November 2016 - Alice Sheridan: contemporary artist

Art space reading to hang!

It’s always exciting to see the empty walls of art fair stands transformed during the day into a show with a rich variety of colour and styles as artists hang and arrange their work.

It was my first time exhibiting at Windsor Contemporary Art Fair and it didn’t disappoint; I found it to be a welcoming and well presented art fair – exactly as promised! There was a happy buzz on Friday preview evening and steady visitors throughout the weekend. Many people enjoyed flicking through the pages of my pocket ‘walking’ sketchbook and seeing the transition of drawings done outside, often quickly while on the move, and how these begin to inform the paintings as they evolve.

You can never know in advance who will be drawn to each painting. As I hang them, I may have my favourites, but that is often a result of the relationship that builds as I make them. Viewers are seieng them fresh and this allows me to see through their eyes too. Commercially it may be tempting to find a style which sells well and stick to it, but the constant challenge involved in questioning and developing each work is a source of great enjoyment when it comes together. So it’s always wonderful to hear when this approach is recognised by people who enjoy looking at my work.

Often as people are looking you can feel if one person is interested and the other is a bit ‘meh’ about it – which obviously makes it hard to arrive at a decision! Many people just choose art as treat for themselves, but this time I was interested to see much agreement between partners together. Perhaps these new paintings appeal equally to a masculine taste with their slightly sharper more graphic edge? Who knows, but it’s good to see when both parties are pleased with discovering work they know they will both enjoy having on their walls.

This week I have been busy having a selection of framed prints made and delivering them to their new homes. Original paintings are being hung and enjoyed in new surroundings and the paintings are now all shown in the SHOP section if you would like to see them before Christmas….

cloud-watching-alice-sheridan-framed-landscape-painting

‘Cloud Watching’ original painting on wood framed size 50cm

The other recent show has been The Discerning Eye which is a unique opportunity for showing work in central London. Work is selected by six prominent figures from different areas of the art world: two artists, two collectors and two critics. Each person curates and hang their own choices within the gallery so it has a very personal feel and is different each year.

There were over 3000 entries in this anniversary year so I was thrilled when my painting “ Spaces Between” was selected. When I went along on the opening night it was fun to discover it was chosen by Celia Imrie who had clearly enjoyed putting her display together.

Mall Galleries – on The Mall!

The other thing that makes it special is that all work must be under 50cm in size which means a fabulous range of affordable work and an Aladdin’s cave of choice. In their own words “It provides an unusual opportunity for works by lesser-known artists (that’s me!) to be hung alongside contributions from internationally recognised names.”

It was so busy on the opening night it was impossible to take photos so I will be going back myself over the weekend for a proper look.

This exhibition is open to the public from 17th-27th November 2016 and is free entry so pop along to The Mall Galleries if you can make it and maybe I’ll see you there!

Spaces Between is the painting which was chosen, original size is just 20cm but it has been popular as a ;arger print as shown here, available in two sizes… > SEE OPTIONS

Now, after all this excitement, I’m back in the studio and getting on with new work and planning events for next year!

I’d love to know how you find art for your home… is it through galleries or friends? Do let me know below…

Ever wondered what happened on a painting before it was finished – how it looked along the way? I wrote a while back about knowing when a painting is finished but sometimes it’s hard for me to remember where it began, and quite how many stages it passed through on the way. So I thought it would be interesting to search back through my photobank on my poor groaning phone and share how this one progressed. The story of the painting if you like. There may be some jumps where I forgot to take photos, but hopefully there are enough for you to follow.

I started painting over a previous painting where I had used just black and white, which I really didn’t enjoy! However it gave a good base and something to react against from the start. With absolutely no preconceptions about where this would lead, I was free to experiment and be led by the painting each stage…

This was an entirely new way of working for me, prompted by taking part in Nicholas Wilton’s Art2Life tutor programme earlier this year. The images below cover time from May until November. Yes, that’s a long time for a painting, but I was working on others at the same time. I mention it to show how impossible it is to answer the question “How long does it take you to finish a painting?”

I hope you enjoy seeing this develop, it’s fun to play spot the difference between each image!

Large loose marks using colour, any colour, after that black! The brighter cobalt blue is strong enough to stand out from what went before and jolt this into a new space so I’m no longer connected to the dilemmas of the painting underneath.

I rotated the panel to get a fresh perspective on it and decided I wanted to introduce a sense of horizon and skyline. As well as drawing through the new layers of wet paint I began to add oil pastel linear marks, almost picking a colour at random, yet knowing the mustard yellow would contrast well with the blue…

Taking more cues from yellow, but keeping it light and bright and bringing in deep purple… heather and shadows perhaps?

Time to do something radical – the colours are all a bit minty green and blue and I prefer more richness. Starting with a thin layer of a deep russet orange, this earthy tone knocks back all the existing colours on the painting. Another layer of thicker rust and the blues and turquoise underneath begin to sing – and now it begins to get exciting – and risky. Once you have parts you begin to really like, it’s harder to move on and keep a sense of loose and lively elements.

As the lower layers were full of more painterly brush marks, I like the feeling of the sharp edges of the orange shape. But I didn’t like the shapes I had created which felt like an obvious layer of ‘windows’. Adding more brings more intrigue and the sense of depth starts to grow. The thick creamy neutral colour is scraped through and scratched.

Some small dark areas to overlap the white and play with a sense of distance and foreground. And some smoother areas of richer greys bring a natural balance to the areas of multi colour. I’m still not sure what it is I’m trying to paint but I’m enjoying the complexity which is emerging. By now there are parts I can’t remember how I achieved them, and this makes it slightly easier to see what I need to add or remove to try to make the painting work as a whole composition.

Using torn paper to experiment with where to add new areas of colour. The scratched marks revealing the blue from the beginning layer encourages me to think about bringing in small chips of blue in other places, and I want a much stronger dark area in the foreground. The paper is only an indication though, and of course, once the paint mixing starts again it goes in a slightly different direction…

This is a big jump – I got carried away and forgot to take photographs! It feels like it’s almost there. The biggest change is the rich indigo blue which leads you back through the painting. A lighter area brings definition to the horizon and multiple layers translucent blue now links the sky to the colours below. Small areas and certain edges are more defined, but just some finer details to tweak…

Final adjustments. I always think this will be quick – not much more to do, maybe it’s hard to see the differences, but for me they are the changes which take me from being unsure to knowing there is nothing further I want to change. Some deeper blue right up in the top left of the sky, tiny swatches of white and turquoise like the flight of birds across the grey sky and many more too tiny to notice perhaps – the subtle variations within the lighter shapes which lift the overall painting.

Having started so boldly, it was a surprise to end up making finishes with a tiny brush to refine small differences which add richness and areas of discovered detail. It’s not time efficient! But it’s a strong indicator that this is complete. I could go on forever, but it’s time to take those sparks into a new painting.

I called this ‘Unearthed’. There is a feeling of excavation, of history and discovery. A rich red of soil, the movement of changing weather, man made scars in the land and large boulders of rock which won’t be moved.

This painting was shortlisted for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2017 and is now SOLD but it is available as a print in different sizes > click here to see buying options <

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Making a selection – work on show

The story of a painting; Unearthed