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.

Investing in Contemporary Art

The week-long November Open Studios event has just started, running from Sat 14 to the following Sun 22 Nov, so it seems like a good time to talk about Investing in Contemporary Art.

Art and Money are two distinct subjects that have a crucial relationship when it comes to the artist creating their best work and the collector making the best investment.

Notice that I place the creation of great art first and I didn't say "the collector getting the best bargain". The truth is that if you manage to negotiate a 'bargain' from an artist then you've probably done both of you a disservice, because the artist will soon be worrying about money again and therefore not be in a position to make their best art (and develop their career) and this will diminish rather than increase the value of your investment.

I've got a very simple formula if you want to make a great investment in art:

Find Talented Artist + Put Money in their bank = They get Peace of Mind + Focus on creativity

So first you find a good artist, and look for someone with real talent, not just affordable prices. Visit Open Studio events and Gallery shows, read Art Magazines and explore online. Once you've found a talented artist give them the money they're asking for, so they no longer have to worry about paying the bills and can simply focus on their creativity. Most artists are willing to negotiate on price, but remember that your money is literally going to pay for their development - offer them too little and soon they'll have to waste time and energy chasing the next sale.

Part of the problem these days is that many people spend most of their time looking for 'bargains' and therefore miss excellent opportunities to invest in something truly great.

The only things I regret in my career as an artist are the times when I've sold my work too cheaply. It annoys me because I know that the buyer has greatly benefited while lengthening the times I was struggling. But I'm also aware of how lucky they are to have bought MY work because most artists who don't ask for what they really need eventually have to stop making art altogether.

I know the Art market pretty well now, and I can recommend several artists you could buy as a good investment. These are artists who are all very talented, will continue to grow in ability and have the right attitude to becoming very successful in the future. Their work ranges in price from a few hundred to tens of thousands of pounds, so there is a market for everyone.

What most people don't realise is how easy it is for the buyer to help make an artist successful, as a relatively small investment can do wonders for an artists career and greatly increase the value of your investment in them.

The most visible example of this strategy is Charles Saatchi, who basically buys art when it's relatively inexpensive (though he always pays enough to help finance that artists development ) then exhibits the work, which raises it's value, and eventually sells those works that have become the most valuable. A great example of this is with the artist Jenny Saville, as he purchased her entire post-graduate show and then commissioned her paintings for the next two years. She is now represented by the Gagosian Gallery, alongside the most successful artists in the world.

The most effective dealers and galleries understand that the best investment strategy is simple to find talented artists and then finance their development. This process often continues throughout the artists career, as when dealers bid for their own artists at auctions simply in order to maintain and raise their value. For instance, last autumn, at a time when the value of Damien Hirst's work was beginning to fall, his dealers were the 'under-bidders' on more than half of the works at his "Beautiful inside my head forever" auction.

The ability to literally create an artists career and then develop their market is only possible because the art market is relatively small - so you certainly don't need the resources of Saatchi or Jay Joplin to work this magic!

I can think of several artists where you would only need an an investment of between £4,000 to £10,000 to make a significant difference to their progress. A timely purchase or commission can literally kick-start an artists career. The reason is obvious when you think about it: an artist is only really concerned about one thing - focusing on making their best work - so the easier you can make it for them to do that, the more progress they'll make.

I know that to some people the prices I quote here will seem quite high, especially when you can buy so-called 'art' for a few hundred pounds, but I'm talking about what you need to spend in order to make a serious investment. I'm not talking about all those jobbing 'artists' out there who just churn out 'pretty art', I'm talking about serious practitioners who have made the commitment to dedicate their lives to creating meaningful art.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that buying art is much more fun and profitable (for everyone) if you know you've helped a genuinely talented artist to further their career.

The other thing you need to do is to avoid buying 'bad' art. There's a lot of bad art about these days because it seems that everyone thinks they're an artist, and galleries just want to make money! Many mediocre artists get away with making lazy and derivative work simply by calling it Conceptual or Post-modern or Impressionistic or Abstract, and Galleries have learnt that they can basically just tell us what we should think about their art.

Most artists fancy themselves as being talented (particularly when we start) but we all need to get honest feedback about our work from our peers. One of the things I enjoyed about Art College is that we had to explain and discuss our work with other artists, so you couldn't simply tell people how great you were and rely on their ignorance to get away with it.

In the Art World it's equally important for artists to get feedback from other artists, and for potential buyers to discover what an artists reputation is among their peers. If you ask artists what they think of other artists you'll very quickly be able to tell what think of each other!

Basically though, if you cut through all the waffle and just look for talent, it's relatively easy to find brilliant artists worth investing it. And believe me, they need your support. Being an artist is one of the most challenging professions you can choose, artists sacrifice many things that most people take for granted, and we have to commit to something that has no guarantee of success.

Great artists have always needed patrons, from Rembrandt to Turner, and Picasso to Hirst. And it's their best patrons who amassed the greatest collections and had the most success. Many are still remembered as being instrumental in helping those artists at key points in their development. For instance, Picasso had Ambroise Vollard and Matissa had Sergei Shchukin .

Now-a-days you don't even have to be wealthy to be a patron. For instance, a New York couple, the Vogels have created one of the greatest collections of modern and contemporary art in the world, even though Herb was a postal clerk and his wife Dorothy, a Librarian.

If you're reading this I presume it's because you're interested in art. Well, we've got a thriving art scene happening in Bridport and you've got the opportunity to seek out several extremely talented artists here this week. So I recommend you come down, look around for some great art, and start investing now! Just make sure you visit me at St Michael's Studios...

The Bridport November Open Studios runs from Sat 14 to Sun 22 Nov, standard opening times are 10-5pm. Visit the Open Studios page at www.bridport.org to download a Map of the event.