Shift

This week was better than last and it was a relief. I was able to paint two pieces that I was pleased with and that seemed to connect with viewers.

This is always a good feeling. Suddenly I see possibility before me again and have a sense of freedom. The work I hold back is the work that is wanted. It is time for me release these things again. I know this release comes and goes in stages. These two pieces are the result of this shift.

Gestural and strong, guttural and decisive, that is what the future holds. It was good to come back from being so stuck and frustrated and have these be the last two paintings of the year. I talk about the shift in this week's Tuesday Studio Video Visit. If you missed it on Facebook, here it is again.


Don't forget it you are in and around Edinburgh, I currently have two paintings at The &Gallery at 17 Dundas Street. The group exhibition, Connection is on until December 23rd, so please don't miss it! I also have paintings at the Velvet Easel Gallery in Portobello until February 25th as part of the Winters Edge exhibition. Back stateside, I have pieces on show in the Fenix Group Exhibition at the Chancellor Hotel in Fayetteville, Arkansas until January 9th.

Speaking of Fayetteville, I will be heading back to my hometown this Sunday for several weeks to spend time with my family and friends for the holidays. I plan to keep up my Tuesday Studio Video Visits as well as my Studio blog with a hometown spin. I hope you will enjoy the change of scenery, I know I am looking forward to it!

Until next week, take care and keep fighting. The world needs you and your art. 

Coming down

The opening for Connection was last Saturday, December 2 from 2-4pm at the &Gallery at 17 Dundas Street. It is a lovely exhibition, filled with many heavy hitting pieces of abstraction. I was, of course, delighted to have my work included. The exhibition will remain up until December 23rd so if you are local to Edinburgh or passing through please check it out. If you are not local to the area and want to enjoy the works and artists included in the exhibition you can see it on the gallery's website.

This week in the studio was a washout and there was just no getting around that. It happens. My Tuesday Studio Video Visit alluded to my frustration. It was quite freeing to share how I was feeling and I heard from many artists currently feeling the same way. It always helps to hear that we are not alone and that we are often more similar than we are different. You can catch my video again here if you missed it on Facebook. Thanks to everyone that shared their own burnout and frustration stories with me. It all helps.



Until next week, keep fighting

Connection opens tomorrow!

Connection 
Group Exhibition
2nd - 23rd December 2017
The exhibition features a selection of artists who have exhibited in the gallery since opening in March and will be a showcase of what’s to come.

Exhibitors include:

Andrew Mackenzie, Anke Roder, Anna Somerville, Deirdre Macleod, Elfyn Lewis, Ele Pack, Gillian A McFarland, Hanna ten Doornkaat, Jai Llewellyn, James Lumsden, Jan Axelsson, Jana Emburey, Jane Cairns, Jeffrey Cortland Jones, Joy Arden, Lisa Denyer, Liz Douglas, Mary Morrison, Megan Chapman, Michael Craik, Michelle Benoit, Patricia Cain, Phil Lavery, Rhona Fleming & Sam Lock.

Opening Saturday, December 2nd from 2-4pm

The &Gallery, 17 Dundas Street, Edinburgh

Gallery hours:
Tuesday - Friday: 10-5
Saturday: 10-4

(Photo and text courtesy of The &Gallery Facebook event page)

Only to hold you
40x40x4cm/16x16x1.5"
Mixed media on canvas
©2017 Megan Chapman

To tell you everything
40x40x4cm/16x16x1.5"
Mixed media on canvas
©2017 Megan Chapman

I am looking forward to tomorrow's opening of Connection and sharing my two pieces (above) in this exhibition. I hope that my friends and patrons in the area will plan to attend. The lineup is stellar and I am truly honoured to be included.

In other news, after a bit of resistance on my part, I returned to some quality painting this week. You can hear about my frustration in my most recent Tuesday Studio Video Visit if you missed it over on facebook.


Here is the painting so you can actually see it. It felt good to be working in this way again.

New work from the studio

That's all I have for your this week. Thank you to everyone who supports my work, my dreams, and throws a kindness my way. We are all in this together and I am lucky to have you. Until next week, you know what to do.

Connection

New exhibition news!

I am delighted that there has been a flurry of exhibition activity of late. Delighted is really too twee of a word for it. I have been ecstatic! The past three years here in Edinburgh have kicked my arse. Any of my closest friends would tell you this much. So, if you don't already, please consider yourself close. There is so much more to moving across the world and starting one's life over than I ever dreamed. I am glad I don't always have the best grasp of the seriousness of what I am trying to do in this world or I probably wouldn't do anything.

I woke up this morning thinking of my recent good fortune and how hard I have worked for this return to normalcy here in another country. The return of energy spent trading out and creating new paintings for multiple galleries is not something that just picked up where it left off in the states. This a bigger city than where I am from; this a cultural capital of Europe. I arrived pretty much unknown on these shores, but things seem to be looking up. I am grateful.

With that said, I am thrilled to be part of the upcoming December group exhibition, Connection at &Gallery on Dundas street in Edinburgh. I have long admired the aesthetic of &Gallery and their impressive stable of artists, to be included is an honour. Dundas street in the New Town is known for its high caliber galleries in Edinburgh. This is a big moment for me. If you are in the area, please make plans to attend the opening, Saturday, December 2nd from 2-4pm. These are the two paintings I will have in the exhibition.

Only to hold you
40x40x4cm/16x16x1.5"
Mixed media on canvas
© 2017 Megan Chapman

To tell you everything
40x40x4cm/16x16x1.5"
Mixed media on canvas
© 2017 Megan Chapman

Currently, my work is on exhibition through the 25th of November at Union Gallery in the West End and through February 25th at the Velvet Easel in Portobello. In hometown exhibition news, The Fenix Collective group show just opened last night in Fayetteville, Arkansas at The Chancellor Hotel and will be up until January 9th. I am so pleased to be able to grow these Scottish connections while I keep nurturing the ones back home as well. Thanks to everyone that takes a chance on my work and provides these wonderful opportunities.

If you missed it, here's a timely Tuesday Studio Video Visit. I talk about my perverse joy in finding hair and other gunk stuck to famous artists paintings while battling the same issues with my own work. Strangely, also this week, an article came out about a grasshopper found in a VanGogh. I've always said I'm a little bit psychic (and a little bit rock n roll).


Throw a website update into the mix, and that's all I have for you. Until next week, keep starting over, taking risks, and getting your arse kicked. Keep fighting and enjoy these beautiful moments. The world needs you, and your art.