Exhibition Brighton wave hotel

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I have five paintings in this mixed show at the Brighton wave hotel. Very chic hotel and a good place to show and view art. You can see the full story on my website here.

What's on the wall 12/11/06

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This looks a little strange but the two large paintings have been masked up with newspaper ready for some splash work. Trust me.

What's on the easel 12/11/06

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Here's a painting I've been working on for a few days but its not going to survive, I've overworked it and need to start again!

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Here's the second painting in this new set of abstract expressionist paintings.

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And here's the new work!

Broken raison d'etre?

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Well, here's one of those paintings, a little battered and scarred because its the doorway to some new work. This is pure abstract expressionism, nothing formal about it. A study of the self!

Distilled sensual conjunction

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This new painting is a step in a different direction from the previous work. Evolutionary rather than revolutionary. It has come about through a lot of thought.

Whats on the easel 15/10/06

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Heres a new medium painting drawn up and ready to go. It represents a further push into a new series of work.

Whats on the wall 15/10/06

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Here you can see the latest small painting hanging on the left. The two paintings not yet started on the right are part of the series of six large scale works I'm currently producing. They've been drawn up and are ready for paint!

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Here is another small painting (it uses the new larger small size since I changed canvas sizes). Its another experimental, looking at a couple of new techniques.

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This is the finished small painting seen in a previous easel shot. Its an experimental painting looking at some techniques and styles for future large scale work.

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This is the second of two paintings in this colour scheme and also the second of six paintings I’m currently working on. These six paintings are meant to bring together all of the development work I have been carrying out over the past year. In a way you could say they are a manifesto for my view of formal abstract expressionism.

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This is the first of two paintings in this colour scheme and also the first of six paintings I'm currently working on. These six paintings are meant to bring together all of the development work I have been carrying out over the past year. In a way you could say they are a manifesto for my view of formal abstract expressionism.

Banksy, guerrilla artist or showman

Banksy has his latest show on in LA at the moment, I'm not going to review it because I'm not likely to find myself in LA anytime soon so if you've seen it feel free to comment. But it did make me look at his work in more detail to see what I thought and mostly I'd say he made me laugh. Most of what he does is humorous with a political or social edge and for me is as much entertainment as anything else. Looking at early reviews of the latest show and in particular the painted elephant I do wonder whether fame and fortune have made their mark though. The inevitable pressure to scale up seems to have taken its toll and he's starting to look like the graffitti equivalent of Damien Hurst. Stick with the small stuff Banksy, guerrilla war is all about hit and run!Banksy website - Worth a look.BBC review of latest show

End Times by Jill Greenberg

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This exhibition of Photographs of children crying is getting a bit of stick at the moment because Jill had to make the children cry by taking a lollypop she had given them away. In my view although there is a tiny element of cruelty involved this is by no means abuse. The children where given the lollypop back after a few seconds, their parents had given prior permission and the children where paid for the session!The photographs are actually what I would call super real photographs because there has been quite a lot of post production work carried out on them. For me the result is great, I think these pictures express something of what a lot of us are feeling about the world at the moment.Jill Greenberg, End Times at Paul Kopeikin GalleryJill Greenberg

What's on the easel 090906

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Here is a new small painting under production. I am experimenting with the use of a single expressionist technique (the stripes) as a background.

What's on the wall 09/09/06

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Here are two new large paintings almost finished. They are part of a series of six currently under production.

Rex Whistler at Brighton Museum 2006

I wasn't in a hurry to see this exhibition and in the end caught it accidently. I didn't feel he was going to be my kind of guy and so it proved. Whistler was undoubtably a talented Illustrator, some of his pencil drawings are of a technical standard I have not seen before. But viewed as a painter (which may be an unfair approach) this show doesn't have much.I couldn't help thinking as I walked around that here was someone working in the past, in 1929 he was producing work that had its roots in Victorian times.Best moment of the show was laughing with a complete stranger at the fantastic abuse of artistic talent the army managed to bring about by obliging him to draw posters outlining the full and correct kit for new recruits, excellant!Talented, but not for me.Rex Whistler

Jim Haldane at Brighton Museum cafe 2006

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A friend invited me for coffee and the chance to take a look at five paintings by Jim Haldane. The coffee.. Was good and the cafe is a good place to meet, its a bit quieter than your average cafe in town! The paintings.. I'm not surprised to read that Jim has an illustration background as these paintings are very much rooted in the Illustration tradition. The work is quite large and to be honest a little too large for this cafe. I found it impossible to get far enough away from the paintings to be able to actually take them in properly. Interesting use of a scratch technique whereby he paints a light colour over the top of a dark colour then scratchs the light away to reveal the dark where he wants it. Personally I liked the Embassy Court painting the best and I note from his website he has now done the "after" to this "before" which also looks good. You can find out more about Jim here - Jim Haldane

What's on the wall 11/08/06

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Here you can see the latest trilogy of medium sized paintings dubbed the superman series because of the colour scheme. Also one of the two new paintings I'm currently working on using the same colour scheme.

What's on the easel 110806

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I'm currently working on a series of six large paintings and here is one of the first two. I've masked off some of the painting in preperation for some splash work.

Superman III

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Here's the third of three new paintings which I refer to as the superman trilogy because of the colour scheme. These paintings contain some development work which I'm hoping to carry through in my next series of six larger paintings.

Superman II

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Here's the second of three new paintings which I refer to as the superman trilogy because of the colour scheme. These paintings contain some development work which I'm hoping to carry through in my next series of six larger paintings.

Superman I

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Here's the first of three new paintings which I refer to as the superman trilogy because of the colour scheme. These paintings contain some development work which I'm hoping to carry through in my next series of six larger paintings.

50over50 exhibition University of Brighton 2006

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The 50over50 exhibition at the University of Brighton Gallery is an exhibition of work produced by people over 50 and as far as that concept goes I found it pointless. Artists over 50 are no different to all other artists of other ages and certainly the work in this exhibition displayed no special characteristics that can be attributed to the age of the artists involved. This whole exhibition smells of a funding concept. Lets think of some way to get/spend some of the money in the honey pot. To be honest I'm not against the spending of the money I just wish it wasn't necessary to have to apply some ridiculous theme to an exhibition in order to get funding for it. That said the artists and their work still deserve some consideration and so it was with interest that I took a look around. I guess I'd say I was a little disappointed, technically most of it is fine but at least 70% of it I've seen before in a hundred shows just like this, nothing very original here.The four pictures here were my highlights, the one above won the shows award, personally I liked Lemoney. The good thing about shows at the University of Brighton Gallery is that they are never too big as the space is not that large so It'll only take you a half an hour to form your own opinion!

Website redux - www.6fish.co.uk

Now that http://www.6fish.co.uk/ is two years old and the style of my painting is changing I decided that although I still like the layout of the site it needed to be refreshed. This website redux has introduced a new colour scheme that more accurately reflects my current style of work. It also introduces a more interactive menu system courtesy of http://www.cssplay.co.uk/. Also on the home page a new latest paintings menu has been introduced also courtesy of cssplay.

What's on the easel 090706

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This is a new trilogy of paintings drawn up and ready to begin painting. They will use the new superman colour scheme. These three paintings have a small amount of development work in them intended to be used in the following series of large paintings.

Babybump II

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This is the second of two large paintings produced in this colour scheme. I feel these two paintings are a visual confirmation of what I have been trying to get to for the past two years. They will of course be over-run immediately but for me they are a significant moment in the progression of my work.The baby bump reference comes from the accidental pregnant bump in the middle of the painting. Just a bit of fun nothing more!

Babybump I

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This is the first of two large paintings produced in this colour scheme. I feel these two paintings are a visual confirmation of what I have been trying to get to for the past two years. They will of course be over-run immediately but for me they are a significant moment in the progression of my work.The baby bump reference comes from the accidental pregnant bump in the middle of the painting. Just a bit of fun nothing more!

Superman

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Here is the latest small painting. This is the first painting using the new superman colour scheme (looked superman'ish to me anyway).

Graffiti art in Brighton 2006

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Had a walk around town today to look at three different views of graffiti art being displayed in Brighton.The first was an exhibition being held at Brighton University Grand Parade. This was a little stilted in my view and demonstrated as much as anything how this kind of art doesn't translate well to the gallery context. It did however show the clash between this kind of art and the desire to commercialise it, some of the artists here seem to blur the lines between design and illustration and Graffiti.The second was some new work (being produced as I shot it) on Kensington Street. Some very nice work here.The third is a large scale block of work produced by many artists in the New England Quarter as its now called. Lots of good quality stuff and like an art exhibition in the open air so well worth a look on a sunny day.In general some really good work and credit to the council who I presume had to allow permission etc. for it to happen. If I had to critique it I'd say graffiti art doesn't seem to have moved on much from the standards set say 10 years ago but perhaps its not so much about development as continuety. Lots more photos here.

What's on the wall 23/06/06

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Here are the two paintings I showed drawn up on the previous wall shot now finished (almost). There's also a small preview of the new Superman colour scheme here too.

What's on the easel 230606

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Here's the latest medium painting on the easel at the moment. I've just drawn it up and I'm about to start painting it using my new Superman colour scheme!

a touch of darkness

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Here's the latest painting. This is a very unique painting as it is probably the only painting I will produce on this size canvas. I have just changed the canvas sizes I work with and this canvas got caught in the crossfire. Its bigger than my old small size but smaller than my new small size exciting huh! Incidentally it is also unique in that it is a test piece for one or two small developments I needed to see on canvas before developing them further on larger canvas.

Royal Academy Summer Show 2006 - Oops

I'm a fan of the Royal Academy Summer show and hope to submit work in the future but this years judges have not done it any favours by selecting artist David Hensel's work this year. To be honest they haven't actually accepted his work (a sculpture of a laughing head) but rather the plinth it was supposed to stand on. I hope the judges will think carefully about this decision because it demonstrates how the art elite have lost contact with real art and instead insist on feeding us the marketing idea's we currently get. They've clearly got to the point where they can't distinguish the difference between a clever piece of art/marketing idea and an ordinary object.Come on people, wake up and start looking at the quality of the object not how witty or clever it may seem. BBC news story - Empty plinth sidelines sculpture

Exhibition at Billies cafe Brighton

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I'm currently showing a small series of paintings at Billies cafe in Brighton. The paintings are a mixture of work from my "Chimene" series produced during 2005 and new work produced during 2006 under the formal abstract expressionist banner.Why not go along, have a great breakfast and take in some paintings.For the full news story - 6fish shows at Billies cafe Brighton

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Here's the latest small painting using the "cool" colours. Its the first painting finished using "reverse splashing".

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First new medium painting using the "cool" colours.

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A new small painting in the new cool colours.

Flat full of canvas

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Yay!

The flat is full of new canvas kindly donated by my new patron (you know who you are). Believe it or not there is a years supply here so thats me sorted for the summer and beyond.

Thanks patron.

What's on the easel 150506

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Easel's in a bit of a mess at the moment as I've been preparing for my latest show. You can see a small new painting in the new colour scheme here.

What's on the wall 15/05/06

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I've got two new large canvases on the wall here they've just been drawn up and are ready for painting. There's also a shot of the first new style painting in a different colour scheme. After six months I've finally changed the colours on my palette.

Step 29 - Painting step by step

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I've now painted the silver dots over the white ones I painted in step 28. After 29 steps the painting is finally finished. I just need to remove the masking tape around the edges (I prefer nice white clean edges on the canvas) and sign and date it. Hope you enjoyed the series and that it helps to explain how I work.

Step 28 - Painting step by step

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I'm going to put silver dots in the brown circle to the right but first I have painted them white so that when I paint them silver they will shine.

Step 27 - Painting step by step

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The larger silver circle on the left is now complete having added the brown dots to it.

Step 26 - Painting step by step

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The small circle is now complete having added the final brown dots to it.

Step 25 - Painting step by step

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Several coats of silver and the background to the circles on the left are done.

Step 24 - Painting step by step

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A few coats of Brown later and the background of the circle on the right is done.

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Another small one.

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Heres a new small painting, I'm beginning to make these small ones work with the formal abstract expressionist style now.

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This large scale piece is the culmination of the last months work. It encompasses the opposing balance ideas I've been working on and also addresses a key aspect of painting at this larger size, scale.