The Basingstoke Project 2017

Artikinesis’ Basingstoke Project is currently on display upstairs at the Willis Museum in Basingstoke. We are sharing the building with Hampshire Cultural Trust’s Turner and the Sun touring exhibition (downstairs) until the 16th of December, so you might want to allocate a little extra time in order to catch both exhibitions.

2 – 22 December 2017 upstairs at The Willis Museum Basingstoke RG21 7QD Tues to Friday, 10:00 to 17:00 Sat, 10:00 to 16:00 Free admisssion

Ghost

Ghost. Oil on canvas, 38 x 46 cm

This, a different angle on the ruined chapel at the Holy Ghost cemetery to that seen in my last post, was painted for Artikinesis' Basingstoke Project. I posted it on the Artikinesis site, but not here. It uses a very limited colour palette - there is no red (this is offset a little by the warm brown of the linen ground). I used only Phthalo Blue, Yellow Ochre and Titanium White.

The painting was based entirely on pen sketches made on site and memory.

Not Just Roundabouts

I've always liked the old railway posters. A "Travel" theme prompted this attempt at evoking their spirit, drawn in Molotow One4All Markers on A5. Since Artikinesis did The Basingstoke Project, I have a wealth of source material on Basingstoke (less than ten miles distant and, one could argue - as indeed we did - in need of an image adjustment). This is from a line sketch of the ruined chapel in the Holy Ghost cemetery, not far from the railway station.

Market Day (Basingtoke)

"Market Day", acrylic on canvas board, 40 x 40 cm

This is one of the paintings from late last year that I never quite managed to get a decent photograph of. The light was good today and I had my camera in the studio, so I did a bit of catching up.

The subject here is Basingstoke's bustling market at the "Top of Town" - the older bit of the town centre, a little uphill from the roofed-in modern shopping precincts. The large white building was once the town hall and is now the Willis Museum (run by the Hampshire Cultural Trust for the town).

This image was based on one of my pages from the Artikinesis colouring book, and painted for the upcoming North Hampshire Art exhibition, to be held at the Willis Museum in May.

Disjointed

I probably won't decide where each 30x30cm painting will go in the final array until I hang it at Proteus, so here are (just a few of) the many possible combinatons. There are actually 40320 ways of arranging eight paintings. I don't think that I will try all of them.

The Baingstoke Project will be on display (with static Disjoints) from 16 to 26 November 2014 at Proteus Creation Space in Basingstoke (the venue is featured in one of the paintings).

Full exhibition details on the Artikinesis site:

Farleigh Wallop!

Farleigh Wallop!, acrylic on board, 2 x 4 foot

This badly photographed painting is to be part of Artikinesis' Basingstoke Project (if there's room for it in the exhibition - it's a little on the large side).

De Port's Kitchens

De Port's Kitchens,
oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm

Yesterday, three fifths of Artikinesis visited Basing House as part of our Basingstoke Project. I have visited this fascinating site several times, but always with children in tow; I have long had a hankering to paint there. Specifically, to paint the kitchen fireplaces in the ruins of the Norman Castle (built in the 12th Century by the de Port family).

Cigarette Break

Lino print, 20 x 15 cm

I don't condone smoking in the slightest, but these two characters appeared outside a building on a business park while I was drawing the building and what could I do but include them? They spent a long time smoking their cigarettes - I was able to "zoom in" and sketch them on their own.

Doubly Disjointed

Passing the Ghost Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 30 cm Location:  Joice's Yard, Basingstoke On artikinesis	Yellow and Blue Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 30 cm Location:  Crown Heights (from the Anvil car park), Basingstoke On artikinesis

Two little squares of two bits of Basingstoke. My plan is to make a square number of these square paintings (4, 9, 16 or even 25... ) to be part of artikinesis's Basingstoke Project.

The series - the piece as a whole - is to be called Disjointed in reference to the isolation of each image and the way in which we (or at least, I) build up a mental picture of a big town: a series of  places that we know how to get to from our starting point, but do not necessarily know how to get from one to the other. Hence, the places are disjointed.

Artikinesis and the Basingstoke Project

"Labyrinth of Commerce", acrylic on canvas, 50 x 70 cm

Artikinesis is a new artist's collective. Our new collective.