This is my son Oliver and my submission for the 2022 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
The theme called for was ‘climate’ and we thought we’d hit a winner with this work.
Unfortunately, not and we would really like to know why.
Taking a sheet of black card I painted the clouds, moon, and waves and undersea.
MDF formed the books which I painted the covers on.
The dollar yacht is a real US dollar.
The melting pages represent ice with the last book calving into the warm water. The pages were made with jesomite and folded up card was impressed into the wet jesomite to form the pages. Painted on top.
The sand at the seabed was taken from the New Forest Beaulieu Estate Park Shore beach (thank you Lord Montagu).
So – refused for the RA Summer Exhibition. We ought really to set up a ‘salon des refuses’ for those works we consider should have been selected but not.
Over to Etsy for prints and tea towels – what this space.
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
Art-Tales is a magazine blog site following the journeys and reflections through the art world of artist, sketcher, art historian and critic Al Beckett.
Merely to amuse, inform and entertain, Art-Tales is aimed at people who simply wish to dip a toe into the art world, share an insight, smile at a joke and maybe even be informed a little.
Al regularly visits the major galleries in the UK and whenever possible, mainland Europe and the USA. He keeps up to date by subscribing to many periodicals, viewing documentaries and the news in general.
Al paints and sculpts himself and frequently sketches in-situ. He has written a book ‘The Primacy of Your Eye’ designed to give people some insights to enhance their experiences in galleries. Fully illustrated with 400 sketches and drawings of major art works and their artists, the book takes the reader on a journey through topics to perhaps consider enriching the viewing experience.
To many, the art world is daunting, to others it holds little interest. A gentle submersion at a depth to suit the individual can produce rich and rewarding results.
That’s the purpose of Art-Tales.