Portrait of the Artist gone to press

Our book "Portrait of the Artist - 25 Bridport Painters & Sculptors" went to press yesterday, and will be offically launched by artist John Hubbard at 7pm at the Private View of the exhibition at the Bridport Arts Centre, 6-8pm next Saturday 17th April.

The book is now available for £19.95 from all good book shops. You can also order the book online from the our website.

"Portrait of the Artist" Exhibition

I will be putting up the exhibition of "Portrait of the Artist" next week and it will run from Sat 17 April to Tues 11 May. The Allsop Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am-4pm.

It's been an intense process to create the book in just over 3 months, but I'm actually glad we had this deadline because now I can get on with my painting again!

I'm also looking forward to visiting London to see some recent exhibitions, such as Richard Hamilton at the Serpentine, Eberhard Havekost at While Cube, and I'm liking the look of two new paintings by Christopher Stevens at Mummery + Schnelle Gallery.

Online I'm loving the amazing double self-portraits by Kelli Connell (made with double exposures) and the incredible trompe-loeil works by Kirk Hayes ('trompe-l'oeil' is a style of painting that gives an illusion of photographic reality).

Meanwhile I'm still enjoying paintings by Jean-Pierre Roy, Inka Essenhigh, George Shaw and Ged Quinn.

See you at the opening!

Visit www.bridport.org for more information about the Bridport art scene.

Easter Open event at St Michael's Studios, Bridport

Easter Open event at St Michael's Studios, 2 to 5 April, 10-5pm daily

We're putting on our annual Easter Open Studios event over the 4 days of the Easter Bank Holiday, and many of the artists at St Michael's Studios will be opening their studios to the public.

I'll also be unveiling my latest commission "View from Lewesdon Hill" during the open event. The painting is on temporary loan from the new owner, and as I've spent 6 months making it, I wanted to give the public another opportunity to see it.

The painting is one of a series of panoramic landscape paintings inspired by the unique light and landscape of West Dorset, it's a five-foot painting, showing a vista across the Marshwood Vale from Pilsden Pen to Charmouth, framed by the ancient beech trees on the lower part of Lewesdon Hill, itself an iron age hill fort and the highest point in Dorset.


Also taking place from this weekend are two exhibitions by two artists based at St Michael's Studios. Andrew Leppard and John Rabbetts have a two-man show at Eype Centre of the Arts, which is on from Good Friday April 2nd for one week until Sunday April 11th and will be open from 10.30am until 4.30pm. Admission is free.

Also well worth a look is a solo show by John Rabbetts at the White Space Gallery in Axminster, from April 2nd- 11th April 2010.

"John Rabbetts' vibrant oil paintings are appreciated for their mood and atmosphere. He has a strong sense of the nuances of light and a rare talent for capturing expression and movement. John explores a wide range of subjects, from portraits, to landscapes, interiors and exteriors, and has created a versatile stylistic approach appropriated from artists throughout the history of painting. He tends to work quickly, challenging himself to capture the likeness of an image or accomplish a painterly effect. Working from found and personal images, both photographic and painted, John relishes the activity of painting, pitting himself against the masters, determined to match their virtuosity and enjoying the sheer pleasure of the painters touch."

Meanwhile, artist Tim Nickolson is showing at Sladers Yard Gallery, West Bay, from 28 March to 16 May.

"This is a rare chance to see the joyous colours and irrepressible style of Tim Nicholson's paintings. Tim plays with the idea of representation with a sure hand and a great sense of fun. Every day objects are transformed into jewels, flattened and yet bursting with life. His landscapes may have writing on them as if he has painted them by numbers. Dots and stripes speak of pattern yet the picture leaps out.

Tim Nicholson is the nephew of Ben Nicholson, son of Kit and EQ whose prints play a strong part in the exhibition. Designed in the forties and fifties in the midst of the radical thinking which was the seed for many of the ideas behind the contemporary work in this exhibition, EQ's designs are still fresh and strong today. Known primarily for her textile designs, EQ's paintings were only discovered by friends late in her life. Simplifying and stylising every day objects, they reveal a clear and wonderful talent.

Sladers Yard is an eighteenth century maritime warehouse at West Bay harbour in West Dorset. The original three-storey timber interior of Sladers Yard speaks of its 250-year history as a workplace. Everywhere are the marks of the past: grooves worn by ropes or great bolts driven into the rough stone walls. With its mottled lime-washed walls and rough-hewn pillars, the building makes a stunning setting for contemporary work.

Along the road in Morecomblake, the Artwave West Gallery has it's Easter exhibition, with a dozen artists showing from 12th March - 24th April 2010.

Next up will be the launch of my "Portrait of the Artist" book and exhibition at the Bridport Arts Centre on Saturday 17th April, from 6-8pm. This is a group show of twenty-five painters and sculptors associated with the Bridport art scene, and includes the launch of the book on the opening night. The project is a collaboration between myself writer Lu Orza and photographer George Wright, and we each draw on our own creative disciples to present a multifaceted portrait of the contemporary artist, with Lu's narrative texts, George's evocative photographic portraits and my selection of some of the artists best work.

Happy Easter!

Portrait book nearly there...

(Pic: Jollyon Carter, from "Portrait of the Artist", published 17 April 2010)

I've spent another week working with photographer George Wright on the final edits of our book "Portrait of the Artist". We're extremely happy with the results so far and it feels like the book is gets pretty close to 'vibe' of the Bridport art scene.

I started working with George a couple of years back, when we made a series of adverts for the Art Review magazine - which covers 'high-brow' contemporary art in a very accessible way. I'd read the magazine for years, and I realised that having an elegant advert there might be a good way of raising the art-world profile of the Bridport art scene.

I was recommended George by an artist friend and realised that he had actually won the Bridport Open Art exhibition a couple of years back with a beautiful photographic print of an oak tree, which he'd lit artificially at night. He has also had hundreds of photographs featured in magazines, particularly profiles of well known figures, and he has made a collection of these into an eye-catching book called "Some People I've Met".

I only had a small budget to work with as the Art Review project was only funded by the participating artists, but I managed to negotiate a really good deal with George, and we set out on an ambitious 24 artist shoot, over 2 days!

I was immediately impressed by George's energy and his ability to put the subjects at ease. George has obviously got used to working with all types of people and is expert at finding elements of their environment to frame them in a subtlety theatrical manner. His work brings out the romance and drama of the subject, whether they are an office worker or Royalty, and this makes his work particularly suitable for artists, who tend to create a richly evocative working space around them.

When I started working with George I was, like many artists, quite shy about being photographed, but now I relish the opportunity! Once you realise that having your photograph taken is a form of performance then you can simply enjoy being a larger version of yourself.

The "Portrait" artist who understood this best was undoubtedly Jollyon Carter. Recently back from studying in New York, and really loving his ragged studio on the St Michael's Trading Estate, Jollyon launched himself into the photo-shoot with abandon. He realised that a book can be used as an extension of the means an artist uses to engage with the viewer, and he came up with some crazy ideas. He and his partner Niko have also brought a great new, young, NY energy to the trading estate... I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of them over the next few months.

What I'm enjoying most about the book is how accurately it reflects the amazingly diverse nature of the Bridport art scene. There certainly isn't a Bridport style or consensus approach, instead there's a powerful feeling of individuality and personal exploration. Isn't this refreshing in a world where everyone seems so keen to satisfy the arbiters of taste?

For instance, in the art world, most young artists seem to want to create work just to impress Charles Saatchi! They think that if they can convince him to buy their work then their career is made. And it's true that most of the artists he collects get an immediate boost in the art world, with other collectors jumping on the band-wagon and often a gallery or two. But unfortunately look at their career a few years down the line, and it appears that it might have been more trouble than it was worth, as the next 'hot' artist replaces them.

What Saatchi does is a bit like an art world version of Divide and Rule, because by adding the artist to his collection it tends to elevate the artist above his peers/friends and therefore severs the vital links that artists have with each other - which act likes roots on a tree, drawing in sustenance and refreshment.

This is one of the great things about the Bridport art scene, and why this is the best time to be involved with it. There's now a growing community of artists to engage with and still a strong sense of solidarity. I think the Open Studios events are what has done most for the local artists, because these events leave it up to the visitor to discover what is good, rather than relying on the tastes set by one or two galleries.

Of course I'm not against Saatchi or Galleries, far from it, I want to keep raising our profile so that more and more collectors and galleries discover Bridport and invest in our artists, and that's a big part of why I'm doing this book. But that's the key phrase, isn't it? INVEST in the artist. When artists are enabled to get on with creating their best work, and when the Galleries and Collectors of the art world remember that the artist comes first, that is when the greatest art is made.

The reason I'm such a big fan of the Open Studio events in Bridport is that they've enabled me to produce the work I really want to do - incredibly ambitious paintings that often take months to create. So, rather than repeating my most popular pieces, or producing work to the tastes of a gallery, I focus entirely on the work that I feel needs to be made. And at the Open events I wait for those who really respond to my work and are willing to invest in what is coming next. I've noticed that a similar thing has happened in art history. Artists from Rembrandt to Hirst have relied on the patronage of open minded collectors at crucial times in their careers.

Doing this book has been an excellent way to start the year, and I think this is a very exciting time, particularly for those willing to buy into some of our relatively unknown artists. It's obvious that Bridport is going to produce several art stars in the months and years ahead, but these are going to be remembered as the best times!

For more information on the Bridport art scene, visit www.bridport.org and for examples of my own work visit www.kitglaisyer.com.

The "Portrait of the Artist" project is coming along well. We've interviewed and photographed all 25 artists that are taking part, and we're now gathering examples of each artists work for the two pages they each have in the book.

We've also started to lay out the book, so that it's ready to be printed in a week or so. The book doesn't have to be ready until the week of the launch on Saturday 17 April, but we want to get a draft copy printed, and then make sure the 1st edition is delivered with plenty of time to spare.

I'm also beginning to think about the exhibition at the Bridport Arts Centre. About 8 of the artists will be showing sculptural pieces, and then there are 17 painters. I'll be visiting all of the artists before April to discuss what they want to show.

I like to keep myself continually inspired, here are some of the sites that keep me on my toes:

KultureFlash is a weekly guide to the arts in the UK.

AVATAR Director James Cameron on the incredible TED lectures website.

J K Rowlings brilliant Harvard speech on the Fringe Benefits of Failure.

I came across this extraordinary clip on YouTube, of an elephant painting!

Most recent work from Olafur Eliasson (he made the amazing Weather Project at Tate Modern).

Flavorwire is a cool US based Blog that covers the arts.

Finally, I hope you've all got your fingers crossed for The Hurt Locker at the Oscars, local man Ray Beckett has already won a Bafta for Best Sound on the film.

I've finally completed my latest commission, View from Leweston Hill. It's always really intense at the end, all those hundreds of tiny decisions that have to be made. Of course, the underlying atmosphere of the painting is achieved with a very different approach, as I slowly build up the composition and colours over several months. I feel this is the only way to do justice to the sense of ancient time, or even timelessness, that the landscape evokes. The forms of the land have taken millennia to evolve, while the light and colour is constantly changing.


Portrait of the Artist - Book & Exhibition
I've also been busy on a project called "Portrait of the Artist", with the publication of a book and a group show at the Bridport Arts Centre, from April 17 to May 10 2010. This follows on from the 'studio portraits' that I commissioned photographer George Wright to start taking of local artists in Autumn 2008.

There are now dozens of artists working in the wider Bridport area of West Dorset, but for this 1st book we've had to focus on just 25 artists. Alongside Georges photos they'll be a page of text by local writer Lu Orza, who has had the ambitious task of interviewing all the artists, and writing up a subjective 'portrait'. I love her writing, she's invented an original and incisive way of writing about artists, and it's a very refreshing alternative to the usual press-release-style writing we see so often (that just tells you how wonderful they are, without revealing anything about them).


Sladers Yard
Earthscapes: 8 Wessex Artists 14 February - 21 March,
Wednesday - Saturday 10 - 3pm, Sundays 12 - 4pm.
Landscape and what lies beneath; what came before; where we go from here.
John Hubbard, Brian Graham, Malcolm Ashman, Paul Jones, Andrew George, Peter Ursem, Michael Williams, Gerry Dudgeon.
Brian Graham Talk: Thursday 4 March, 7pm. Tickets: £5 from Sladers Yard.
www.sladersyard.co.uk / 01308 459511.


Artwave West
Four Gallery Artists
6th February - 6th March 2010
Martin Goold, Kathy Ramsay Carr, Boo Mallinson and Sonia Stanyard
Wednesday to Saturday, 10.00am to 4.00pm.
www.artwavewest.com / 01297 489 746

View from Leweston nearly there...

I'm now coming towards the end of a painting that's been about seven months in the making. It's a view from Leweston Hill, on the Dorset / Devon border, looking south west across the Marshwood Vale and towards Pilsden Pen.

I find the completion of these landscape paintings to be a very intense process. The way I work on a landscape means that I allow it lots of time to evolve and develop, so I can contemplate how the painting feels and allow dozens of subtle relationships to occur. However, when the painting is almost finished it requires a far more dynamic interaction and hundreds of painterly decisions as I resolve, clarify, articulate and realise the final crucial ingredients.

Why do I make it so hard for myself? I just love what a painting can achieve. There's simply no other medium that can come close to the mystery and beguiling presence of a painting. I love great films, but there's no film I'd want to watch every day, where-as I'd be more than happy to live with a great painting, and see something fresh in it every day.

The reason that I now spend several months on my landscape paintings is that I want to invest them with a complexity that will last centuries. Of course I'm talking here about the complexity of experience, rather than detail. I can go outside now and walk up Allington Hill and look across the landscape, and in that moment I'll feel the same sense of wonder that I did as a boy.

This is why I don't paint 'abstract' landscapes, or those loose/geometric/expressive paintings I see so often; I simply don't believe those technique can do justice to what I see and feel. Making a great painting is a bit like living with someone, and getting to know them over time. The first impression when we meet someone is interesting of course, but you only really get to understand them as you see them responding to life, and their true character gradually emerges.

Please support us at the Inquiry!

A Happy New Year!

Planning Enquiry
In a couple of weeks there will be an inquiry into the controversial (and extremely unpopular) plans to redevelop the St Michael's Trading Estate. The proposers of the plan are appealing the decision by the West Dorset Planning Committee to reject their proposals (twice).

Their redevelopment proposals would spell the end of St Michael's Studios and threaten the jobs of over 200 people who work on the trading estate, thereby destroying this vibrant industrial park and the community who work there, and replacing it with a massive (unwanted) housing development.

Why are they trying to get these plans through? Because the whole site is currently designated as an industrial park, and if it receives residential planning approval then the land would immediately triple in value! If that happened it would immediately be sold to developers...

The inquiry takes place at Parkdean in West Bay, from 10am on Tues 26 January 2010.

I'd like to invite EVERYONE to come along to the 1st day of the inquiry, as it's important that we show the inspector the strength of feeling in Bridport about our future.

For more information about this issue please visit the Real West Dorset website.


Forthcoming Book and Exhibition - "Portrait of the Artist"
I've had a busy start to the New Year organising a series of interviews between local artists and writer Lu Orza, for a book we're publishing in April called "Portrait of the Artist", that will also feature photographs by George Wright. This will tie in with an exhibition at the Bridport Arts Centre of works from many artists at the forefront of our vibrant art scene.


Panoramic Landscape
I've been working on an ambitious landscape panorama called "View from Leweston Hill", which has a view from the lower part of the hill looking west across the Marshwood Vale towards Pilsden Pen and the sea. It's a private commission, but I'm planning on having a public unveiling of the work once it's finished...


A Community in Action
The best thing to come out of these controversial redevelopment plans is that it's brought together many local people from the community and reminded us that by working together we can exercise true democracy and direct the future of the town in the interests of those who live here.

It's heartening to see such effective collaboration between the Bridport Town Council, the Chamber of Trade, the Environmental Group, the CPRE, the artistic community and hundreds of local people who together make up the vibrant Bridport community.

For a long time it felt like Bridport had managed to stay under the radar and remain safe from the drastic redevelopment projects that have done so much damage to so many towns across the country. But in recent years a number of demolitions and developments took place that made it quite clear that important decisions about Bridport were been taken by people with no interest or understanding of the unique character of our town.

The problem seemed to be that planning decisions for Bridport are made by the Planning Committee of the West Dorset District Council, which is based in Dorchester. While Dorchester is a beautiful country town, it is markedly different from Bridport, both in terms of it's community and the economics that sustain it.

Hopefully by now it's becoming obvious to the WDDC that we need to allow Bridport's elected Council to decide on how we develop our town in the future, and in fact this St Michael's controversy has revealed that we have a vast resource of intelligent and motivated people who are very capable of making these decisions.

I'd go so far as to say that the way in which Bridport people have come together over this issue is one of the greatest example I've ever seen of true democracy in action. It's actually inspiring to attend a meeting where councillors and local people are working together to resolve these issues in the interests of the town. Local people no longer simply expect our councillors to do everything, but we are all taking responsibility for what we can do to help. This has led to a growing respect for local Councillors such as Dave Rickard, Charles Wilde and Ross Kayes, who are so obviously working with us for the greater good of the town.