Feb 2009
Visual For Business
25/02/09 17:57 Post: News
‘Dog In The Water’ is one of my photographic works currently represented by Visual For Business.
I applied to be represented by Visual For Business in October 2008 and was delighted to be selected as one of their North West artists towards the end of 2008. Visual is “a unique and flexible service from Arts & Business bringing high quality contemporary art to businesses and their employees”. Its fantastic to feature alongside other artists that I greatly admire and I’m really looking forward to working with the Visual team who have provided an excellent platform for the work of new and emerging creative talent.
Further information about Visual For Business can be found on their website and you can also view my selected artworks on my Visual Artists Profile if you wish to do so.
Here are just a few things that Visual For Business offers:
- Affordable contemporary art from carefully selected professional artists
- Temporary exhibitions in business and loans of artworks
- Permanent corporate art collections
- Commissioning services for both businesses and employees
- Events, employee engagement and participatory opportunities
- Consultancy and advice
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On The Road
19/02/09 09:04 Post: Personal Work
Taken at 02:33pm in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. UK. Monday 9th February 2009.
The title and content of today’s blog post are inspired by one of my favourite literary works; Jack Kerouac’s largely autobiographical book On The Road. The book is based upon Kerouac’s own journeys across America with his friends in the late 1940’s and is written in a style he called ‘spontaneous prose’ (which is similar to the ‘stream of consciousness’ method of writing). Kerouac wrote On The Road in just three weeks during a creative literary explosion in April 1951 and is now widely acknowledged as an American Modern Classic.
“It changed my life like it changed everyone else’s” - Bob Dylan (speaking about reading On The Road)
The narrative and characters are throughly engaging and compelling, yet it’s Kerouac’s approach and expressive literary style that has come to inspire me in my own creative practice. His writings manage to instil a sense of adventure and willingness to break both physical and metaphysical boundaries in the quest for original and fulfilling life experiences. On The Road was inspired by many things that Kerouac was passionate and immersed in at the time (jazz, poetry and travel to name but a few) and reading the book has certainly played its part in confirming the need to draw upon my personal passions in order to satisfy my creative inclinations when producing photographic work. A spontaneous and organic nature to producing work has long been the driving force behind the photographs that I take and reading On The Road has re-ignited my belief that its also a great approach for living life in general.
"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars." - taken from Jack Kerouac’s On The Road.
Technical Information
Camera: Canon EOS 40D Digital SLR
Lens: Canon EF-S 17mm - 85mm IS USM
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 24mm
Shutter Speed: 1/125th sec
F-Stop: f/10
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St Margaret's Church
10/02/09 21:34 Post: Personal Work
Taken at 07:55pm in Wolstanton, Staffordshire. UK. Sunday 8th February 2009.
Saint Margaret's is a church located in my hometown of Wolstanton on the outskirts of Newcastle-under-Lyme and is the main focal point of the village (as can be said of many churches in small villages across the country). There are many possible reasons why this is (religious or otherwise), but for me it’s mainly down to the fact that it’s the single largest building in the surrounding area. I have to say that I’ve somewhat struggled to find inspiration in my hometown to produce creative photographic images, but the recent batch of snow and frost has given me a new found hope. The churchyard itself is quite fantastic to photograph (especially in these conditions) and holds a rather morbid mystery.
A remarkable grave is located in the churchyard of St Margaret's. The headstone of Sarah Smith (deceased 1783) includes a short poem written in the first person in which Sarah suggests that she was murdered; “with half a pint of poyson he came to visit me' and then provides a clue to her killer, 'it was C___s B___w who brought me to my end”.
Very spooky indeed...
I’m starting to think that the village isn’t such a bad place to take pictures after all!
Technical Information
Camera: Canon EOS 40D Digital SLR
Lens: Canon EF-S 17mm - 85mm IS USM
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 17mm
Shutter Speed: 20 seconds
F-Stop: f/8
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Breakwater
05/02/09 10:25 Post: Personal Work
Taken at 01:16pm in North Shore Blackpool, UK. Friday 23rd January 2009.
I’ve always loved being on the edge of the seaside fringe, so to start today’s blog post I thought I’d share where I think this fascination originated. As a young boy I spent my summer holidays with my Grandma at her house in St-Idesbald, Belgium. We’d spend our days picking shells along the beach, walking her three lovely Bassett hounds and enjoying being at the seaside together. I think this is were my affinity and affection for coastal life began, yet it wasn’t until I moved to Blackpool in 2003 that I became aware of what a profound influence the times with my Grandma had on me and my relationship with the seaside.
The Blackpool coast is a constantly shifting and morphing landscape which offers a mélange of creative possibilities and the space for conceptual musings. This space where the sea meets the land has been a major theme of many artistic practitioners (including nineteenth century landscape painters such as JMW Turner and John Constable) and plays an integral part of my own personal work documenting life on the Fylde coast. This black & white photograph, entitled ‘Breakwater’ looks at the boundaries between the sea, the land and ourselves. The composition is simply constructed into thirds, focussing on the three main elements of water, concrete and rock in the image.
Forthcoming Exhibition News - I’ve been selected to exhibit my work at Keele University’s Three Counties Open Photography Exhibition 2009. I’ve exhibited at this annual exhibition in my hometown for the past seven years and its always a pleasure to have my work next to other photographers from the area. This year I have one photograph (entitled ‘Ballroom Dancing’) in the exhibition and I’m really looking forward to the preview night on the 25th February 2009. If your in the area on the day, feel free to come down and take a look at the work. The exhibition will officially open on the 26th February 2009 and will run until early April 2009.
Technical Information
Camera: Canon EOS 40D Digital SLR
Lens: Canon EF-S 17mm - 85mm IS USM
ISO: 250
Focal Length: 24mm
Shutter Speed: 1/200th sec
F-Stop: f/8
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