July 21st, 2010
This is the twin or sister painting to the red kneeling nude by Alan Dedman now on display at the 102nd Annual Exhibition of Clifton Arts Club. Called ‘Kneeling blue nude’ it is more detailed, less raw than its counterpart. It is accompanied in my studio by a reclining blue nude (which also has a ‘red’ partner). I like to experiment with colour and form looking at different emotional qualities which can be elicited from the subject. I have a total of seven different nude studies on the go at the moment. All done from life, all modestly proportioned, set in an irregular shape. This one is in oils on calico over board. 350 gbp.
www.alan-dedman-artist.co.uk
Kneeling blue nude by Alan Dedman
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July 19th, 2010
This picture, along with the preceding one and a nude study can currently be viewed at the 102nd Clifton Arts Club Annual Exhibition in Bristol. The exhibition runs until the 31st of July and is open 10 – 4.30 pm weekdays and 10 – 4.00 pm Sundays. It is a mixed exhibition, consisting mainly of landscape studies by professional and amateur artists. The work was selected and hung by three members of the Royal West of England Academy including the new President, Simon Quadrat.
The painting here is approximately 3 x 4 ft in size, done in acrylic paint on canvas. The title reflects the subject: ‘Portrait of a young woman’. Set against the backdrop of a Victorian Gothic window, the young woman poses in a green velvet dress with dramatic, late January sunlight playing over her features. Done in part from observation and photo reference, it is a good account of the young woman and has a feeling of optimism about it, in spite of the current economic gloom. 1500 gbp.
www.alan-dedman-artist.co.uk
Portrait of a young woman by Alan Dedman
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July 16th, 2010
Tomorrow the 102nd exhibition of Clifton Arts Club starts. There are lots of artworks of differing styles and standards, all on display at Queen’s Road, Clifton, Bristol. The show runs from Saturday the 17th to Saturday the 31st of July. There is no entry charge.
Below is one of the works I have entered. ‘Mother and child’ is a touching portrait of a young woman, the day after she has laboured to bring another life into the world. Done in oils on board, the brushwork is garrulous and lively, the colour saturated and upbeat. This painting is among one of my favourite recent, genre scenes. 750 gbp.
www.alan-dedman-artist.co.uk
Mother and child by Alan Dedman
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July 15th, 2010
This is one of the works I have submitted for the 102nd annual exhibition of Clifton Arts Club in Bristol. Titled: ‘Bather’ it is one of a series of pastel studies on marble board of a young woman taking a bath. Inspired by Bonnard’s ‘gaze’ I used the diffuse effects of pastels as they take to the perfect surface of the marble. The model hides her face with one of her hands whilst holding a small mirror in the other. The colours are hot, the fine linework defines form. 125 gbp.
www.alan-dedman-artist.co.uk
Bather by Alan Dedman
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July 5th, 2010
Dear Jeanette Barnes put on a show of her drawings at TOTO lower gallery in EC1 just recently and I was glad to have another meeting with her (and others) and see her work once more. A rare thing that someone should stick with conventional, figurative methods in this fast changing post-modern world of ours. Jeanette produces large charcoal drawings of ‘London Sites’ as her show was titled, she does these based on sketches she makes from observation. My good friend Mr. I Sherry liked the sense of movement in Jeanette’s work and mentioned both Piranese and Muirhead-Bone whilst we looked at the work. I hope to see more of Jeanette’s work in the near future.
Jeanette Barnes at TOTO in June this year
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June 21st, 2010
Dutch Courage wasn’t always necessary. A series of abstruse spirals performed in a disused factory in Vauxhall, South London – gave rise to these undersea creatures, the likes of which Jacques Cousteau would have been happy to witness. The purpose? Again, to look at the ‘none mark’, the counterspace instead of the mark itself as an invasion of a ‘virgin’ white field of 100% cotton. Instead I made white marks on a black ground. The same mark, repeated, again and again.
www.alan-dedman-artist.co.uk
Painting in acrylics on canvas by Alan Dedman
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June 17th, 2010
This morning I woke with U2’s ‘Sunday, Bloody, Sunday’ playing on the radio station in my head. I’m not a U2 fan and I’m not so interested in the politics of the past – however, we live in a culture where we keep one eye firmly on the wake of the ship rather than looking ahead (for new land), because we believe that the future is or is likely to be a continuation of the past. That is what happens here and in the making of any conventional artwork. You look at what is unfolding and you adjust it accordingly. Any looking to the future is the visualisation you have in your ‘mind’s eye’. This itself might be likened more to archaeology, where what we are doing is uncovering what lies within, by the processes of art – but it is also an act of forming, creating, putting together in the ‘now’.
‘The big liberation’ as I called it after John Holden passed comment, was done in an effort to try working freely on a bigger scale. Not knowing what I was going to do, I made a 2m x 1.5m canvas and bought some household paints. At 11 in the morning I went to the Glass Blower on the Regent’s Street side of Soho and took some Dutch courage (a bad habit). Then I did this, with some whacking great brushes. The play of black and white marks is what set in train my interest in the foregoing and some other works, where I was taking a much closer look at ‘the mark’. This itself originated during the process of life drawing at the Royal Academy Schools.
www.alan-dedman-artist.co.uk
Painting by Alan Dedman, done in 1986
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June 16th, 2010
This pic is a close up of the previous one, showing how the impasted oil paint on black velvet has formed specific marks. Reminiscent of scenes I witnessed on the ceiling of our squat in South London whilst in a state of intoxicated reverie, (or does it just look like Artex?) this work is what we all have to do to expand our awareness of ourselves ‘in process’. I suppose Robert Ryman’s work owes a debt itself to Kasimir Malevich ….
www.alan-dedman-artist.co.uk
White spirals on velvet by Alan Dedman
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June 15th, 2010
This is one of several circular works I did in the 90’s in reaction to all that had gone before in my drawing. Not square, not a black mark on white – but a white mark on black (velvet), I looked at the counterspace in an outward spiral which I made repeatedly until the surface was returned to a state of lingerie whiteness. Again, the function in an academic sense, is to see the line anew. One metre diameter, oil on black velvet, 1500 gbp.
www.alan-dedman-artist.co.uk
Line drawing by Alan Dedman
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June 14th, 2010
This is a drawing I did in coloured pencils at 70, Fentiman Road in the Summer of 1986. I used a kids colouring book and took tracings of the gymnast (which is what it is called) and then drew ‘automatically’ over the line work, making it the sole purpose of the drawing NOT to lick my top lip whilst colouring carefully up to the outline.
This drawing is about not conforming to pre-existing definitions, about being with all that irrascible feeling; like the gymnast. Getting line to equate with colour is one of the academic bugbears of the Western art tradition. The drawing is A3 in size and sold for 75 gbp. For further examples of my art see: www.alan-dedman-artist.co.uk
The Gymnast by Alan Dedman, 1986, Coloured pencil & kids colouring book.
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