Tag Archives: watercolour

#BlackSquares365 – my new time-based art project

Abstract, contemporary artwork by David Smith

001
Watercolour and tape on Bockingford paper 20cm x 20cm

Yesterday I launched a new personal project, #BlackSquares365. Each and every day for the next year I will create a small artwork from scratch and post it on Instagram and Twitter before the end of the day. Each piece is available directly from me for a bargain £40 including worldwide postage* (email me for details – hopefully soon I will be able to create a safe online way to buy them).

I’m calling it “distributed art”: lots of people can own an individual, unique piece of art and at the same time hold a share of one larger artwork spread across time and space; no one person will own it all, nobody will ever see it in its entirety!

The idea that it’s a work that is deconstructed and scattered to the four corners of the globe (hopefully) fits the themes of erasure, redaction, forensics, geology and landscape that run through much of what I make. Little traces of #BlackSquares365 will be lodged far and wide: the dispersion making it harder for it to ever be completely destroyed.

Selling small pieces at a price within the reach of ordinary people appeals to my democratic sensibilities. I see it as a bit of an antidote to the high-end art market where art is a trading commodity: works of art gain prices that have little to do with the level of pleasure or intellectual stimulation they engender becoming, instead, conceptual currency notes. In that world only wealthy individuals and institutions can own large works but anyone can buy into #BlackSquares365 and get their own small piece that is itself a part of the much bigger community-owned art project.

Each piece will be 8” (20cm) square and will be signed on the reverse with date and number stamps and a brief description of the materials used. Despite the much-reduced price each will be made with the same quality materials that I use normally, such as artist’s paints and acid-free professional papers and will be made with the same care and attention as any of my work. I will use a simple quality control measure throughout which is that only work I personally would be happy to frame and have on my own walls at home is acceptable. Talking of framing, 8” x 8” will fit into standard off-the-shelf frame available from Scandinavian lifestyle superstores and other outlets (though it always pays to have things professionally framed. I will not be giving titles to anything (the prices would have to rise enormously!) If you fancy the idea of reserving a piece made on a special day that’s fine. I would expect full payment with the order. You can rest assured that I won’t let you down – I have completed two year-long projects like this before – but in the unlikely event that I gave up or was prevented from continuing I would fully refund your money.

So why Black Squares as a subject? Well that is a long story which I will weave in and out of further posts, but those who know my previous Black Squares work will know that “black is not the only colour” and “other geometric plane figures are available”!

*I can only afford to send work at the most basic postal rate and cannot be responsible for any taxes or customs duty when posting to other countries. If you require a faster or more secure delivery I am happy to arrange at cost.

Selected for RWA 163rd Annual Open Exhibition

The Stone Archive - watercolour by David Smith

“The Stone Archive (Fields of Oblivion 2)”
Watercolour on Saunders Waterford paper 559mm × 762mm

I am pleased to say that “The Stone Archive (Fields of Oblivion 2)” has been selected for the RWA 163rd Annual Open Exhibition in Bristol. It is difficult deciding which open competitions are of value, but the RWA attracts a large number of entries, has a professional process and good quality judges so I feel proud to have been chosen for inclusion and will be showing with some other excellent artists. The Varnishing Day Lunch and Private View are this Saturday, The show is open to the public from 4 October to the 29 November 2015

Good response to my work at Bridport Open Studios

Outfall 2 - drawing in ink and watercolour by David Smith

Outfall 2
Ink & watercolour on paper
559mm × 762mm

I have been pleased with the quality of visitors to my Open Studios this weekend. Most people have displayed a keen interest in my work and I’ve enjoyed meeting new people and talking about art. I’m also pleased that I have sold something each day – including today when I was technically not open! A visitor over the weekend called this morning to say they had decided to by “Outfall 2”, the piece pictured above. It’s quite a special piece for me and I am delighhted it has found an appreciative home.

I have also sold some of the small studies I framed up and another larger piece, “You Were Born And So You’re Free”

Abstract minimalist drawing by David Smith

You Were Born And So You’re Free
Ink on Somerset paper 559mm × 762mm

I Forgot Who Said That

I Forgot Who Said That - ink & watercolur drwaing by David Smith

I Forgot Who Said That
Ink and watercolour on Saunders Waterford paper 559mm × 762mm

I finally managed to finish this drawing a few days ago. It is the first of many that I hoped to do while working within my #Letter365 installation at Bridport Arts Centre. I am only managing to get there for a couple of hours a day and mostly I get involved with talking with visitors for some part of the time. I have started another piece but will finish that at the studio because the table I am working on is not wide enough to accommodate imperial size paper longways and there is a lip round the table edge that means the paper doesn’t lie flat. But I have another two weeks so may gat more done and I have gathered lots of ideas.

This piece, I Forgot Who Said That, is one of my field drawings but using a more colourful palette than my usual black and white. Although firmly based in the repetitive, compartmentalised grid structure of pieces such as Aleph’s Flux or The Dream’s Malfunction – and I have done some small-scale test pieces in this style – the more rounded marks are influenced by the stains of fresh-sawn logs on the Allsop Gallery floorboards left from the show What Remains – an installation by And Now back in September-October 2014

Composite image of some stains on the Allsop Gallery floor caused by fresh cut logs in a previous installation

Composite image of some stains on the Allsop Gallery floor caused by fresh cut logs in a previous installation

I am aiming to do some more work related to these stains and the lines between the boards, but I’ll have to get a move on. Below is a detail of I Forgot Who Said That to compare and see how it may have been influenced more than I may have thought:

Detail of "I Forgot Who Said That" watercolour and ink drawing by David Smith

I Forgot Who Said That (detail)

The Prophesy Restated selected for Drawn 2015

The Prophesy Restated - Ink and watercolour drawing by David Smith

The Prophesy Restated
Ink and watercolour on Saunders Waterford paper 559m × 762m

I am pleased to announce that my ink and watercolour drawing The Prophesy Restated has been selected for the RWA Drawn 2015 exhibition. It is the largest of a series I was doing at the end of last year. I am still interested in investigating the theme further now that I am a little freer to work on more complex and larger field drawings. This small success means that I will be exhibiting in Bristol for the first time and will have two shows running at the same time with my solo installation #Letter365 running at Bridport Arts Centre until 11 April.

A little sketch of West Bay

A line and wash sketchbook entry of the coast west of West Bay

A line and wash sketchbook entry of the coast west of West Bay

Yesterday on my #Letter365 blog I said

If you want pictures of fluffy things, portraits, realism, impressionism, boats on water and that kind of thing I’m generally not your man.

So the devil in me thought I should make my #arteachday post on Twitter should be a line and wash sketchbook entry of the coast across Lyme Bay west of West Bay.

Tideline Too

Tideline Too: Drawing by David Smith - Ink & watercolour on paper

Tideline Too
Ink & watercolour on paper 559mm × 762mm

Yesterday’ #arteachday post was this drawing from last year.