Abstract and Modern Art Paintings Blog

Sun, sand and Statham!

Posted by Swarez on July 27, 2010  |  No Comments

Despite my best efforts to relax and take things easy over the last two weeks it appears that I have managed to do the exact opposite. In fact, each day has resembled a Jason Statham movie – fast paced, action packed and full of foul language. Thankfully I have averted smacking people in the face or calling people ‘Chico’ for no reason, nor have I adopted a cockney accent.

In what was supposed to be a leisurely saunter up Chill Lane I had become sucked into a world of deadlines and targets. Often brought about by my own desire to get things done. I painted hard, tried new things, organized this that and the other, spent money I didn’t have, stayed up too late, watched bad TV, ate trash food, tried to please everyone and ended up feeling stressed, tired, unhealthy and miserable… and then came Saturday.

Why do I bother painting at all?

Posted by Swarez on July 7, 2010  |  9 Comments

I think I know why I keep my studio a secret place. It’s not some magical haven of creativity or a shining beacon of expression. It is a secret place because it is mine. When I go there I have no outside world. I have no distractions and nobody around me. I can close off everything and just be by myself. Sometimes I don’t paint – I like things to be tidy and neat so I will clean and put things in their place when I am not painting. It’s my escape route from the world that surrounds me.

I still get full of fear when I am about to tackle a piece of canvas but at least I have no-one around me to tell me what to do. I can’t bear that when I’m painting – actually I can’t bear that anyway. I like being isolated and cut off. I only have to battle with my own demons and not someone elses. Somedays I just sit on my big red sofa and do nothing but look around or think about stuff. You know, the big things in life – why bother painting, where the next latte is coming from etc..

The inside of a creative’s head is a complex one. The biggest issues I think I will ever face are those concerning value. What I mean by that is that on occasions it’s right to question whether anything you do has any value or merit. This has got nothing to do with how many you sell or how popular you may be – this is an internal thing that no-one can affect, it is a personal battle for belief in what you do and the justification for it. Ironically it is also what keep me going onwards – helping me to make new and better pieces. Without any self-doubt how can I ever measure whether what I produce has any merit?

Okay, so I know that it’s all down to the viewer and it’s all subjective but this is about the creator not the viewer. I guess I see my work differently to how others do – a bit like how your recorded voice sounds when you listen back to it. Occasionally I produce something I know may not be commercially viable but I fall in love with it and it becomes a justification for why I paint at all. Artists need those moments. A little bit of self-licking goes a long way.

In a fickle and fashion-conscious world where fads come and go it’s easy to get sucked into the mainstream. In many ways I am glad I don’t fit that mould. It doesn’t mean I have a bigger pair of balls than anyone else it just means that I prefer to stay true and honest to my core values as an artist – and that’s to not give a shit. When I stop caring, when I am alone in my studio, when there is only me and the canvas and a few tins of paint – that’s when the good stuff comes out, that’s when every piece is the best piece, that’s when I can attach value to what I do and that’s why I do it because when you get it all right there is no better place on this earth I would rather be.

New studio, new paintings

Posted by Swarez on June 17, 2010  |  No Comments

Not much to say about these two bad boys except that they are the first two I have produced in my new studio. I have consolidated operations into one main studio now as it was getting a little to hard to organise myself between three locations. I have a good square footage of studio space now which is bathed in fantastic natural light – enough to take really good photographs of my work. What’s great about the space is that I can have an area to let things dry out and one to take photographs and one to paint in whilst still having room for all my materials and a piece of floor that I use to stretch canvases and glue frames together. Logistically this is heaven.

Glow in the dark paintings

Posted by Swarez on May 24, 2010  |  No Comments

I happened upon fluorescent paint quite by accident when I visited an art supplies store in London recently. I have been steadily working it into my paintings here and there over the last month or so simply because I liked the brash and lively things it did when added to ordinary colours. It has the effect of bringing the painting alive somehow. So imagine my surprise when a friend of mine suggested that we see what happens when we illuminate a piece with an ultra violet light source? The result, it’s fair to say, was jaw-dropping and a complete revelation to me.

Run Fat Boy, Run

Posted by Swarez on April 18, 2010  |  5 Comments

I’ve always enjoyed going out for a run. I admit it has never been with startling frequency or consistency but nevertheless I enjoy it. Since having been busy with the art and other projects and the added frustration of having an op on my knee last year I have long had the desire to go running again but never seemed to find the reasons to actually to it. Yesterday, all that was history as I embarked on what was, for me, a turning point.

I’ll skip the boring and innuendo-filled details about Lycra and go to the bit worth talking about. It took a while to find a rhythm but I found one that fitted into motion of my stomach flapping up and down. I can see that 7 months without martial arts and even longer without running has severely hampered my cardiovascular performance. I guess this was a big reason why I needed to go do  some exercise, I’m sick and tired of feeling like a frump all the time. We all need to start somewhere don’t we? My instructor always used to tell me that the hardest part of doing anything worthwhile is starting it in the first place. How right he was.

New corporate Modern Art commission is go!

Posted by Swarez on March 28, 2010  |  No Comments

Gerzoo Coffee found me on Google a few short weeks ago and decided to mail me and find out if I could help transform their popular and very big coffee house near Brighton. Of course I jumped at the chance! Okay so this wasn’t the easiest or most straightforward of jobs – the stairwell posed particular problems in terms of size, shape and what to paint onto them. Click to read more…

Busy, busy, busy

Posted by Swarez on March 19, 2010  |  No Comments

Typical, you wait for an eternity after Christmas and then commissions come flying at you from all directions! Not that you’ll ever hear me complaining. What this means though is that there is now a waiting list of people wanting art made for them and the spaces they live in. I guess that’s sometimes the way it is.

I visited a couple yesterday who have a fantastic barn conversion and an incredible main living space – it’s going to be a privilege to paint for them if I’m honest as it’s rare to get a property that lends itself to large statement pieces of art. I also have a project at a coffee shop near the south coast which is nearing completion and installation. I don’t normally mention the private commissions much but this particular one is going to look stunning, even if I say so myself! In fact, I have taped the signature piece during creation and hope to have that one uploaded and edited before too long (it’s about time I got another painting captured and put onto You-Tube).

Oh and did I mention the trip to Atlanta in the summer? Well, looks like I have an invitation to go paint for a very high profile client but I am sworn to secrecy. Oh and then there’s the Dubai thing (no joke, honest!) which is on the back burner. I honestly have no idea what’s going on it’s all so hectic at the moment – what I do know is that I am shortly going to be launching a really exciting new concept taking the drip painting technique to a whole new level (to be launched on it’s own website). It ‘aint gonna be cheap but then it is gonna be jaw-droppingly fabulous (so I have been told by the few that have seen it).

One year in paintings

Posted by Swarez on March 10, 2010  |  No Comments

Click image to see video

I decided to take a long, lingering look back at the past twelve months and piece together the paintings that best reflected the work I had done and the progress I have made. I think as artists we are always learning – whether it be about the technicalities of paint, discovering new applications or learning more about ourselves so it’s good to sometimes look back on the 80% you have achieved and not always at the 20% you haven’t.

How I paint Abstract Art (Part One)

Posted by Swarez on February 22, 2010  |  No Comments

Click to read full post

I’m often asked how I paint what I paint. What I mean by that is what kind of twisted bizarre things are there in my head to make me want to consciously paint some of the things I do. I don’t find the process of painting abstract difficult, ideas happen randomly, sometimes planned, sometimes not. The root of the form lies with the ability to see something in your head, either as a whole or in parts. Sometimes I only see bits at a time so I work on those. Normally I am driven by shapes and colours and how they interact with each other to make new forms. No matter what artists tell you every abstract is an experiment. Why? Ask an artist if they are ever happy with any of their works or whether they have re-painted a piece because it wasn’t right. The reason is because it doesn’t work. And if it doesn’t work then it’s gone wrong – experiments go wrong.

Next time, take your hat

Posted by Swarez on February 15, 2010  |  1 Comment

click image to read the full post

We all know that you can’t go anywhere these days without being watched by someone or something. We have become used to being recorded, taped and screened. All this technology is fine until humans get involved. This, I’m sad to say, is where the chaos begins – as I have just found out on what should have been an innocent trip to the local supermarket.

Now for a baldy like me the winter poses grave dangers in the ‘Jesus my freekin’ head is cold’ department which often requires extensive use of a hat. On this occasion though I felt man enough to go without, after all, it’s only a two minute walk to the local shop for heavens sake. Unfortunately my senseless bravado was stripped from me after about thirty seconds, resulting in a chilly bonce.

Chaos Controlled – An artists guide to drip painting

Posted by Swarez on February 13, 2010  |  1 Comment

Click the photo to read the full post

It’s impossible, when talking about the techniques of drip or controlled pour painting, not to mention the influence of Jackson Pollock on the genre. His work is as controversial now as it was fifty years ago, yet whilst much is talked of the man and his paintings seldom is written about the actual process and techniques of drip painting or what an artist thinks about whilst he or she is engaged in their work. I will try and give you an insight into the technique from my own perspective, which is in no way linked to or copied from anyone else’s style or work.

How it all gets started

I lay a blank piece of canvas on the floor. At this point I know what colours I am using and the basic structure of what I want to produce. I can see very clearly what the finished article will look like. Right down to the sizes of the strokes, depth of colour, how many layers it will be composed of, how I’m going to thin the paints and in what order I will start. I spend a long time mixing colours and even longer on the thinning process, using a number of different thinning agents and in different ratios of paint to thinners. This affects how the painting will look when it dries.

The Funniest Joke in the World

Posted by Swarez on February 7, 2010  |  No Comments

Now I may be biased but I first heard this joke a number if years ago and have remembered it ever since. Partly for the way that the radio station presenter tells it and partly because it’s so damn funny. I’m sure it did the rounds through email many years ago but classics like this never age – and if you’ve never heard it before I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do. Click the post heading to see the joke.

Bish Bash Bosh! No easels for me

Posted by Swarez on February 5, 2010  |  3 Comments

I don’t always paint on the floor although, as you can see from the picture above, it’s the only way to get big paintings done. There’s something very basic and pure about laying out a piece of canvas out in front of you. A blank space to create – there’s nothing like it. Mind you, I always find it daunting when I arrive at this point, even when I know what I want to paint. I’m always wary of what I’m going to produce. Ironically things seldom turn out the way I plan it in my head. I’m always surprised by the direction the painting takes me – almost unconsciously steering me in odd directions. Click the heading to read more…

The Great Modern Art Paradox

Posted by Swarez on February 3, 2010  |  2 Comments

You don’t have to understand or appreciate modern art to recognise the most shocking thing about it these days – there is no shock anymore. What was once the bastion of originality and pretentiousness has become mainstream and conservative and, despite more and more media attention for the genre, these days the controversy surrounding artists has all but gone forever. To me, the groundbreaking times we have enjoyed have gone. Not even the sight of Grayson Perry in a dress raises eyebrows anymore.

Call Centre Chaos and the Phones from Hell

Posted by Swarez on February 2, 2010  |  2 Comments

As if life isn’t short enough we seem to have accepted life with menu-based phone systems as the norm. You know, the kind of thing that presents you with a series of options, press one for death, two for hell etc… Where did the real people go to? If I have to spend another minute listening to bloody Greensleeves I fear that my brain will turn to shit and start pouring through my eyeballs.

I’m sorry, I’ll say that again…

Posted by Swarez on January 28, 2010  |  1 Comment

Forgetting the food for just a moment, there are plenty of reasons to loathe the fast food hamburger chains. Poorly trained staff, unhealthy products and garishly decorated ‘restaurants’ are just three of the gripes on my ever growing list of hate. If there are any signs of a positive future for these companies it lies in the food, which is irresistible when you want something quick, warm and overflowing with carbohydrates. The lure of a double cheeseburger and fries makes us act like moths around a saturated fat light bulb.

The Bipolar Polar Bear

Posted by Swarez on January 24, 2010  |  No Comments

It’s long been documented that artists and the creative amongst our society are quite often as mad as a box of frogs. Well, by this I mean that they carry personality traits that are synonymous with certain categories of mental illness, a term that’s as harsh as it is broad.

I feel uneasy with carrying a label that an unsympathetic society has given me in order to appease itself or place me in a box marked ‘fruit cake’. I know myself better than anyone and prefer to think of being bipolar as a heightened level of awareness. Unfortunately this also brings a greater depth of emotion which swings from one extreme to the other, almost always born out of what’s going on around me more-so than things I can ever generate in my head. Behaviour breeds behaviour.

New Drip Painting in progress

Posted by Swarez on January 20, 2010  |  4 Comments

It’s been a while since I have had the motivation to get painting again. I haven’t been short of ideas – simply short on desire. Thankfully though I now have my creative head on again and have been working on this latest piece. It is the first time I have worked on a piece of unprimed canvas cloth. As i paint on the floor I have noticed that a lot of paint has gone straight through onto the carpet underneath which looks pretty cool!

Get Rich Now? – I don’t think so!

Posted by Swarez on January 18, 2010  |  3 Comments

Swarez says NO to get rich quick schemes

The saddest thing about those internet sites that claim to be able to offer you guaranteed incomes of £20k per month is that very often the PDF that gets sent to your inbox, after you’ve paid $50 into an account in the Caymen Islands, is, in fact, another booklet on how to get rich quick. It isn’t actually any secret at all. There never is any secret system to earn a fortune. It’s another con by a pyramid marketeer who cons all the of the people below him to believe that if they play their part in attracting would be desperado fortune-seekers they too will see their incomes rise majestically towards the stratosphere. Oh dear oh dear, you gullible twats.

Was Jim Clark the Greatest Racing Driver?

Posted by Swarez on January 18, 2010  |  2 Comments

During a recent conversation with a friend of mine about great historic racing cars and the drivers that made them great we came upon the legend that is Jim Clark. It was always going to be difficult coming up with a top ten, there are so many great names and marques to choose from. It should have been no surprise that Jim Clark featured so highly on both our lists, especially considering how many career highlights he had before his untimely death.