Where to see my new paintings

"Severance" 35.5 x 25.5cms Oil on canvas

With luck you can catch my newest paintings on the Bo-lee Gallery stand at the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea this week. I say 'with luck' because of the limited space on the stand Jemma , the director of the gallery, tends to rotate the work on show. Just ask if you want to see mo(o)re. Illustrated is one of them, - the smallest single oil painting I have ever exhibited at 14" x 10" and therefore at a small enough price to be 'affordable'. Also I have a diptych on exhibition in the Association of Midland Artists exhibition at the Bath Place Community Venture Gallery here in Leamington for the next two weeks. 

'Severance' - Neil Moore and Anneka Reay. The complete works.

'Severance II' opened at Studio Eleven in Hull on saturday 15th October. The private view included a heartrending extract from David Windass's play 'Thinsperation' performed by brilliantly by actress Kimberley Hayman. Like the work on view its subject was the devastation caused by anorexia, both to the victim and their nearest and dearest.The exhibition continues until 20th November 2011. All the works are for sale - please contact the gallery info@studioeleven.co.uk for information about prices and availability.

 Illustrated below are Anneka Reay's uncompromising images of herself - a rare glimpse of this deadly eating disorder from the sufferers perspective. They are all ink drawings- some pen and wash and others drawn only in ballpoint pen. These are followed by my own drawings of Anneka.

   

'Broken'      50 x 30cms.

'Dance with me'     40 x 60cms.

'Insomnia'    40 x 28cms.

'Left hanging'     40 x 28cms.

'Mirrored glass'     58 x 40cms.

'Replay'     40 x 28cms.

'Sapling'      40 x 28cms.

'Strings attached'      55 x 38cms.

'Toy'     50 x 30cms.

'Write to me'     30 x 20cms.

'Tomorrow'    28 x 40cms.

'Suspended'     40 x 55cms.

'You've riddled me'     55 x 35cms.

'Empty chair'     40 x 28cms.

All my drawings below are drawn in charcoal on paper.

'Exhibit A'         42 x 62cms.

'Exhibit B'      62 x 42cms

'Exhibit C'       62 x 42 cms

'Exhibit D'      42 x 62cms.

'Exhibit E'      62 x 42cms.

'Exhibit F'     62 x 42cms.

'Exhibit G'     42 x 62cms.

'Exhibit I'     42 x 62cms.

'Exhibit J'   62 x 42cms.



'Exhibit J'    42 x 62cms.



'Exhibit K'    42 x 62cms.

'Anorexika'   126 x 101cms    Oil on canvas

Current Exhibition - Severance II

'Exhibit K' - Charcoal on paper 42 x 62cms   Neil Moore 2010

The work produced as a result of the collaboration I did last year with artist Anneka Reay (which was exhibited in Bath in August) will be showing again at Gallery Eleven http://www.studioeleven.co.uk/ in Hull from Saturday 15th October until the 20th November. Not for the fainthearted, Anneka Reay's raw self portraits make my drawings, depicting the effects that an eating disorder can have on the body, look pretty . If you care to scroll down through earlier blogs there is information about how the show came in to being.

Life Drawing and Painting Opportunities in Warwickshire

Drawing and painting a naked figure could be considered a worrying use of someone's time, but to the initiated, who have experienced the trials and tribulations of tackling this challenging task, no justification is required. To my knowledge no one has yet devised a better, and more enjoyable way, of aquiring the heightened visual awareness that is a prerequisite of all visual art practice.

'Life' work has fallen out of favour with many art colleges and consequently young teachers of life drawing aren't coming through. It befalls older artists, like me, who have always valued it's essential benefits to carry the 'torch' for life drawing and painting. I teach monthly day workshops (usually on the first saturday of the month) and a regular weekly evening class.

I am taking bookings now for these Saturday Workshops - the 1st October which is a Life Drawing day, and for the 5th November which is a Life Painting day . The saturday workshops are held in the fully equipped art studio at Shottery Memorial Hall. They begin at 10am and finish at 4pm and the cost is £40 for the day (paper and light refreshments included).

The life drawing evening classes are held in central Leamington on thursday evenings from 6.15 to 8.15pm. The cost works out at £12 per class,  so this coming term (12 weeks ) it will be £144.

All classes must be booked and paid for in advance. Please contact me by clicking on the link below if you would like to book or require further information therealneilmoore@googlemail.com

SEVERANCE

This drawing, (titled' Exhibit G') is included in the exhibiton 'Severance' which is a joint exhibition of my own work and that of Anneka Reay. Those of you who follow my blog will know that I began an unusual collaboration with Anneka to produce work for this show (scroll down to earlier blogs for all the details). The exhibiton takes place at the Bo-lee gallery in Bath from the 15th - 27th August and the preview is on Saturday 13th Aug. Anneka and I will both be there from 6 - 8pm so please come along to see the work and meet us. The link to the gallery's own site, which has images of both our work, is to the right.

The darkness of lightness

The owner of this painting (painted in the nineties by yours truly) has asked me if I know of anyone who might like to buy it. The painting, entitled "The darkness of lightness", is an oil on canvas and measures 48" x 52" (h x w). I rarely feel anything but dissatisfaction with my work (as the maker I am only aware of the deficiencies) but this one is among my few favourites and I would like it to go on to another 'good home'. Let me know if you are interested and I will put you in touch with the present owner. And, yes - it is me in the painting (I was cheap and available!).

Darkness to light

'Longing', 46 x 56.5cms. Oil on canvas                                     Neil Moore 2011

"Darkness to light" is the title of an exhibition including some recent paintings of mine, which Jemma Hickman of Bo-lee gallery is mounting in the Octagon Chapel, Milsom Place, Bath from the 21st to the 30th June 2011. Gaynor O'Flynn will be performing "The Artist Naked and Blurred" at the P.V. next tuesday evening (21st June from 7 - 9pm). The Octagon is an interesting space right in the middle of Bath and provides an excellent and unusual space for displaying art, - well worth a visit. For more information follow the link http://www.bo-lee.co.uk/  

'Whats occurin' - forthcoming exhibitions.

Excuse the qwerky heading - if you are a fan of 'Gavin and Stacey' like me you'll understand.

If you live close to me in Leamington Spa there is one of my paintings hanging in the Leamington Spa Art Gallery 'Open Exhibition' until June 11th. As with all 'Opens' it is a 'curates egg' (eg. good in parts). There seems to have been a policy of choosing examples of every medium regardless of their quality - but there are a good number of interesting works which make a visit worthwhile.

The Shadowside

 I am forging ever stronger links with a gallery in Bath called 'Bo-lee'. Jemma Hickman, whose started the gallery at the peak of the recession, is indefatigable. Many of the more established galleries had become lazy during the halcyon days of the boom with all its city bonuses and haven't coped very well with the harsher economic climate and some have 'gone to the wall'. Jemma with her youth,energy and vision is gradually establishing a reputation for high quality, challenging figurative art in all media. I am confident that in future the gallery will be a leader of the new wave of younger galleries after the 'cull' created by the recession.

Above is an example of one of my new paintings centered on the 'Unidentifiable Object' (see previous blogs below) will be included in a group show entitled 'The Shadowside' in London. For details of the exhibition click here. 

Forthcoming life drawing and painting opportunities

My monthly workshops continue with the next one, which is a life drawing day, on Saturday 7th May.
This is followed by a life painting day(single pose) on Saturday 4th June.
I am also taking bookings for a life painting and drawing summer school from the 6th to the 8th July (wed,thurs,fri.). Please contact me by email if you would like to book or require further details.

The unidentifiable object

The unidentifiable object

For some years now I have been seeking (or hoping) to come across an object so curious that I wouldn't be able to identify what I was looking at. I have tried to enlist the help of friends in this quest but it isn't easy to describe something that is indescribable - some 'thing' that is not recognisably 'animal, vegetable or mineral'.
It struck me only recently that there are parallels between this search and my struggle to make paintings.

More often than not when I am creating a painting I am striving to achieve a look/feeling that I only 'know' when I see it. Frustratingly I know when it is not 'right' and I just have to keep on changing things until (hopefully) I find 'it'. It was Picasso I think that said that "I don't seek, - I find". Although I have to confess that I am not sure that I fully understand what he meant, my interpretation is that 'it is more fruitful not to wait until inspiration strikes but to produce work and the ideas are generated by this activity'.

So, instead of waiting in the forlorn hope that I would discover the unidentifiable object, I made it - or at least had an attempt at making it. I am no sculptor and what I have made is crude and fragile, but strangely satisfying. Having made it, I am still no nearer to knowing what it is, or why I felt the need for it. I am in the midst of including it in a trio of paintings so perhaps I shall find out. It may remain a mystery.

Tantalisingly, but not deliberately so, you will have to wait until you can see it as I haven't yet reached the point where anything is fit to photograph. It won't be long I promise.      

London Art Fair

The gallery, 'Bo-Lee', which staged a solo show of my work in 2009 is exhibiting at the London Art Fair  this week (19th - 23rd January) and is taking some of my recent paintings and drawings(see pic) to exhibit alongside other gallery artists. Not as 'edgy' as 'Frieze' art fair, it is well worth a visit with good quality painting and sculpture etc. on show.

'Scrunch' - 2010 Charcoal on paper 63 x 42cms.