Artist Support Pledge - Mini Paintings

I must commend artist, Matthew Burrows, for his amazing Artist Support Pledge initiative on Instagram. It's a great idea and I am now taking part in it. If you are interested in any of the artworks that I've posted on Instagram with the hashtag #artistsupportpledge (and which are therefore available for sale at £200 or under) then please feel free to contact me at waynechisnall@yahoo.co.uk (or DM me on Instagram or Twitter).

The concept is simple: Artists who commit to the pledge will post images of works for sale (available to anyone, not just to other artists), for no more than £200 ($230), and each time their sales reach £1,000 ($1,155) they promise to buy another artist's work for £200.

"I realized the work needed to be cheap enough to make selling it an act of generosity, but also I needed to make that infectious," Burrows says, "generosity creates generosity." Burrows first posted about the initiative some days ago, selling his own 2012 etching, 'The Seer', and he received an "immediate response." there are now more than 1,000 posts, which he hopes to translate in 1,000 pledges.

Here's the statement that Matthew Burrows put out at the start of the project -  

 

"Due to the COVID-19 pandemic many artists have found themselves without work teaching, technical support, gallery work, exhibitions and sales have disappeared. In an attempt to help alleviate some of the stress I have instigated the ARTIST SUPPORT PLEDGE #artistsupportpledge. The concept is a simple one. You post images of your work you are willing to sell for no more than £200 each (not including shipping). Every time you reach £1000 of sales you pledge to buy another artist's work for £200".

Here are the titles & info on the Artist Support Pledge pieces I have available for £200 each. They are from my ongoing 2020-2021 art challenge, in which I'm aiming to create as many small oil paintings/sketches as possible in a twelve month period. My original goal was a thousand paintings but due to sculptural commitments I'm now aiming for around the four hundred paintings mark. 

Please feel free to contact me at waynechisnall@yahoo.co.uk (or DM me through Instagram or Twitter) for any further info -

1          Horse Rider & Poppies, 22.2 x 11.3 cm, oil on plywood

4          Stroke Bunny, 24 x 15 cm, oil & charcoal on plywood   

5          Skull, 22.4 x 17 cm, oil on plywood

13        Thames Embryo in Wonderland, 21 x 30 cm, oil on book cover

15        Skull Boy, 22.3 x 17 cm, oil on plywood

20        Tentacle Lovers, 16 x 23.4 cm, oil on chipboard

27        Twigs in Wooden Nook, 19 x 14 cm, oil on plywood

31        Skull & Cross Bones, 17 x 13.4 cm, oil on mount card

33        Fig. 1., 21 x 17 cm, oil on mount card

35        Blind Dinosaur, 19 x 29 cm, oil on book cover

40        Blond Hair & Hand Bag, 18.4 x 10 cm, oil on mount card

43        Hollow Dog Floundering, 19.4 x 15.8 cm, oil on mount card

44        Rock Hopper Hollow Dog, 22.5 x 16.3 cm, oil on mount card

46        Meaty Hair, 21.2 x 14.4 cm, oil on mount card

50        Hollow Dog Carcass, 20 x 13.6 cm, oil on mount card

51        Clown Nipple, 10 x 7.5 cm, oil on mount card

54        Saintly Long Dog With Staff, 22 x 15.8 cm, oil on chipboard

61        Death Loiters, 27 x 19 cm, oil on mount card

66        Corona Currency, 16 x 20 cm, oil on mount card

A          Rose Tripod #2 (2018), 15 x 10.2 x 1.8 cm, oil on canvas & plywood

B          Leggit! (2018), 15 x 20 x 1.7 cm, oil on canvas & plywood

C         Gill Man (2018), 14.5 x10.3 x1.8 cm, oil on canvas & plywood

Most of the other pieces in my ongoing 2020-2021painting challenge are also for sale but they're closer to the £500 mark.

Painting Challenge Update

When I first started my painting challenge on the 20th January 2020 I aimed to try and produce 1000 paintings/oil sketches, albeit small ones, over the following 12 months. Then I quickly realised that this wouldn't leave enough free time for me to work on any of my sculptural projects so now I've downscaled the target to 'as many as possible in a twelve month period'. I still think that I'll reasonably be able to hit the 400 mark by 20th January 2021.

Painting Challenge piece No. 12, 'Fibre Baby', oil on book cover by UK artist, Wayne Chisnall

As I'm going to be producing quite a lot of works over the coming months I'll be posting on this blog a bit more regularly than usual. I'll be posting new photos of the mini oil paintings/oil sketches as they materialise but please forgive me if I get a bit lazy and re-use much of the main body of the text.

Painting Challenge piece No. 13, 'Thames Embryo in Wonderland', oil on book cover by UK artist, Wayne Chisnall

The mini oil paintings/oil sketches that I've produced so far are mostly painted on small pieces of plywood or chipboard (recycled form Victoria andAlbert Museum packing crates), or on old book covers and recycled pieces of primed mount board.

Painting Challenge piece No. 14, 'Bound Head & Torso', oil on plywood wall plaque by UK artist, Wayne Chisnall

I've already started selling some of the pieces from this new series. Apart from works in my Taster Menu series I don't usually sell original artwork for less than £500 but as some of these pieces are very small and quickly executed there will be a few available for as low as £200. For info on the prices and dimensions of any of the mini oil paintings I'm currently posting about please feel free to get in contact (waynechisnall@yahoo.co.uk). Some of my collectors prefer to pay in monthly instalments, so that's always an option if you're interested. To see all of the paintings in the project check out my Instagram page.

Painting Challenge piece No. 15, 'Skull Boy', oil on plywood wall plaque by UK artist, Wayne Chisnall

Pumpie - V&A Star

Most of the mini oil paintings that I'm currently working on as part of my self-imposed painting challenge (originally to try and make 1000 paintings in a year, but now adjusted to 'as many as possible', so as to allow myself time to also work on my sculpture projects) are pulled from my imagination but when I came across a photo of a stuffed toy elephant, posted on Instagram by Jo Hackett, I knew that I had to do a quick oil sketch of him. By the way, Jo now owns said oil sketch.

I worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum for fifteen years, and have known Jo, who is its head Textile Conservator, for a long time. When I saw her post about the toy elephant I was instantly struck by how much character it had but just took it for one of the many everyday projects (not there is ever really an 'everyday' situation or project at the V&A) that Jo was working on.

V&A Textile Conservator, Jo Hackett, working on antique toy elephant, 'Pumpie'

It wasn't until many weeks later when I came across the BBC TV series, 'Secrets of The Museum' (a behind the scenes look at the workings of the V&A Museum) that I realised that the toy elephant had a name, Pumpie, and that he is the star of episode 1.  

V&A curator, Will Newton, handling 'Pumpie' on the BBC TV show, 'Secrets of The Museum'

For a further insights into Pumpie and his appearance on the show check out the V&A blog post, Can Elephants Get BAFTAs? My Televisual Adventure With Pumpie, by another one of my former colleagues, Will Newton.

DON'T PANIC

Discounted Art at 'Mars And Beyond' Shop

As I briefly mentioned in my previous post, I'm offering a discounted price on my original paintings and drawings (created on plywood wall plaques, the materials of which are recycled from V&A Museum packing crates) at the 'Mars and Beyond' exhibition shop (The Bargehouse, OXO Tower Wharf, Bargehouse Street, London SE1 9PH) which runs until 15th March 2020. 

Instead of the usual £150-200 price I'll be selling them for £120 each, just for the duration of the exhibition. If you can't easily find them in the shop (table space is limited so not all available artworks are permanently displayed) then just ask one of the staff, who can get them out for you.

The series was originally conceived as a limited run of mini artworks for Rob Pruitt's Artists' Flea Market pop-up project which took place at the A Plus A Gallery during the opening week of the 2015 Venice Biennale. Rob Pruitt is an American artist who organises similar art events all around the world; including a 2009 Xmas Artists' Flea Market at the Tate Modern, London, where the likes of YBA artists Tracey Emin and Gavin Turk manned stalls, selling their wares.

This 'Taster Menu' series was intended as a way of offering a fun and affordable way of collecting small but original pieces from my body of work, without having to pay the usual £2000-£20000 gallery prices. The majority of the paintings and drawings in this series are executed on 20 x 15 cm blocks of 1.8 cm thick plywood, and designed to hang unframed, as wall plaques. Commissions are available for similar versions of all sold out pieces from the series.

I'm also selling a limited run of 17 different coloured cotton tote bags (around 4-5 bags in each colour) featuring a black and white screen printed version of my 'Davincipus' design; based upon Leonardo da Vinci's 'Vitruvian Man' drawing. Though, in my take on it, the limbs have been replaced with tentacles. There are also a couple of my 'Swirl Skull' tote bags (printed on unbleached organic cotton) left. Each bag if available at the 'Mars and Beyond' exhibition shop for the princely sum of £10.

Curator, Oskar Krajewski (figure on right) outside 'Mars & Beyond', The Barehouse, OXO Tower Wharf, London, 2020