Blue Moon.

'Blue Moon'

Manchester NYE 2009

© edward chadwick 2009

It's far too late to be uttering 'Happy New Year' - The season for such merriment has been & gone, despite all best intentions & resolutions made back in September, it's been without doubt a bleak season for the blog.  So why the lengthy silence? For now I'll blame a hefty workload for the distraction incurred over the last quarter, times in the gallery were better than expected over the festive season with plenty of activity & new work cropping up to tempt folks with.  It was definitely a season of hard work but of riotous times too, it would be remiss not to mention certain nights spent in Common Bar with a fine crowd of pals being the particular highlights.

Over the well earned break I got out into the wilds with the cameras, shooting snowy landscapes, frozen streams & spectacular skies.  It was good to do, an odd respite trudging though powder lugging a heavy tripod, but strangely, satisfyingly contemplative & rewarding.  Already, new photographic projects are appearing in my mind as well as dusting off some long dormant creative streams.

And now, here we are, halfway through January 2010 & there's something in the air & I'm not refering to the over-generous amounts of frozen precipitation that have been dumped on us over the past month or so!  Change feels like it's just around the corner, well into my second week back at the gallery, a serious bout of the new year blues are only just starting to lift. Things are afoot, everyone I speak to is bursting with enthusiastic optimism for my mooted plans.  An opportunity has arisen, bigger & hopefully better things are up for consideration, but part of me is reluctant to move away from the current scenario, unwilling to take the gamble & commit to a leap of faith into the unknown - I did it 7 years ago without a second thought - youthful optimism perchance?  Why not now, what do I do? Stay safe or throw caution to the wind & go for it?

I've set my deadline for the end of January. Another year here or a new year there?

Time will out.

Spellbound.

Crimpolenes Poster 2009

Saturday at the gallery was somewhat overshadowed by the prospective excitement of the evening ahead, it was good however, to sell a couple of pieces to some appreciative customers.  Time duly served, a dash was made for the sticks, a swift bacon sandwich was consumed before a brief show of face was made at a garden party, Guinness & Cava seemed like a good idea, but proved to be a more than peculiar combination.

By 8 p.m, the Chadwick tour bus arrived and haste was made to get a good seat in 'The Lion', the Golden Pippin flowed, The Crimpolenes were, as ever, faultless.  Good friends arrived & joined in the fun, requests & encores were made & all too soon it was homeward bound.  An extended Whiskey nightcap was indulged in despite disappointment at the lack of Siouxsie & the Banshees on the old iPod.

The Buy Art Fair approaches at a distinct rate of knots, I've made the decision to show some of my black & white silver gelatines - partly I think as a little antidote to all the digital malarky I seem to indulge in these days.  I just need to root through some nice big negatives & decide on a theme.  I also need to design my 2010 calendar & think about Christmas at the gallery - perhaps even a re-paint if I have the time.

Better get on....

Autumn Leaves.

'Summer Oranges'

Rochdale 2009

© edward chadwick 2009

This morning dawned a blustery affair.  Over breakfast, contemplating the traffic chaos of the day before, strangely coincidental with the return of the kids to school, a decision was made to take a slightly more scenic route to work, hopefully avoiding the furore that seems to go hand in hand with the school run round our parts.

Thus a little Fiat splashed its way down a pretty back road, made all the more spectacular as a brief shaft of sun burst through the clouds and illuminated a huge Chestnut in all its orange tinged glory! Yes, the leaves really have started to turn, so I guess that really does signify the start of Autumn. Such was the intensity of the leaves it put me in mind of an outing back in the slightly warmer climes of June when a visit was made to a park in Rochdale to view a similar Chestnut graced with a host of Oranges, fruits in this instance, albeit knitted ones, a stunning piece of yarnbombing created by ArtYarn as part of the Knitted Nature project with Touchstones Rochdale.

As September progresses at a brisk clip, plans are afoot choosing pieces to show on the stand at the forthcoming Buy Art Fair hosted at Urbis in Manchester.  Current favourites in the running are some large format black & white abstract pieces, however some of my more obscure colour work is also vying for attention, decisions...

In other news, at the weekend a couple of gents shaved 2 whole hours off their annual 'round the hills' ramble and the forthcoming weekend promises an audience with a good pal, a certain Mr Liam Spencer and his band of reprobates 'The Crimpolenes' - heady times await...

Summer's Closing.

Cancale

France 2009

© edward chadwick 2009

Well, that was quite a break from the bloggery!  Many apologies, perhaps it's just not something that appeals to me as a Summer activity.  Now that the weather's started to turn, the evenings drawing in ever closer I've had the urge for a couple of weeks to fire this up again and it's seemingly taken that long to actually remember the password to get in here!

The Summer seems to have passed in a flurry, it seems only two minutes since I was planting out my rows of beans, potatoes, onions and other assorted vegetable treatery at Chadwick Towers.  Now I'm down to the last of the courgettes and a raft of garlic that appears reluctant to bulb, everything else has been cropped, eaten, pickled or put into deep storage in the infamous cellar.  Even the Elderflower cordial has run dry.

Work wise, we're just limbering up to busier times. Calendars need to be designed, new work printed and exciting shoots completed. Look forward to more regular updates as Autumn unfurls.

Lighter Nights.

Jane Blease Light Box

Manchester 2009

© edward chadwick 2009

Over the last week or so there's been a real sense of spring in the air, balmy days have become more frequent and the bulbs are starting to nose upwards in the pots.  There's a real sense of seasonal change just around the corner and it's seen a renewed surge of activity in the Chadwick camp.

Cellars have been tidied, neglected projects kickstarted and the vegetable patch has been dug and tilled to perfection.  The Spring Equinox was welcomed in with spirited style, some neighbourliness by a pair of gents with a box of cheap plonk was a precursor to the newly arranged bottles in the cellar having a bit of a purge.  Two or maybe three choice bottles were liberated and quaffed in a celebratory style, the talk was of Summer bonfires and long walks up in the mountains and a 3a.m finish was cantered to with ease!  The following morning whilst rattling to work on the train in a slightly hazy reverie, I was rudely jolted back to reality by a barrage of brisk correspondence from a cheeky chum. On her way to NYC, and only too eager to relate first class flying, concorde lounging, bucks fizz quaffing activities in a most excitable manner, the swine!

But hey! I'm not envious in any way... I can derive my pleasures relocating my raspberry canes!  Workwise, things have been a little quiet at the studio, commissions have been done and are gracing the walls rather nicely while they await collection.  It's also been an absolute pleasure to do a small shoot for my pal and frankly fabulous lighting designer Jane Blease, it's not often I do product work these days but when the product is something special it can be very rewarding indeed.

With lighter nights nearly upon us, I can't wait to spend more time in the garden, riding the hills on my bike, or tinkering with some machinery if I'm ever allowed to buy that Lotus.... Sssshhh...

Arts & Crafts.

Blackwell House 

Cumbria 2009

©  edward chadwick 2009

  The week was a bit of a whirlwind with some important ethical decisions having to be made both in terms of my own practice and attempts to implement of a jot fairness in a particularly convoluted financial affair. So it was nice to escape for a fine day out in the Lakes come the weekend.  

By 10:30 on  Sunday morning a Fiat 500 was hoving its merry way up the M6, the morning coffee fixture coincided neatly with a service station stop and to my delight a surprisingly smooth latte was procured along with some soft fruits to help the journey along.  After exercising some blind faith in my role of navigator, we arrived at our destination just in time for lunch.  Blackwell House was the venue, a quirky Arts & Crafts pile with a stunning interior, lots of nooks and crannies to explore and some particularly choice wood panelling to be investigated, primarily in the quest for secret passages.  Outside there was a definite sense of spring in the air, the sun beaming down, I dallied for quite some time in the garden, exploring the oddly proportioned exterior and reveling in capturing some fine detailing with my trusty old 20D.  After a drop more coffee and a delightful slice of chocolate & black pepper Panforte it was time to head for home, excited to catch the last of the day getting the vegetable patch in order.

The less said about the 'Capture Manchester' debacle the better I think, in this instance.  Suffice to say it was regrettable to have to decline the prize and withdraw from the exhibition, but sometimes it's important to retain the high standards which have been striven for over the past few years of running my own show.  Sometimes tough decisions have to be made for the greater good and this was one of them, along with a few others this week that have yet to come to fruition, hopefully before it's too late. 

In an Instant.

Just a quickie, a little heads up for the forthcoming program of exhibitions at Touchstones Rochdale.  I thought it was only right after they graciously accepted two of my pieces to be included in the forthcoming 'Instant' exhibition.  A celebration of Polaroid instant film photography in all its wonderful permutations, an eclectic mix of this now virtually non-existent and often underrated medium, so well worth a visit if that's what floats your boat.

The opening is on a Saturday, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to escape my commitments at the studio, but I'm going to try my best to get on down. It promises to be an interesting show.

In other news, I won an award in the 'Capture Manchester' competition, which as we go to press, I'm on the verge of handing back, but more on that in the next installment....

Cripes!