I'm Still Afraid To Paint

Today i\ve been experimenting with painting and painting surfaces. I keep meaning to get into painting but never have the balls to go the whole way. These are tentative steps into it. I don't consider them to be very good, but there is enough in them and in the process to keep on with it and to develop things further. I'm trying to create abstract works on lo-fi surfaces to relieve the pressure of making a 'piece of work' and to just try to enjoy the making process, see what comes of it...

 

 

 

Sketch For Something...

A couple of bits

A poem

Michael Winner
Stole my dinner.
He said he would rate it,
But instead he just ate it.

_


A story made from words played in a scrabble game #2

The FLAME RACED up the VINE in the VILE ZOO, burning the ARKS in the LION-pen and spreading like some MEGA-TOXIN across the DUNES. I was WEDGED in a SMELLY CRYPT with a bottle of RYE. My JAW felt QUEER and it was making me GURN. I'd gone for a SWAB earlier but they'd just put a BIB on me and RUBBED me with SOAP. I stared at the GROUT in the wall and SLOWLY lost the will to LIVE.

GLACIERS SINGS!

Some live videos from my trip to Sicily with Hugh Frost from Landfill. Lots of fun! 

I'm pleased with these, it's the first time i've really been filmed playing music, so was a bit weird at first but the locations were pretty special. 

I hope you like them too...

New Mythologies Video!

Last night was the launch for the new Glaciers album 'New Mythologies'.

Thanks to everyone who came down, we had a really good evening, the venue was pretty good too (The Others). Tom Fun and Tocantins Back-to-back DJing was also really fun, thanks boys!

Hugh has finished an edit of the video we made in Sicily. https://vimeo.com/43033975

It's Here...

‘New Mythologies’ by Glaciers
10-track digital album & enamel badge
Edition of 100 

Released 29.05.12

Available to pre-order now at Landfill Editions

NEW GLACIERS ALBUM, LAUNCH & VIDEOS!

Some of you may know that i've been playing music under the name 'Glaciers' for the past 5 years or so. 

I'm releasing a second Glaciers album through Landfill Editions called 'New Mythologies', which will be available to buy from Tuesday 29th May, when we're also having a launch night in Stoke Newington at The Others (above the snooker hall on Manor Road).

Hugh at Landfill and I went to Sicily for 4 days to make a film of live performances and a video for the song 'New Mythologies' form the album. This will hopefully be available to watch online at the beginning of next week or earlier. 

The show is the first time Glaciers has appeared as a band for a while. I'd love it if you could come down for the launch, and if you could forward this email to anyone else you think might want to join us. There'll be things to buy and beer to drink and some wonderful DJing by Tocantins and Tom Fun. 

Oh and it's FREE! 

http://glaciers.bandcamp.com/

Images from the week

I'm working on an installation project, so trying to come up with a body of 'conversational' images. Fun so far...

Some Sketches

2 Poems

NEW EDITION!

I've been getting a few requests recently regarding this print

I made a second edition of 12. They're linocut, hand-burnished on Japanese paper. Due to the hand-burnishing process they're all slightly different sizes and finishes.

Please contact me at hello@neverdoingnothing.com if you'd like one.

They're £80 + p&p.

Surf's Up

A new collage...

Linocut Illustrations

I made some linocut illustrations for Huit denim company recently, and got the catalogue back a week or so ago. Here are some shots of a few spreads...

A Tower and A Town

I've been away for a week, first to the Isle of Skye where I ate, walked, smashed up furniture, paddled, burned wood and generally wandered about in amazement. The weather was unusually sunny and fairly warm, which made everything beautiful. I looked at the moon through a telescope for the first time in my life.

 

Climbing the Old Man of Storr

The Old Man of Storr

The Cuillins

The burning of the bracken

_

I then headed straight to Abersoch to help my friend Tom make a short film. I said i'd 'act' in it, something i've not done before but that I wanted to have a go at. There was no dialogue, and everything was improvised with little preparation, so it wasn't really 'acting', but it was an interesting collaborative experience that seemed to run really smoothly. 

 The bay

 The bay (photo by Brodie Linklate Abbott)

 Me and Kyle (photo by Brodie Linklate Abbott)

I think this process is an interesting model for collaboration. Everyone has their own job or role, which allows them to focus on and pursue that particular craft whilst also contributing to a bigger outcome. In my case it was to be in front of the camera. For the last shot I had to run into the sea fully clothes several times, becoming more and more exhausted each time, which was actually a lot of fun. The rushes look good, so i'm looking forward to seeing the end result...

More soon...

Hilly Brothers

Bare humped earth;
Heaved up and left still,
Cut to the rock by sheep-tooth
And by hard sole.
I walk and hear
Only the ringing in my own ears.

Mysterious tarn,
With islands
High, and surrounded by mounds.
A ring of hilly brothers
Say hello.

Dark lappings
On a gravel beach.
Brown-gold water,
Solid as soil.

Sandwiches packed,
Quickly unwrapped.
Routes mapped
And followed.

Stumble and slide
Down scree,
Rolling towards
A rocky bottom.

We follow the silver ribbon-river
Down, looping, coiling,
unrelenting on the knees.
The bleats of sheep
Bouncing around the valley
IN THE BOULDER FIELD.

Each corner rounded,
Each river-coil unwounded,
Each new height climbed,
Revealing new depths —
Aspect, rhythm and ratio,
Shadow, glitter, and contrast.

And the clouds—
Always moving, lifting, sinking.
Light dancing, playing
And finally fading,
To reappear reflected
Later
In
Pink evening sunset

And in the shy moon
Standing
Frozen and barren.

Antwerp

I got back from Antwerp on Sunday feeling rotten but having had a great time installing Nous Vous work with Will and Jay. Here is a bit of documentation from the week.
We went over on the Eurostar with Mr Nick White, and met some great people. Thanks to Eva, Luis, Ward, Brendan and Pat for making our stay really fun. Also my friends Tom, Noel and Kyle came over from England too, which was ace...

 Boys got power tools...

Finished installation

Detail

Collages in situ

New Work

I've been making collages for the last three weeks or so, trying to get back into a process that I seem to start up and then abandon as quickly. However i'm now making a conscious effort to really delve into this image-making process, and eventually develop it into painting and sculpture.

I'm approaching this by pre-painting areas of colour onto paper, then cutting and tearing the paper, moving a few shapes around until something sticks. Then I can develop these relationships, add more elements, and even destroy the whole thing and start again, or find a new focus in the colour-grounds and textures i'm using.

Beetle Box

A title is important. When I make some sort of link with the image and something else, I know where the piece is going. This could be something that the image reminds me of, or a subtle poetic connection etc. If it doesn't happen then it's probably been unsuccessful. The title is 30% or the work. It's a good feeling to start with nothing and then end with something that is quite specific and coherent in your own mind at least.

Gulkhana

Disco Agriculture

State Lines

With collage I can work quickly and intuitively, and i've been using a variety of methods to create coloured areas. Thick acrylic paint, reminiscent of the work of Sam Doyle, Tal R, and then some surfaces which are rollered using woodblock ink (a by-product of woodcutting which I was doing simultaneously), also manilla envelopes and japanese printmaking paper. The palette of materials is important but will continually change when I feel like I have exhausted it or I want to make something more specific.

Steamer Song

Rainy Day

ORIGINS

ORIGINS is another collection of bits and pieces, rough demos and songs that don't fit anywhere else.

In what has become a Glaciers tradition, this is being made available whilst an album proper - 'NEW MYTHOLOGIES' - is being mixed and mastered ready for release.

Be prepared for a mongrel selection of recordings ranging from stuff done straight into garageband to more considered tracks that just never got properly finished.
I feel like all of the songs here should be shared, and I hope there are some diamonds within the mud...

****If you choose to pay for the download I will send you a print or a drawing or a poem in the post****

Thanks