Drawing

Momentary – Solo Exhibition by Carne Griffiths – Lilford Gallery Folkestone, 29 July to 21 August 2016

Imagine if you could slow down and stop time. Take a moment to examine the beautiful detail in everything that surrounds us. We are living so fast that everything is blurred and we can’t possibly appreciate the fragility of our own existence…. that’s the ethos of this exhibition, a meditation on the beautiful detail of the natural world.  Through paintings, embroidered works and a virtual reality installation – Momentary seeks to stop time.. for just a moment .. and permits us to see the beauty of an explosion, of spinning shards of glass  – the beating of a hummingbirds wings, the detail concealed within its’ plumage, the incredible pattern and order that makes up the chaos.

momentary, ink and tea on 535gsm bockingford watercolour paper 21 x 29cm £475
Momentary

I am pleased to invite you to an exhibition opening at Lilford Gallery in Folkestone this Friday the 29th July.  The exhibition is my first solo show in just over 2 years and brings together a collection of framed original works on paper, limited edition prints and a virtual reality installation.

Here is a little about the collection of work and also a snippet of the new pieces that will be on show at the exhibition which runs until 21st August at Lilford Gallery

Inspired by nature’s expansive colour palette these new works present a vivid alternate reality, ‘Let’s stop time’ invites the viewer to slow down and take time to reflect on the beauty within their surroundings, a chaotic solitary moment becomes a place for meditation.  ‘Eternity’captures the beauty and chaos of a single brush stroke within which an alternate reality is revealed like a dream or a momentary glimpse into the life of a stranger all in a single moment. In’Perfectly Still’, the ‘Hourglass’ and ‘Elevation’ time is brought to a standstill and the beauty of nature among chaos is evident, all three works begin as an abstract composition, embracing chaos and the freedom of single strokes of paint, accidents and chaos in which we seek to find order. Rising from this chaos we find beautiful accidents of nature or creation depending on our beliefs and ideologies, it seems almost irrelevant how they occur.. what is common is the beauty in infinite detail.

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‘The Mortal Coil’ challenges us to look at our own time and existence – the brevity of our time on this planet, the place we hold among our surroundings and our connections with the natural world, as the painting pulses revealing a skull beneath the layers it reminds that we are flesh and bone,it challenges us to appreciate our short time, to make the most of our existence.  In ‘Knowledge is Power’, ‘Trouble’, Brave new world and ‘Protection’ I want the viewer to look at the possibilities and opportunities that arise from a single moment – each work references the image ‘I and Love and You’  by photographer Michael Färber.  Each image searches the subject for a different story, chaos plays it’s part again and these works are an example of the approach taken to painting – allowing chaos and chance to dictate the outcome.

The smaller portraits ‘momentary’ series focus on calm and meditation – both in the approach to the drawings but also in the subject itself – they are quiet moments of contemplation and time taken to reflect.  These pieces were created at the end of the show and are a pause point and possibly and indication of where the work will turn next.

In addition to these and other original works I will be showing three new limited edition prints as follows;

A hand  embroidered print with hand painted goldleaf details called ‘A little piece of peace and quiet’ edition of 20

A Little Piece of Peace and Quiet giclee print with deckle (Custom)

A 50cm x 70cm Giclee Print – ‘Perfectly Still’ on Hahnemuhle etching paper with Hand torn edges

Perfectly Still 1000px with deckle 50 x 70cm on Bockingford 535gsm Watercolour Paper £2400

A 50cm x 50cm limited edition giclee of the Oracle Printed on Epson bright white ultrasmooth paper

The Oracle

The inclusion of the oracle as a print in this show is to link some of the works on black paper I have produced with a virtual reality installation piece called ‘Momentary’.  The piece takes elements from all of the new paintings and blends these with details from the works on black paper – but it does so in a virtual space using the HTC Vive Headset viewers are able to explore this virtual environment and examine the painting in it’s virtual sulptured form.

 

 

 

 

 

Face exhibition PV this Thursday

I will be showing 2 new original works at Gallery different this Thursday, the 12th of May from 6pm if you’d like to come along please rsvp info@gallerydifferent.co.uk

Trouble by Carne Griffiths

Neon Tears by Carne Griffiths

Underneath it All

Last chance to grab the open edition ‘Underneath it All‘, at a hugely discounted price. Recently launched with Derbby,

Underneath it All by Carne Griffiths

this is a quality archival giclee edition retailing normally at $149, but available during this opening week from a price starting at $25. Derbby run a unique pricing system which sees the price increase by $1 per sale. The current price is $47 and this special offer will end on Tueday the 29th March.

Furthermore, each of derbby’s previous published editions will be available at 50% discount if bought with the new print. This includes the open edition.

‘Just out of Reach’

Just out of reach, by Carne Griffiths

‘Flight’

Flight

‘Inner Worlds’

Inner Worlds by Carne Griffiths (Custom) (2)

Thanks for reading and please email carne@carnegriffiths.com if you have any questions

 

Flash Sale – Just out of Reach

Just out of Reach by Carne Griffiths

I’m delighted to be launching a new 20×16″ print on Wednesday the 27th Jan, with Derbby.

Derbby have a unique price structure which works great, making the early prints in an edition extremely accessible.  The usual selling price of Derbby Prints is $149 but for the Flash Sale the price drops to $25.. and that’s where it gets interesting, each successive sale raises the price by $1 !

Derbby aren’t cutting corners however, the print is made on a bright white Epson archival paper at a heavy 330gsm! this is embossed with the Derbby logo and accompanied by an artists signature by way of a certificate applied to the reverse of the piece… this results in a clean ready to frame image.

The piece itself was created in January of 2016 and experiments with creating more layering and more detail than usual, I wanted to give Derbby an image that would translate well in the reduction to a print, making the detail finer and crisper.  Continuing on from the earlier piece this year entitled all I want is everything, the piece reflects on commercial desire, our relationship with nature, and the unattainable.   I’ve included some work in progress images below to show the process of making the work.

If you are interested, the original work will also be made available through Derbby via a unique bidding system.  Checkout www.derbby.com for more details.

Hypnotic State

This is probably the final piece created for 2015, a hypnotic state, for a client in the US.

EPSON scanner image

The piece returns to a theme of shattered glass that I used in the Inkd Gallery exhibition Fragile a number of years back – I am fascinated by optics and also how best to convey them in this medium.  The thing about drawing glass is that it has very little form or shape itself.  It’s interesting, the way in which it displaces the things round it.

I’m excited about expanding the palette with a new range of calligraphy inks with a more intense colour base too and I discovered a number of new techniques working this new commission – one of which was to enhance the immediate and visceral graphite lines by tracing over them deliberately with fountain pen.  There is something about the contrast of the two marks together on the page that I find really exciting, one is the chaos of the free line that comes from the subconscious, and the second is the very deliberate line, that follows the same path but in a different way.  There is a repetition about the process but also a contrast in the approach, and for me it really helps draw attention and give importance to the parts of the work that are more spontaneous and automatic.

EPSON scanner image
Adding geometric detail in amber ink
EPSON scanner image
Ink detail, with ‘enhanced ‘ graphite lines
EPSON scanner image
Outlining and enhancing with calligraphy ink
EPSON scanner image
Natural ink separation with surface pattern added in fountain pen
EPSON scanner image
Creating solid forms from accidental marks

Mystery Postcard Set

Here’s a few pics of work from 2015 turned into a postcard set.

You can purchase the set online here

Each piece is printed onto 350gsm board and has a postcard layout on the reverse with details about the original piece.  The postcards form an edition of 3500 cards, each card is hand signed by my fair hand and editioned in the left hand corner in pencil.  Furthermore – you can choose a personalised hand drawn envelope for these postcards making them an ideal gift or stocking filler for xmas.  Thanks for following the blog and sorry I’ve been away so long 🙂2015 set smallString Theory PostcardFly PostcardRara Avis postcard

envelopeenvelope 2

New Print Beautiful Decay Released

Head over to the new website now for more details.

beautiful decay

2 for Joy

‘2 for Joy’  is now complete and cut from the board in the studio, so I am spending today catching up on some paperwork and arranging some of my giclee prints to go out to galleries in Brighton, Hastings and up to Scotland. Also preparing the 3rd piece in the series and working on some interesting commissions, including a new lightbox which I will be sharing soon.

Here are some pics of the finished work 2 for Joy with a couple of work in progress and detail shots taken along the way.  The piece ‘2 for Joy’ will form part of a series of 10 works over the course of this year.

Twinne

Also here are some pics from the launch of the new t-shirt available from Twinne using the piece ‘Seed of life’

Apparently there was a hiccup with the ordering system but you can now buy the Tee’s here

The original artwork is also available for sale.

 

 

 

Update from the studio! 2 for Joy and 1 for Sorrow in Spring Exhibition

A little more work on the piece 2 for Joy…

Yesterday Evening was the launch for the Spring show at the Forman’s Smokehouse – amazing exhibition excellently curated by Katja Rosenbeurg.  The exhibition runs from the 5th April – 6th May and is showing avast range of spring related work from over 50 artists! There is also the excellent Smokehouse restaurant to give you even more reason to visit!

one for sorrow @ the smokehouse gallery for the spring exhibition

The huge smokehouse gallery overlooks the olympic stadium and its internal architecture reflects this strongly!

View from the gallery

Details of how to get there are to be found on the smokehouse website.