exhibitions, milestones & new beginnings

“POMPEY 3” Digital Image manipulated with Adobe Photoshop © chriswoodartist all rights reserved 2012

Since “retiring” from mainstream education in July, I have been on a roller-coaster of non stop work ! I’m just about to complete my residency at Portsmouth Grammar School and my 4 month teaching stint at the University of Portsmouth is also drawing to an end. I’ve organised 3 one day workshops, had three exhibitions and have had three pieces of work accepted into a fourth exhibition.

My residency at the Grammar School has given me the opportunity to consider  the rich heritage of architecture, mapping and movement in and around Old Portsmouth. In addition, I’ve been able to step back and reconsider my own practice as a fine artist, illustrator and designer. I’ve not counted them but I must have made well over a couple of hundred drawings, made copious notes, and experimented with new ideas and ways of working. I’ve also revisited methods of drawing that I haven’t had the time to experiment with in over twenty years. However, I feel as if I’ve only scratched the surface of this fascinating combination of themes and I am a firm believer in the concept that, an exhibition is not the culmination of a project but very often the start of many new lines of inquiry.

My art practice has always been multidisciplinary and no more so than over the last 4 months. I’ve been drawing numerous threads of experience together and playing with a variety  of outcomes. My solo show “60:SIXTY” at the gASP Gallery  included a 4 x 5 foot charcoal drawing, an A2 pen and ink study, two A3 lino-cuts, four dry-points and three huge digital banners (5 metres in length). As the space was limited I didn’t show the video that I projected in former incarnation of the show which was held at St Thomas’s Cathedral in Old Portsmouth. I will reinvent this and add an animated sequence to it – then I’ll think of an appropriate venue – perhaps the Round Tower, overlooking Portsmouth Harbour.

I’ve enjoyed working in collaboration with the year 10 pupils at the Grammar School and I’ve met some very interesting members of staff who have got me thinking about sound as yet another layer of expression ! Whilst, I attended the Ipswich Art School in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, unlike the artist and composer Brian Eno, who I met, I never really got much beyond some pretty basic fumbling on the acoustic guitar and haven’t progressed much in the intervening years ! I intend to rekindle my passion for the guitar and take some more lessons – it’s been about 40 years since my last one and I can’t read music but I’ll give it a go ! I will also attempt to revisit and animate the video sequence that I showed in the 20:20 show in St Thomas’s Cathedral. I fancy having a shot at projecting moving images inside the Round Tower, which is part of the fortifications overlooking Portsmouth Harbour. It’s an impressive building that began life in 1418 – so like me – its seen a lot of action !

More inane rambling and a few images later

Good night one and all !