It’s been a busy week which has thrown out my blog posting schedule a little.  My partner, Karl, is midway through an exhibition of his artwork at Monkton Arts, Ryde, Isle Of Wight.  It has been going extremely well but I’m still going to take the opportunity to give it a shameless plug.

Up until a few years ago Karl’s emphasis as an artist has been on highly detailed black and white pen and ink drawings primarily of landscapes and buildings.  It is extremely fiddly and time consuming. He began to want to experiment with the freedom of colour and structure, having a background in three dimensional design.  This has led to another development of his work which is on display alongside his black and white work.  As you will be able to see from the photos this is also extremely fiddly and time consuming and requires vast amounts of patience which is a little surprising to those of us who know him well!

I’ll let him describe his process in his own words:

I’ve always worked on detailed, representational pen and ink drawings, mainly of buildings set in their environment which relates to my architectural design background.

My abstract pieces are made from thousands of hand- rolled coloured discs of different sizes. Although I only use about ten different coloured papers I am able by mixing and increasing and decreasing the number of strips in a disc to create a range of tones and effects. I manipulate the discs by pushing them outwards or sinking them in and this affects the viewers perception by creating light, shade and shadow.

The pieces are abstract but for me highly personal. They are autobiographical where I attempt to understand my life and explore my emotions, I’m able to review life events and travel on real or imagined journeys. Some of the pieces include discs made from shredded pages of my diaries. The repetition of rolling the strips of paper is akin to the rolling of meditation or rosary beads and helps me to focus my thoughts. Most of the pieces are not given titles because as well as acting as a private diary for me I’m interested in how others perceive them without guiding them on a particular path.

The amount of time each piece takes means that he cannot have exhibitions that often and I think we can safely say that this one is heading for a sell out as he has had to take in new pieces every day to keep up with demand which is brilliant.  There is still plenty to see if you are on or around the Isle Of Wight between now and Saturday 16th.

Monkton Arts is a recent venture on the Island, a great community space and popular café with separate gallery.  I’ve been lucky enough to have been working in Ryde myself a bit last week and this coming week which has given us the opportunity to meet up during my lunch break and enjoy the great coffee and food.