My first direct encounter with the Patchings Festival of Art (which I visited yesterday) was very interesting, for a variety of reasons. Certainly the event was bigger and better-attended than I had imagined. I drove down there with my friend Richard Mort, arriving there only 15 minutes after the official opening, to find the parking area was already about half-full. Although I had thought of it primarily as an exhibition of art, by far the greater part of the space was occupied by trade stands of one kind or another, including all the major suppliers of art materials, together with some new ones I had never encountered before. I counted around 180 exhibitors, including artists doing demonstration sessions. Richard and I both spent rather more than we intended, but you don’t know what you “need” until you see it, do you?
The value and interest of the different aspects of the show was variable, looked at from my point of view. Certainly it was useful to wander round the trade stands and actually handle a wide variety of different art papers before making a commitment. (I bought two kinds.) It was disappointing that colours were often only on sale in boxed sets, which meant that the event was not helpful when it came to filling gaps in my own provision. I will be better off getting on line to the Great Art catalogue tomorrow, from which it is possible to order individual sticks of pastel, for example.
I did enjoy a session watching an artist doing a demonstration of portraits in pastel.* This was of interest to Richard, who is a portraitist, but to me from the point of view of the use of pastels. I rarely attempt portraits. I was amused by the extent to which the artist seemed to have set out deliberately to flatter his models. Finding myself standing next to one of them I had seen posing earlier in the day I said to him that I recognised one of the “victims”, and asked whether he was satisfied with the outcome. He replied that the result had taken ten years off his appearance. Watching the artist work on the women who followed him I would have said that in her case the “benefit” was closer to twenty years! I guess it’s what the punters pay for. Portraits are probably not going to feature more significantly in my repertoire in the immediate future, but I did learn quite a lot about pastels, and also about development of a picture. My inclination would be to work from dark toned areas towards highlights, but the artist on this occasion seemed to begin by identifying highlights, and using these as points of reference when placing other elements of the composition. There is sense in that, and I will need to think about it.
The exhibition of paintings (let’s face it, that is what I had gone for) was rather disappointing. The material on display had been selected competitively, but it all seemed very safe and unadventurous. I did wonder whether everybody had done what I had done, and tried to second-guess the judges. It “works” after a fashion, but makes for a boring exhibition. Frankly, I find the current show at our local Unit 9 Gallery (by Nancy Steadman) to be infinitely more interesting. My own piece at Patchings looked OK, but suffered from being hung next to the most visually-arresting piece in the entire room!
Thinking of Nancy’s work, one thing that was really missing from the Patching’s show was any interest in texture and surface.** This is a major attraction of her work, and something to which my attention has been drawn recently at the life-drawing class I attend, where we have been required to work with mono prints. I can’t wait to try some more! (Richard Mort’s work places event greater emphasis on surface and texture, working as he does with what are in effect three-dimensional compositions.)
The great thing about going to a show such as the Patchings Festival is that you are stimulated to look at things afresh, including materials, techniques and subject-matter. I can’t think of another similar event in the North of England, and for that reason I will probably make a point of going again.
*I didn’t write down his name, and can’t work our from the programme who it might have been.
**In some respects her material reminds me of the Italian artist Alberto Burri.