A Recent Interview to Promote Local Art Exhibition...

Vronni Ward, the Marketing and Consultation Manager at my local council has asked me to do an interview for her based on my own experiences of practising in the visual arts. The piece forms part of a campaign to promote the recent contemporary art exhibition that I'm currently showing at. 

Do you come from an artistic background?

I didn’t have an artistic or bohemian upbringing as a kid. Instead my parents were and still are conventionally hard working and that’s a trait that they’ve passed on to me. I don’t think there’s any truth in the notion that you’re going to be artistic only if your parents are. I think that a decision to seek employment or practice under any sector of the visual arts is more of a natural calling and wouldn’t necessarily be the result of external influences.

At school any form of visual art fascinated me and I remember staring at pictures and ads in books and magazines thinking ‘what makes that work?’ and ‘why is that so good?’ It was this early obsession with fine art, graphic design and illustration that made me realise that I had to learn more about these subjects and also practice doing it myself.

Are you from the Maidstone area?

I was born and raised in Watford, Hertfordshire (England) which was great as a kid because I had the identity of being part of a small town far enough outside ofLondon, yet the galleries and gig venues of central London were just 20 minutes away. I was always more of an urban kid because I enjoyed the excitement of city life which eventually lead me to study Fine Art at Manchester. My wife jokes that I’m a fish out of water living in rural Kent but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Being part of a small community at the foot of the North Downs and having the trappings of village life is something that should be cherished.

When did you find out that you had a talent for art?

I started drawing characters from my favourite comic books and annuals sometime before I was 10 but I always doodled and generally made a mess with crayons, pens and pencils. The earliest piece of work I can remember producing was a poster sized image of E.T. in oil pastels made after I’d seen the film with the cubs! My teacher used it as an advert for a school project based on a review of your favourite film. I started using oil paints as a teenager and did a couple of self portraits on canvas board which I remember thinking were ok at the time. I don’t know where they got to but I’d really like to see them again.

What inspired you and/or what inspires you now?

I’m a self-confessed design, illustration and art geek! If I see a piece of work in a gallery or magazine that has a clear meaning or that fulfils a brief succinctly then it can make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up! There’s nothing quite as motivating as experiencing and understanding someone else’s work. I have a huge amount of online bookmarks to art and design blogs which allow me to keep up to date with new exhibitions and also tells me which design agency is producing the best work. When it comes to artistic motivation, colour, image and movement inspire me in equal measure. If I can create a sense of dynamism using an appropriate mix of colours and brushmarks then I can consider myself to be content. Artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Mark Rothko used colour and imagery in an epic way.

Do you have a workshop?

I am probably the luckiest person alive as I have exclusive use of a farm building courtesy of my extremely generous in-laws. It has a lot of natural light and its spaciousness allows me to lay several large canvasses on the floor meaning I can work on them simultaneously. At home I’ve converted my garage into a makeshift screen printing studio. My Fine Art degree was based in printmaking so I knew exactly what I needed to set up and once I’d sourced suppliers and built the work surface I was able to produce professional quality screen prints at a fraction of the cost compared to using professional screen printing facilities.

How do you manage to fit in art with your busy day job?

Good question! It comes down to a combination of having a very supportive wife and having to manage my time quite intensely in order for me to produce work of any value. I currently manage the graphics department of a tv channel in south London and the demands of the job combined with the daily commute means that I’m out of the house for around 13 hours each day. I spend as many weekend early mornings in my painting studio as I can and around an hour or so in the evenings preparing work for screen prints. As you can imagine, production on any collection of paintings or prints is slow but can be really rewarding once they’re finished.

My time sitting on a slow and unreliable train has to be well spent too as it’s quite a large chunk of my day. Anything from press releases, my own artist statement and even this article have been drafted as I travel to and from work!

Have you exhibited before?

I’ve had a handful of exhibitions from my student days and more recently. The years after I graduated were spent developing a career in graphic design and so I neglected any form of artistic collaboration. Now I feel that working with like minded artists is more important and in a way I’m playing catch-up with my student colleagues who focused on exhibiting their own work after graduation. Recently I’ve shown work in a group show in a south London gallery and I’ve just finished a 6 month residency at the Lime Tree restaurant in Lenham.

What are your ambitions for the future?

The dream would be to create paintings and prints on a full time basis although most artists need a second job in order to stay afloat and I’d be no different. I also enjoy sharing my knowledge with art lovers who’re interested in screen printing and this is a side of my practice that I can see grow in the future. I’ve published some comprehensive guidelines online on my blog that explain how to build your own studio and produce your first print that have created some interest and this form of artistic collaboration really fascinates me. Blogging is a valuable way of documenting your work and influences so if I can continue to make one or two valuable entries per week then anyone who chooses to follow me will be kept informed of my progress.

To exhibit at a London show such as the Affordable Art Fair or the London Art Fair as part of a local gallery would be something that I’m hoping to achieve in 2011. With this in mind, I’ve recently met with a Tunbridge Wells based gallery to discuss this possibility so watch this space!

Curating For Beginners

A really nice mini article courtesy of Nolia's Gallery, London.




The task of curating, organising and setting up one's own show can be a daunting one when it is done for the first time. Dealing with the practical aspects of exhibiting such as budgets, logistics, schedules, advertising and so on don't come easy to artistic temperaments. They are not necessarily difficult tasks in themselves once you have the experience but they can be confusing when you haven't done anything like it before.
The first thing you should think about is the space. Finding an affordable exhibition space in London can be difficult, and you must book well in advance. It is a good idea to organise group shows to spread the renting costs.
I find that the main problem in curating a show is deciding what the aim or message of the exhibition will be, especially when the work of various artists is shown together. The job of the curator is to make sense of every different approach from each artist involved and come up with a unifying discourse that will bind different styles, mediums and subjects into a coherent whole. A single artist can stick to an idea right from the start of his artistic production for a given show, or even a group of artists can decide that they will produce works to put a show together with a single idea in mind, but things can get rather more complicated when a curator faces the task of selecting works by different artists who have produced their pieces independently. In this case the curator must strive to understand the work of each artist, their backgrounds, interests and discourses and try to distill from all these different elements a kind of unifying glue that will make sense of it all and give the exhibition a direction and purpose.
Funding, logistics and advertising can become a nightmare if they are not planned in a feasible and realistic way. A number of institutions can be approached for funding such as the Arts Council, local councils, your college or university, or even private businesses that may be interested in sponsoring an exhibition in exchange for advertising and having their name associated with the arts, but all this will require a detailed project proposal. It can be a big effort but the reward is the experience and satisfaction you will get from being capable of making your exhibition happen.

Approaching galleries

Approaching galleries | Making a living | Knowledge bank | a-n

This is exactly the type of article I was looking for from the hugely helpful a-n.co.uk...

Artist's Statement

I've been busy writing up my artists statement which is intended to give anyone who visits an idea of what motivates me to paint and print. It's more of an extended profile which didn't come easily as in a sense you need to lay yourself bare to your audience if you want them to understand what you're all about and is just as much to do with building resilience. This will eventually appear on various artists network and support sites including Axis and a-n.co.uk .....It would be good to know what you think.....passers by, practitioners, anyone.....

My paintings are based on the physical world - whether it’s a landscape or figurative source I will always begin the creative process with a tangible reference point. Responding to a landscape that moves me, interpreting the dynamism created by human interaction or reflecting the excitement of optimism in what I see are among the challenges that I seek to address. The physical process of painting is vital to me. Life, light, vibrancy and movement can rarely be captured using an easel. Therefore my canvases lie directly on the floor while I apply layers of colour. Once each layer is dry I then dilute, scrape back and smear to control the relationship of each brush mark and layer with that of the underlying colour. A vermillion could look stunning against a royal blue if the transparency, viscosity and direction of each colour is correct. I have to be patient and persistent with each canvas; ten layers of colour may yield no joy when I try to interpret how I feel about my subject and yet when the relationships between the colours work, then the canvas sings to me. The result, after what can be a labour intensive and physical process, can look and feel as spontaneous as a chemical reaction.
In contrast my silkscreen prints reflect a combination of 60’s Pop Art and British eccentricity. Photographic images sit under, over or next to shapes and layers of colour in order to deliver a well designed balance between elements. Printed patterns and images can repeat in such a way as to create a deliberate chaos and consequently become new images themselves. My training and experience as a graphic designer gives me an understanding of how I can create harmony, awkwardness and humour with the images that I shoot myself to work with.
The impact of Rauschenberg, Warhol and Terry Gilliam runs deep with me and if I can produce prints with equal dynamism and darkness then I can consider myself content. These guys lived to love.

Why professional artists need a blog | Artists talking | a-n

I'm not sure if you need to be a member of a-n.co.uk to read this but it sums up really aptly why blogging about practice is important...

Art exhibition coverage

Another nice little piece appeared in a local publication covering my exhibition of paintings and prints at the Limetree Restaurant. I'm realising that editors will edit a press release depending on their agenda and market, not a bad thing as any coverage is good coverage but it's a learning curve...

Silkscreen Print Used for Art Competition Marketing...

I'm pleased to say that Mask 1 has been used as publicity to promote an annual art comp called Startle Art run by Maidstone Borough Council. The image isn't as big as I'd like it to be but it's advertising of sorts all the same...
The original below followed by published version...

Sell Yourself cont'd (again)...

Following the advice given to me at the marketing event with Patsy Dixon the below is the official press release that I sent to several local publications. The one thing Patsy stated was that it must include the 5 W's:
Who
What
Why
Where
When
Contemporary Art on the Menu at the Limetree
Maidstone artist Marc Lawrence has teamed up with the Limetree Restaurant and Hotel in Lenham, Kent to exhibit his latest body of paintings and original silk screen prints.
From March 26th, diners at the Limetree can enjoy a visual feast from abstract paintings inspired by local Kentish landscapes to edgy prints of drunks in doorways. Life, energy and light are a constant presence throughout Lawrence’s art.
‘The Limetree is a fabulous venue to hang my work’, says Lawrence. ‘Diners can now experience the juxtaposition of my contemporary art against the historic environment of the restaurant in what must be one of the most beautiful village squares in Kent’.
‘We’re offering something extra to our diners’, adds Anderson Ferreira, General Manager of the Limetree. ‘You can browse the art with a coffee or absorb each piece while dining. We’ve already received some fantastic feedback’.
Lawrence studied Fine Art at Manchester Metropolitan University and has exhibited in galleries in both London and Manchester. He now works from his studio under the gaze of the North Downs in Thurnham.

Sell yourself cont'd...

Below is the flyer I designed and printed as part of the promotion for the show of paintings and prints I have at the Limetree restaurant. We distributed them around various local shops, galleries and the restaurant itself.

Sell yourself!

One thing I've never been a natural at regarding my artistic practice is self promotion. Many people I work with are superb at this fine art and you do pick up traits of friends and colleagues from time to time. So I decided to attend an excellent evening session hosted by Patsy Dixon who runs Liberty Gallery in West Malling, Kent. The basis of her talk was how to promote your work professionally to the media with several case studies and contacts. Off the back of this I wrote my press release for the Limetree exhibition and sent it to 15 local publications. The result being a mention, all be it small, in the local paper to drum up some interest for my work... a small step but Rome wasn't built in a day!
http://www.liberty-gallery.com/