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VIRTUAL OPEN-STUDIO

Check out my new website: livesofpi.weebly.com for a virtual open studio. Weekly photo up-dates of work in progress. See my process as paintings grow and change.

SHAPE CLOSING

Arthur and the Vandellas feat,. Tonny A

This exhibition has done much to revive my belief in Art. I have always felt vaguely excluded by the ArtWorld : exhibition opening nights seemed to be all about middle class white men and this has hardly changed in thirty years.

On Thursday night I felt totally included and the people around me for once seemed to represent my world. Men and women, black and white,  able bodied and disabled, young and old,  all together to celebrate wonderful artworks.  And the Art was fabulous, for once I found nothing to criticize and anybody who knows me will find that surprising, the quality of the work on display made me feel humble to be included. The exhibition was beautifully and thoughtfully mounted (thank you Ben) it was extraordinary to see Christopher Samuel’s drawing, ‘A room with no view.’ hung at his eye-line.  Thanks to SHAPE for allowing me to be part of this exhibition and for all the wonderful wprk they do and thanks especially to all those directly involved in making this a wonderful, life-affirming experience.

‘Trapped in this pelvis’ by Alexandra Unger.

No No No by Kate Murdoch.

Photographer Phillipa emerges from video room.

Lauren Nicholas and sister.

Artist Christopher Samuel creator of, ‘A Room with no View.’

Kate Murdoch and Christopher’s cheeky but handsome cousin.

Christopher Samuel, brother and cousin.

The Nicholas family.

SHAPE OPEN

The triptych ,’Arthur and the Vandellas.’ has been accepted for the SHAPE Open exhibition in April. A triple portrait of performer Tonny A , a wonderful performer who has no forearms due to Thalidomide. Tonny appears as Arthur and as the Vandellas. Based on the famous girl group from the sixties whose biggest hit was ,’Dancing in the Street.’ The piece is an affirmation that we can all be whatever we chose regardless of Race, Gender or Disability.

SHAPE OPEN 

Portobello Gallery

6 Thorpe Cose

W10 5XL

24th April – 6th May  12-6 pm 

closed Mon 30th April

A new Miss Havisham

Just watched the latest television adaptation of Great Expectations. A very modern telling but it could have been longer, four episodes would have allowed space for character development. Many critics have sais that it has strayed to far from the original book but I tend to think that it isn’t the original book we think of but the David Lean film. I’d have to re read the book to know how far it’s moved but I found the language contemporary and the rawness . It’s a shame that both Miss Havisham and Pip were both more beautiful than Estelle but the whole thing was worth it if only for the scene of Miss Havisham’s self-immolation, fabulous.

 

Based on Martita Hunt

 

 

I LOVE GRAYSON PERRY

I’ve just watched the IMAGINE programme about Grayson Perry’s new exhibition at the British Museum. I was literally  (well not literally) blown away. Grayson says everything I have always thought about Art and the Art World. Oh to be part of that World on my terms the way Grayson is. To value my craft and have it valued, To get beyond the vacuous celebrity based, so called art that fills the galleries.

Grayson I love you, love you , love you. Say it loud say it proud.

Crypt Postmortem

21^st Century Baroque

The Crypt gallery@ St Pancras Church

400 visitors

“comments”

Inspiring.          Excellent and powerful. Impresionante.

You are amazing. Thank you so very much.                   Fabulous painting

Loved the work.           Very nice.         Great Exhibtion.

“Man is an animal suspended in a web of signification”

Beautiful, thought-provoking pieces.

Amazing paintings.        Absolutely brilliant, loved everything.

Really good, old and new.         Very interesting.            Interesting.

Very Powerful works.               Great Talent.

Very strong stuff. Impressed with the variety of styles and the common energy of power and secrets- a mystique and the unspoken…

Really loved everything; the consolidation of styles and overlapping themes.

I really liked the use of found objects like tables and coffee tables. Rich colours. Lovely.

As usual the crypt attracted a rich mix of visitors from all over the world. The first week-end numbers were helped considerably by the Open House Weekend because of the lengthy queues to view St Pancras Hotel.. My decision to move to September paid off with many student visitors and a couple of academics.. For me one of the main reasons for exhibiting is the feedback from talking to visitors. Every viewer sees something different. It was fascinating to have two very different discussions in the same afternoon: talking with a student of Art History specializing in the chemistry of materials which centered around my use of mixed media on paper and the alchemy of fire could not have been more different than discussing my use of images of the Black male with a student of M.A. Social Anthropology of Development, who’s dissertation was titled, ‘Representation of the Subjects of Development in Photography.’ which centered around the use of starving babies and crying mothers in the Third World.

The best outcome of the exhibition was an interview and review by Hazelann Williams published in the Voice Newspaper which has subsequently been reprinted in the Jamaican Gleaner resulting in an enquiry from the USA.

http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/black-beautiful-says-white-artist

COMMENTS FROM VOICE ONLINE

This artist likes men too much if you get what I mean. Google him there’s picture of him wearing frock. I’m seros!                                                                                            SIC

Get over yourself and learn to spell.

Pi’s art is powerful and beautiful…..His works on wood have a natural energy and I like the way he works with discarded  daily objects such as table tops and turns them into art creating different textures for his work…. Black men have not often been the subject of portraits and here we have a collection that celebrates black male beauty in a unique way…. He may be from Coventry but his sensibility seems very urban London and these pieces would look great in urban settings at home and in bars or coffee shops.

Charlie Pi’s comments and paintings is a compliment to black men. He did not evoke the flattery to the black woman’s form and beauty, and chose the word padding to address her bosom and buttocks. An artist who enjoys painting body images should not discriminate against painting one sex over the other. I understand an artist may prefer and be better at painting one gender over the other, but this artist appear to almost glorify the black male body. I feel there is a bit of homosexual influence behind his paintings. I am not anti-homophobic, it is just an observation I made from his comments and arguments to support the reason he paints black men.                                                                                                 SIC

Charlie’s comment:  It’s probably a good thing that bigots seem to be almost illiterate.

Letter to Voice:    BEFORE READING the article I had an apprehensive interest, expecting another white artist receiving all the attention and accolade for being in tune with his “black brothers and sisters” while numerous artists of colour are not getting the attention they deserve.

On reading the piece I was relieved that the artist is respectful and able to express his aesthetic appreciation for the beauty of a people that has been overlooked and oppressed. I for one will be looking out for his exhibition.

Another wonderful experience thanks to all at St Pancras Church and to all my supporters, beautiful assistants and visitors.

MIXANTHROPY

– Mixanthropy, 1

– Mixanthropy, 2

– Mixanthropy, 3

– Mixanthropy, 4

– Mixanthropy, 5

– Mixanthropy, 6

– Mixanthropy, 7

– Mixanthropy, 8

– Black Narcissus

21st Century Baroque (the 1st ten years)

On deciding to get back into painting for the new millenium, I through everything at my work. Wooden constructs painted in rich oils with added objects such as candleabras, wooden eagles, chains, feathers and electric lights. The imagery taken from Greek and Pagan myth gave me an excuse to paint iconic images of the semi-naked male figure ( same excuse as used by the Victorian painters at the turn of the last century.) Gradually I moved from using existing myths in an attempt to create a new mythology around the black male. Finally using real models I concentrated on bringing out their personal qualities as hard working men striving to achieve in their chosen fields as singers, poets, dancers, soldiers, labourers and mechanics: an attempt to portray the spiritual, intellectual and human nature of black men away from the macho posturing of gangsta rappers.

As you will see from this blog my current preoccupations are pretty far removed from this Baroque work, but as a painter I see myself returning to oil in the coming year.

 

BURNING BIG DADDY

A big stiff shirt. Oedipus Hex

AFTERBURN

Like the Phoenix reborn from the ashes of it’s own funeral pyre the painting is brought back to life, resuscitated by the artist.

The finished work ,” BOILED BUNNY”