Meet the Artist / An interview with Jess Lloyd-Smith at Modern Art Buyer
JLS How did you become an artist / where did you start your artistic training?
CE No idea! How does anyone ‘become an artist’. I think the question is, in some ways, a false premise. I think we can all make art and be artists at different points in our lives, if and when we choose to be. Making art and being an artist are clearly two different disciplines though, two different mindsets.
I guess I’ve only just recently begun to feel that I am an artist, previously I used to think of myself as a maker, or someone who creates artwork, which is an equally interesting proposition of course, but with subtly different goals. A more design oriented focus perhaps, less cerebral, more about making.
Print Club Edition 8
Edition 8 is going to be a celebration of Spring, and in particular that particularly beautiful combination of greens, pinks and deeper carmines that marks out the first flush of really powerful colour that comes out here in May. I've attached an image here of my new tulip border, that I planted deep in the midst of last winter, with freezing hands, sure in the knowledge that I would get a sensational blast of colour as the gardening year really gets going this spring. I have to say that I didn't plan for the bright orange ones, but in fact they have been a serendipitous addition that has no doubt been bolder and better than my original choices.
Stellify / TWO / cerise glaze commission, May 2018
Great to have an opportunity to revisit my 2017 Stellify / TWO drawing this spring. Commissioned with a silver / lilac cutout central core, as opposed to the original yellow / gold component.
London Original Print Fair 2018, at the Royal Academy
Delighted to be exhibiting work at the London Original Print Fair, held annually at the Royal Academy, Piccadilly. One of the highlights of the year in my opinion, a really strong fair, with great work by many of today's best makers.
I'll be exhibiting works on paper there with TAG Fine Arts, so if you'd like a free pass, drop me a line, and I'll send you a link to register for a complimentary ticket.
Fresh Art Cheltenham, 2018
Spring seems to be in the air, finally, and I have a couple of events coming up that you may be interested in. If you’d like a free pass(es) for either event, please do email me, and I’ll see what I can do.
The first one opens tonight, and runs over the weekend. I’m delighted to be showing some of my latest Diasec mounted pieces with the Campden Gallery, at this new fair, being held at Cheltenham racecourse pavilion.
London Art Fair 2018
Hello! It's London Art Fair this week. I'll be exhibiting Motorik / TWO with TAG Fine Arts, who have some free passes for the fair if you'd like to visit. Click here to register for your complimentary tickets online and type the code LAFTAG in the promotional code box. Hope that will work!
A Fresh Perspective / Bath Magazine
“Chuck Elliott overlaps the precision and order of symmetrical geometry with mesmerising digitally drawn non-repeating patterns. he explores notions of contemporary drawing using a high-end computer system and the latest digital drawing tools. His vibrant prints are energetic yet rhythmically soothing; pools of colour ripple, while smooth chromatic ribbons flow with electronic clarity, shining like a lacquered metallic surface.” Bridget Sterling, Axle Arts
Flow 8VO at Texel
Texel, in the square mile, provides a great setting for Flow 8VO, a digital screen art piece installed on a 72" plasma screen in the reception area, where it animates laconically throughout the day.
Editions 6 and 7 sent today!
Hello, hope this finds you well and getting ready for the holidays. I've just completed making, packing, and sending my Experimental Print Club editions #6 and #7 with MyHermes. I hope they'll arrive with you sometime over the holidays, and that the work will add a little colour to the season.
Edition #6 is a good sized version of my recent Dazzle drawing, in yellows and blues, and cropped to 12 bars, which I think has a certain sparkle about it. Edition #7 is an exploratory understudy that I made whilst working on Lyric SV, for my recent Catto Gallery show. I've refashioned it here with some quite earthy winter tones, and entitled it Lyric / undertow, as it is very much an underdrawing for the final works.
Christmas / Winter Solstice 2017
Seems to have been a busy few weeks since I last posted. After a phenomenally busy run up to my recent solo show at Catto Gallery, which opened on October 19th with over 30 large pieces on show, and is still on in a reduced form in their lower ground floor space Catto Below, quickly followed by an amazing opportunity to exhibit 7 new pigment prints with TAG Fine Arts at the IFPDA's Ink Miami.
Current at the Catto Gallery
Current was my fourth show at Catto. Over the past decade we’ve been putting together solo shows every two or three years. It’s a good discipline to work within.
Dazzle / 12 bar
I spent the weekend making a new 10 colour pigment print for the opening night of my new show 'Current' at Catto Gallery. And now that it's packed in cellophane and looking rather fab, I realised that I could tuck a few prints to one side for my Print Club members. So I'll look forward to posting one out to you in a week or two's time. I hope it'll brighten up your home as autumn settles in…
Current / Exhibition catalogue / October 2017
Catto Gallery have published a fabulous new catalogue of my latest drawings, ahead of our new show, Current, opening on Thursday 19th October. If you'd like to receive a copy in the post, please email imogen@cattogallery.co.uk and she'll send one out to you.
Gallery opening, Swindon, Friday June 2nd
With just 2 weeks to go, I thought I'd send over a final post for today, to invite you to the opening of a small solo show at Swindon's latest gallery - Oink. Curated by Mark Pepperall, it's a delight to be included on the roster, and for this 6 week show, I'll be exhibiting about 15 pieces, including an 8ft edition of Eight Ball mounted to Perspex, which I hope will be quite something.
Experimental Print Club Edition 5 proofed
For Edition 5, being posted back to back with Edition 4, I've made a new print of one of the best 'Systematic Variations' that I've been working on over the past couple of months. For this Print Club edition, the work has been printed 'cut to colour' on Kodak metallic stock, and then 'tipped in' to a debossed sheet of handmade Somerset 100% cotton paper. I like the locality of the stock, and I think there's a certain interest in the idea of 'tipping in'. A little like the way colour plates used to be added to books before mass market colour printing really arrived. There's a lively contrast between the crisp clarity of the cut edge and the altogether more haptic debossed edge too…
Print Club Edition 4 proofed
I've been working on a pair of new Print Club editions over the past few weeks and months, and as they near completion I'm pleased to be able to send you a little news to let you know how they're shaping up. To celebrate the arrival of the new 10 colour digital printer, and indeed the arrival of summer too, I'm going to send out a double Print Club mailing, editions 4 and 5, at the same time. I hope you like them! In truth I feel a little behind the curve here, so I hope this double edition will go some way towards catching up…
Kinetic / double quad / commission, April 2017
Great to be commissioned to produce a new Kinetic / double quad set, some ten years after the work was exhibited at ‘Transistor at the Southbank’. An interesting opportunity to revisit some of these older pieces.
Systematic variations
Thought I'd post a couple of new studies, test pieces really, that may well form part of a larger new series of variations. I'm working with the title SysVar or Systematic Variations, and am greatly enjoying working out a series of new methods for creating the inter related works, that may form the backbone of a new print folio. That's the outline plan anyway…
10 colour digital printer arrives... or the Kraken awakes
I thought I'd post a little news, to let you know what's going on here in the studio. Things seem to be changing quite rapidly, in some quite interesting ways. The biggest change is certainly the arrival of a new ten colour digital printer. It's a really huge digital printing machine, that not only offers the traditional 4 colour set - cyan, magenta, yellow and black - but augments that with orange, green, violet and extra greys, all of which can be combined to offer 99% of the Pantone spot colour ink set. The paper size can be up to 44 inches wide, by a staggering 10 metres long. Amazing!
Bath Contemporary, images from the exhibition, March 2017
Thought I’d post a few in situ images of my work at Bath Contemporary, just ahead of the last weekend. If you’re in the area the show is open on Friday 31st, Saturday 1st and Monday 3rd April…