The painter is the subject... the picture maker present.

A group of students on a creative 'gap-year' program from the USA spent two days around me and my home filming and photographing their way about.  I was the subject of their documentary project(s?).  Before their visit I had shared one piece of information via the program director : 'I don't believe in documentary'.  

There were between 8 and 15 students with 2 and 3 tutors in photograph and film crews.  I think I did 4 separate interviews to camera.  I enjoyed their perspectives, energy and interest.  Being the centre of their attention was kind of dizzying for both me and our two kittens.  Interviews have such a peculiar gravity, more so with a whole film crew preparing and aiming their tech at you at the same time.  The eccentric weight is ob-scene and by the end of each day I felt inflated and estranged.  But I am able to talk about my work... me poor dad's old club mate Jack would have said 'Ee cun tark unda wata man'.  Here's one film from the footage edited by it's interviewer Kiara Nisenbaum.  

A few weeks before I'd had about 400 people pass through my house over a couple of hours on an tourist yomp called 'Les Mad Jaques'. The organisers had contacted me wondering if I might be a point of cultural interest on their clients walking itinerary.  My pictures are often composed around narratives and when I talk about them I unfold the stories they contain.  I find it a little like being possessed. On this occasion over about 4 hours hundreds of walkers passed through my home which I'd set up as a gallery I could and did talk many through.  I have no footage of the event, this collage uses pictures taken from the organisers website.  

I've been painting in public for several years.  Firstly in a studio with an open public frontage making a picture whose subject was specific to that place : Les Trois Ages du Dragon Baligan ; then on the streets of Isigny-sur-Mer for Au Monstre D'Isigny; at a couple of music/arts festivals and last summer in and of the street markets of Le Cotentin.  Here's a bunch of pictures from all those events... pictures I was sent, where I was the subject myTHself.

We have become normalised to seeing pictures hanging in galleries.  There is an assumption a picture must speak for it's self.  That assumption works well for 'galleries' when often the painter is dead or elsewhere.  Galleries have education officers giving tours or audio guides, catalogues and sales staff to give context although many of the visitors will be aware of the art or the story of the artist through education or media. 

I like seeing old dead painters work and many pictures don't need the artist present especially if their symbolism is sufficiently pop or their method already understood.  I've a huge collection of art books that I pour through.  But I've found there is a very worth while exchange both presenting and especially making works in person.  Its rare for 'artists' to be present at their gallery shows... discussing or making their work.  Maybe an artist, particularly with a large public show could be - should be there?  

Once I was with my pictures in a gallery and began to speak to two visitors about the painting they looked at. They were sophisticated and metropolitan.  Parisians on holiday I judged.  They walked quickly away to look at another picture, one saying loudly 'I hate it when the artist is present and presumes to talk to you, it's so... (I never quite caught that bit).'  Fair enough I thought aiming just a little hate at my very personal rejection.

The Painting is the Subject.

On a hot morning in late August whilst painting the market place of Saint-Pierre-Eglise I met Sophie who works as an 'old peoples home activity organiser' with her crew of residents on a walk-about. Sophie invited me to come and paint in their home - her place of work.  In October and November I spent three afternoons painting in the communal day spaces of 'l'Esperance'.

On the first visit I was shown where that afternoon's activity, which was to make Halloween decorations, would take place.  To settle in I set up my easel tout-suite and got busy painting in the general direction of the afternoon activity.

For my second visit I thought to concentrate on particular portraits.  Later on my first visit there was a card game which would have made a good subject alas not that afternoon.  I saw 3 ladies sitting in arm chairs along the back wall of the room but when I asked if I might paint them they responded uncertainly.  I didn't feel they wanted the attention - but I did get a smile.  The residents were very old and infirm, some with dementia.  I turned my easel around and began to paint in the opposite direction.  This gave the three ladies an easy open view across the picture as I painted it.  The painting immediately became the subject of their attention - more smiles.

I've found the most significant part of painting in public is having people watch you paint.  And in so doing I get to feel their judgement and get a direct sense of their value of the act in relation to the object.

All my paintings in the market place were performed like this.  The painting as the subject.  Value made in the market?

Painting in the everyday like this is seemingly rare... people told me that and watched.  They rarely feel the need to buy the picture yet I sold some but often they ask to take a photograph of me painting. Hence these pictures of me working.  

My 3rd and final visit to the old peoples home was Bingo day.  With the help of local volunteers the game was arranged and prizes announced.  The dining room tables filled with players.  It was nice to see the place filled with a fizzy energy although the layout meant I couldn't paint the game in light and have my canvas on show as I worked.  But at games end upon request I did rotate the picture to the assembly and was pleased to get an impromptu round of applause.  Bingo! (I forgot my detail brushes so the painting was kind of chunky).

#AnArtFlo. Summer 2023.

On June 1st 2023 I arrived in Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhone to be 'arty' crew on a sailing boat that was to voyage back to Normandy.  I had no experience of sailing but had met skipper and project initiator Jean-Marc through a mutual friend having stayed in his home near Isigny-Sur-Mer during my project 'Au Monstre D'Isigny' over the summer 2022.   

Throughout the voyage I made daily paintings and drawings capturing the locations we visited and the adventures undertaken.

***Link to Flickr folder with all my pictures from the Voyage***

The other 'arty' crew members were Iza Gyuk, 1st mate and film maker, Julian Happe; musician and Adé Béart; writer film maker.  I left the boat on the 10th of July in Porto because of an exhibition commitment in St Saveur-La-Vicomte.  But on the 21st july, the crew rejoined me for a first exhibition of work made on the 'AnArtFlo' in the Chateau of Saint-Saveur-Le-Vicomte.  Other mainly filmic work is still emerging...

***Link to Flickr folder with all my pictures from the Voyage***

***Link to Flickr folder with all my pictures from the Voyage***

Painting the Market and Art... ça Marche?

I've begun painting a series of pictures in the market, on the market, of the market. 

I live in the Cotentin peninsular and there are more than 40 street markets spread throughout the area and week.  They are where you can find the finest and best value local produce.  During 'La Bataille D'Isigny' I also found the street market an invaluable means to present in person to the town population. 

When I was in my 'locale' Au Monstre D'Iisgny' I was often asked 'Ca Marche?'  Based in a high street shop people assumed I was there for business.  The church building opposite me is an extravagant demonstration of a non-business high street presence.  When people ask you 'ca marche?' it kinda means is it working?  and by that they mean are you selling.  'Ca Marche?' one could ask the priest... although the context would then change to meaning...hmmm.

In English the word 'market' shifts from the street market, to the stock market to the idea of virtual transactional exchange effortlessly.  On a painted sign above my market stall I painted a text In French that I'd translated from English poking at my purpose in the market.  But I've found the definition of  the word 'marché' in French is less transferable from the street to other.  After my second market I adjusted the sign striking the text through with a golden line.  But I have kept it because I believe it does still provoke thought into the playful conceptual space I want my 'on/in/of' market painting activity to stretch into.  

Ca Marche? people say to me wondering if I'm selling anything but I immediately swing the question back to them asking them to judge the quality of the painting and the wider aesthetic exchange of my presence  on and in the market...perhaps my art?

Painting Outside.

The first plein aire pictures I made were for Walkerloo.  They were back drops for my portable paper soldier army on tour.  

10 years later I painted views of my garden for my mothers birthday.  They all now hang on her wall and she loves them.

Throughout the summer of 2021 making the picture 'Les Trois Ages du Dragon Baligan' I painted daily but when the project finished I missed the brush wiggling activity.  

Since leaving University I've made most of my money painting houses.  When I moved to France I did a weekly oil (but with acrylics!) painting course at the local art school.  My first paper soldiers were coloured using marker pens which was at first straight forward but I found the fixed colour range  restrictive and expensive!  So  I began to paint the soldiers with a set of gouache I'd bought for the painting course.  Mixing new colours with paint and developing brush techniques to make convincing pictures feels magical.

Taking my goats onto the hillside one beautifully mild morning in December 2021 I decided to get my paints and join them beneath the bright blue sky.  I posted the painting on the Instagram account I'd begun using after a visitor's suggestion during my Dielette studio.  

Over the next few months I began making a couple of outdoor paintings a week spending 5 or 6 hours in the lanes and fields around my home in still concentration was wonderful.  

In the Spring of 2022 scoping properties for my Isigny mission I decided to paint my chosen location.  Over the 5 months of "Au Monstre D'Isigny" as a means of engagement with the town and it's people I made over 50 plein aire paintings.  

Returning from Isigny I continued to go out and paint a couple of times a week.  

Painting outside is wonderful.   You have to be quick if you want to catch a particular scene. Especially if the suns out.   I've lived next to the sea for more than 20 years but until then I'd never tried to paint it.

A filmed Interview with myTHself 'Au Monstre D'Isigny' October 2022. by Local YouTube Film maker Jean-Francois Perron

I met Jean-Francois Perron whilst painting on the street next to a bakers in Isigny-sur-mer.  I'd been asked if I could paint that particular location so the picture could be a surprise birthday present.  It was the second of two 'birthday surprise' commissions in my 'capturing' Isigny series of paintings. JF was buying bread but had heard about me from a painter living in Isigny.

We arranged to meet that afternoon in my 'Au monstre D'isigny' space.  After we had talked he decided he would like to return and film an interview the next week.

Jean-Francois posted the hour long interview, which was in French, unedited, to his YouTube channel in 3 parts soon after. 

 

La Bataille D'Isigny Part 4 : After 3 Missions.

It's been more than four months since I was last in Isigny-Sur-Mer. This last time was my third operation in the town. It was by invitation and my hotel and travel expenses were paid for ().  The occasion was 'Le 5eme International Festival de la BD d’Isigny-sur-Mer' (BD = graphic novel).  I was given a corner of the municipal exhibition hall right next door to the town hall and Disney museum.  The invitation to exhibit, was for me, a public confirmation of the work I'd being doing over the summer in the town (the invitation was made by the president and founder of the association for the BD festival who is a writer, journalist and part owner of the building I rented... ... ...)

 

I worked out of the highstreet centre of operations 'Au Monstre D'Isigny' for 5 months.  I painted in the street.  I painted in the town market. And I painted every day behind the window of the high-street shop I'd rented for anyone to see.  I welcomed passers-by into my space, giving explanation to the pictures and the myth imperative that had me installed there.  I was able to present and discuss with anyone the themes my installation provoked and invoked. 

There is an idea 'art picture' art must stand alone and be capable of meaning without the artists presence.  That's OK, but can limit the pictures conversation to an art savvy public.  I've always wanted my pictures to reach a popular public like my family and the people I come from and live amongst.  When I present my work in person as I have done in public facing studios these last two summers I know and feel the works effect.  

My first mission In Isigny was shooting the guerrilla film 'LBDI : 'l'allumage les bittes d'amarrage'.  That was always envisaged as a kind of commando raid on the Disney megacorp planned and amplified because of the town's promoted association with Walt Disney ancestry.  

On the third afternoon filming in Isigny, shooting the movies finale I was dressed for mythic battle as myTHself Trinity.  Man-Camera-Martain and I had become familiar with neighbouring locals who'd mused at our antics on previous occasions.  90 mins in to the shoot we were stopped abruptly by order of Gendarmerie called out by a hairdresser who'd been alarmed by a scene he didn't understand from further up the highstreet. The police insisted we pack up and leave town.

Following this incident I felt I needed another different and better interaction with Isigny-Sur-Mer which had become a bigger part in my story.  

How should I 'meet' the town better?  

I began (post covid January 2022) with a formal appointment to meet the mayor and introduce myTHself.  I showed and explained my pictures and why one of my projects had become specific to his town.  In February and March I viewed potential properties for a base of operations in the town. I initially thought to return to the location of the film in the East of the town by the bridge. But then I saw a suitable property on a wide place at the Western end of the high-street opposite a church, the church of St.George, St.George who fought the dragon.  

I hadn't known the main stone towered church of the town was St. George's but St.George's symbol was already a significant part of 'myTHself Trinity' identity.  The structure for his map wings emblazoned across my back was a red cross.  The poetry of coincidence is sign to story for myTHself.