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The KLP33 Gallery
Artwork insights
In this section of the gallery a fuller description of each artwork sets out to the build a clearer understanding why in the piece an image was used to match it's storyline / message.
Only the artworks in the main gallery will be featured here.
In order of gallery presentation.
Title: A beach benediction
A beach benediction's message isn't of course that obvious, like many pieces of art it needs some explanation, When looking upon anything old whether it be in a museum or slowly eroding away on a beach, there is a story there. With the old wooden fishing boat offering itself to the stones of a pebble beach over a period of time due to erosion you would think that was enough to explain along with it's title what this piece is trying to observe and relate but if the question why is asked then lots more questions line up, like a child's questions pouring out and you saying where DID THEY COME FROM they begin to form, As already explained the artworks have an underlying theme that being change. In the gallery there are a number of pieces of work with a fishing boat on a beach being their subject matter but the underlying theme of change varies the titles giving the main clue, in the beach benediction for example the slow disintegration is the cause of change here and it's theme.
Just to add the artworks that build a series of pieces with an old wooden fishing boat on a beach has their subject matter are for the intention to create a wider picture, these boats had a past, that past involved from their beginnings, their commissioning, construction, fitting out, delivery, their working lives and that of their skippers and crew. All these things are elements of what we are gazing upon when we look at these boats, an history lost to change, well hopefully not lost if this series can help.
Title: Another sea
In this scene of an old fishing boat on a beach again, again the viewer sees the boat with her wheelhouse leaning forward, her handrails eroded and in an entirely abandoned state but with the aid of looking through the lens of imagination the viewer can see a different picture. In this other scene the old is no longer old, her Mahogany planking is as new, her demeanour is defiant, as she rises out of a trough of a swell and tackling the oncoming sea, she's getting her work done and remains purposeful.
I've used the old steel rail track alongside of the boat to hint at motion and direction and imagine that so many other painters and photographer have too ( two phrases come to mind: if it's there use it and if it ain't broke don't fix it) and capturing the raised stem of the boat on the pebbles to provide the feel of an ongoing purposefulness abut her.
Title: Adrift
When I began the drawing of Adrift the title wasn't decided, a title that included the boat's identification letters and numbers was I thought a good idea but as time moved on and the drawing was still in progress when my circumstances were about to ''change'' and unfortunately the future was going to see me having to move around quite a lot, this included packing and unpacking personal and working STUFF ( anyone in the services reading this has my empathy) which left me feeling a bit low and very much on my own. When I finally got the drawing back on the board and had the boat staring me in the face there was the title. If the old abandoned boat could talk and I had a question to ask it, it's answer would probably be ADRIFT.
Adrift is one of the of the recent pieces that I've used pencil, pastel and chalk together, the aim is to work towards using them to create the effects I'm looking for, I hope you can join me on this journey and pick up some pointers along the way.
Title: In passing
When looking at the scene in this piece being observed is the track of life. Something that happens every day in many different scenarios and that is the new surpassing the old. In passing's example is a young couple out on a morning walk on their way past an old fishing boat, a wind blows against them and the boat, it causes the tall grass to lean ln towards the hull of the boat, giving the effect of the grass acting like wavelets running against it's
planking. The couple are now on their journey away from the old vessel and out of the picture.
In passing's story is the underlying change of circumstance of an old boat (evident here) and the unknown change that will unfold on the young couples journey.
Title: In passage
How can anyone use a sea Gull as the main theme in an artwork i hear those of you who have had food or an ice cream snatched from their hands by one, apologies but here you are.
At sea Gulls will follow fishing boats for scraps and on land are constantly on the lookout for a meal, sea Gulls just like the rest of us have a need to survive but of course a depleted fishing fleet means fewer opportunities for this vigilant bird, it doesn't stop this particular Gull from catching a lift aboard this old boat which now only makes phantom journeys to it's fishing grounds but the bird lives for change.
Title: A dialogue of decades
In this scene a modern fishing trawler heads out to sea, possibly facing a long journey to the fishing grounds. In the foreground of the piece an old fishing boat sits on a pebble beach, it's wooden structure slowly disintegrating into the beach it sits upon. The two vessels are very different in their appearance, built in different times, built of different materials and of different sizes but their purpose the same, one of today and one of yesterday, here again the theme of the picture is about change.
When the occurrence of change happens to an industry only it's artifacts remain to tell the story of it's time, the people who made it operate are left out of the picture but small tell tail signs do manage to speak of them, by looking at the design used to shape thing in a particular time for particular uses we are spoken to by the people who made them from their time.
Title: Sentinel of the shoreline
A navigation red light placed high on a timber structure is a welcome sight to those on the sea at night, informing skippers where it is and where they are. In the scene the structure is seen from the beach it warns of and aids vessels to navigate into a river mouth near by it. By day the timber structure doesn't appear to be of any significance to some, to others it's indispensable. In this seascape the light structure is seen giving it's approval to the calm water and gentle waves moving around it.
Title: Thames barge at Chelsea wharf
This watercolour is now an aged painting but still a favourite in the gallery. The image used to work from was taken from a photograph shot in 1986/7. Coming across this view of the old barge alongside the wharf at low tide immediately highlighted what was going on in London in this period, the barge and the wharf no longer used for the intentions they were built, the river's water missing from the scene also telling of the times. The area of London in which the gallery has it's roots alone had gone through many changes by the mid eighties, very long established industries closed down, examples of these big employers being the pool of London docks, the fruit and vegetable market of Spitalfields, three breweries all based in the area of Whitechapel, gone by the progressive changes for London's future, taking it out of the twentieth century for better or worse.
The painting is a statement in it's way to change but also to the integrity of these two old veterans of London's historic industry, in the way that they were both built and still to this day serving a purpose..
Title: Thames barge at Chelsea wharf
Title: A communication of light
This painting captures a moment when briefly where you are becomes a thin place ( were heaven and Earth touch ) and here whilst looking at a text on her mobile phone Kathy ( Kewis ) walks in a beam of sunlight that brightens the area around her to enhance the stillness that was present in the moment and only slightly interrupted by wavelets breaking on the sand. All this took place while out on a morning walk along the sandy beach of Botany bay on coastline of Kent,
Title: The Emergence
Some of the work in the gallery slightly reaches into the abstract to tell the story of a dreamscape or to visualise text but stay within the boundaries of realism, for example the over use of yellow and detail of the cliffs in the painting of A communication of light and The other side of the divide, which both resemble realism.
Here with this piece abstract ad realism mix to achieve the telling of historic events that took place to spread the word of the coming of Christ.
There are elements in the painting that to some of the viewers of the painting who have a good grounding in Christian history will appreciate but for example the surface of the chalk face might say to themselves what's all these patterns about, the chalk face again is an abstract idea of the mind, the Ichthus fish slipping the boundaries of the mind to enter into the realms of the reality of faith..
Title: Above and below the moat
This piece is the outcome of not having a fixed idea of how the final image will or should look and using new tools needing a period of time to familiarise and understand, Jumping into pieces of work you intend to put into a portfolio is probably a mistake so looking at this piece there is an unintended outcome to it but here it is.
In the water of a castle's moat a carp and duck almost converge whilst travelling towards one and other, The fish is about to submerge deeper into the depths of the water leaving the surface to the duck. There is a metaphor here, there are natural margins which we cross every day and little thought is given to it, here its possible for the duck to dive to the bottom of the moat to search for food but it cant stay there, it has to return to it's environment or perish. We can take to air, dive to the deep trenches of the oceans, even cross the void of space but we can only survive in our own elements which we have to return to in time.
Title: The other side of the divide
The scene in this artwork is an abstract image but again based in realistic imagery, using realistic renditions of things such as the boats, the Dog and the horizon all representing something other than what they appear to be. the boat in the foreground being a good example of the idea, it representing here an emotion, the Dog a place or
situation that allows a better view of things ( the other side of grief ), the horizon the unobtainable. Though the scene is depicting the representation of a moment it also could be described as a dreamscape but what is a dream if not the abstract of reality.
Title: Boudicca on the Embankment
This painting is another of the older pieces and an oil on canvas, which hopefully a return to using this medium will come about at some point. The scene is circa 1987/88 ( the scene now greatly altered due to development ). The painting's theme shares the aims of Boudicca winning her tribes way of life back. In the scene of the painting Boudicca, her daughters, chariot and horses look out the over the Thames while below them the occupants of the evening rush hour traffic head homeward for their weekend away from the City's demands and daily grind, finding their freedom, Like Boudicca briefly. This scene is one that repeats itself constantly, though the face of London has changed considerably other things remain pretty much the same and for some getting away from it is one of those, again Briefly.
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