Exciting news Peter Blake to sign new Homage to Damien Hirst canvasses at Art London Private View

Popfather Sir Peter Blake is unveiling canvas versions of his The Buttelfly Man: Homage to Damien Hirst at Art London on Wednesday night. The new canvases- 5 in the series- will be produced in a tiny edition of 10. We do not have images of the new works as yet...but watch this space as we will be adding them to the website.

Sir Peter will be attending the private view at Art London next Wednesday evening, and will be adding his signature to the new canvasses on our stand (34). The new works reflect a growing interest from the artist in 'super-sizing' things; he made large canvas versions of his Vichy Trio silkscreens last year (the Homage canvasses will be on a similar scale), and his Found Art works are based around massively enlarging objects that Blake finds of interest. I have to say, that with the immense amount of detail that is packed into the collage compositions, it will be a real pleasure to see them blown up.

To see the canvases in the flesh, come and see us at stand 34 next week at Art London (further details on our news page)

CCA are delighted to present new original work by Dan Baldwin

CCA are thrilled to present new original work by Dan Baldwin at Art London next week. We caught up with Dan to find our more about them....

CC: Dan, fans of your prints may not be aware of your work with vases, could you tell us how this came about, and what appeals to you about this medium?

Dan Baldwin: The vases started about 6 years ago by accident. I was doodling on a cheap pot from the pound shop that I'd bought- I'd been buying dog sculptures from pound land, hand-painting them and selling them in Selfridges. Then I had a lightning bolt moment in the studio where I thought of creating a range of vases with my spontaneous doodles on them. Over the years I've developed them to become an extension of my painting practice and they have proven to be  a very successful part of my output. The contrast between a beautiful feminine pot and darker subject matter interests me, and I think it is why they are successful; they are unique, unusual and beautiful.

CC: Could you tell us a little about the particular vase that will be on display at Art London?

DB: This is the largest vase I have made to date (I must clarify I am not a pot-maker, I work with a potter) 60/70cm high. It has to be made in sections on the wheel- very difficult! For the next series we are moulding in clay to create 3-D raised elements protuding from the sides.

(an earlier example of a vase by Dan Baldwin- not the vase to be shown at Art London)

CC: Thunder Coming is one of your new paintings, why did you choose to make this piece on wood rather than canvas like your other two new works?

DB: I hadn't painted for a month or so, and I just had the urge to make a piece just for me, just to paint. So I cut some wood as it was all I had, and just lay down colours and shape and it become Thunder Coming .

CC: Thunder Coming is a very powerful and ominous title, could you pick up on the main themes you explore in this work?

DB: Each painting takes on its own feeling; this had a real static tension about it, like an electricity buzz and it made me think of thunder, and animals hiding, also a radioactive feel to it- a storm brewing up. It explores the chaotic harmony between science, nature and man. The title could also have a double meaning; that's something I love playing with- when you see the crucifix with flames...the storm is brewing....

Thunder Coming

CC: Love. This painting has a completely contrasting atmosphere from Thunder Coming, it gives off a sense of joy and relaxation on a sunny afternoon. Is there a storty behind this, does the ice lolly hold some significance?

DB: Yes- massive significance. I worked in a video shop for five years or so in Hove whilst I was still on the road to being a full-time artist. It was a great shop; specialised in arthouse cinema and always played good music, and was generally a bit of a hang-out. Annie (my girlfriend) was a regular customer of the shop, I remember serving her for years. One day she stopped coming in. Two years later I was walking along, back from Milan, just off to the train, and I saw Annie coming towards me. I did a double-take and so did she, we had this moment in the street. Months later, one summers day, she walked up to me with an ice lolly, holding it in her hand and said 'you look like you need this'. It was the first time she ever spoke to me and she almost didn't go through with it out of a nervous fear, but she felt she had to make contact. Another six months went by, I was single, so was she, I asked her out for dinner and our date lasted 36 hours. That was five years ago and now we have an 11 month-old baby.

The piece Love was originally going to be called Peach, as that is Annie's favourite colour. Then it became Peach Video Girl, and as the painting grew I changed it to just Love. There is a lot of symbolism in the work: the poppy, the orchid, the swallow, the little girl, the little boy, a bird feeding its young, and the skeletal hand/figure searching for its love even in the afterlife. It was the beginning of this series I want to make called Spectrum; more about colour, harmony, beauty. I also like the melting ice lolly as a metaphor, there's something striking about it, dropped by a child or discarded- left to melt....

Love

CC: Spirit. Does the title refer to the human spirit- the gift of imagination and determination? Or does it refer to a spiritualism in the religious sense? How important is faith as a theme in your work?

DB: I think it is all of the above. It took on this feel of another world- a higher place- up in the clouds-  a place not of this earth. It went throuh weeks of layering until I was happy with it. I didn't want to call it 'Heaven' or 'Purgatory', but wanted it to be outer-worldly. I have faith in my life, not a religious faith, but a positive thinking; I've always had the feeling that I'll be ok- an inner faith, or a voice- but don't think of that as God, its my inner voice that's what I listen to. Some paintings are like a battle to get right. This one was; I had to keep painting over things, cleaning up, re-working. You go through the fight sometimes to make it come good, like you're pulling it and pushing it, and you like this part but not that etc, you work through that until it is solid and balanced and it all unites together. Even if the message isn't clear it's the evocation of feeling that is important. In this piece there is nature, death of nature, religion, anthropology, evolution, conflict. There's a child-like element to it too, a bit of snakes and ladders, of fairy tale, floaty....that's why Spirit worked well as a title.

CC: Thanks Dan!

Spirit

COMING SOON to CCA website Raphael Revisited by Tom Phillips

We are giving you a teaser of the new silkscreen edition by Tom Phillips CBE RA that will be available to purchase online from next week: Raphael Revisited.

Raphael Revisited- signed limited edition silkscreen print by British contemporary artist Tom Phillips.

Raphael Revisited

Silkscreen version of Tom Phillips' 1972 oil on canvas 'After Raphael', inspired by Phillips' fascination with the Golden Section. The Golden Section is a divine and ideal proportional relationship, a geometrical term that has fascinated architects, artists and mathematicians from the Renaissance onwards, it has been seen as a mystical harmony that pervades all nature.

Phillips writes, 'As in the paradox of the poet freed by rhyme, the ratist can be liberated by a system of great rigidity.'

When we think of the renaissance fascination with this theory works such as Leonardo da Vinci's 'Vitruvian Man' or the buildings of Palladio spring to mind. Phillips' preoccupation with mystical proportions 'crops up whenever my work causes me to look back to an Italy or a Greece of the past for inspiration'.

Raphael Revisitied is a transcription of a Votive picture, Umbrian School c. 1490-1500 that Phillips became fanilair with at the Walker Art Gallery whilst judging the John Moores Prize in 1971, and which has been attributed to the young Raphael. Phillips has reworked this image according to the Golden Section. This is a process that Phillips has experimented with throughout his career, 'It was in the seventies however (this obsession seems to return at regular intervals) that I made my most concentrated effort to construct a picture according to the dictates of such a network of co-ordinates'. Having decided to make a work based on the little votive picture Phillips examined the work and found a lack of geometrical basis in the original, 'This very absence of order decided me to abandon the copy and work on a picture in which an imposed system would conflict with the compositional arrangement of the original'.Phillips also changed the format of the work from landscape to portrait.

Votive Picture, Umbrian School, c.1490-1500

Phillips created a version of the picture in the form of a diptych with one canvas showing all the constructional elements and the other the finished painting. He also made a larger single version After Raphael that combines both elements on one surface where the network of lines which guided every nuance and interval of its configuration can still be clearly discerned. It is from this version that Raphael Revisited is reproduced.

An excerpt from After Raphael features on the cover of Brian Eno's 'Another Green World' album 1975.

Getting to Know Charlotte Cornish

Abstract artist Charlotte Cornish talks to us about her work, inspiration, and  life as an artist:

Describe your ethos as an artist/How would you describe your work?

CC: I see myself predominantly as a painter and printmaker. Printmaking has always been an important part of my practice and has greatly informed the approach I have to making my paintings. I build my paintings up in layers of applied paint - dripped and poured - in much the same way that I make the stencils for my prints. I very much think in terms of layers. Colour is central to my work and I am continually fascinated and intrigued by the qualities of colour and the power of colour combinations.

 Striking a Balance I

What Inspires you?

CC: I am greatly inspired by places I have travelled to or visited, and all of my work is drawn from personal experience.

Did you always want to be an artist?

CC: I grew up surrounded by art - both my parents were art teachers who also made their own work and weekends were often spent in museums and art galleries. I think it must have been in my blood!

What is an average day in the life of Charlotte Cornish?

CC: First thing, my dog gets a good walk, then into the studio - I usually paint for at least four hours every day. This seems to be the minimum amount of time for me to settle in to the work and feel like I've made good progress. If all is going well, I spend longer there, especially if I have deadlines for exhibitions or commissions. The rest of the day is often spent at the computer doing admin - replying to emails, sending images of work to galleries or prospective customers etc.

Kindred IV

Who is your favourite artist/ artwork?

CC: Over the years I have been influenced and have admired many artists work. I was very shocked and saddened to hear of the recent death of John Hoyland. I have had great respect for his work and have closely followed his practice as an artist ever since meeting him at The Slade School of Art many years ago. I will really miss the opportunity of continuing to experience his work.

What do you think of the Arts in Britain today?

CC: The Arts in Britain today are incredibly diverse and this is, in many ways, very exciting, allowing for many possibilities and forms of expression. Personally, I continue to be drawn to the medium of painting and printmaking, and so most of the exhibitions I visit tend to be of painters or printmakers work.

Portal II

What is your favourite exhibition space?

CC: I love the Tate Modern! I was lucky enough to go the opening of it and this made a lasting impression on me - such a great space.

What do you consider to be your greatest achievement?

CC: Probably making a living from my work - it's a roller coaster but I've survived so far!

Which talent would you most like to possess?

CC: It would be pretty amazing to be able to look in to the future... although, I guess I would want to only see good things!

One book to take to a desert island...

CC: Ooh - just one - that's hard...I may have to think about that one for a bit longer...

How would you like people to view your work in the future?

CC: I hope my work captures, or hints at, something universal about what it feels like to be alive and I so would like to think that this would continue to communicate to people in the future.

Name a current exhibition that you would like to see/would recommend

CC: Hoping to get to the Royal Academy and see Albert Irvin's print exhibition and also Frank Bowling's works on paper exhibition.

Getting to Know Patrick Hughes

Next in our 'Getting to Know...' series the quirky and wonderful artist Patrick Hughes. As well as having some now very rare prints by Patrick dating from the 80S, CCA have been delighted to publish new silkscreen editions with him in recent years. Patrick currently has a retrospective of his work '50 Years in Show Business' at Flowers Gallery, London.

        CC: Describe your ethos as an artist/How would you describe your work?

        PH: My work is oxymoronic, bitter/sweet, serious/funny, simple/complicated, reasonable/daft.

        CC: What Inspires you?

        PH: I am inspired by artists and writers of a similar persuasion: Magritte, Klee, Duchamp, Kakfka, Lewis Caroll, Samuel Butler.

        CC: Did you always want to be an artist?

        PH: No I wanted to be a writer, but I thought NF Simpson's play One Way Pendulum was so perfect that I thought I should be a                  paradoxer in art where there was not so much competition.

       CC: What is an average day in the life of Patrick Hughes?

       PH: I get up at 6.30, my assistants come at 8 when I make them tea or coffee, lunch is 12.20 to 1.10, the studio colses at 4.40 Monday             to  Friday. In the evening TV or theatre or reading with my wife Di. Running around the park, playing table tennis five times a week.

      CC: Who is your favourite artist/ artwork|?

      PH: Paul Klee is my favourite artist because I never knew what he was going to do next. March of the Viaducts is one of his best.

Colour Process (1984)

 CC: What do you think of the Arts in Britain today?

PH: I never think about the Arts in Britain today, I am only interested in what I am interested in. I read the paper cover to cover every day, and watch the TV news. I am not British, I have got a Citizen of the World passport, and I am as interested in British art as I am in Croatian art or Malaysian art: nationalism is the biggest mistake of the nineteenth century, or any century.

CC: What is your favourite exhibition space?

PH: The space inside your head.

CC: What do you consider to be your greatest achievement?

PH: To have always done what I wanted to do, without studying at an art school. To have become learned by reading books silently.

CC: Which talent would you most like to possess?

PH: To run like the wind.

CC: One book to take to a desert island...

PH: A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh

CC: How would you like people to view your work in the future?

PH: Profound, witty, imaginative, unique.

CC: Name a current exhibition that you would like to see/would recommend

PH: Magritte in Liverpool, Hughes in Cork Street and Shoreditch (Flowers Gallery).

Paper Roses (1985)

Getting to Know Barbara Rae

Continiung our series of interviews with Britain's leading artists, Clare Clinton talks to Barbara Rae:

CC: Describe your ethos as an artist/How would you describe your work?

BR: My work practice is in two parts: the first is creative research including historical and geographical information, the second is studio based adaptation and development of information. Research can be a specific area of landscape, an industrial location, an interior or an object that fascinates such as a piece of Navajo weaving or a carved Pictish standing stone. The studio based work is intuitive and creative, based on written and observed knowledge but largely left behind at this stage.

Pueblo

CC: What Inspires you?

BR: History, geography and the way things have been shaped by man: landscape, cities and objects.

CC: Did you always want to be an artist?

BR: I dabbled with the idea of being a PE teacher or doing geography at university. Deeo down I knew that I would be going to Art College.

CC: What is an average day in the life of Barbara Rae?

BR: There is no average day really. When I am on location somewhere whether it is in Arizona, Spain, Ireland etc. I like to get out as soon as possible to drive around to see things and explore. I prefer to work outside in the winter months when the light is low (no blue skies or tourists). Sometimes I have to get up really early or wait until before dusk to get the best light. In my studio in Ireland or Edinburgh, I get to the studio as early as possible and get started before the phone starts to ring. There are always pleasant distractions however, such as lunch or drinks with friends!

Red Sky

CC: Who is your favourite artist/ artwork|?

BR: I enjoy folk art a lot for its naive honesty and unconscious humour. I collect these things when I can. Artists that I admire include Tapies, Rauschenberg, Warhol, Miro (no surprise that they are printmakers!). I also admire Goya and Velasquez.

CC: What do you think of the Arts in Britain today?

BR: The huge increase in art galleries has made art accessible to many more people, as has the growth in popularity of prints in all their forms. The quality is really variable and there is some excruciatingly bad work lurking in small galleries in tucked away remote places ready to ambush the unwary art lover. The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition is a good place to see a cross section of quality work. The artists' societies in Scotland show a wide variety of serious work as do the private galleries.

CC: What is your favourite exhibition space?

BR: Royal Academy, London or Guggenheim. Bilbao . The Ace Gallery in LA is pretty amazing.

CC: What do you consider to be your greatest achievement?

BR: Teaching at Glasgow School of Art in the wonderfil Charles Rennie MacIntosh building for 21 years then leaving and having my own wonderful studio space.

Quarry Edge

CC: Which talent would you most like to possess?

BR: The ability to learn languages.

CC: One book to take to a desert island...

BR: Must be the best survival manual around! Or a seed catalogue would keep me amused for many hours.

 CC: How would you like people to view your work in the future?

BR: I hope that they will enjoy it and understand that I am not a 'landscape' artist.

CC: Name a current exhibition that you would like to see/would recommend

BR: Norman McBeath and Robert Crawford exhibition, Body Bags/Simonides- Edinburgh College of Art 4 Aug until 9 Sept. Also David Mach- Fruitmarket Gallery

Sir Peter Blake designs for Fred Perry

Iconic British style enthusiasts will be delighted to here that Sir Peter Blake has teamed up with Fred Perry to redesign mod favourite Fred Perry polo shirt. It's a particularly fitting team-up- not least because Sir Peter painted himself wearing a Fred Perry under his denim workman's jacket in his 1961 work Self-Portrait with Badges. There are three different styles of shirt being released (red, white and blue- naturally), each of the three is limited to 1000 pieces and comes in a presentation box featuring Union Jack patches and screen-printed iconography, with the artist's signature on hem and neck.Using an original 1960s colour palette the three shirts feature rainbow and Union Jack patches alongside screen printed icons such as stars, hearts and targets.

Priced at £125. Visit fredperry.com to buy

Fred Perry have interviewed Sir Peter:

- What was your inspiration behind the pieces?

PB: Pop....

- Do you wear Fred Perry yourself otherwise?

PB: No, sadly I am too fat!

- What is it with the brand that you like?

PB: The symbol is the ethos of MOD...

- You work with pop art and Fred Perry is subcultural label to a degree, do you have common aesthetic grounds?

PB: As a prototype MOD in the last 1950s, early 1960s, I wore Fred Perry shirts and painted a similar shirt in my Self-Portrait with Badges.

- There are Union Jacks and other British symbols on the tops, does the collection pay national homage?

PB: I see the Union Jack in the traditional way of it being a patriotic image...

- Have you seen and liked any of the other Fred Perry Blank Canvas collaborations?

PB: Yes- I Love them!

- How would you define the relationship between art and fashion?

PB: Fashion can be art and art can be fashionable...

- What's next for you?

PB: I am making some jewellery at the moment!

John Hoyland 1934 2011

We at CCA were very sad to learn of the death of John Hoyland. I had been lucky enough to meet him on several occasions and remember a spirited and witty man full of verve. He was a convivial and irreverent neighbour at the dinner table; always ready with a forthright opinion and a funny story. I remember a few years ago at Art London John and his wife Beverley came and had a drink on board the Art Bus and ended up sitting with me for the best part of an hour, just laughing and chewing the fat.

I was also privileged enough to visit him at his home and studio in London, where he had lived and worked since the 60s, and which was full of intriguing objects from all his travels. The living space opened up directly into his studio space, in which canvases were stacked against the walls and the floors were completely covered with splatters of paint. The visit was in order to pick up an original canvas that John was donating for our British Heart Foundation Mending Broken Hearts Art Appeal. He also created an original silkscreen print for the campaign 'Soulless Stars Cascade'- generous with his time and effort for a great cause.

We are lucky at CCA to have published three silkscreen editions with John: Life and Love and Warrior Universe, as well as Soulless Stars Cascade. The titles of his works were very important to John, and I always felt that they revealed the poet in him; such beautiful meaningful and romantic titles that conveyed the full richness of the passion, exuberance and emotional depth of his work.

The Directors and staff at CCA offer our condolences to his family and friends.

CCA Artists exhibiting in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

British summer time means Ascot, Henley, Wimbledon, the Proms and of course the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy. This huge and unique display is one of the highights of the art calendar, with tousands of works on show and application to exhibit works open to all. CCA are very proud that among our stable of artists many are Royal Academicians and several are included in this years show: Brad Faine, Barbara Rae, Tom Phillips and Brendan Neiland and Maurice Cockrill. 

Barbara Rae RA has four pieces included in the Summer Exhibition: Fish Pool, Ballinskelligs, Lacken Cross and Ceanthru Thaidhg.

Maurice Cockrill RA is currently the Keeper of the Royal Academy Schools, which entitles him to the rare privilege of having a studio inside Burlington House itself. This year, his piece in aid of the British Heart Foundation Clare's Inspiration is included in the show. This piece is particularly special to me, as Maurice was sweet enough to name it in my honour (!).

Brendan Neiland is displaying one of his latest silkscreen print Big Apple, the result of a recent trip to New York.

Brad Faine's Down The Tube has also been selected.

And finally Tom Phillips' Raphael Revisited makes its debut at the RA. This is a beautiful new silkscreen interpretation of Raphael's rooms in the Vatican. Watch this space, we should have an image and further details on the website soon.

The Summer Exhibition is on until 15th August.

Clare Clinton catches up with Brendan Neiland as he prepares for his 70th birthday and looks back at his printmaking career

In the leafy streets near Wandsworth Common on a sunny afternoon I sat with Brendan Neiland in his garden talking about the solo show he is currently preparing for October. To conicide with his 70th birthday Neiland is showing new canvasses and silkscreen prints at the Redfern Gallery. Like many of our leading contemporary artists Neiland is primarily known as a painter, but he has been printmaking since the early 70s and this has been an integral part of his career. The new exhibition will feature his latest publications with CCA Galleries: Manhattan, Big Apple and Calypso (made for our British Heart Foundation Mending Broken Hearts portfolio Breath of Life).

Neiland met Brad Faine (master printmaker at Coriander Studio) in 1974 when Coriander had just been established. This partnership has prospered ever since, with Neiland and Faine collaborating to create original silkscreen prints at the studio for nearly 40 years. Neiland explained to me how important the element of trust was between artist and print studio, and between artist and publisher. Painting is a solitary pursuit, and part of the joy of printmaking is that the artist gets to collaborate in order to create his print. The artist takes advice from the master printmaker and his team as to how to best achieve the effects he wants in his print, thus the original idea may evolve or change- but in many respects the quality and appearance of the final product is dependent on the skill of the printmakers, so the artist has to feel total confidence in them.

Neiland typically takes 5-6 weeks to create one original silkscreen print. They are always original works of art; he is not interested in making reproductions of his paintings, but in creating completely new works, embracing the working methods and  challenges of printmaking. Neiland does the prepatory work (before going to the print studio) alone in his studio- it can take several weeks to plan the composition of the print and then break this down into seritraces (the different 'screens'/masks through which paint will be applied- the layers building up to create the finished images). Each colour in the finished work requires a screen/seritrace to be created, Neiland prints typically feature around 30 colours, he prefers  to work by hand (rather than digitally) at every stage of the printmaking process, and feels that it is very important for protect these skills for the future. The challenges that he relishes are limiting the amount of colours he can use and creating the richest surface that he can. When creating the seritraces he starts with the base colour, building up to the general colours, and then the exciting intricate details towards the end. When working on a print he can work on nothing else, the intricaces of the design consume him completely. Neiland only takes his work to the print studio when he think there is nothing further he can do at home.

His latest prints are a result of years of experience and experimentation in printmaking and of collaboration with Brad Faine, years of gradually building up knowledge. Their large format, bright colours, complex compositions and sheer wall power are testament to the confidence that Neiland now has when it comes to printmaking. The surface of Manhattan and Big Apple is painterly. rich, detailed, tactile. They are the result of Neiland's recent trip to New York, he strolled around for days on end soaking up the atmosphere and energy, opening up new visions and ideas. They are a good expression of his art at the moment; confident, vibrant, they seem to represent a new lease of life. Neiland says that they express for him what New York is all about: flux and change, wit and humour.

Prints have enabled Neiland work to reach a larger global audience, his prints have been shown in every continent, he also  like the idea of more people being able to own his work because of the relative affordability of prints. In this success the relationship between artist publisher is crucial. Neiland explains that the publisher has to find the artist's idea as exciting as he does himself, and they have to have the confidence to invest in that vision, 'It's amazing to have people with the confidence to invest in living artists- taking that leap of faith. It is a vital support network to have and a validation of your vision as an artist'.

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