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.

AU MONSTRE D'ISIGNY vf

Au Monstre d'Isigny (le texte affiché dans la fenêtre).

Toi et moi, trouvons myTHself à Isigny dans le cadre d'une étrange odyssée. Je pensais que je faisais des images, mais il se pourrait que ce soit elles qui me fassent. Enfant, j'aimais m'évader en dessinant des images de batailles et de soldats. Ils restent dominants dans mes images. En 2008, j'ai peint une armée de soldats en papier... J'ai prétendu être chacun d'entre eux dans mon jardin : une bêche pour un fusil, une poubelle pour un cheval. Je leur ai imaginé une entreprise et finalement, en employant une usine à Chatillon-sur-Seine, j'ai fabriqué une armée qui pouvait jouer à la bataille sur les sols du monde entier... oh, mais bien sûr, cet espace a été pris... depuis Star Wars, le lien entre les jouets en plastique, et les films et la télévision est solide. Le pouvoir du cinéma et de la télévision de propulser les jouets dans le monde entier est impressionnant. Mais si les petits soldats sont bons à quelque chose, c'est à faire semblant de jouer à la bataille...

Lorsque j'ai commencé ma guerre ludique contre les jouets en plastique, plusieurs grands producteurs de films fabriquaient des jouets d'action : Les super-héros Marvel, Pixar et Lucas Art, mais une société a racheté ces trois grands studios.

Un jour, en conduisant à Cherbourg, j'ai entendu sur France Bleu l'histoire de Hugues Suhard, ou Hugues d'Isigny, un soldat de la conquête normande de l'Angleterre, et j'ai découvert le lien entre Isigny-sur-Mer et la société multi-méga média que son descendant avait fondé.

Pendant trois week-ends en 2018, j'ai réalisé un petit film guérilla autour du quai d'Isigny rappelant cette histoire... mais je me sentais mal à l'aise de mettre en scène Isigny en tant que figurant sans présenter mon travail à la ville. Alors covid. En janvier 2022 j'ai eu un rendez-vous avec le maire pour présenter mon projet et le 14 juin j'ai signé une convention pour louer ce local. L'été dernier je me suis arrangé pour travailler en public pour la première fois sur un grand tableau près de ma résidence (voir article Ouest France ci-dessous).

Faire des images dans un studio mansardé est très différent de faire des images dans la rue ; je ne l'ai jamais fait auparavant... c'est une expérience... Il se peut que je commette des erreurs - veuillez me pardonner. J'espère que faire des images en public les rendra meilleures, avec votre aide. Je ne suis pas payé pour être ici. Je n'ai aucun financement pour l'art. Je gagne ma vie en travaillant sur des chantiers et dans la maison que j'ai construite et que je loue près de Flamanville. Je ne fais pas ça pour le plaisir. Je le fais pour le sens.

Je crois en l'art, mais je ne suis pas sûr qu'il existe. Je suis originaire du nord-est de l'Angleterre, fils d'un mineur de charbon. Je n'ai jamais rencontré l'art avant de quitter la maison pour l'université à 18 ans. Si l'art existe, ce n'est pas la politique, les affaires ou la religion, mais une réflexion poétique. Si je fais de l'art, j'espère qu'il est éclairant, puissant, humoristique et significatif, peut-être même beau. J'espère pouvoir améliorer mon art ici, dans cette rue principale. High Street Art.