Edgeworth Johnstone | Art Blog

Block prints from yesterday

EdgeworthJohnstone — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:04:12 +0000

Been doing block prints the last two days, rehearsing music for playing Nolias jazz club in Southwark earlier tonight, and tomorrow at Charlies Italian Restaurant in Golders Green. We weren’t sure how we would go down in a jazz club, also not sure about the restaurant. The jazz club was good so will see tomorrow.

Expressionism, jazz and Contemporary Art in China

EdgeworthJohnstone — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 19:39:06 +0000

We went to a new South London jazz night, run by a friend last week. It’s not a regular event yet, but will be. If it’s on this week, we’ll perform a couple of songs. Our music isn’t jazz as most would think it, but the owner defines jazz as singing from the soul. What she calls jazz, I call expressionism. When we were in Beijing a lot of artists teliing us about their work read like an art book definition of expressionism, but to look at it, would probably be called pop art, installation or something else. We tried to remember and note the names of all the artists whose work we liked, making sure of Tang Jianyin, as his paintings were so good, and we spent a long time togethe drinking endless cups of tea in his studio. The idea the scene there is a production-line isn’t true at all. If it is, it’s the same everywhere else. A lot of my favourite contemporary artists a Chinese and live in the same village, if we get the chance to go back will try and bring back more names.
Below are 4 paintings from last night, split between ebay and my other online store. Tonight was spent carving 6 small block prints, only stabbing myself in the hand once. One stab per 6 prints is improving ratio. Will try and get them printed up tomorrow.

8 paintings from last night

EdgeworthJohnstone — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:35:01 +0000

Valentines romance is a proper dinner together at home at the table. It should be the norm, but we always make ourselves too busy or think we do. Just finished setting up an online store selling my art. Something to have as well as ebay and make more your own. 8 paintings below from last night. All 7in x 5in, split between the new shop and Ebay. Acrylic still my preference to oil as its so fast. My plans to do abstract painting aren’t working out at all. It doesn’t come natural, as much as I would like it to. Was watching a documentary on Miro last night, you can’t get more inspiring than him for it, but we will see. Not wanting to force it, maybe it’s some people are naturally just figurative thinking.

Green Man and Gropers Paintings

EdgeworthJohnstone — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:45:46 +0000

Green man at the white cliffs of dover started out a green monkey named after a friend photograper Midori No Saru, Japanese for green monkey. But looked like he should be a man looking over a cliff. The other is gropers, sounds and looks like an old painting gangsters, but less civilised than a regular bar, but I guess would be more accepting of having a bird sat amonsgst them. Even as part of the family. Both done yesterday, acrylic on canvas, 14in x 10in.

2 New Paintings, Seeing The Museum of Everything Outsider Art Show

EdgeworthJohnstone — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:49:50 +0000

Two paintings from last night of couples. Similar pose, paint overs of single front-facing head and chest portraits. Both started off by splitting the front face in two, turning it in to two side faces, facing each other. Painted simultaneously, same palette.
Heard my favourite exhibition of 2011 had people say exhibiting outsider art in Selfridges was wrong, and again for similar reasons in New York. Only a few though, reviews are almost all positive. Still seemed unfair, so duty-bound to post in the museums defence. The blogs are here and here if interested. If you get chance to see The Museum of Everything outsider art shows, they’re always excellent and introduced Shelley and I to artists we wouldn’t have heard of. Contemporary outsider artists, and older ones.
If you’re at Tate Modern, the book shop outside the Turbine Hall has original Scottie Wilson drawings on show, and sale. I think about £850 – £2000. A Scottish outsider artist Picasso collected. Keep looking for photos or footage of the Tate Britain gallery outsider art exhibition in 2005-2006. There’s some interesting records of it on Tate gallery website.

Contemporary Expressionist Digital drawing in Mspaint

EdgeworthJohnstone — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:20:44 +0000

The kind of digital drawing equivilent to my paintings and drawings doesn’t seem popular, or exhibited anywhere I’ve seen. Expressionist painting-like digital drawing. I use Mspaint for almost all them, the same as when I started doing them years before starting painting. My Photoshop skill doesn’t go much past using layers and built in effects, as is probably obvious, but I’ve been thinking about it after reading the promotion for Tate’s Contemporary Drawings exhibition about drawing being seen as secondary art for so long, Conrad Marca-Relli on youtube saying something similar about collage, street art’s now in galleries. Expressionist digital art would be a good previously ignored art of the future.
Surrounding Bird was from last night. Desert Scene fight was cut and paste of some digital patterns I had drawn before, and scans of paper cut-outs of birds made as fighting soldiers. Shelley bought me a digital pen and pad once. It was like trying to write left-handed. The mouse is much easier.

Business and Block Prints

EdgeworthJohnstone — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:11:40 +0000

We’ve been doing taxes, so taken some time from art. Havent’ done much apart from a dark green block print. A custom order of a carving I made a year or so ago, reminded me how much I like doing it. I haven’t carved recently, but may do some after our taxes. Below are three. A couple of people have been disappointed Dlihc Dnoces isn’t a cryptic foreign quote, but ‘Second Child’ accidently carved back to front.

Acrylic Paintings on Canvas Board

EdgeworthJohnstone — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:07:27 +0000

Last night was Saturday. Friday and Saturday nights Shelley goes dancing, I can spread my things out, she gets in around 2.30am on a (natural) high, it starts painting feeling fresh again. I had a Miro YouTube documentary on repeat. A change from us sitting backs to eachother virtual silence, alone is too quiet. The documentary wasn’t distracting, it’s inspiring to hear about and see.
Last night I painted on canvas board for the first time. Will probably do more for the look of the board when painted, and how they stack like records. Posting for ebay is under £6 to anywhere in the world. Putting some in our ebay shop tonight, below are three.

Early Figurative Expressionism, my first drawing

EdgeworthJohnstone — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 23:33:33 +0000

After mentioning it before, I found and scanned a copy. My parents had kept it from 1979, I was nearly three we lived in Neuilly in Paris. Near the Island of La Grande Jatte from the Seurat painting. It’s still a getaway from the city centre. The painting is recent.
My nephew’s been drawing since a baby, my brother started him on a roll like wallpaper. Would unroll like the Bayeaux tapestry now. I don’t know if he date marked it as it goes along. Good for keeping kids work together and for the future. Looking at the state of our room, we should do the same.

More Acrylic on Canvas paintings

EdgeworthJohnstone — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:07:17 +0000

Four acrylic on canvas paintings from yesterday. Will go in my ebay shop tonight. I don’t mean to keep painting winter scenes, especially now we borrowed an electric heater off my parents, painting seems a much more luxurious thing now. Although concious of how un-green it is, turn it off at intervals. Working sat on the floor is below most of the heat. You have to stand up to catch any. But still it’s only when we leave the room for the loo or kitchen we realise how cold it gets in the night. During the day is fine, so trying to be less nocturnal. If only to catch some daylight to photograph the previous nights work. Also, the idea of being struggling hard-working artists doesn’t really wash if people visit mid-afternoon and find us having breakfast looking half asleep. It looks like we’re layabouts, but it’s really not.
All were painted over old acrylic paintings, Man Holding Fruit for the fourth time. Remember, don’t paint acrylic over oil.