The James Holliday Retrospective.

I love chaos, but i wouldn't like my plates dirty.

These are some images of my studio with the most current work in. Place is very important to me, I need a space that I can feel at ease in; this is invariably in a state of chaos.

Collection of drawings made on the train. 31/11/2009.

This is a series of drawings that I made on the between Winchester and London and London and Northampton. The drawings come from an old idea I had, of catching movement and containing the energy of that movement/moment. I have always been interested in the views on a train because they are so momentary that capturing them, is probably impossible. My attempt at doing this, is to draw everything I see, on-top of previous marks, until there is a collection of seemingly abstract marks made but within this lies some evidence of figuration.

Selection of new works, 5th Oct. - 26th Oct. 2009

This selection of new drawings were made in response to me finding a theme to focus my work around. I produced 50 in 2 days and worked of off instinct and sponteneity. I find it interesting how certain themes became apparent as the drawings progressed, these were entirely subconcious.

The sculpture was made to capture the movement of fabric by casting it in plaster, I was holding it as it moved but also taking away it's movement. It was destroyed in order to allow a new construction to be formed.

Difficult difficult, lemon difficult.

Making paintings isn't the walk in the park many assume. I seem to find myself ploughing through paintings at a fairly fast pace but I'm not convinced that they have any relevance and if they were done or not my practice would neither progress or digress. This could of course be nonsense and they may well be important. All I can rely on is time and patience, I suppose that when work comes so easily and readily I do not trust it. If the process of a painting does not have problems I find it hard to believe I have done it well. Relying on stress to push myself further is what has been the driving force in the past but I am not sure what to rely on now, instinct perhaps? Sporadic mark making?

Selection of sculpted paintings: 2009.

This is work the I created throughout my first year, the majority of which was done towards the end of the year. This collection attempts to create a haze between the boundaries surrounding and between painting and sculpture, a theme I am still working with. What is evident in this collection, is the power of the sculpture, an almost overbearing presence. This element of the works, is what I am least satisfied with and something I am now trying to amend.

In these works, I have used a selection of materials. The canvas, as it were, is mostly rusted metal, which has beautiful colour and texture, as if a paint created by time. I have used oil paints with which I mixed sand to create further textures, onto this in two pieces, I have poured melted wax, creating a screen underneath which the ghost of the painting comes through. This notion of hiding the painting, or making it barely visible is one that has interested me for some time. On the staircase piece, I was using very thin paint which was barely visible, there is some evidence of this but the paint is mostly hidden by large areas of white emulsion paint.

The Importance of Being Painting.

As part of an art world that is embracing technology and it's incredible advances we need to be careful not to forget the esscence of our world. This comes down to two things that more often than not go hand in hand; drawing and painting. Rudementary skills in an art school but ones that seem to be percieved as less and less important in the world outside of our art schools, forgive me for generalising.
This is something that I first became aware of in my first year of my degree, painting apparently comes with an attached prejudice or stigma, the suggestion being that if you are a 19/20 year old painting student then you clearly do not know about the art world. I say this from personal experience; my uncle, a sculpture, asked which pathway I would choose, I replied painting, he sniggered. Now, why is it, that the very thing the art world owes everything to, is the same thing that is very quietly being nugged out of fashion? I hold no grudges towards video makers or performers, I am by no means a Stuckist - fuck you Slade interviewers - but no video artist would have gone to art school or shown a real interest in art if they could not paint or draw.
There also seems to be a stigma attached to the subjects you choose to paint, if a painter paints portraits, in a straight quite matter of fact way, they are considered unintellegent, but when did intellegence become the driving force behind making a painting. Of course, intelligence does play a role but so do emotional responses - thanks to James Harris - and if ones emotional response is to their family then that is just as valid as a video exploring light transmissions or a performance exposing the rage of an anxty art student. Why must we feel this great need to analyse so deeply, to point out floors, 'that's been done'. I am not atall innocent, I have my moments where I am incredibly condescending towards paintings, if you do straight portraiture then fantastic but don't rely on it without exploring, anyway I'm going off topic.
Painting is key to art, is always has been, from the beginning with Brunelesci and Giotto, through Rembandt, Monet, Manet, up to Bacon, Rothko, Auerbach, the list could go on but it would lose the point. Of course, there is the small issue of context, that old bastard that has the abilty to ruin ones argument, if Rembrandt had Imovie would he have painted? Well, who the fuck knows, he didnt't and for the better in my mind. But the point I am trying to make, terribly unsuccesfully, is that painting is still just as important as anything else that comes out of art schools, walk around Frieze, I think I saw 3 videos, this bizarre stigma we get for uttering the phrase 'I am a painter' is one that art schools need to get out of there system because eventually videos will be old and we shan't be able to enjoy them as we do now because we'll have to enjoy something else and making a video will be unintelligent. One day, when I'm rotting in a studio my internet might pop up with a blog of a student who still believes in video but is sick of the stigma it has.

Thanks for reading, sorry for keeping you.
James.