Fort III - Finished and ready to edition

Fort III is now finished and ready to be editioned. It has been done especially for the Back from the Front exhibition at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol.I have been invited to exhibit alongside some other  fascinating and interesting artists.

Back from the Front - Art, Memory and the Aftermath of War is a programme of exhibitions and events at the RWA commemorating the start of The Great War, and 75th anniversary of the start of the Second World War.

"Alongside these powerful evocations of war and peace, a number of artists have created work in response to war: Michael Sandle RA and Emma Stibbon RWA RA react to monumental sculptures across Europe; the late Richard Hamilton’s ‘Medal of dishonour’ offers a searing critique of political subterfuge; Ian Chamberlain reflects on the industrial technologies of conflict; Lucy Willis RWA responds to the plight of the dispossessed, while Paul Gough RWA draws on the emblematic power of civic statuary to explore how memory is shaped and controlled in our over-crowded urban spaces".

Fort III - Finished !

Fort III - Pencil and Graphite, 75cm x 60cm

Sea fort V

 I have managed to finish a new drawing Sea fort V this week. Although this is quite  a literal figurative study I will now aim to start breaking up and abstracting the form. This then will hopefully be taken into etching.The finished drawing is below along with  a couple of working drawings.

Sea Fort V - pencil and graphite, 75cm x 60cm

 

 

Sea fort V preliminary sketch.

Sea Fort V working drawing

                    

In response to Muirhead Bone

As part of the Invitation to exhibit at the Royal West of England Academy I have been asked for the piece of work to respond to  works by a war artist. The artist I have been paired with is Muirhead Bone.

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-muirhead-bone-778

 As you can see by the examples above there is a very strong similarity in the aesthetic of his work and my own. We also share the same connection with drawing and the etching process. He had a nickname at the tine as the British Piranesi and the original  Giovanni Battista Piranesi has long been a strong influence on my own work.  
Please see below for examples of Piranesi's Imaginary prison (Carceri d'invenzione) series.

I look forward into seeing how I can look deeper into Muirhead Bones work and hopefully discover more connections and similarities with my own. Within in my own work I want to start looking more into monoliths, monuments and memorials and creating my own form first hand  drawing research and reference. It will be interesting to see how working towards this exhibition can give me more clarity and direction with my own themes and concepts.

 I have  recently been invited to be a guest Artist for an exhibition at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol. The show will be in the summer will coincide with the centenary of the beginning of the First world war. I will be working on  new piece of work based on my research on the Maunsell sea forts. I thought I would  document the progress of the work from the initial drawings through to the finished etching. I hope then it will help to serve as an example of how and why I take an image from a drawing through to  finished Print. It is the reasoning and rationale behind this that I question within my own students work and it is important that I am able to realise and understand this within my own work.
Please see the images below for the beginning of this new project.

Fort III - Progress drawing 1.

Fort III - Progress drawing2.

Fort III - Progress drawing3.

Submissions for the Royal Academy Summer show.

After the positive response to my work at the Multiplied Print Fair at Christies, I have decided to enter the following two pieces below for the Royal Academy summer show. 

Fort I - Etching 70cm x 65cm, Edition 20

Transmission - Etching 75cm x70cm, Edition 20

Larger Charcoal drawings of Sound mirrors

Studio shot of the finished Four larger drawings- Roughly A1 in size

Now the larger drawings are finished I will need to start breaking them down and editing the information to be included in the final etchings. This suite if etchings will then be exhibited for the first time in October at Multiplied art fair, 2013 hosted by Christies auction house, London.