exposed to light through a transparency printed with your design. The black areas on the transparency stop the light while the pale areas let light through. When gently washed in warm water the areas that were protected from the light wash away, leaving an indentation. In many ways the process is like etching and drypoint, where it is the worn away areas that hold the ink and produce the black areas.

The results tend to be a very close to a photographic reproduction of the original image, and it was for this reason that it didn't suit the tissue paper postcards. When shrinking the original A4 drawings down to A6 size, then computer printing for the transparency, the small imperfections that make it look like a drawing are lost. When printed as a solar plate, while beautiful, they looked too much like a computer manipulation rather than a drawing. This was too close to the mass produced nature of the postcard for me.

Sunny Brighton framed at South Hill Park Student Open exhibition

Polymer Plate Lithography uses a plasticised paper that you can transfer an image onto. The action and method of transfer changes how areas of the plate react to water and oil. On the transferred image water is repelled and the oil based ink can adhere to the surface, while on the white portions the water stops the ink from sticking. (This may be a little inaccurate, I'm only just getting my head around the concept).

Like solar plate, the images are photographic transfers, rather than hand “drawn” like etching and drypoint. Unlike solar plate the images have to be far more graphic and less tonal. This method does not deal with grey areas well at all.

Beautiful Venice framed at South Hill Park Student Open exhibition

Both of these processes have some very interesting qualities, so some of my most recent prints have been looking at starting a new series that uses these photographic qualities along with the notion/subversion of the postcard. I also have another project in mind that will utilise the polymer litho but both projects are in very early stages. Another development has been the use of coloured inks as well as black.

I have however used all of the above processes in my sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project, which is nearing completion and will require it's own blog entry very soon.

Photos: "Summer is Coming"

Last week I put Summer is Coming up in the window of an Empty Shop in Maiden Place shopping centre, Lower Earley, Reading. It will be there till about the beginning of January and while we were putting the work up we already got some good comments. Hopefully the shoppers will appreciate a little reminder of summer in these dark winter days.

Here is a selection of photographs from the install.

If you would like to visit this link should get you close: Link

Exhibition Update: While Things Were Good

Another exhibition update!

I've been keeping this one a little quiet but now the brochure and other publications are out I am revealing all. Although sharp eyed readers might already know about it.

In February I will be showing a selection of my larger works at my local arts centre South Hill Park in Bracknell, in a solo exhibition entitled While Things Were Good. The exact selection of works is yet to be decided but I have been feverishly painting to try to complete 2 new, large scale, 80 x 120 cm paintings.

I am really excited as the works will be in the Atrium, the exhibition space/bar/restaurant, so should have a lot of people seeing them.

I have wanted to exhibit at South Hill Park since about 2003 when I was mired enough in the art world to realise that South Hill Park actually had exhibition spaces. Before then I'd only known its as a child seeing Shakespeare performances with my secondary school or as a place to get messy with clay one summer holiday when I was about 7. It was in fact while wandering around the Mirror Gallery, looking at the 2003 Wrexham Print International, on the verge of going away to University to study Fine Art and trying to explain contemporary art to my mother, that the thought that maybe one day I could exhibit there popped up. At that point it seemed an impossible dream, heck until about 3 months ago it still seemed improbable.

No photos of the new works, they are secret until the 10^th of February, but here is a little publicity.

By the way I'd love to see you on the 10^th 7 – 8:30 pm for the private view, as well as my own show there will be three other exhibitions opening that evening, including South Hill Park's Jeweller in Residence Bev Bartlett, winning photographs from the local councils annual amateur photography competition and some amazing prints and sculptural paper works by Jeannie Driver and Chris Lundie.

More info 

There might even be free wine. 

Extract from current South Hill Park Brochure

Extract from upcoming exhibitions leaflet