Review and New

Coming into a New Year always makes us review the year before and plan for the year ahead. Viv has revisited the large mixed media prints she had started based on her paintings and drawings from Greece. The first group, of the Acropolis in Athens, are finished now.

Viv says: I loved how the silhouette of the Acropolis seemed to float above the city, out of time and space. Impossible not to think of the ancient Greeks and their gods, their stories and legends, the images of their wars and feasts – so I’ve tried to include some of these ideas in the series of prints.

The main image of the Acropolis and the caryatids (the figures from the Erectheum) are carved into a woodblock, which forms the structural basis for this group of prints. I drew a map of the Acropolis site and it is collaged in, under a layer of printed ink, with the caryatids. The dancing figures and the warriors are small relief prints made from drawings of pot fragments, so the idea of fragment shapes is also used.

Each of these monotypes makes use of the main woodcut, some embedded collage (chine colle), relief prints and sometimes direct drawing in oil pastel.

You may have seen the first one or two in their early stages last year in our Open Studios in June. This year our Open Studios will be in the last two weekends of June and the first one of July as part of Worthing Artists Open Houses.

 

Interesting times

While the government is in chaos and we wonder whether our European friends will still talk to us, we peacefully continue with the Worthing Artists Open Houses (www.worthingartistsopenhouses.com). Viv and Paul’s studios are open for one more weekend – check our website www.martinstudios.co.uk – and we also have a small exhibition in the Fish Factory, on Brighton Road, Worthing.

Martin Studios are open at 7, Hythe Road, Worthing, BN11 5DA.

Our show includes some of the work we made after revisiting Greece and some very recent monotypes made in Florence.

We are open on Saturday and Sunday, July 2/3 from 11am – 5pm.

Open Studios

Viv and Paul Martin are opening their studios for the Worthing Artists Open Houses 2016 at 7, Hythe Road, Worthing, BN11 5DA.Our show will include some of the work we made after revisiting Greece and some very recent monotypes made in Florence.

We will be open on Saturdays and Sundays, June 18/19, June 25/26^th and July 2/3 from 11am – 5pm.

Working through Winter

It was hard to get going again in January! It’s difficult to feel very creative when it’s cold and dark, so the bright days really help!

Viv’s studio is lovely when the sun shines and here she is working on a series of small drypoints in the PETG plastic sheet she uses for monotypes. This time she shaped the plate as well as incising the drawing and then printed it as a monotype in several different ways.

Paul’s also been doing some printing – here he is experimenting with a small woodcut, trying it in colour instead of the former black and white.

 

Open Studios

We’re having an Open Studios weekend on Dec 5^th/6^th from 11am – 4pm in our new studios in West Worthing, at 7, Hythe Road, Worthing, BN11 5DA (just off Grand Avenue). Come and have a look at our work and share a glass of wine and a mince pie! This is how our studios looked when we’d just finished them and moved our work from the shop back into our studios. This time we’ll be showing a mixture of new work and older work, maybe with some of our work in progress (depending on how it progresses!).We’re showing as part of a Christmas art trail and you can pick up a map and information about where you can visit other local artists.

New Studios

What a transformation! When we moved house last year Viv’s new ‘studio’ looked like this:

now it really is a studio that’s good for showing work too:

It’s taken about eighteen months to make Paul’s studio transform – this is the point where the house lost a lot of it’s walls before the new windows and doors went in:

then Paul had a new studio.

We’ve been able to put a studio in the garden too, so that we can share it to do larger and messier work.

So after having our studio/gallery in the centre of Worthing for a year, we have now left that and brought everything back into our home studios so that we can concentrate on our work here and show it from time to time in Open Studio events.

Our first Open Studio will be the weekend of December 5^th and 6^th, 11am to 4pm – check the website soon for details.

 

Towards a Virtual Gallery

Interesting times in our studio/gallery! We’d always intended to use the space to try out some different projects and through August we’ve been making videos with members of the South Downs Film Makers. Our plan was for Paul and Viv to each make a short video in which we talk about some work as though we’re showing it to studio visitors. Viv talks about some of her mixed media work about making art in Florence and Paul talks about how prehistoric art has inspired some of his recent large oil paintings.

We each made a draft script and discussed it with the Club team, working out how to hang the work and what sort of lighting would be best. We only had a rough idea of timing, because neither of us is good at remembering to keep to a script and we wanted to try to be as natural as possible.Filming went really smoothly, except for the times each of us went blank and needed a few more takes! Then we found we couldn’t move around with enough space for the cameras, so we had to do some speedy re-hanging. The Club team did a great job of both setting the scene and filming – they definitely earnt their coffee and iced buns! Some very skilled editing has almost been completed and we’ll soon be able to publish the videos. You might like to make a note that our next show will be in Brighton – the Brighton Art Fair on Friday and Saturday September 25^th and 26^th from 11am – 6pm and Sunday 27^th from 11am – 5pm (www.brightonartfair.co.uk).

 

Worthing Art Trail

Our Martin Studios exhibition will be in our new studio/gallery at 2, Stanford Square, Worthing, BN113EZ this year. We will be open from June 11th – 28th, on Thursdays to Sundays, from 11am – 5pm.

We will be working there and happy to talk about our current art projects. Both upstairs and downstairs you can see our recent work, including large oil paintings, drawings, prints and multi-media works, alongside some earlier pieces. Our exhibition this June reflects the season and celebrates our experience of spring and early summer.

For more information, blogs and invitations to Private Views, sign up on http://www.martinstudios.co.uk.

For information about all the venues in Worthing Art Trail and a map, see http://www.worthingarttrail.com. 

 

Art on the Pier

Come and visit our most recent exhibition on our lovely Victorian Worthing Pier! You can’t get a more sea-side experience than this – light sea breezes, waves crashing beneath, deck chairs, ice cream… and a free art exhibition! Thanks to Nadia and Nessy of Creative Waves. Our studio gallery is open too, near the pier in Stanford Square, just off Warwick Street. We’ll be there this Bank Holiday weekend from 11am – 3pm and then all through the Worthing Art Trail, from June 11^th – 28^th, Thursday – Sunday from 11am – 5pm. We’re showing lots of our work inspired by early blossom and the sense of renewal that spring brings.

 

May Exhibition

We’re showing a range of our spring-like work to celebrate the month of May!

There are paintings of cherry blossom from the south of France and lots of etchings, woodcuts and screenprints alongside some mixed media work on paper and board. Viv is still cutting a woodcut of daffodils and Paul will be working on an oil painting – so watch out for wood chips and wet paint!

We’re open Thursday – Saturday and Sunday and Monday on both May Bank Holiday weekends, all 11am – 3pm.