Oil Painting Giveaway

Here's another reminder that at the end of Nov/Dec's RCA Secret exhibition I'll be giving away three small oil sketches from a series that I'm curently working on - one via Instagram, one via Twitter, and one via Facebook. 

To be in with a chance of winning one simply 'like', 'follow' me (don't worry if you're already following me - that still counts), and 'repost' any of my posts featured in the competition, with the hashtag #minioilsketches. For Instagram reposts you might have to use an app like Repost.

To ensure fairness and impartiality the names of the three winners will be drawn from a hat  by Holly Howe, the art journalist and editor of Avenir art magazine.

Here are a few of the miniature oils sketches that I've produced so far. Check out my Instagram, Twitter and Facebook pages to view the full range, and for a chance to win one. 

Good luck! 

Its Art Call 2018 Exhibition

I'd like to thank the judges and organisers of The Cult House for selecting me to be one of the twelve artists exhibiting in the Its Art Call 2018 exhibition, which runs from 31st October - 9th November, at the After Nyne gallery in Holland Park, London. 
If anyone would like to come to the private view/opening party on Thursday 1st November (6-9pm) please RSVP as soon as possible to info@theculthouse.co.uk . I'll be there and I imagine that most of the other exhibiting artists will also, so please feel free to pop along and chat to us - or just come along for a drink and a look at the artwork.

I'd also like to congratulate friend and fellow artist, Oskar Krajewski, for winning the solo show which will open on the 20th November at the same venue.

The three pieces that I will be exhibiting in the show are Tattooed Tumour Box, Planetoid 210, and Orifice Tower.

Tattooed Tumour Box emerged from my interest in applying organic-looking structural developments (that have gone awry) to geometric forms. In this case I have taken as my inspiration the mechanism of a cancer cell, where growth has gone unchecked and produced an unstable-looking, asymmetrical form. The 'tattooed' element of the piece harks back to growing up with a tattooist father but the style of the drawings relate more to my early career as a technical illustrator. As for the subject of the drawings - the starting point was based upon found materials that I had collected for use in future sculptures, but which I chose to morph together or exaggerate beyond recognition.

'Planetoid 210' is a realisation of one of a series of sketches that I had been working on for some time. These sketches all involve architectural structures or towers sitting atop planetoids or spherical bodies that are obviously too small to realistically support them. The original drawing was inspired by something that happened to me whilst I was in Goa, India. I was swimming in the sea and noticed an interesting seed pod floating towards me. And as I picked it up to investigate further a small colony of tiny crabs decided that they must have hit dry land and disembarked onto my hand.

Although it might look like it's just been thrown together all the individual box sections and framework of Orifice Tower have been carefully constructed in such a way that the pieces interlock, creating a deceptively sturdy structure – not that I'm encouraging anyone to try and climb it. Discounting the glue, all the materials used in the construction of this piece (mostly wood but some stone, copper piping and small metal fixings) are recycled – even down to the screws. This isn't purely for environmental reasons. It's mainly because I love the patina and 'resonance' of old materials. A lot of the wood comes from the backs of old picture frames or early to mid-20th Century packing cases from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Orifice Tower started out as a quick thumbnail sketch that I drew whilst waiting for a talk to commence at the Jerwood Space in Bankside. At that time I was working on some small sculptures that were basically wooden boxes that incorporated carved apertures or orifices. By this stage I'd become aware of the fact that much of my work was getting smaller and smaller so I decided to remedy this by creating elevated versions of these new Orifice Box sculptures. This also tied in with my love of tower structures.

To come to the private view/opening party on Thursday 1st November (6-9pm) please RSVP as soon as possible to info@theculthouse.co.uk

Half Price Print Sale (for next 30 days)

It's been a few years since I last had one of my print sales and I've decided it's about time I had another. So for the next thirty days I'm offering a selection of my prints at half their regular price. If you'd like one at 50% discounted price drop me an email at WAYNECHISNALL@YAHOO.CO.UK

Here are the ones that are included in the sale -

IF THEY WERE BUNNIES (£90 instead of £180)

I created the original image for 'If They Were Bunnies' by first selecting a newspaper image of British police officers attacking demonstrators. I then painted out the protestors - replacing them with my own cartoon rabbits. I'm pleased with the contrast between the crisp graphic line work of the bunnies and the just about perceptible halftone modulations of the newspaper image.

Printed using cutting edge Epson® HDX Ultrachrome archival pigments inks, as opposed to ordinary dye-base inks, which are more prone to fading over prolonged exposure to UV light, and printed on Hahnemuhle Bright White 310 gsm; an acid-free, premium heavy-weight archival paper. The image is 45.5 x 33 cm, and the paper size is 50.5 x 39.3 cm. Each print is signed and editioned (being from a limited edition of 100). The prints are also embossed with an authentication stamp in the lower left corners of the border.

SPIDEY PODS (£100 instead of £200)

The Spidey Pods piece came about through the merging of a few different ideas or interests. Part of it was to do with my interest in nostalgia, childhood perceptions of adulthood and childhood heroes (hence the elements of the 70s style Spiderman costume). The work was also influenced by an interest in forms that reoccur within larger forms. Just prior to making the preparatory drawing for the Spidey Pods piece I had been peeling back the skin of a segment of orange and marvelling at the mass of smaller pod-like segments that it was made up of.

It was whilst sketching out the initial drawing that I also remembered a scene from the original 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers', in which the main character from the movie finds himself in the back of a truck, on top of a pile of giant pods. So again, there is this reworking of nostalgic elements, as films have been another important influence throughout my life (especially during my childhood).

Limited edition, hand-printed, silk-screen prints on acid-free, archival high grade paper. Signed and numbered. Edition of 300 (although less than 100 have so far been printed and it's unlikely that any more will be printed).

Dimensions: 58 x 53 cm.

MORPHED COMPONENTS (£80 instead of £160)

The 'Morphed Components' prints are based upon one of my pencil drawings, in which I morphed together elements of different found objects and materials that I'd been collecting for use in my sculptures. Unlike my recent quick-fire drawings this one harks back to the draughtsmanship style I used when I first started out as a technical illustrator for one of the big Japanese companies back in the 80s. I found it interesting using the same precise and clinical rendering that I used back then, on something that is personal to what I do now. Some people have said that they find the drawing a bit disturbing but I find it quite relaxing to stare at (the original hangs on the wall at the foot of my bed).

In order to give the prints a subtle pencily (that's not a real word is it?) quality the screen prints were hand-pulled using an ink made with graphite powder. As with all my other screen prints, these are also printed on archival quality paper and each one is signed and editioned. The paper dimensions are 54 x 52 cm and the print run is an edition of 60 plus five artist's proofs

Title:Morphed Components

Dimensions: 54 x 52 cm (approx)

Medium:silk-screen prints (hand printed) on acid-free paper

Colours:1 (graphite powder ink)

Edition:60

SWIRLY SKULLS ON PINK (£70 instead of £140)

For those of you who love skulls but with a shade of femininity, here’s my two colour, ‘Swirly Skulls on Pink’ screen print. They come in a strictly limited edition of 50 and each print is signed, titled, editioned, dated, and printed on archival paper. The paper dimensions are 70 x 50 cm (larger than my single colour, ‘Swirly Skulls’ prints which are 60 x 45 cm).

If you are interested in any of the prints (temporarily at half price) just drop me an email at waynechisnall@yahoo.co.uk

(Free) Miniature Oil Paintings

In the build-up to this November/December's RCA Secret exhibition (proceeds from the sale of the artworks go to help support the Royal College of Art's students) of postcard-sized artworks, to which I annually contribute, I've decided to get in the mood for it by working on a series of speedily executed, miniature oil sketches. Well, I say 'speedily executed', but there's always going to the odd one or two where I get drawn in, and end up staying up all night tinkering away over it.

On the final day of the RCA Secret (the day of the sale) I'll be giving away three of the postcard-sized artworks to winners selected at random - one via Instagram, one via Twitter, and one via Facebook. To be in with a chance of winning one simply 'follow' me on any of the three social media sites and 'like' and 'share' any of the posts (sharing posts on Instagaram is a bit trickier than on Twitter and Facebook, so extra points to anyone who manages it).

Here you see a few of the miniature oils sketches that I've recently produced. There will be more to come over the following months. To view them, and for a chance to win one, check out my Instagram, Twitter and Facebook pages. Good luck!

https://www.instagram.com/waynechisnall
https://twitter.com/waynechisnall
https://www.facebook.com/WayneChisnallArt

'National Mesmeric' - Work In Progress

These days the whole of my house is filled with the smell of turpentine and linseed oil. And it's glorious! The reason for this pervading odour? Well, whereas my sculpture studio and workshop are located in my back garden, my painting studio happens to be a room in my house, and after a twenty year break I have returned to oil painting (having previously been working mostly in acrylics, painting-wise); hence the  gloriousness of this much-miss smell - and the memories it triggers.

I'm currently working on a 1.5m x 1.2m oil painting called 'National Mesmeric'. It's based upon the BBC's TV Test Card F that was used from 1967 till the late 90s but I'll reveal more about it in a later post, once the painting is finished. For now here's a picture of me working on it.

Sketchy Thoughts

As much as I love spending hours walking around art galleries, scrutinising works by my favourite artists and discovering pieces by artists that are new to me, one thing that I always want to see more of is their accompanying sketchbook work. I'm fascinated by these visual diaries/notebooks and how they reveal the thought processes behind the finished works that we see up on the gallery walls. And it's with this in mind that I thought that I'd give you a little insight into my creative musings by posting a few recent scrawls from my current pocket sketchbook (these days I rarely use a sketchbook bigger than A5 size).

My own sketchbooks are amongst my most precious possessions; probably the first things that I'd try to save in the case of a house fire. To me they serve multiple purposes. Often they are repositories for pretty much fully formed ideas for potential future artworks (mostly sculptures) - having long ago realised that if I don't get an idea down on paper straight away, I'm liable to forget it forever. But they are also where I go to work out the not-so-fully-formed ideas. Sometimes an idea is so vague that it's not until I start to see it take form on the page in front of me that it is actually realized. Sketchbooks are also great places to knock lumps off of forms before you attempt it in the real world. By this I mean that you can experiment and make your mistakes on paper, before you commit to the physicality of the actual sculpture. It's also a good place to refine the form of the sculptural work that you are going to pursue - the place where you discover its ideal outline.

I have more ideas for artworks than I'll ever have the time in which to create them, especially since the act of constructing a sculpture always generates ideas for various different versions of itself (usually there will be multiple points in the construction of a sculpture where you are confronted with the option of taking the work in one of at least two different directions), so I content myself with the fact that if I manage to get my ideas down on paper at least the work exists in some form.

Although the majority of my sketchbooks are filled with preliminary drawings, I do also use them for making working drawings of mid-construction sculptures - as a way of working out some of the finer details of a work in progress. I find that it can also be useful to make sketches of sculptures that I'm working on, purely as a way of temporarily distancing myself from the sculpture, and in which to see it from a fresh perspective.

As you've probably noticed from these few examples, I usually eschew the pencil; instead preferring to work directly in ink on paper. I like the immediacy of working with a pen. Knowing that you can't erase a mistake, trains you to be more accurate and economical with your mark making, or to incorporate rogue lines into the body of the drawing. Although, saying that, some of my thumbnail sketches can occasionally lean towards the clumsy, especially if I'm more interested in quickly jotting down an idea (usually accompanied with a few notes on materials and construction methods) than I am in pure joy of drawing.

Another thing that I love about sketchbooks is that they can act as an inspiration store. I have sketchbooks dating back decades and every now and then, when flicking through them, I will come across a forgotten drawing or set of notes that triggers an idea for a new work.

I smile now when I think back to my early days at art college, when the tutors would try and impress upon us the importance of sketchbook work, and would demand to see a body of preparatory drawings accompanying each finished piece of artwork. Inevitably we would all disregard this - go straight ahead with our main piece of work, then, once it was finished, we would laboriously try and come up with the pages of 'preliminary drawings' that had led us to that end point.