ART at Newday #ND18

15/8/2018

I spent the first week of this month working as the artist in residence for Newday Youth Festival. Serving on their large Creative team alongside awesome film makers, photographers, graphic designers and social media specialists. I thought I'd share with you what I was up to.

photo credit: David Sorley

There were over 7000 people at Newday this year, camping at Norfolk Showground. Part of my role was giving visual art support to the team, this included updating signage and site decoration.

ART INSTALLATION

In the afternoons I invited delegates to interact with a 3 stage art installation on the main concourse. Pieces made from countless thumb prints of all ages entitled 'True Identity' sparked easy conversations about where we find our sense of identity.

15 hours of LIVE ART

The highlight of my week was getting to paint live outside the Big Top where the whole camp gathered each evening for the main meetings. Eight foot OSB plywood boards (one for each of the 6 nights) were secured around 2 trees.

photo credit: Alisa Gill

Below are the six abstract paintings I created and some images of the details. The theme for the week was TRUTH, so each board was based on a different bible passage about truth. To read the explanations of the pictures and/or to buy a poster print – click on each image (which will link you to my Etsy shop).

PROFITS DONATED

ALL PROFITS from the sale of my posters will be DONATED to the Newday offering:
'Power the Fight' - a charity “Empowering Communities To End Youth Violence”
and to church planting in a variety of countries.
Posters are £20 (A3) & £30 (A2)

ART PROCESS

I've never painted on OSB plywood before so needed to learn as I worked. They provided a lovely texture that sometimes worked for me and sometimes against my techniques!
For each painting I had decided upon a base colour and I learnt to apply this by flicking the paint straight from the bottles or troweling it on using a squeegee. I then followed by spraying with water and moving the paint across the surface with a kitchen sponge.
After this I used a variety of techniques

Squirting the paint into my hands and wiping it/mixing it onto the surface directly
Spray paint or sponge painting using various stencils (stickers and paper plates)
Flicking, dribbling, thumb prints, water spray - adaptations of my normal techniques

Each evening I would begin with a sketchbook page with my base colour, the concepts/main inspiration written and general plan of techniques/patterns/colours that I felt would help communicate the theme of the piece. Apart from a vague idea of composition I didn't generally know what the final image would look like. I displayed a laminated title and strap-line.
As the week progressed I had an increasing following of delegates who learnt how and why I work as I do and quickly learnt to anticipate my next moves and ask informed questions, turning to the right page of my sketchbook they would ask about the meaning of today's base colour, how I would use fluorescents this time and how I would include my trademark circles.