And Finally

here is the youtube link to Emily Cook's (big thanks Emily) wonderful video about the project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ4IVKxmlCU

I've been that busy wrapping up this project lately (literally in terms of taking the paintings down from the museum) I haven't really sat back to take stock of whether or not the Welcome to the Neighbourhood project was a success. It did everything I wanted it to do, I put on shows in places that would normally not even have exhibitions and as a result attracted hundreds of new people to art, I met every deadline and the shows were all presented in a professional manner and nothing fell down and hurt anyone which was great. So in that respect it was a success, there were also some things I learnt through the project too, I learnt a lot about the way in which I work and I'm very pleased about how my work has progressed throughout the project, also the GIGhibition blew everyone's minds and proved a big success, the collaboration between visual art and music was amazing and its something I would like to try again in the future.

but would I do something like this again. hmmm it did nearly kill me but yes I would like to take welcome to the Neighbourhood to a new place maybe a big city, even though this body of work is over, I doubt that its the last I'll have to do with Welcome to the neighbourhood.
I would also like to say a big thank you to everyone who came to the shows, attended the lectures and workshops, everyone who helped me with the shows and all the wonderful bands, I'd also like to thank everyone who has followed the project on facebook.

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 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)

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.

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

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.

Fantastic time lapse video by Glenn Whorrall

I meant to post this awhile back, but never got round to it, the highly talented film maker and animator Glenn Whorrall made this great time lapse movie of one painting during the preview of the GIGhibition. I love it I think it's great.

Juan Moore Exhibition - Time-Lapse from Your Movie Crew on Vimeo.

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.

Thank you Isle of Man Arts Council

It has occurred to me that I have not said thank you to the Isle of man Arts Council for funding my year long project, so this post is for you guys, thank you for funding Welcome to The Neighbourhood.

Wow what a busy month and sneak peek

I can safely say that March 2011 has been a very busy month, I think the deadlines for this project are just getting shorter and shorter, anyway all of the artwork is now finished and been approved by all of the musicians involved in the project. It was weird promoting the show before I'd finished creating it, but hey it was a fun experience.

I've also really enjoyed working with musicians and songwriters for this show, it is something I would love to do again.

anyway here is a sneaky peek at some of the work...see you on Monday :)

Exhibition 3

I know it's been a bit of awhile since my last update, but rest assured I have been hard at work on exhibition 3. So here it is, just under a month away and despite being ill, my sister and my nieces invading I'm about halfway through the artwork for the project, the image used for the poster is entitle "Hospital Patio" and is based on the song by Planes over Paris. I have been very fortunate to work with all of the very talented bands and musicians in this project. More details to follow..

Work Work!

So after having literally a day off after the last show finished, I have begun work on exhibition number 3, this show is a little different, as it is also a GIG as well, essentially what is happening is that I'm working with 5 singers / bands, the idea being that I create images based off of their songs, so it will be an interesting night, I have the venue confirmed and all five of the acts I'm working with.

I have to say I feel very privileged to be working with such amazing musicians, the songs everyone has submitted are amazing. I will announce who these extremely talented people are soon.

The show is Due to open on April 4th at the villa Marina arcade.

One night stand opening night photos

Finally got round to uploading some photos to the WTTN face book page, you can join here.

here are some from the one night the show was on:

all photos are copyright Rosie Irvine 2011.

I made the News :)

Last night's one night show went really well with an excellent turnout and good sales, the hanging went very smoothly with only a few issues with hanging (thanks so much Nic! you are a genius) I will post some pics once I've picked them up from rosie later in the week, no I'm going to sleep for about a week I think.

Promotion, Promotion, Promotion! Panic.

Well, we open exhibition number 2 tomorrow, it all seems to have come around very quickly, I won't lie but I am really nervous about this show, I'm happy with the work I produced for it, it's just the time of year. I have never done a show in January before simply because it's really hard to get people to come to exhibitions during this time of year let alone try and sell work.

The Courthouse is a fantastic venue and it is also one of the larger venues of the whole project. I'm sure all of this last minuet nerves and aside from the nervousness I'm really excited about the show, It's also getting some good promotion through local media:

BBC article

Also Here

You can Also follow the project on Facebook

The Photo of me looking a bit confused is courtesy of Rosie Irvine, whose work can be seen Here

Ok wish me luck, I'll post some photos of the show and give an update of how it went on tuesday.

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!)

Learning, exhibition announcement.

So as part of the Welcome to the neighbourhood project, I've spent the last couple of weeks going to the high schools on the island and doing workshops on conceptual thinking (the process I use to come up with artwork ideas) I must say there are a number of very talented young people around and I do hope some of them take it further.

I must say I'm very pleased with some of the work produced in the workshops and as a result some students work will feature in the final show.

Chico & Rita (the animation I worked on for 15 months) premiered last Thursday, myself and some of the team I worked within went to see it, it was nice to see the end result, having never seen the fully finished film, it was nice to finally close the book on the project which my involvement began in November 2008.

unfortunately I'm now very far behind with the work for the next show.

The next show "One Night Stand" will be at the courthouse bar on 17th January 2011, so I'd best get painting.

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.