It's been awhile!

Gosh! it has been a good long while since I las blogged anything. so I suppose a little update is in order. The show which I did at the isle gallery during the summer was far more successful than I had anticipated and to be honest after 2015 being such a difficult year to get anything done, I found producing the work for this show hugely enjoyable, I felt I'd gotten my mojo back. Another enjoyable thing was that the Isle gallery was the first place I'd ever exhibited (though it was the Courtyard gallery back then), so it felt like coming home. indecently I and the gallery were pleased as we had huge numbers to the show and sold the vast majority of the work in the show.

so as to why I've not blogged for awhile, well the main reason is that I tend to use integral now, though when I started the blog way back in 2008, it was a good way to keep the world up to date with what was happening, these days social media has taken over, so i feel I have had to move with the times.
You can view my Instagram page here:
https://www.instagram.com/juan_fineart/

Another reason as to why there has been a bit of silence from me of late, is that I haven't really had much to announce, my role as a lecturer is taking up all of my time these days and though I enjoy teaching, I think it's time I get back to more creative endeavours, I simply cannot balance the two anymore and the institution I work for is not making it easy, so I will be attempting to return to the world of freelance illustration, I also have 3 projects that I'd like to make a go with (more on that at a later date).
I had contemplated ditching the blog altogether, but I like having a space where I can talk casually about what I'm doing, so I'll keep it going I think.

for now here is a recent piece of work I did for Manx national Heritage, for their folklore and mythology trail guide:

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.

First Big Solo show in 5 years :)

ok, big announcement time: I've done a few festivals, had a few pieces in group shows and done small shows of drawings and watercolour sketches but I'm pleased to announce that work is well underway on my first solo show in 5 years! if anyone wants a personalised invite please email me your postal address and I'll sort it out nearer the time.

I've had a bit of a rough time creatively for awhile now, (I know I moan about it far too much on here) and I've managed to get work together  for group shows and little things. and I've spent my time exploring other areas of creativity and teaching of late, so it's taken me awhile to get into the head space, but I feel really good about this, it's nice to get my teeth into something big and exciting as a solo show, and it dawned on me the other day that it has been 5 years since my last solo show!

Unlike previous bodies of work where part of the spectacle of the show is the huge number of artworks in the show, my plan for this one is to have more meaningful pieces (I'm sure there will still be a big number of images too) and I'm around 10 artworks in and I'm quite pleased with the direction the work is going in.

I'll update more soon :)

showing the Lorient work

If you are here on the rock, then please feel free to attend this, a group of us are showing some selected works from the recent show in Lorient:

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 :(

Mad times

sorry it has been so long since my last post, lots on at the moment, I'm teaching almost full time at the moment, so I don't have too much time. any free time I have is spent fight ing with the IOM dept of education about uni funding, I think I'm getting there, but its hard to tell. anyway better news would be that I will be taking part in an exhibition of drawing in June, more details coming soon. I'm also really looking forward to Bournemouth in September, I don't hate teaching anywhere near as much as I thought I would but still I must focus on the reason I'm doing it for. will post some actual art soon.... i promise.

update three: the Museum show

So this was it! the culmination of the project and a year's worth of work and also my first museum show, I have to say working with Manx national heritage on this was an absolute pleasure, they really pulled out all of the stops for this one, amazing graphic boards, a video about the project, what more could I ask for, all the extra stuff we did along side the show, lectures, workshops and live painting events, they also made a very posh exhibition book for the project too (still available in the MNH gift shop). The preview went extremely well, with speeches and I even suited up for the occasion (try not to faint) well its not everyday you do a solo show at a museum.

update one

Ok, I know its been awhile, so I'm going to do this update in sections, so first off here is some pictures from the life and other nonsense preview back at the end of May..

Many people commented on how this was what they thought was the best of the work produced for the project, it certainly was easier to produce as apposed to the other exhibition which all had quite strict contexts to adhere to. It really is quite amazing what you can do with a dis-used office.

SHOW 4!!!!

I only have about 7 more images to paint for this show, it would be great if you could get down to see this show also if you would like an invite to the preview on Monday 30th May, just pop me an email.

still alive.

Sorry it's been awhile, I've had the inevitable after exhibition illness, but alls well and I'm now working hard on the next show. the GIGhibition however did phenomenally well, we had well over 500 people attend the preview and all of the musicians where fantastic, sales were very high as well, all in all a great night, nowI'm off to work on show 4.

First show is up!

Even though it was a dark and horrible night the attendance for the first part of the show was brilliant, Tanroagan (the venue) was packed from opening to closing, the show had a great friendly and relaxed atmosphere even though it was so busy. I managed to sell a large number of works at the show (something I wasn't sure would happen given that this show was not in a gallery). It was a good mix of people there too, there were a number of MHKs (manx politicians), the mayor of Douglas as well as People who were interested in the project, all in all a very good night. I'm now going to take a well deserved break for a day or two before working on show number 2, which is due to open in mid January.

here are some photos courtesy of Rosie Irvine:

Carpe Diem Baby!

Right after almost two straight months of painting (and little else) this show is is just about ready. there will be 20 (much bigger than normal) paintings based around the theme of fish. The paintings have come out somewhat surreal (as you might expect) but I'm very pleased with the out come. if you have not been invited and would like an invite, then please email me. once the show is open I'll post some pics.

No sooner than One exhibition is done and over, the prep for the next begins a new, I have to say though of all the shows this year that my work will appear in (around 7) this is the one I'm looking forward too the most. not only is it in the town where I went to uni, but it is also with my good friend, collaberator and fellow illustrator Yee Ting Kuit.

we have also launched our own small press and will be producing comics, books and magazines together under the name Chalk & Cheese.

What makes this show even more special (and not to be missed) is the fact that we will be releasing two books at the show as well as showing you some wonderful artwork.

our first two titles will be Chalk & Cheese issue 1 the first issue of our new bi-monthly illustration / art magazine. and volume 1 of Zombies like you and Me part one of seven comics.

so this show is not to be missed!!!

exhibition photos

obviously these photos were taken while the gallery was closed, just after the show was hung, the day before it opened to the public. I really just wanted to show how much space 100 paintings really takes up, the show actually took up the entire exhibition space and half of the shop area of the Sayle gallery.

Christmas exhibitions

As well as having two images in the awesome Bute space gallery in Cardif, I also have three images in the Sale gallery Christmas show (of which I also designed the poster for) the show will be on alongside David lloyds solo show to mark the grand opening of the gallery at it's larger new premises.