Up next at Atelier beside the Sea, Jonny Hannah's epic seaside-themed show. The Darktown Seaside Beano opens on Friday 22nd September with a stellar lineup of contributors. Each has been asked to create an A3-sized postcard for the show and they will all be on sale at the same price. Each piece is a one-off, so when they're gone, they're gone. Don't hang about if you spy a favourite artist on the list...
Feel the Happy is a search for a high, a dive into the brightest colours, a mental landscape and maybe a call for attention too. All four paintings are emotion-led, made with the purpose of lifting my spirits and trying to find some joy, as well as using symbolism and mark-making that had meaning for me.
It's about sitting with the elements and playing with composition until it comes together. So often I will be surprised by what I come up with just because a figure fell onto another cutting and I have a hallelujah moment.
I have always been interested in what it is that my eye falls upon randomly, without pre-cognition; often a small object. I like to beach comb. I'm always stuffing odd things into a suitcase after a holiday.
"While out sketching on the Ashdown Forest last winter, I was captivated by the colour and form of a huge pile of cut logs. The sawn edges making a striking colour and texture contrast to the trees themselves. This evolved into a small series of similar paintings."
"I began to appreciate the heavily urbanised surroundings and started noticing real beauty in some of the naturally compounding decay of the area. Layers upon layers of old posters, stickers, flyers, graffiti, tagging, murals all conspiring together to make what seemed like unintentional art pieces."
I employ lost wax casting to create organic metal forms and my hands-on production style results in a delicate ‘wabi-sabi’ aesthetic, highlighting the beauty of makers’ marks, fingerprints, imperfections and an overall sense of human touch.
Ian O'Halloran is the self-styled ‘Accidental Printmaker’!
