Vessel drawings series continued.
A few new vessel drawings thinking about profiles and shapes to feed into some new work alongside the utensil/tool series.
Added to the shop as well.
Vessel drawings
I’ve recently returned to looking at vessel forms – simple shapes in folded forms of sheet metal. As ever looking to use the materials and explore the forms reflective of my practice. I haven’t drawn vessel firms very often as I felt I struggled to get marks and shapes I liked. This time I’m just concentrating on simple profiles and I’m enjoying exploring new shapes and how it is freshening up my drawing and mark making. Early days but I like where both the drawings and objects are going.
Comb Spoon
Going through my collection, cleaning them up it great to come across work that I haven’t seen in a while. The comb spoon was made a few years ago and has travelled more extensively than I have! I still remember being really excited when I found the broken comb on one of my shoreline walks – really enjoyed making a piece out of it. It’s up on the shop – hoping it will find a new home.
Silver Speaks at the V&A
Tuesday evening saw the launch of Contemporary British Silversmiths “Silver Speaks” exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Cara Murphy and myself travelled over from Belfast to attend and it was a great night, we were interviewed for RTE radio for their culture show and got to meet lots of other fellow smiths including Grant Braithwaite, Adi Toch and Juliette Bigley amongst others. It’s fantastic to be part of such a great show in a wonderful institution like the V&A and this was due to the hard work of CBS, Karin Paynter and the curator Corinne Julius. It’s a wonderful exhibition on until January 2017 so well worth a visit!
Amanda Croft discusses Driftline.
During the exhibition Driftline, Amanda Croft discussed my work with a visiting art group- quite interesting to hear another perspective on the work [almost like eavesdropping!]. Thanks to Robert at R-Space for the video and Amanda for her lovely words.
Drawings in the shop
An essential element of my practice is drawing- both 2-dimensional and the 3-dimensional material works. The works on paper usually pop up on my Instagram feed and are made using various combinations of acrylic ink, paint, watercolour, pencil and anything else that comes to hand. I’ve started adding these to the shop with sections for the abstract tool drawings, landscape drawings and arrow drawings. I’ll adding more in the future, possibly with objects available as well.
Crafts Magazine Interview
The wonderful people at Crafts Magazine have interviewed me in the current issue- here is the article! Many thanks to Teleri Lloyd-Jones.
Artist talk at Void Gallery, Derry/Londonderry.
This saturday the 23rd of January I will be giving the next artist talk at the Void Gallery in Derry/Londonderry 2pm-3pm, supporting of my exhibition Place and Process. I’ll be discussing how my practice has developed, my concerns as an artist and the importance of being awarded the Rosemary James Memorial Award.
The exhibition continues at R-Space in Lisburn until the 5th of February.
Place and Process Exhibition opening.
Place and Process opened at R-Space last saturday and was really well attended [much to my delighted astonishment!]. Many thanks to all who made it down, especially the potter Peter Meanley who opened the show on behalf of the Rosemary James Trust and the Arts Council of Northen Ireland. Also thanks to Robert and Anthea of R-Space for hosting the show and Sharon Adams for her work promoting the show. It continues until the 5th of February.
There will be a continuing series of artist talks by myself in support of the Exhibition as follows-
Saturday the 23rd the Void gallery in Derry 2-3pm.
Saturday the 30th at Millennium Court, Portadown 2-3pm.
Thursday the 4th at R-Space Gallery in Lisburn 7-8pm.
a further talk mid February at Flowerfield, Portstewart to be confirmed.
Photos of the opening courtesy of David Cleland of Flixelpix.
Upcoming exhibition- Place and Process
Currently I am working towards my solo show in the new year- opening Saturday the 9th of January 2-4pm at R-Space gallery in the Linen Rooms, Lisburn. It will feature an installation of made and found objects as well as supporting photography and drawings representing the research which underpins my practice. So no rest for me this christmas! More images to come.
Stuart Cairns 