Exhibition

So I'm just going to leave this here and say that work is progressing well and I think it'll be a good show.

I'm on instagram now :)

So I've been a bit rubbish with the social media stuff for awhile now, so one of the new year's resolutions (Happy new year btw) has been to get my head around it and eventually get a new website up, though that will likely be much later on in the year, but for now follow me on instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/juan_fineart/


and here is some recent work:

Strange times and creative block

It's been a funny old year so far, I hadn't realised just how burnt out I was after the image a day project and have felt (creatively) exhausted all year, though there is always a bit of downtime between projects and exhibitions, I've never felt so drained before, I have recently taken part in a group show in Lorrient, France with 3 other Manx artists and 4 Cornish artists. (here is my work and me):

 If I'm being honest I found it incredibly difficult to get motivated to do the artworks required for the show and ended up working right up to the deadline (normally I leave myself at least a month to be finished before a show). I was in France for 10 days and either side of it spent a few days in the Uk visiting friends, visiting galleries and seeing old clients, The show In France was also hugely successful and I feel very proud to have been a part of it, though whilst away I did have a bit of an epiphany, I worked out why it was so hard for me to produce work and why I've done little in the way of art since last December, part of this is due to a little bit of exhaustion, as stated before due to the nature of the image a day project another aspect is due to my teaching role taking up more of my time, so I have less time to produce work (I should note that I love the teaching and find it hugely inspiring and enjoyable) however the main reason why I've found it hard to get going, is that even after 10 years of working as a creative, I'd let myself be convinced that I was no good at it!

It seems silly thinking of it now, but I had let certain individuals (well, one) make me feel bad and inadequate in producing art, my trip away was great it has re-built my confidence as an illustrator, artist, creative or whatever you want to call it. So I feel good again, confident, now I know what the problem was, I know not to listen to certain people as a result I've already started producing new works, I also have ideas for a show, I feel ready to take on a new project now!

Back after a break

So I think I've recovered after the image a day project and I also feel that the project was very good for me, I feel like I worked through a lot things that had began to bother me about my work and my practice. I feel far more focused now and I have a greater understanding of what I would like to do with my work next. My time is still a bit split, between teaching, illustration and fine art, all of these are necessary if I want to continue paying the bills (which reminds me, I moved house again).
So as much as I would like to get back on the computer and produce 3D work, I'm still deeply in love with traditional work and as such I'm working towards an exhibition of works based on Manx folklore... I'll update you on that later, here is a work in progress in my new studio:

The image a day project has ended

Looking back at the start of the project I think I was incredibly naive about how big the project would be. The project has been extremely demanding but also really rewarding. I've had the opportunity to work across many mediums and explore a number of themes (which is alway good fun).  In terms of thinking of an image to create everyday I've only really stumbled a couple of times, at the end of January, I had a couple of days where I really found it hard to come up with anything (though I did, in the end) and then a brief spate around TT week, where I wanted to do images that were bike themed without actually doing images of Bikes.

The long duration  of the project ( a whole year) has made the process of creating an artwork every day into sort of a habit, it's become something I just do every day now.  and it's been nice in that I can explore whatever medium I'm in the mood for be it Acrylic paint, print making, digital or drawing. People ask me how far ahead I work? to be honest, not very, usually only a day ahead. 

I've tried to keep the subject matter as light as I could, but I know at times it got a bit dark, I'll not apologise for that as it's all a part of life, though I would like to thank all those people who emailed or asked if I was ok. (I was, but thanks for asking)

Part of the project meant travelling round all the island's high schools and producing an artwork in front of the students, which was nice (and I'd like to say thank you to all the patient high school art teachers who put up with me). The thing I've enjoyed the most about the project is the amount of exposure it has gotten, it's not just the Manx public that have  viewed the daily artwork, but people from the Uk, USA, Canada, Australia, Malta, Bulgaria, all over the world really,I've Even had views from far flung islands in the south pacific and Mongolia. The Blog averages around 100 to 200 views per day with a current total of around 40k views.

I think I'm too close to the project to decide how I feel about it. I don't know what the arts council plans to do with artwork after the project is over, I've heard plans ranging from an exhibition to a book, I guess we'll see in 2015. People keep asking me what I'm going to do next, in truth I don't know, all I really know is that I'm going to sleep in (all year I've been getting up at 7am or earlier to promote each day's artwork) and I'm going to have a little rest.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank The Island of culture team, the IOM Arts Council for funding the project and to everyone who has viewed the blog throughout the year. it's been a full on year for the island in terms of creativity  and I hope that 2015 will be equally as amazing.

What to do next?

As the image a day project enters it's final stage of about 60 or so artworks, I'm keenly aware of the fact that I have nothing planned for after it is over. In the past when I've finished a big project or large body of work, I've been so exhausted (mentally) that a break is all I've thought about. The image a day project is different in that, yes it is large project with a lot of work involved, but it a little bit of work every day rather than bursts of vast amounts of work over short periods of time. The project has been hard, but it has been good for me, I feel like I have my mojo back (so to speak). i feel like I've been a little lost with my work for a couple of years now, this project has allowed me to try new things, experiment with older methodologies, get a little closure on themes and techniques that have bugged me for awhile.

so here I am, in a position of being inspired and ready for something to do next. now all I have to do is think of something new to do.

Busy and Processes

Just incase you missed it over on: http://imageadayiom.blogspot.com here is a short speeded up video of my painting process, aside form this the project is going well at the moment. I'm hopping to do a few more videos like this

FINISHED MY MASTERS!!!

So here we are then, It's the 16th August a date which i thought would never arrive but has snuck up on me rather quickly it is of course the deadline for my masters project. I have handed everything in and feel weird, with nothing to do. I'm fairly happy with what I have produced, I have a debrief meeting on Monday, so i guess I find out then. results will be sent out on August 30th, I return to the island next week and have secured some part time teaching work for at least a year, so whilst I'm looking for work, freelance or otherwise, I will have something. just excited to be finished: here is the finished project:

WATCH THE ANIMATION HERE

In the midst of things

Feel very much in the middle of many unfinished and uncertain things today, My masters project is proceeding, but is 13 weeks away from hand in, so it's at the early stages. It's odd being a student again, though I'm looking forward to going out into the world and no longer being a student. Ironically I've come up with a number of possible illustration projects, which will have to wait until I'm finished my MA. So keep your eyes peeled for those.
I thoroughly enjoyed painting Clara's album artwork last week, so I'm going to try and continue painting in what little spare time I have. today I'm feeling a little old and in need of a shave so here is me, half way through being 33.

Masters project

So I've finished the pre production for my masters which took me all round the houses, I started off looking at computer games, then 3D printing and to what I will actually be doing: I'm going to model the little girl from my werewolf narrative and through the course of 5 models get her to be a werewolf, worst case scenario this will be just 5 models, best case there will be animation and will hopefully be a nice little short narrative.
I have deluded myself a few times, thinking that I could be a digital painter, however now I feel I'm actually getting somewhere with it, though I doubt it will ever replace my traditional work, I can see myself using it more often.
I will endeavour to update this a bit more often, but the masters will likely be very intense, so no promises.

3D printing

So everywhere I look at the moment, I see 3D printing absolutely everywhere, so as part of my Personal inquiry (a sort of research project I had to undertake for my MA, which ends in a presentation of the findings) I chose to have a crack at it, in order to do this I used the imp-like character I used to use a lot for art and illustration (pre welcome to the neighbourhood project).

I then took the simple character sketch and began modelling it in 3D, everything I read about 3D printing stated that as long as the mesh is water tight (no holes) manifold (no open faces or shared edges) it should be fine, there was no mention to ngons or unquaded triangles (sorry for the tech talk, these are things to avoid when creating a model for animation)..

So I deliberately left both of these things in, I kept the model low polygon (it's under 2k polys) and did not equally space the polygons, again this is something not mentioned in any of the write ups I've read about 3D printing and so after an afternoon I had this:

I then took it to see the 3D printing researchers here at the NCCA (who are doing amazing things) and I printed it on desktop 3D printer they have in their lab:

This took 11 hours to print and is around 3 inches tall (i didn't have to be there the whole time, we left it printing over night) As you can see, the structure is there, but that's about it, most detail is lost, partly due to the printer used and the plastic not being hot enough at the start. an unusual wood like pattern appeared on the model too, though unexpected, it has a nice quality to it.

Convinced I could get petter results I sent the mesh to a commercial printing service, who produced this:

The detail is all there, even down to the un-smoothed polygons. this has opened my mind up to all kinds of possibilities. Many people have asked me about sculptures of my work and the main reason why I've never looked into it is because of the spindly nature of my characters, I didn't think they could stand up. when I'm finished with the MA, this will receive a lot of  more of my attention. look out galleries!!

A new website

As many of you know I've not had a website for quite some time now (I think the I took the old one down in 2007) largely because I felt I wasn't really getting that much from it and it was a giant pain in the arse to keep up to date with, partly why I started the blog, it's much more Juan friendly. anyway long story short I recently applied for a teaching job that required me to upload my artwork to a wix site, it seemed very straightforward to get together, so after a long time here is my new website:

you can get to it here: http://juanillustration.wix.com/juanmoore
Once I finish with my MA I will make a more permanent website, with an address that is easier to remember. incidentally I didn't get the job :(

Current artwork samples 2011

update two: live painting

So to coincide with the big final show at the manx museum I did some quite complicated lectures at the Manx Museum, the lectures take the form of a power point presentation which details the many influences I've had to my work, what makes the lecture complicated is that while discussing this I produce a painting in front of an audience, which is projected on the screen behind me via a mounted video camera, I do all of this in about an hour and a half (no pressure)

What A Blurr

Okay just to update, show four was finished, hung and opened all on time to great success, we had plenty of visitors and it was all good fun, so thats the last of the shows I've had to produce for welcome to the neighbourhood. thats 100 paintings in about 8 months (what is it with me and the number 100?) so I'm taking a bit of a break right now. WTTN isn't quite over yet, we still have the museum show to do yet, but no new artworks have to be produced for that which is good but we are doing all manner of other crazy things while thats on, more on that soon..

here are some paintings from show 4:

and here is a nice right up from the BBC: here

One night stand sneak peek!

Just about a week until the second Welcome to the Neighbourhood show opens at the courthouse, I finished painting last Thursday so as promised here is a sneaky peek at some of the 30 artworks that make up the show. wish me luck!

Finished!!!

Just finished all the art for show number 2, now to start properly promoting show number 2 :) I'll post some sneaky peeks soon.

News

Ok Big News the Next show which will be at the Courthouse is nearing completion, Please see the poster for more details either call me on 321325 or email me at runswift@hotmail.com.
The other exciting news is that I'm pleased to announce that the final show (the one that show cases all of the work from all the exhibitions of this project) has been confirmed and will open at the Manx Museum in July 2011 ! (Yay!)

Exhibition 2 and procrastination

Now all the excitement (and stress) is over from the first show, I'm now ready to begin work properly on the second exhibition. I did a painting yesterday but felt it was far too similar (in colour at least) to the work produced for carpe diem. I think for this next body of painting I may try and combine the painterly styles from Carpe Diem with a more bold graphic composition.

Much of the last show was about backgrounds and clouds (and fish) so may move focus on the human figure more for this show.

I think I will begin properly on this on thursday and aim to have 5 paintings done for Monday (believe me I need to set myself these little deadlines or nothing would ever get done, I am an olympic level procrastinator after all.

Welcome to the Neighbourhood!

1 year, 5 shows!
Welcome to the neighbourhood is a series of temporary
exhibitions over the space of a year in places that an art exhibition
wouldn’t normally be seen. The Idea behind this project is to show
art (and a lot of it) outside the context of an art gallery. The
premise of most of Juan’s previous art has been to cut through the
stigma and pretention of “high” fine art and make it more
accessible to everybody instead of just those well versed in
contemporary art and art history, these exhibitions also aim to
show the art working alongside and within the community. Each of
the exhibitions will not simply have a theme but will be very site
specific. Each of the shows will have a preview evening and each
show will be displayed in its unique location for about two weeks,
there will be final show of all of the artwork at the end of the
project.

The project is supported and fully funded by the Isle of Man Arts council.

first show opens 1st November 2010