Exhibiting in Greece

Last month I took part in the Platforms Project’s 2018 annual art show. Held in the capital city of Greece, Athens, Platforms is Europe’s largest independent art fair and it was great having the opportunity of exhibiting there. This year the visitors in attendance numbered around 16 000 during the run of the show from 17-20th May. 

It’s nice knowing that so many people had the possibility of viewing my art. The main thing I seek with my art is to share creativity and I always hope that my art resonates with people in some way. My art is an outpouring of my creativity which I hope has the potential to spark creativity in others.

I made the painting I exhibited there especially for the exhibition. It was a response to an open call from Fronteer Art, an arts initiative based in Sheffield. The open call asked for works on the theme of ‘Stars’ and the works accepted would be exhibited alongside the work of the Fronteer Art artists’ work on the solar system. The combined artwork from the ‘Stars’ open call and Fronteers’ solar system artwork would be called ‘Wonderer.’

So, what was I exhibiting in Greece?

The inspiration for my painting was two-fold: my love of star-filled skies and, my ‘Wavy landscape’ series of paintings. There is no doubt, in my mind, that starry skies have a great sense of wonder and awe about them. Lying on your back outside and looking up at the stars, you cannot help but feel small. Feeling small is often considered to be something bad, but when it comes to feeling small in comparison to the universe, or anything else in the natural world, I think it helps give a great sense of perspective.

This perspective helps serve as a reminder that any problems we face are minute in comparison with the universe. I feel that this can help with how we cope.

For me, walking by vast areas of water or high mountains has the same effect. This is why I love painting work inspired by nature so much. It fills me with a sense of wonder and has a calming effect on me, reducing my stresses and anxieties, and giving me peace.

The second element of my inspiration, my ‘Wavy Landscape’ series is a body of work on which I’ve been working since the latter part of last year. My ‘Wavy Landscape’ style organically emerged out of previous landscape paintings I had been doing. It breaks down the landscapes into wavy chunks of colour showing the undulating nature of the landform in the Scottish Highlands and Glens. Since the setting of the painting for ‘Stars’ is a landscape scene during the night, I chose a completely different palette to other paintings from the series.

Colour palette

Black, Payne’s Grey, and Titanium White comprised the chosen palette for exhibiting in Greece. These colours are colours I wear a lot so maybe that influenced me a bit too?! They are also popular colours in interiors at the moment and I had had it on my mind to paint using those colours for a while. I often get visions in my mind of images I want to create before I paint them. You can see the finished painting, ‘Starry Night’, above.        

In future, I will be painting more in these colours and have been making a start this week. I actually painted some more a while back but never got around to sharing them with anyone. I aim to rectify this soon! Keep an eye on my Instagram feed for updates.

In the meantime, here are some more pictures from the Platforms Project 2018.

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