Hmmm, little did I know how topical this title was going to be for my exhibition in Whitstable this week; I should think most of the country has seen enough of water in the landscape to last a lifetime but back in September when I booked the space the gallery wanted a title to put in the programme and Watermark seemed to fit the work I was making. Anyhoo, on Wednesday, with the help of my friend Paul, I put up the show in the Gallery 2 space of The Horsebridge, a wonderful arts centre in the heart of this charming little town on the north Kent coast. Watermark it certainly was on that afternoon, the rain was streaming down and the wind nearly blew us into the North Sea as we walked down to the gallery carrying the pictures which acted as a perfect kind of windsail to catch the hurricane that was tearing through town.

The Horsebridge Centre, a rainy afternoon in February

Even in  bad weather the light in Gallery 2 is great, with a big, wide window out onto to street and I was happy with how the work looked once it was on the wall. I showed ten pictures in all, and the theme had started out as being landscapes with water, or the effects of water, in evidence. I soon find this theme a bit of a straight-jacket, though, and the show ended up being about a particular landscape in Ibiza that I had fallen in love with last year when we went on holiday there. The Punta de Ses Portes is a rocky headland in the south west of the island and I never tire of exploring it’s atmosphere in my work.

These three slightly larger, square pieces became the heart of the show, really, two Ibiza landscapes along with a black and white collage of Stickle Tarn in the Lake District, a tarn where we had a magical wild swim last summer.

Moonlight over Es Cavallet

The Tower by the Sea

Stickle Tarn

Apart from this trio, I showed some smaller works, on one wall four more Ibiza paintings:

A Walk on the Punta de Ses Portes

Punta de Ses Portes, October

Meet me at the Tower

Evening over the Salinas

And the other wall with a Whitstable painting, another one of Reculver, just up the coast, and a tiny Hebridean collage of Staffa.

I spent the weekend down in Whitstable, and today, Sunday, the wind died down, the sun came out and gave us a beautiful blast of spring. Here are a couple of pics of the place sparkling in the sunlight, it seemed like everybody was out, having been cooped up for ages, hiding from the storms.

I’m happy with the show; a year ago, in the same space, I held my first solo show and I was very happy and proud of that work. This year, I feel I’ve consolidated my approach and I feel that the work i’m making is my own, and that it fits me. I sold some work, which does feel nice of course, particularly as two pieces, Moonlight over Es Cavallet and Punta de Ses Portes, October  were bought by dear pals Paul and Phil and I get to see the pictures every now and again when I see them in Whitstable. It is nice when people you’ve never met walk into the gallery and buy work and the piece goes off to a new home and a new life, but it’s good when you can go and visit paintings again, and see them, like old friends.

The exhibition comes down on Tuesday, and so it;’s onward now, thinking about new work and new projects. I’ve got my puppet for the Puppet Challenge to make, and I want to do some large scale landscapes as well as some landscapes with figures to show in Berlin if I can. Next February, with a couple of friends I’ve booked the big gallery at the Horsebridge, and the opportunity to be more inventive with the space and to try some different approaches.

Just before Christmas I started thinking about subject matter for the puppet challenge over on Clive Hicks-Jenkins’ Artlog. The project is being curated by artist and designer Peter Slight and involves making a puppet of any kind with the theme of fairly tales and folklore in mind. The puppet challenge will culminate in an online exhibition on the Artlog later this year and already a number of talented artists have been busy designing and creating with great results. Clive and Peter have put up lots of posts recently showing different types of puppet traditions and examples of puppets through the ages to inspire those of us who are having a go. I’ve learnt a huge amount from these wonderful posts but the one that has lodged in my mind is the post Clive put up a few weeks ago about dada and constructivist marionettes. I’d never seen these before and they gave me ideas about my own contribution to the puppet project; you can see Clive’s post here. I guess I was drawn to the idea of the geometric, machine-age shapes of the constructivist aesthetic illustrating age-old stories and giving them a new expression. I’d also been looking at Picasso’s designs for Parade with Ballet Russes from 1917 and loved the blocky cubist costumes and sets.

As for subject matter, I started off exploring the local folk tales from Lincolnshire where I grew up, but recently Jan suggested I read Angela Carter for a modern take on some of the classic fairy tales and I’ve found some of the stories offer great characters which lend themselves to the project.

So, with these ideas percolating round my head I’ve started sketching out some new ideas and soon i’ll start to have a go at actually making some first puppets although i’m also keen to make some sets for them to perform against and a toy theatre if i can, although i’ve no idea where i’ll put it!  No idea yet if this approach will go anywhere or just be a temporary diversion, we’ll see.

The Erl-King