Weapon Of Choice Xmas Show!!!

Heres a few pictures of the Weapon of Choice Christmas group show I have a painting in. Its open until Sunday 10th of January so theres still time to check it out!











Photos courtesy of Chris Cummins. http://colouryum.blogspot.com/

Fruit Salad Boutique 2

Here's a couple of photos from the show I had a drawing in recently in Berlin called Fruit Salad Boutique 2. The drawing is around a4 size and done in felt tip pens! Its called Park life.















Photos courtesy of Alice Morey.
http://alicemorey-alicemorey.blogspot.com/

Weapon of Choice Xmas Show Dec 11th - Jan 10th

I have a painting in the Weapon of Choice Christmas Group Show which opens this coming Friday 11th of December and runs til Sunday 10th of January. Here's a picture of the painting...


Skeng Talk, 2009 Felt tip pens, Oil and Varnish on Calico



Weapon of Choice bring you some of the finest artist's from around the South West for this Xmas group show! In this advent calendar style exhibition, artwork can be taken away on the day of purchase, revealing a bigger mural by the artists involved on the walls behind... So arrive early or you could miss the whole show!

Featured artists include:
Jody
Lokey
Kato
Jeff Row
Acer
Inkie
Kid Zoom
Fake
45rpm
Lorenzo
Dylan Shipley
Soker
Nikill
Song
Bevlak
Cheba
Copyright
Iain Sellar
Hoekon
Flo
Danimal
James Starr
Loch Ness
Sam Barrett
+ MANY MORE!!!!

Opening preview 11th December 6-10pm. Mince pies & Mulled wine!
ongoing until the 10th of January.

Weapon of Choice Gallery
14 St Michael's Hill
Bristol, BS2 8DT

www.weaponofchoicegallery.co.uk

Art For Amnesty and Co December 5th 2009

I have a painting in an Amnesty International show at the Watershed 2 in Bristol tommorow. The show is from 2pm til 5pm and then the work is going to be auctioned off between 5pm and 9pm. Click on the picture at the bottom of the post to check out the Amnesty Bristol website. Here's some more information...

The Bristol Group of Amnesty International is proud to be hosting an art auction to to raise funds and awareness for Amnesty International, notably human rights day coming up on 10th December, and also local projects right here in Bristol. The projects involved in the auction are The Studio Upstairs, The Rainbow Centre and Bristol Refugee Rights (see below for more details). Human rights day celebrates the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and this year is focusing on 'embracing diversity and ending discrimination'.

The auction is to take place at the WATERSHED Media Centre, right in the centre of Bristol, on Saturday 5^th December. The conference rooms will be open from 2pm, where people can view all of the artwork up for auction, and the event itself will start at 5pm. All of the artwork is being donated for free so all profits will go into the fundraising pot!

The auctioneer for the night is Ed Rising from Sotheby's! With such an accomplished professional at the reigns the auction is bound to be well run and raise as much as possible for charity.

The aim is to make good quality pieces of art available for art lovers, and also provide affordable art and framed photographic prints (that just look nice!), for anyone to put in their home. It is also a good chance to pick up a bargain Christmas present. Expect the best auctioneers, celebrity art, and much more!

2 New Paintings

So I have finished two new paintings in my studio in the basement of Weapon of Choice Gallery in Bristol.Here they are...


Skeng Talk, 2009 Felt tip pens, oil and varnish on Calico.


Slime Time, 2009 Felt tip pens, oil and varnish on Calico

Photos courstesy of Batman's iphone. Also Fruit Salad Boutique 2 opens tonight in Berlin so go and check that if you're in Germany as I have a drawing included in the show, photos to come. Finally the above painting Skeng Talk will be included in the Weapon of Choice Xmas group show opening on Friday 11th of December and running for a month! Details of this to come soon too.

Fruit Salad Boutique 2, 27th Nov - 7th Dec 2009

I have a drawing in a Fruit Salad Boutique 2, at Galerie PremArts in Berlin. It starts on Friday 27th of November and runs til Monday 7th of December. Enjoy it if you're in Berlin! For more info check
http://fruitsaladboutique-fruitsaladboutique.blogspot.com/

Off The Wall, Art Sydney 2009

So my show as part of Off The Wall at Art Sydney 2009 came to an end yesterday. I met some very interesting people and it was a great experience. I even managed to sell 2 paintings!!! Anyway I won't write too much, so heres the weekend in pictures.....


Off The Wall.

My name pon de wall.

Close-up of T-shirt made by my girlfriend Lily Macclelland.

My Brother Aaron, me and our 2 cousins Rowan and Finnegan.

Detail of Collection.

The collection.

Rowan posing in front of 2 of my paintings.

Me and my little cousin Rowan (a boat).

The boys again.

Close up look.

First sale, painting titled Fist of Fury.

Second sale, painting titled Grandmother's Ruin.

My first two red dots!

2 more paintings.

T-shirt and shoes.

Me giving a short talk about my work on saturday.

Me and Chris O'Doherty aka Reg Mombassa on Sunday.

Fin.

Australia review and new paintings started!!!

So I have had a little review written about my paintings which are going be in the Off the wall Art Sydney show at the end of October. Here it is...

Sam Barrett
Sam Barrett’s sense of humour is apparent in his work too, with its images of dipsomaniac bananas, buns on legs and what appears to be a lemon enjoying a spliff. The apparent crudeness of the execution is a refreshing reminder of the need for immediacy in art and Barrett’s street wise non-craft style is a deliberate challenge to the more common academic styles of drawing and painting. I was really taken by Barrett’s work - I like its simple immediacy – and it was this quality that stood out among the field of this year’s applicants. Written by Andrew Frost

To check it on the website and see the image which goes along with the review, click HERE

Also here are two pictures of new paintings I have just started at my studio, the images aren't great quality because I took them on my camera phone but you get the idea. They are both as of yet untitled...

Exciting Times

So I have packaged up all of my paintings that I am taking to Sydney in October for the show, all ready to go!!! I am taking 12 paintings with me in total and I consider these to be my first full body off work entitled Chicken Dinner. I am starting a new set of drawings which will hopefully lead to a few new paintings maybe even a whole set?! I will upload some scans of drawings and photos of any paintings completed over the next few weeks. Check me soon...

I won my first competition!!!

In July I entered a competition called Off The Wall Art Sydney 2009. Out of 229 artists who entered I am among the winning 12 artists who have been selected to exhibit. This year’s show is at the Royal Hall of Industries, Fox Studios, Moore Park, Sydney, Australia from 22 to 25 October. I have won the chance to exhibit in their art fair, when I get more information I will post it up. You can check out their website here.

sex is disgusting

I have been featured on a blog by James Hines, a bit of writing and a few pictures up on it. The blog is called sex is disgusting, check it out. Its a little piece about my work from my recent degree show! Thanks James.

I'll be honest right now, and say the last few years worth of painting graduates from Brighton Uni have been pretty disappointing. Walking around the recent graduate shows i've noticed what can only be described as the proliferation of a house style that i can sum up rather simply, but accurately as semi-finished abstract expressionism or maybe ADD-stract expressionism. Room after room i was confronted with poorly executed, half finished canvases that look like they could have been done by one artist, not the forty or so that were actually exhibiting, and more often than not on large canvases that i suspect were a tactic employed to fool the viewer into thinking they were any good. They all looked like wall sections of a room in the middle of a indecisive diy makeover. Last year there were only two things that caught my eye (wanted to take home), one was a large glossy pink phallus-ish painting called 'Marge' by Katherine Mckenzie (i have a postcard of it on my wall), the other work i liked was Paul Griffiths' eerie portraits. This year it was the same, but there was only one name i bothered to jot down on the back of my hand - Sam Barrett. His work was a breath of fresh air, some humor and fun amongst the dreary slop of his classmates. I thought he must be a total outsider, and i wondered if his classmates thought he was mad or a simpleton even? Well obviously he's neither, he's obviously a totally rad dude. What other kind of person would paint dinosaurs skating on ramps made of slime, or flying, stoned bananas with boobs? Can i get a Dude Culture high five. Using varnishes, felt tip pens, lush coloured resins and oils the paintings become saturated to the point where you think you could almost dive in to mess around in the gloop. I confess, i did poke at a particularly rubbery looking bit of resin, i couldn't resist. Here's a few pics for you to enjoy, and you can check out more of his stuff HERE, but what you really need is to see the work in the flesh, so i hope he'll be exhibiting sometime soon. Written by James Hines.

Bristol Calling...

Having finished my degree and graduating from the University of Brighton, I have moved back home to Bristol!!! I have a studio in the basement of an amazing gallery on St. Michael's Hill called Weapon of Choice, check it out online using the link. New paintings coming soon once I am set up down there. Check me later, peas.

Four New Paintings

Here are my four newest paintings completed recently...


Red, 2009 Gloss, Varnish and Marker pens on Canvas
40cm x 50cm


Fist of Fury, 2009 Oil, Varnish and Felt tip pens on Calico
40cm x 50cm


Grandmother's Ruin, 2009 Felt tip and marker pens on Calico
40cm x 50cm


Superior Quality, 2009 Oil, Varnish and Felt tip pens on Calico
40cm x 50cm

New New ish...

I have nearly finished four new paintings as I have been using my old university studio during July. Pictures up soon, keep your eyes peeled...

Front Feature

My friend Jack Nash gave me a screen print of Kitty Lea he made from a Front magazine photograph. I attacked it with felt tip pens and we sent it to Front magazine and they featured it in the June 2009 issue. Here are some pictures of the print and the feature, check out Jack Nash's work at his myspace
www.myspace.com/dreamsarefragile