Is it time for the art world to stop being so wet?
Joseph Anthony Connor: 11 /11/14
We all have dreams. But do we follow them. I decided to follow mine two years ago and became a successful artist leading a new genre in outdoor art. It started well, and now it has become challenging...
In 2012, I realised I loved and missed two things: the outdoors and art. Conducting both at the same time had hitherto been difficult: using drinking water to paint and transporting wet artwork off a mountain is undesirable. Then I discovered one can paint well outside on an Ipad and I started to paint and publish digital art via Twitter (as @jacswork). In 2013, The Global Lumen Prize judges put me in the Top 100 digital artists, and I began teaching digital landscape art at the V&A. This year has been amazing. As a digital artist I entered the BBC/Arts Council's flagship digital art competition TheSpace, and took third place with ‘Glass House’ at the Tate Modern event. In September 2014, the UK government gave a copy of my work to 61 world leaders. The Royal Academy subsequently confirmed that this is the first state gift of art that they are aware of. In November I had the great honour to be asked to the V&A to present how John Constable would have painted with and Ipad to 150 guests in the Rubens Hall. In 2015, the fabulous presenter Derek Brockway is going to feature my practice in his BBC series ‘Weatherman Walking’. So, as you will gather, all is well with me.
But all is not well with another dream I have. An insurmountable problem appears to loom over my aspiration to encourage more young people to paint outside on digital devices. This is that the majority of the art world (which is driven by Visual Art Schools) do not understand ‘digital art’ as a practice that can lead to fine art. To a certain degree I can understand their perspective: as awareness of the practice, and the number of benchmarks is low in public conciousness. For example, in the mobile digital landscape world, apart from myself, Andrew Marr (the TV presenter and writer) and of course David Hockney, there are currently no artists who paint outdoors on an Ipad and publish landscape work on a weekly basis and have a public profile. It also appears the arts schools are also reluctant to feature the practice: as fine digital art paintings are not generally seen in public and seldom in galleries that feature 'wet media artists'.
Given the paucity of digital landscape artists I decided to encourage people to compare my work against traditional wet media art. To this end I have been working with Fountain Fine Art in Cardiff: one of Wales' leading promoters of Welsh Landscape Art. Fountain Fine Art has pieces from my #400in14 series in its Winter Show until 31 December 2014. These appear alongside Wales’ best traditional landscape artists. Please go visit it. When you attend the Gallery, ask to see my work. You may then find it useful to ask Richard (the owner) to help you compare these to others on show. A good question to ask yourself in a gallery is: if money was no object, which object would you take home. If it is one of my paintings then maybe it is time for the art world to stop being so wet?
Any and all feedback is welcome.
Joseph
Background of Fountain Fine Art
The Winter Exhibition lasts from 8/11/14 - 31/12/14 at
Location: Fountain Fine Art, 6-8 Morgan Arcade, Cardiff, Wales, CF10 1AF. (5 minutes for Cardiff Central Railway Station)
Open: Tuesday - Saturday 10:30am - 5.00pm
Some of my art on show
We all have dreams. But do we follow them. I decided to follow mine two years ago and became a successful artist leading a new genre in outdoor art. It started well, and now it has become challenging...
In 2012, I realised I loved and missed two things: the outdoors and art. Conducting both at the same time had hitherto been difficult: using drinking water to paint and transporting wet artwork off a mountain is undesirable. Then I discovered one can paint well outside on an Ipad and I started to paint and publish digital art via Twitter (as @jacswork). In 2013, The Global Lumen Prize judges put me in the Top 100 digital artists, and I began teaching digital landscape art at the V&A. This year has been amazing. As a digital artist I entered the BBC/Arts Council's flagship digital art competition TheSpace, and took third place with ‘Glass House’ at the Tate Modern event. In September 2014, the UK government gave a copy of my work to 61 world leaders. The Royal Academy subsequently confirmed that this is the first state gift of art that they are aware of. In November I had the great honour to be asked to the V&A to present how John Constable would have painted with and Ipad to 150 guests in the Rubens Hall. In 2015, the fabulous presenter Derek Brockway is going to feature my practice in his BBC series ‘Weatherman Walking’. So, as you will gather, all is well with me.
But all is not well with another dream I have. An insurmountable problem appears to loom over my aspiration to encourage more young people to paint outside on digital devices. This is that the majority of the art world (which is driven by Visual Art Schools) do not understand ‘digital art’ as a practice that can lead to fine art. To a certain degree I can understand their perspective: as awareness of the practice, and the number of benchmarks is low in public conciousness. For example, in the mobile digital landscape world, apart from myself, Andrew Marr (the TV presenter and writer) and of course David Hockney, there are currently no artists who paint outdoors on an Ipad and publish landscape work on a weekly basis and have a public profile. It also appears the arts schools are also reluctant to feature the practice: as fine digital art paintings are not generally seen in public and seldom in galleries that feature 'wet media artists'.
Given the paucity of digital landscape artists I decided to encourage people to compare my work against traditional wet media art. To this end I have been working with Fountain Fine Art in Cardiff: one of Wales' leading promoters of Welsh Landscape Art. Fountain Fine Art has pieces from my #400in14 series in its Winter Show until 31 December 2014. These appear alongside Wales’ best traditional landscape artists. Please go visit it. When you attend the Gallery, ask to see my work. You may then find it useful to ask Richard (the owner) to help you compare these to others on show. A good question to ask yourself in a gallery is: if money was no object, which object would you take home. If it is one of my paintings then maybe it is time for the art world to stop being so wet?
Any and all feedback is welcome.
Joseph
Background of Fountain Fine Art
The Winter Exhibition lasts from 8/11/14 - 31/12/14 at
Location: Fountain Fine Art, 6-8 Morgan Arcade, Cardiff, Wales, CF10 1AF. (5 minutes for Cardiff Central Railway Station)
Open: Tuesday - Saturday 10:30am - 5.00pm
Some of my art on show