In the studio I'm working on deciding which text to display on the wall for my solo exhibition next year at Elysium Gallery.
The words are from a text written by the late Persian painter Partou Zia. I met her when I lived in Cornwall. I remember going to the talk she gave during her solo exhibition at Tate St. Ives and was blown away by how articulate, how intelligent and how sparkling her energy was.
Her husband painter Richard Cook gave me a copy of the manuscript a few years after her passing. He was so right when he said he thought I might resonate with it.
I have read the text many times with each time discovering something completely new about it and myself.
While working towards my solo exhibition 'Silence: The Messenger and The Metaphor', I have this text with me. The idea is not to illustrate it or to make the work about it but more partner with it, to keep me accountable. The phrases, thoughts and ideas within it are profound, philosophical and poetic. I would say it is in part ontological prose about truth and beauty.
More will be revealed at a later date.
Update on the RWA 169th Autumn Annual Open Exhibition
This show for the Royal West of England Academy is the equivalent to the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy in London. I said in my last newsletter that I had two large paintings selected but not necessarily hung.
Well…they were both hung!
I attended Varnishing Day, the artists' private view, which was such an inspiring opportunity to meet other artists. What was particularly amazing was that nearly every single person in the room was an artist. What an energy of creative solidarity. I looked around with a knowing that we all work away mostly on our own, believing in it, not believing in it, and doing it no matter what.
The image below shows my yellow stripe painting, Prosodic Chapters Of Immanent Silence, which was hung next to several paintings of invited artist Matthew Burrows MBE and President of the RWA Fiona Robinson PRWA below mine. What company I am in. Burrows was one of the selectors as well as invited artist and the curator was Fiona Robinson PRWA.
It's the top spot in the main room on the end wall. You can see it as soon as you walk in and even at the private view, with hundreds of people, it was hung high enough to be seen above everybody's heads. It was soo exciting!
3756 works were submitted by 2082 artists. The curation of this show really is astonishing, I don’t know how she and her team did it, so difficult to make it coherent. It is a really great show, one of the best yet I think.
Top right - Prosodic Chapters Of Immanent Silence 122 x 122cm
Top left - Mysteries Unfold Outside Of Time 122 x 122cm
I'm still pinching myself that both large paintings were actually hung!
And by-the-way, I went for a SRFace wetsuit in the end. A new start-up from the Netherlands, well priced, sell only wetsuits and are made from Yulex, the plant-based neoprene that I mentioned before. I am VERY pleased with it. I spent last weekend on a women’s surf retreat in Pembrokeshire, just down the road from where I live and was as cosy as a seal. I even had a baby seal pop up next to me!
Cornish coastal wear company Finisterre also do good planet friendly Yulex wetsuits.