From Artcan, with Love, 6/6/2018

I'm a member of a dynamic and talented art collective, Artcan. Artcan was founded by artist and curator, Kate Enters and her goal is to create a community of artists that can support one another through shared exhibitions and events and provide platforms both virtual and real for the artist members to share their work.

"From Artcan,  With Love" was an exhibition of postcard-sized works that the artists in the collective were asked to contribute to. Each artwork was on sale for £40 and these were displayed at the Fitzrovia Gallery in London on 6th June. Many of the works were purchased on the PV night, raising funds for Artcan and giving the artists an opportunity to meet up and chat about their practice. 

Like many of the artists, I produced a number of works. The works that went unsold are now on show at the Artcan website's online gallery. Working in such a small scale isn't something that I have done before, but I've been considering a few different ideas that aren't connected top my jazz portraits. In particular, I'm dreaming up some text based works that are sprayed onto the kinds of backgrounds that I've used elsewhere in my paintings.

I haven't got any shows coming up any time soon, but that's because I've been busy testing out some new stencil portraits, some of which haven't translated so well from the photos to the stencils. Behind every image, there are lots of failed experiments that are binned or recycled, where either the layers don't combine like planned or the painting lacks any real energy. I might put some of the WiPs on instagram as I go and see what reactions I get next.