I get your point about grants and stuff but there are so many galleries in Kernow and so few shops where locals (and tourists I suppose) can buy 'normal' stuff like groceries, shoes, clothes for kids etc that it galls me to think of any more cropping up. Galleries instead of mobile phone shops, estate agents and pund shops is a bit of a 'rock and a hard place' scenario for me.
Hmmm .. well, I do see your point there. But people don't run shops with groceries, clothes etc 'cos there's not enough money in him, and there won't be until there are more people with more cash. And to get them, you need the sort of stuff that makes cash, which means either some huge pie factory (No thank you) or fairly useless stuff like galleries, which could at least offer some sort of community facility - there's a very nice little gallery in St Lunaire in Brittany that runs art classes for the local primary school as well as selling fancy picture to tourists.
But now we're back to the Great Cornish Whinge, and I din't mean to go there. About turn ...
From the four pictures on that link to Mr S's work posted somewhere up above, I thought the rainbow thing sucked but that I'd pay good money for 'D.I.E'. And I like the idea that you can have characters like him and Nick Williams ( http://www.artonomy.co.uk/nicholaswilliams/recentwork.htm ) working in the same county.
Is a 'good' painting just about skill, though? Isn't there something about just 'how much does this image strike me'?
Not totally, of course not, but comparing Nick Williams' work to Swiftie's is like comparing a Mozart symphony with a toddler smashing randomly on a pull-along xylophone.
Isn't it more like comparing Mozart to ... pause while he tried to think of someone trendy to disguise his age ... any damn dance single of the last five years, all samples and stolen phrases? Fatboy Slim, perhaps? After all, his computer's doing the beat, other musicians and other composers have performewd and written all the tunes ... where's the skill in that? And yet the results are new and pleasing to many ears.
I should add that my mother was a painter, and kept my brother and me in ill-fitting clothes thanks to painting miniature seascapes. She really didn't paint like Swifty one little bit - but she'd have been a big fan.
'There aren't many galleries in Newquay' - happily that's not where I am, Newky and me don't really get on. But perhaps it's a north coast thing; I do realise St Ives is in a rather different position.
But, to venture dangerously close to the area I said I'd stay away from, developing a cultural identity is well on the way to developing a National one. And developing a cultural identity means having all the venues and outlets that allow contact and exchange with cultural activity. So a gallery that intended to show home-grown work would be of benefit to more than just the owner and the artists. Or so it seems to me.
I agree with all you say so far 48 (apart from the needing more galleries per se) - what irks me is the assumption that if you don't like a particular modern aritst then it's either because you don't understand it, are a daily mail reader (wtf) or a craftsperson selling rainbow hats. There's defintely room for all sorts in the art world IMO but I can't abide the snobbery that goes along with it sometimes. Maybe my own situation does contribute to how I feel as I'm fed up with being patronised and called 'crafts' person as if I'm some kind of poor realtion when in actual fact my work uses the same design decisions as any painter and is skilled and probably takes an awful lot longer than one of swifties paintings.
BTW - to relate back to one of your earlier questions one of my favourite artists is Frida Kahlo and some of her paintings might look like they're painted by a child but her life story makes the paintings powerful. Actually she's probably a bad example but do you see what I'm trying to say.
eta - someone on another forum has just referred to 2 of my pieces as 'works of art' - not sure how I feel about that after this conversation
Yo Flamm (see how down with the kids I is) yes, some is written well - and some is essentially computer-generated. Or how about the Lascaux cave paintings? They're pretty low-level in terms of execution, and yet ...
Good for yer Grandad: a damn fine hobby. And I dare say he would've hated Swiftie's work. My Grandfather would've given it pretty short treatment too, but he preferred his version of the Haywain that had a clock in it, so I wouldn't put too much into that.
Cledry, m'dear: I know that TonT rather leapt on a passing assumption as soon as the two of you didn't react well to his bringing said Swiftie up. And yes, his dismissal of your work and of craft fairs in general was a cheap shot - more worthy of me than him.
Perhaps some of the difficulty is that it's hard not to sound poncey when talking about art: it is, to quote someone called Adrian Belew, like 'whistling about chickens' - language isn't really up to it sometimes.
Frida Kahlo, eh? I was recently in Argentina (work thing, I travel as much as a lost DHL parcel) and they've one or two people who paint like that - perhaps it's a South American/Catholic thing, to be brought up amongst so much colour and plain speaking. You'd never get a Dutch painter working like that, would you ...
In that case, damn her eyes! To hell with practicality!
I spent a long time at art college (funnily enough, I didn't fail my 'A' levels but I went anyway) and did all kinds of strange stuff - but I've never made a hat. Never too late, I suppose ...
Yeah man, know what I mean innit? Is it because I is Cornish?
The Lascaux cave paintings are superb...they are probably the pinnacle of talent and sophistication for the time. I dread to think what the Swifties of the time were producing...
I would at this point do that 'flicky flicky' thing where you wave yer hand and make that clicking noise - but I make enough clicking noises just by moving about a bit, so that'll have to do.
Certainly Lascaux must've been cutting-edge at the time (not to mention our maze carvings in Rocky Valley, of course) and things have moved on with techniques - but they're still very affecting as images, despite being done by stone-age hooligans busy tagging the cave, whilst wearing hoody bearskins. Bloody kids ...
There's something about the integrity of an effective picture, somethign about the intention that informs it, that overrides any technical questions. Rouseau, perhaps? I think his stuff's wonderful, but I'd have to concede that he couldn't draw for toffee.
edit: 'Is it because I is Cornish' really ought to be on a T shirt. On a S. Pirin's flag background. Class.
I'm glad that this thread has taken a new turn and got some new input.
I'm sorry for the outburst this morning, couldn't help it... too late now though.
48Crash, you said you'd seen the three images on that page where it say's Swiftie's real name is daryl waller but did you go the the other site as well? winterdrawings.com there a bunch of stuff there also. I also found darylwaller.com... pretty sure it's the same person, looks like he can draw to me. I also liked the idea you spoke of with that gallery that did work shops for children, it would be good if the artists could give workshops, is this what happens?
Vitreous, you made some great comments on your post, I can't believe I missed his exhibition, I will indeed seek out the next one and join your mailing list asap.
Frida Kahlo is an amazing artist, this we can agree on. I saw her exhibition at the Tate Modern a while back, amazing at the small scale of the work and how it kept its power still.
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