Pontcanna Gallery

Spring has arrived, the sun is shining so I decided to visit Pontcanna Street Gallery. I'd been tipped off that my friend Lynne was exhibiting there. To my delight another fellow college graduate, AndyLumbourg, also had some paintings on show.

I'm ashamed I've never visited Pontcanna Street Gallery before now. It is quite delightful, in one of the nicest streets in Cardiff, friendly, welcoming and busy. There were a number of well known Cardiff and Wales artists on display, including the paintily Mark Samuel (whose work I first noticed several years ago). It also claims to sell work by John Knapp-Fisher, who was a minor inspiration to me when I was a teenager living in West Wales.

Well, the standard is extremely high. I'll have to work hard before I've got a suitable range of paintings worthy of display here. Portraits of mwah probably do not have the required universal appeal, haha.

Self Portrait January 2012

30cm x 40cm

acrylic on canvas

Homage to Rembrandt

I've always liked Rembrandt's moody self portraits, which seem to reflect a humerous honesty of middle age. So I've attempted something similar of myself, with mixed results. It is still missing something. My intended hunch-shouldered grimace has got lost somewhere and the vibrant colours maybe contradict the grumpy pout.

I'll probably write this one off and start anew!

Neice paintings but erm, ne-phew and far between

At last a few paintings to show for 2011. I think these are the first I've ever painted using photographs as a source. They turned out surprisingly well, if I do say so myself!

These are portraits of my neices and nephew. They live overseas so I couldn't ask them for a personal sitting but, in any case, I doubt they'd sit still for long enough.

I've always liked the technique of using the background colour of the canvas to show through as part of the finished scheme. In these instances I deliberately chose a strong colour and painted the subject with relative colour hues. The green background, admittedly, was a bit of a challenge but Alfi, my neice, is a bit of an extrovert character so I'm sure she'll take it in good spirit!

All three are acrylic paint on canvas, 150x150mm.

Ai Wei Wei

Really glad to see the BBC "Imagine" programme tonight about Ai Wei Wei. What an exceptionally brave and clever guy he is! Of course, I'd first heard his name in architectural circles when he collaborated to design the 2008 Olympic Stadium. And then came across him again in his artist guise with his ceramic sunflower seeds at the Tate Modern. It turns out the sunflower and its seeds have all sorts of connotations for the Chinese population, a better symbol than I'd ever imagined. It was sort of ironic that the seeds were fenced off from the public ...because of trade union concerns about health and safety!

Art and Sport

Apparently Wimbledon quarter finalist Marion Bartoli is also a painter and is currently completing a landscape triptych when she's not on the court!

It would be nice to think this is true, but then again it is probably the latest urban myth...

Cardiff Art College

...or whatever it is called these days, UWIC College of Art and Design? Cardiff Art College held its degree show last week and poignantly, after I'd signed on at the Jobcentre, I paid a visit. It is always a strange experience returning to the Howard Gardens building, which seems to be trapped in a time gone by and, like an old junior school, seems to be much smaller than I remember.

Earily still, in the 4th floor corridor there is a massive photo along one wall of the staff from the 1980's. I'm sure all of them have now retired or moved on, though the fine art technician of the time (Alan?) was still around, giving a talk to visitors about the exhibition. He exchanged a brief sort of 'Do I know you from somewhere?' kind of look.


As for the degree show it was a mixed bag as usual. In fact somed of the ceramics work was highly enjoyable and quite witty too. In contrast, a lot of the painting work was littered with far too many works called "Untitled". And where were all the artists' statements of intent? Are art students no longer expected to 'nail their colours to the mast', so to speak?!

Art seems to have decreased considerably in monetary value over the intervening 20 years. Ticket prices seem to be the same as (or less than) they were in the 1980's! Maybe this is partly because paintings have decreased in size too, what with the cost of paint and materials these days... Judging by the smattering or small red stickers, the public would only buy things that were small and under £200.

Anyway, aren't I in danger of forgetting that I'm now trained in architecture? Fortunately the WSA opened its degree show on the day CAD's closed. My egotistical unpaid musings as a blogging art critic will be suspended while I survey the displays of white cardboard, balsawood and over-complicated computer renderings in the Bute Building.