Tag Archives: Open Studios

Show at the Portmanteau Gallery looking great

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Gallery installation shot

Installation shot of my show with Björk Haraldsdóttir at Portmanteau Gallery, Bridport

The exhibition at the Portmanteau Gallery in Bridport opens today and i am delighted to say it looks beautiful. Björk’s work and mine work together really well and I am really inspired by how, together, we have created a cool, calm and classy atmosphere.

The Portmanteau Gallery will be open between 10am and 4pm only on the following dates: 20, 21, 24 to 29 August 2016. I won’t be at the gallery every day so if you want to catch up with me your best bet will be to visit on Wednesday 24 or Friday 26 through Sunday 28 or call me to arrange a time, or come to the Private View tonight between 5.30 and 7pm

Gallery installation shot

Another installation shot of my show with Björk Haraldsdóttir at Portmanteau Gallery, Bridport

The Portmanteau Gallery is at 10 North Street, Bridport DT6 3JQ on the corner with Rax Lane where there is limited on-road parking as well as the car park. Look out for the yellow ART signs marked “21”, our Bridport Open Studios venue number.

Dorset Art Weeks: Venue 141

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Photograph of David Smith's studio

The studio is transformed to gallery

I am opening up my studio as part of Dorset Art Weeks. Everything is set up and looking good ready for the public opening at 11am on Saturday 28th May. I am delighted to be showing a good number of brand new pieces: work that I have produced this year! I am also showing some of the “Black Squares” work I exhibited at Black Swan Arts, Frome, last November which hasn’t been seen in Bridport before.

Photograph of David Smith's studio

A mix of Black Squares and new erased field drawings ready for DAW 2016

The new work picks up where I left off last year before committing to the Black Squares theme for the Frome show, but clearly it has been developed with the experience of that focused process at play. There are new field drawings in colourful Inktense pencil, double and triple erasures and redactions, expressive ink drawings, new asemic text works and some sparse new pieces inspired by the coast which I have been wanting to do for almost a year!

Photograph of David Smith's studio

There’s work to suit a range of space: from small to large

Because there is so much new work – mostly imperial size or larger – I have had to hang more like an art fair than a gallery, which is fine if you remember this is just an open studios event!

I am not open every day during Dorset Art Weeks so check the opening times before you come. I will be open between 11am and 6pm only on the following dates: 28, 29, 30 May, 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12 June 2016. Other times strictly by appointment only.

Open Studio this August Bank Holiday weekend

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Image of artist's studio

Corner of my studio

The first two days of Bridport Open Studios saw a steady stream of interested visitors and some good sales – and that was after me not really being set up properly. It’s a little more organised now and who knows, I might even be able to say I was ready! I am pleased to be showing a wide range of my work including new work on canvas, erasure drawings, field drawings, new watercolour pieces and a range of small “affordable” studies. I have aslo set aside some space for a selection of #Collage365 work

#Collage365 work in the studio

A selection of #Collage365 is on show at the studio during Bridport Open Studios

I also have some concertina books for sake too:

Small studies and artit's books at my studio

Small studies and artit’s books at my studio

Abstract graphite drawing by david Smith

“Double Erasure – that soft spot in my heart”
Multiply-erased graphite drawing on Canaletto paper 500mm x 700mm

It’s that time again and now I have a studio at St Michael’s in Bridport town centre it would be foolish of me not to open up and join in Bridport Open Studios. Since completing my #Letter365 project I have been busy catching up on a couple of years’ neglect in the garden but I have also been getting on with new work.

Black square collage by David Smith

Thermopylae (not as black as you think)
Collage, acrylic & ink on board 306mm x 306mm

I completed the erasure drawing I was talking about earlier (shown above) and have been working on black squares (as usual not always black, not always square!) and various field pieces. Some of the field pieces are on canvas! That’s the first time I have used canvas or completed a piece on canvas for 43 years! (It has been interesting!) I aim to add images of some of this work in the next few days.

I have also been moved to return to using wet-in-wet watercolour again and have been creating large field pieces, starting a new series of work under the working title of “The Stone Archive – Fields of Oblivion”. I will post some of these later too, including some small pieces I have framed up especially for Bridport Open Studios. These small nicely-framed pieces are designed as affordable introductions to my work and would make great gifts for loved ones or yourself! They are the sort of things people point to in my sketchbooks and say, “Ooh, that’s nice!” Since I have been working on larger sheets than my sketchbooks when I am trying out some ideas (especially the watercolour and acrylic stuff as I can do more while the paint dries) I thought I would isolate some of the ones that work best and frame them for sale.

As usual there is a “6×9” show to accompany Bridport Open Studios. This year it occupies the foyer and cafe at Bridport Arts Centre and I have entered some specially made pieces that explore my current themes and, some, move into new territory. The show opens on Wednesday 19 August and runs till 18 September after which it transfers to Black Swan Arts at Frome.

You can find details of my opening hours etc on the Bridport Open Studios website

Still Protecting

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Mixed media artwork on paper by David Smith

Still Protecting
Mixed media on handmade paper 279mm x 381mm

This piece from last year was my #arteachday post on Twitter today and created some possible buying interest! If not sold before it willl be available during Dorset Art Weeks at venue 121. it has been framed in my usual style of matt white hand-painted frame float-mounted over polar white card. The piece itself is on Saunders Waterford paper with collaged black paper, scotch tape, watercolour and ink.

It’s time I started to use this website properly!

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Detail from A Small Homage to Max Ernst, a drawing by David Smith

A Small Homage to Max Ernst (detail) Ink on Somerset paper 381mm x 559mm

I set this site up before Bridport Open Studios last year and got overtaken by all the things I had to do in preparation and have never really got back to it. I have used the excuses of being busy with my #Collage365 project and now my #Letter365 series; and the fact that I wanted to decide on an appropriate design and format for the site; and my problems with making good photographic reproductions of, in paticular, my larger pieces on paper, for not doing it, but now with Dorset Art Weeks rapidly appoaching, it is important that I start to populate it with images. An easy way to ensure at least something get up here is to post the image I am putting up on Twitter each day under the hashtag #arteachday. At least it will begin to demonstrate what my work is about even if i don’t manage to get good reproductions produced or sort out the design for the site in the short term.

Today’s image is from an abstract fine pen drawing I completed today of half-imperial size. The ring is a reference to the solar/lunar disc that appears in a number of Ernst’s works and is a reminder to me to revisit him, especially since my foray into collage through #Collage365 was so fruitful.

Five artists at theChapel in the Garden, Bridport

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Flier for Five Artists at the Chapel in the Garden

I have been busy organising the exhibition and have not left enough time to set up my new website. I had hoped to log all the preparations and events leading up to the launch but we do what we can do.  I will be exhibiting with my son, Tom, and daughter, Hannah, at the Chapel in the Garden in Bridport as part of Bridport Open Studios. My neighbour Marian Young and Beaminster artist Hazel Grimsey will be joining us.

Tomorrow I will be picking up the rest of my work from the framers, so at least I will have something to put on the walls, but I don’t know if I will be able to mount and wrap any other stuff. Hopefully I will be able to get it all up on Thursday leaving Friday free to do the signage at the Chapel.