Plastic Bank Cards

The other ubiquitous item in all our lives is the plastic bank card. It is as part of our existence as much as the internet and brushing your teeth, that is as long as you live in a modern country. It is as part of our lives as much as the digital circuit boards. So, if you have a look at one of my more recent paintings, you will find that there are digital boards, and in many cases "plastic" money as well. This transforms that painting into a time stamp. At some time in the future, you will look at the antiquated circuit boards, with their huge chips and think that in those days they were so backward and clunky. And as for the bank cards, well, today we use subcutaneous chips in our wrists. I believe that in some clubs in London, this is the way that your drinks and entrance fees are charges. Maybe the future is here already.

Assemblage

This is one of the many 100*100cm paintings done for the exhibition held at the Banco Portugal this year. It was a great success and the staff were exceptionally helpful. I recommend this gallery to anyone. It is no longer a bank, but it used to be one of the central banks of Portugal. Now it has been converted into a gallery, with the sponsorship of the local municipality. It still has the original heavy wooden de core and the old vault in the basement. The only things in the basement safe is some old furniture, it is just a convenient storage space. Having worked in an old bank before, it was very interesting to be given the tour.

The Silver Girraff

This painting was done to accompany the other painting of the giraffes. However this one was done with silver leaf instead of gold leaf. Both these painting were started some time ago, when the drawing was done with graphite on water colour paper. The drawing were supposed to be amusing, and once they were finished they lay around and I did not know what to do with them. Eventually the "Aha Moment" arrived when I was preparing for the exhibition at the Gallery Banco Portugal. Adding paper to the oil painting is commonly called "Collage", but in this case 3 dimensional circuit boards were also added. So, now is painting an example of "Collage" or "Assemblage"?

The Golden Giraffe.

Giraffes are without a doubt one of my favourite animals. The are extremely graceful and have very courageous hearts. What sparked off my like in them was a video clip of them many years ago, that was filmed in the Kruger National Park in South Africa. It showed a mature male lion attacking a baby giraffe and the ferocious mother coming to the rescue. The lion was kicked to so badly that it was almost dead, many of its ribs were broken as well as the jaw. The local game warden then had to put the lion down, otherwise it would have suffered for may days until it died. I have also seen clips of them stealing food from visitors at the zoo.

Art Exhibition at Banco Portugal

The inauguration of the show was on Saterday afternoon. The usual family and friends were there as always, and some new faces. I feel extremely pleased to have have so much support for my work, and those that have always been there, rate very highly in my book. There were a few that promised to turn up, that never arrrived, but that always happens. Inês, our dear wine lady that always sponsors the ehibitions was present. Quinta da Sapeiro wines, I think are the best in Portugal, and the number of international as well as national medals she has wone bear evidence of this. It was a honour to have her wines at the inauguration and hope that in future events she will be there.

Favourite

This is one of my favourite ones, called purple city. Done on canvas and frame. The fame is part of the art work. Size is 34 * 33cm

Artist Satement

I create because I have to! There is this innate habit that makes humans what they are: the unexplainable need to create. We all create to some degree or another; some sculpture, paint, draw, design jewellery or invent meals. Some create with more passion and frequency than others, and I like to think of myself as one of those . I prefer to create using gold/silver leafed canvases as my foundation, with the addition of other objects attached to the canvas. This method of creating is commonly known as “Assemblage”. My preference of additional objects at the moment is electronic circuit boards. Each of them is an object of art in their own right, and an art object of another’s creation, therefore adding to the continuity of the work that I'm in the process of making. When I hold a “motherboard” in my hand, I can not help but marvel at the patterns created by the circuits, the way that the precious metals reflect off the surface and the placements of the chips. When holding the board, my mind begins to ask. “How can I use this gorgeous, but rather redundant piece? It is too fascinating just toss it out, without a second thought” After I have prepared the canvas with gold and silver leaf, and having antiqued and stressed the metal, the circuit boards or any other objects that suit me at the time, are added. There seems to be a never ending challenge to do/make/experiment with physical things. Constantly looking for something but never finding out what I’m looking for or what I’m trying to achieve. This reminds me of what a wise man once said: “There is nothing new under the sun”, so looking for new methods was not going to be “a walk in the park”. Man has used every imaginable item to create with: charcoal from fire, pigments from the soil, metal, vegetable and even animal substances. So, in my search I have used traditional as well as contemporary objects, and so my art was born. Gold and silver leaf paintings are the offspring of my fecundate creatively So with great pleasure and pride I present my oeuvre to you, and hope that in observing my art, you will experience the same joy that I had in its creation.

The Writing

I have been given the opportunity to have an exhibition at the "Banco Portugal" in Leiria. This has been a wonderful surprise and a responsibility to have everything in order for the inauguration. The event will take place on the 23 rd January and the exhibition will continue until the end of February 2016. I lot of artists would love to exhibit there, and I have been trying to do so, for the last 10 years. But, the paper work has to be done. The writing of the press releases, a revised "Artist Statement" (As my current one no longer suites the coming event, and invitation to be designed and posted out (This time via emails only). I have been working constantly for the last 2 weeks on the canvases, but the writing of the the mentioned essays have not been forthcoming. Procrastination with these seems to define the situation very well.

The History of Circuit Boards

So, the boards that we use to day took about 100 years to develop into a massive industry. Here is a short explanation of the history and the people that played an important role in the development. For some it might be a little too much information, but here it is: The circuit boards that we take for granted, started with technologies in the 20th century. In 1903, a German inventor, Albert Hanson, described flat foil conductors laminated to an insulating board, in multiple layers. Thomas Edison experimented with chemical methods of plating conductors onto linen paper in 1904. Arthur Berry in 1913 patented a print-and-etch method in Britain, and in the United States Max Schoop obtained a patent to flame-spray metal onto a board through a patterned mask. Charles Durcase in 1927 patented a method of electroplating circuit patterns. The Austrian engineer Paul Eisler invented the printed circuit as part of a radio set while working in England around 1936. Around 1943 the USA began to use the technology on a large scale to make proximity fuses for use in World War II. After the war, in 1948, the USA released the invention for commercial use. Printed circuits did not become commonplace in consumer electronics until the mid-1950s, after the Auto-Sembly process was developed by the United States Army. At around the same time in Britain work along similar lines was carried out by Geoffrey Dummer, then at the RRDE. NOW IT IS USED IN MY ART AS A MEANS OF EXPRESSION - THE ART MOVEMENT IS CALLED ASSEMBLAGE.

Assemblage

This is another example of assemblage. In this time of history we are using digital equipment like no other time. I know that seems to be very obvious. Circuit boards are ubiquetes and are entwined into our lives to such an extent that we do not know that they are present. They seem to be part of almost everything - how long will it be before we all have a piece embedded into our body. There are already a few people (those that can afford it) that use circuit boards to help them with their sight and hearing. I have heard of clubers that have a chip inserted into their skin that they use to gain access to certain clubs and pay for drinks, then these charges are debited from their banking accounts.