art-beat

 

​A bit about art-beat, the shop and good causes   February 2021

 

art-beat​

 

Hello, and why

Welcome to www.art-beat.co.uk, home to photographs of selected drawings, paintings and cartoons I've done over the years, from the mid-70s to-date. The main objective has been to bring them together in one place and facilitate access by a wider audience than family and friends, adding new material as and when. Rarely linked to any of the art work, a blog reflects mostly random observations, plus more organised commentary on 101 Covid-19 bike trips, (more on which later). Also included are paintings by my dear and much missed brother, Nicholas, (see later). An online shop was an afterthought, as I'll explain shortly.

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Dust and cobwebs

Finding all of my drawings and paintings involved a lot of digging around in various locations. Some of the older material was rescued from dark, dusty and sometimes damp or cobwebbed corners in family attics, garages and cupboards, and in a few cases unfortunately it shows. Once I felt reasonably confident I'd  gathered most, if not all of them together, I embarked on a self-inflicted cull where I weighed them all up, new and old, for either inclusion here, or a return to obscurity. I estimate that put paid to over half, leaving about 200 to photograph and upload onto this website. As for cartoons I didn't count them, but I reckon they outnumber drawings and paintings. In any event, they too were subjected to "weeding", with not dissimilar results. Clearly a subjective process, I’d not be surprised if you found yourself rubbing your eyes at some of the pictures I decided not to reject.

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Apart from art

I feel the need to explain a couple of particularly "quiet" periods where I managed to produce staggeringly few, if any, drawings, paintings or cartoons. First was the four or so years between 1975 and 1980, immediately after my year-long Art Foundation Course at Stafford Art College where I didn't exactly push on in the world of art. Instead I spent the following 15 months employed as a Trainee Accountant, (naturally), at Evode in Stafford where, despite the lovely team and people, I couldn't see my future. Still only 20 years of age a friend and I agreed we'd get away and do something different, arranging to spend some time living and working on a kibbutz in Israel. I think it's fair to say we both worked and played hard during our time there. Returning home (to Stafford) a year later, this almost completely artless period concluded with about 18 months working at GEC as a Computer Operator. Proving to be the start of a frankly unexpected but largely enjoyable and fulfilling career in IT, I then relocated to London where, in my spare time (or some of it), I rediscovered an appetite for drawing and painting. My second "artistic lull" followed about ten years later, and at about 18 years in length from the late 80s to the mid-noughties, was rather longer. During this time I was lucky enough to get married and become a proud dad to two daughters. They've been grown up a while now, which combined with my retirement in August 2018, left me with more spare time. 

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A shout for my daughters, and Mick and John

This site was built towards the end of 2019 into 2020 using the Wix website editor. Much of the content pre-dates it, having previously appeared in three now moth-balled Google blogs. The decision to migrate from that free but limited set-up to something more sophisticated was based largely upon encouragement and support from my daughters Zoë and Caitlin, and friends including Mick Gorton and John Royle. As a consequence of access to richer functionality I was able to make significant improvements, including  what I hope is user-friendly navigation and a better all round user experience. It's also much easier for me to maintain. My thanks then to those named above for their interest and generously giving their time.

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Talking of navigation ...

Regardless of the device you are using, the Home page displays a horizontal, narrow grey squiggle (aka "String Theory") spanning the top of the screen which provides continuity, and connection via a link, with and to the shop. Beneath this are displayed examples of website content by way of five images: three linking to main categories "Drawings & Paintings", "Cartoons" and "Nicholas", the first two of which offer drop-down lists of sub-categories; and two linking to "Latest" and a randomly selected sub-category. Alternative navigation is available by selecting from a list of main categories which, on a desktop computer, appear in a horizontal row sandwiched between the aforementioned squiggle and five images; and on a smartphone via a standard navigation bar in the top right corner of the screen. Use this method if you want to see "About", "Shop" and "Blog". Just to add that on selection "Drawings and Paintings" can be viewed by "Theme" rather than the (roughly) reverse chronological order default.

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Nicholas

Pictures appear here drawn / painted by my late brother during weekly sessions with the art group at New Direction in Stafford. He received excellent support from staff there, including Kim Walker, and derived a great deal of satisfaction from being involved in the creation of an end product that he could take home and show to his Mum, family and friends. R.I.P. Nicholas, who passed away on July 12th 2021. 

 

A few words of warning

Fingers crossed some cartoons raise a smile, though a groan may be more likely. Apologies if you find any to be wince-inducing, although at least that's a reaction! If you find yourself laughing at any of my drawings or paintings that's not so great, though to be fair you might be looking at my attempt at a self portrait.

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Blog

The 101 Covid-19 bike trips touched upon earlier spawned "A Hundred and One Little Histories", which mainly comprises observations and photographs relating to notable historical figures, buildings, locations and events associated with the S. W. area of London. I've tried to keep it light, and extract humour where I could find it. I'm hoping to get it into a state where I can self-publish some day. See December 2024 update below for the latest.  

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"No painting is ever finished, it is merely abandoned"

Replace the word "painting" with "poem" and you have the quote I heard from poet John Cooper Clarke in an interview in 2018, conceding an inclination to rework or tweak parts of old poems before recitals. In my own way I find it applies to my approach to drawing and painting. It can be so hard to know when to stop, especially where painting is involved. Being a weakness I recognise I tend to take photographs of paintings as I go along, and it's not unusual for me to look back and feel a photograph perhaps three or four back from the "finished article" is where I should have stopped, (some examples appear on this website). I should add that a number of other people are credited with the aforementioned quote, or similar, including Leonardo Da Vinci.

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Shop

 

Background​

Blow me down! Late afternoon on January 18th 2021 I became a shopkeeper, of sorts, when the art-beat online shop opened on Redbubble. Formed in Melbourne, Australia in 2006, I'm one of over 700,000 so-called independent artists who share their work there.

 

Discomfort at the prospect of inviting anyone, especially friends and family, to spend money on my artwork was an obstacle for me. I finally overcame it when I set it against the idea of donating all earnings to charity, (see Good Causes later). Then concerns that had featured when building my own art-beat website resurfaced, arguably more acutely, in the form of image quality, consistency and customer satisfaction. Image quality is down to me. I thought the drawing and painting was the hard bit, but there's so much involved in getting the photography right: good lighting is so important, and harder to achieve than I thought. I've also learned more about photo editing software. Fortunately for me aforementioned friends Mick and John know a thing or two about photography, as well as building and maintaining web-sites, and again helped out. I think it's fair to say without their involvement this web-site would be considerably poorer, and the online shop wouldn't exist. 

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Early days, and thinking ahead

Not every picture I add to art-beat makes it onto Redbubble - some work better than others for reproduction there. Of those that do, each can be reproduced on a variety of products including posters, T-shirts, mugs, shower curtains, face-masks, badges ... good grief, and more! In light of a growing awareness that simplicity of design is more likely to attract a sale, and recognising my initially overly enthusiastic contribution to the online shop, I definitely feel (yet another) cull coming on whereby fewer but more shop-friendly images will remain there. I’d like to add that while eligibility / suitability of a picture, or an idea for a picture for the shop is a consideration for new material, it is rarely my main goal. This said, it can and has steered me towards new and enjoyable work that otherwise I may not have produced, a recent example being sporting  silhouettes which led to around fifty drawings, some of which I’m pleased to say have sold.

 

Sales

Sales are, erm, steady, with annual turnover after deducting Redbubble's 80% (more on this in a moment) almost matching the dizzy heights of my earnings as a 16 year old paper boy. It's interesting to me, however, what sells, and where. Most popular (a relative term) are cartoons printed on T-shirts, hoodies, posters and stickers, though some so-called serious work has been sold too, including on stationary. Most frequent shipping destinations are the USA, Germany, Belgium, UK and Australia. Bigger sales would be nice of course, especially with charity in mind, but I've never been in it for the money.

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Back to that 80%. It's the minimum Redbubble take of any given sale on their website, by default. This baulked at first, but turns out to be pretty standard across the industry, and all products relating to art-beat are set at this figure. To be fair to Redbubble they run the business, provide the infrastructure and the products, process customer requests and handle deliveries and any returns. I should add the artist is at liberty to increase the price of a given product, but I feel that's as likely to reduce sales as improve turnover. 

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You may be interested to know when a sale is made the first a given artist knows about it is when they receive an email from Redbubble, on the same day, confirming as much. It'll identify the item / product, the size and the shipping destination. So the artist will know, for example, that an XL T-shirt with a print showing an errant whippet being corralled (or not) by a couple of blokes on bikes was bought by, or for, a large person. The buyer's name and / or contact details are withheld, and remain that way unless he / she chooses to contact the artist directly. If you bought something from the art-beat shop on Redbubble please know I'm grateful, but unable to offer my thanks personally. 

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Good Causes

Any money made, (that 20%), is and will be shared equally between four charities that were close to Mum's heart, namely the aforementioned New Directions in Stafford; Riding for the Disabled in Ingestre; Oak Tree Farm Rural Project near Stone for people with learning difficulties;  and last but not least, OakLea House Residential Care Home in Tittensor. All were hugely important parts of Nicholas' life, and remain so for others like him, as creative and social outlets, and for enriching their lives as well as those of their families and carers. ​​​