New year 2012 and back to the drawing board!

We’re almost at the end of January and after a great break over the festive period and New Year (which already seems a long time ago, happy Chinese new year is more appropriate now!) I’ve gone back to the drawing board (and sketchbook) to shake off the January blues. As always, drawing has that immediacy and spontaneity that’s so enjoyable, plus it’s easier to find sitters for drawings, as the time commitment is far less than that of posing for a painting.

Here are a selection of the drawings from the end of 2011, since my last post, a huge thank you to all the people who’ve posed recently!

   

 

       

I have started some painting as well (otherwise the first photo would make no sense!) and I’ll post images as soon as new paintings are complete. In the meantime I’m searching for sitters with an excess of free time and penchant for keeping still and speaking of keeping still, here’s something drawn by a friend, Lucy, which I’ve had on my studio wall for years because it never fails to make me smile. Thank you to Lucy!

(Click on any image for full size).

Latest laminate piece “La Belle Noiseuse, (I do not love you…)” finished!

It’s been a long time in the making (see earlier post) but my latest laminate piece is now finished! “La Belle Noiseuse, (I do not love you…)” is based on several paintings and drawings dating from 2007/8 and the poem “I do not love you except because I love you” by Pablo Neruda. I started this piece in 2008 and it’s been impossible to finish and assemble the piece until now, which means that I’m very happy to be able to finally see the work as one whole image rather than fragments or two halves. It’s a diptych, two panels joined together and it’s an attempt to further explore the thoughts and emotions that preoccupied me when I made the 4 paintings and 9 drawings that comprise the new image.

It was when I was making the original paintings and drawings that I first read the poem by Pablo Neruda, it really struck a chord at the time and it’s been one of my favourite poems ever since. The poem is on one of my earlier blogpages:

http://simontolhurst.wordpress.com/2008/03/21/i-do-not-love-you-except-because-i-love-you/

For this piece I wrote the poem on the back of each individual image before they were fragmented so the reverse side has broken sections of the poem repeated over and over.

I’ve also reconstructed the poem in the right hand panel using some of these fragments.

I’ve titled the piece after the poem and also the beautiful film, “La Belle Noiseuse”, which in turn is loosely based on a Balzac short story. All three were in my mind during various stages of production and if you haven’t seen the film it’s well worth checking out (even if it is 4hrs long!), here’s imdb’s verdict on the movie:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101428/

I’m still to get a really satisfactory photograph of the piece, it’s very large, very reflective and until I can get it to a larger space it’s difficult to light it or display it properly to take the ideal shot, but for now I’m just enjoying having it around and I’ll look forward to seeing it in a gallery setting hopefully soon.

Now that this piece is finished I’m turning my thoughts to starting some painting and also to my next laminate piece which is already in my mind.

First photo’s of new laminate and Hello to the old Studio!

I’ve finally managed to take some photo’s of my new laminate artwork that I’ve been planning and working on for a long, long time. The original images date from 2007/8 and I’ve had the composition worked out for quite a while but this is the first opportunity I’ve had to finalise the image and laminate the individual pieces ready for assembly. The photo’s aren’t the greatest as I was standing on a chair holding the camera over the table with the work and they’re not the easiest works to photograph anyway, they’re not rigid and they’re very reflective when laminated but here are the first pics I have:

The piece is designed as a diptych (two images hinged together) and my next job is to assemble it! More photo’s to follow…

It’s also been a few weeks now since I moved back to my old studio, something I’m very happy about! There were lots of things I missed about the place and I’ve really enjoyed them since I’ve been back, so much so that here are a few photo’s of some of them

   

Latest paintings

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I’m on the move again and before my internet connection disappears I thought I’d upload my latest portraits, which are still drying as I write. A huge thank you to Joe, Anca and Fiona for all the time they spent posing for the paintings, especially over the last couple of weeks to enable me to finish them in time. Here are the images, click on any of them for a full screen view:

I’m looking forwards to starting a new series of paintings at my new place but for now I’d better get packing!

“Jo” on display in Swiss Cottage.

My portrait of Jo is on display as part of Camden’s “Open Open” exhibition at Swiss Cottage Library Gallery.  The show is an unjuried open exhibition and therefore very mixed but it’s nice to see Jo’s portrait on a gallery wall with nice light again and thank you to the organisers for including the piece. Here are a couple of photo’s:

 

The exhibition is on until the 30th August.

“Glass Half Full” and huge thanks to the Saatchi Gallery!

My latest still life “Glass Half Full” is finished and should be followed soon by my other works in progress as I start to get ready for another change of home in a few weeks. This is hopefully my last change of address for some time as I’m not cut out for a nomadic existence and this will be my third move in nine months! Here’s the painting:

I’ve also been contacted by the Saatchi Gallery recently to say that they have re-hung the Showdown winners space at the gallery and that my piece has been put into storage. “Dimitra” has been on show for two years! I’d just like to take the chance to say a huge thank you to them for displaying it for such a long time.

Thank you to the Saatchi Gallery!

I also have to say thank you to Saatchi Online, who posted/tweeted my website address at the beginning of June which resulted in several hundred visitors to my website in just 24hrs! (https://www.facebook.com/#!/saatchionline). This smashed my previous record for most visitors in a day and had me wondering what was going on until I saw the post. Thank you to them for the publicity, it’s always really nice to realise that people are able to see my work even if it’s not currently showing in a gallery.

Twitter is something new to me and partly because of the Saatchi tweet I opened an account. I don’t think I’ll be tweeting on a daily basis but I will use it for news about my work. For anyone who wants to add me on twitter my username is @SimonTolhurst.

Lastly, here are some latest drawings, as always thanks to everyone who posed for me recently!

Saatchi Online Prints

   

The Saatchi Online website is now offering fine art prints and I’ve made a number of my paintings and drawings, new and old, available for this service. The prints are on paper or canvas and start at just $20 for 8″x10″ (20cm x 25cm).

   

The link to my Saatchi Online page is:

http://www.saatchionline.com/profiles/index/id/26265

I’ll be adding more images to the Saatchi site that take advantage of this service, so feel free to let me know if there’s a particular painting or drawing you’d like to see available for prints in the future!