This week I am in London to attend the opening of the Mall Galleries’ 'FBA Futures 2020’ exhibition. It is a privilege to start this year off with an opportunity to see my work displayed in such a great space and amongst a curated collection of impressive fine art graduates from around the UK. As I walked amongst the work yesterday, I arrived upon my own. ‘The Lonely One Per Cent’.
FBA Futures is the UK’s largest annual survey of emerging contemporary figurative art, mapping new practices and ideas of representation and draughtsmanship. To be one of the 43 graduates selected was a big shock but as many new graduates know, a much needed push to keep going. All of the work was of a really high standard; below are some of the pieces that really stood out for me.
From left to right: Ella Walker, Joseph Buhat (a fellow Gray’s graduate and my studio mate) and Jason Broad.
After, I sat in Gail’s bakery people watching and having my upteenth coffee of the day - a regular solo afternoon whenever I visit London - and reflected on my painting hanging just down the road. Its memory seemed like a lifetime ago, a summer trip to the Outer Hebrides with the best of friends; so much had changed since. Below is the poem I wrote to accompany the piece. I often keep my landscapes and painted worlds abstract to keep some part of that experience in nature to myself and similarly when I describe my work, the narrative works best in the abstracted form of a poem. It shares something personal with the viewer whilst allowing them to draw from their own memories to communicate with it.
Lingering in the rain,
amongst the stings,
only to have more minutes
of summer’s end.
Everything would turn soon,
change,
into something else,
something lonelier.
Against our sensible watchmen,
we resisted.
But what could be more sensible
than reuniting with the world’s water
and each other?
Baptising my eyes,
I found a blue so fierce,
delighted with the jewel I had found.
The sky seemed in mourning for us
but lost to our giddiness,
we found the courage.
To have faith in our feet,
to run out into the cold,
to be left behind,
to be part of the lonely one percent.
Will forever be so grateful for the support of friends and family in my endeavours - it makes the world of difference.