My Art | The Daily Norm

May 7

Countdown to my new Solo Exhibition | 6 days – Champiñones

As the time for my new London solo art exhibition fast approaches, I am sharing some of the artworks which will be exhibited, most of them for the first ever time in a public gallery. Yesterday, I shared the first of my accident paintings, created in the immediate aftermath of my sudden accident in May 2009. Today I’m moving on to a work created towards the end of the series, at a time when the problems of my post-accident injuries moved from broken bones to deep internal infection. It was also the time when, after a year of healing and corrective surgery, I was told that the leg would have to be rebroken and reset, which in effect meant that I would be going back to square one all over again.

The resulting painting, La Marcha de Los Champiñones (March of the Mushrooms) was painted in my house in Spain (hence the Spanish title given to the work) immediately following my fifth operation – an emergency procedure to remove large scale infection which had built up in the leg. And no surprise there, since the amount of surgery I had endured up until this point was so extensive that my leg was literally riddled with holes. The leg had also healed with a fixed flexion deformity, which in effect meant that it had healed bent and would need to be rebroken.

La Marcha de los Champiñones (2009 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, acrylic on canvas)

All this I reflected visually with the use of mushrooms as an indication of the spread of infection, hence why, when the bent leg is cut open, a mushroom can be found at its centre. Meanwhile, a fragmented landscape, pocked with holes and broken pieces represents the fragility of my half-healed bones at that time, and the leg, which is also full of pins and nails, represents the amount of metal I had in my leg after various metal fixators had been used to piece it back together. Meanwhile, the use of road traffic symbols including ribbon and roadwork signs, as well as ladders, demonstrates that the leg was, at this stage, far from repaired and still a work in progress. It also reflects the accident which occurred by a road side.

It’s a painting full of some of the cynicism and frustration I was feeling at the time, but by this stage, my accident paintings had become more visually playful as I had accepted my fate and focused my energies on expressing my turmoil visually instead. The resulting image is one of bright colours and whimsical imagery which transports the heavily emotional accident works into a new place of greater hope and free-spiritedness. And just in time, for a new collection based on the bright colours and vivid culture of Spain was just around the corner…

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacy-brown.com

Nicholas de Lacy-Brown’s new solo exhibition, When (S)pain became the Norm, will be at London’s Strand Gallery from 13 – 18 May 2014. For more details, click here.

May 6

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Countdown to my new Solo Exhibition | 7 days – Bricks and Stones

It seems almost mad that close on 6 months have gone by since I first announced on this blog that I would be holding a brand new solo exhibition of paintings, illustrations and prints in London’s Strand Gallery this May. And yet here we are, with the exhibition on the doorstep. In 7 days, my exhibition, which will feature over 100 displayed artworks and a whole lot more other artworks for sale, will throw open its doors to the prestigious West End of London. A mere 50 metres from London’s Strand, the exhibition is in the heart of the city’s colourful Covent Garden/ Charing Cross area, and frankly I could not think of a better location.

So as excitement builds, the bubble wrapping goes into overdrive, frames are attached, price lists drawn up and champagne gathered, I thought I would take time to explore some of the themes and artworks which will feature in the show on each of the 7 days approach to the exhibition’s opening on 13 May.

The exhibition is entitled When (S)pain became the Norm, a title which represents the three main themes which will run through the collection – Pain: the time of my 2008 road traffic accident and the protracted convalenscence which followed; Spain: how this most colourful of European countries has given rise to some of my most exciting and energetic artworks; and the Norms: all my paintings and illustrations of the small white-blobbed one-armed creation of my imagination, most of which have featured on this blog which is named after that same unique character.

In this first post, I am sharing the painting which really kickstarts the whole collection. Entitled Bricks and Stones may Break My Bones (The Show Must Go On), it was the first painting I started in the weeks immediately following the horrendous accident in which I was involved in May 2008. On 29 May 2008, I was walking out to buy some lunch when a lorry, without warning, collided with a 10 ft concrete brick wall which then collapsed onto the pavement as I walked by. I was caught under the rubble and serious crush fractures sustained to my right leg. Frankly, I was lucky to get away with just that. The injuries were so severe that I had to have my leg placed in an external fixator – a horrific instrument attached to the leg with a series of a bloody pins – and I underwent some 7 operations over 3 years before the leg was finally healed, sufficiently, to such a level that I could walk once again.

Bricks and Stones May Break My Bones (The Show Must Go On) 2008 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, oil on canvas (130cm x 110cm)

This painting, which is perhaps one of the most visceral and uncomfortable of my collection, represents the accident itself. I am shown, in self-portrait, morphed into the wall which had by that time become an inescapable factor in my life. Crashed into it, a small toy lorry is beside me, while on my head, like a crown of thorns, is the barbed wire which ran along the wall and collapsed down upon me in turn. My broken leg is shown as a column broken into three pieces, reminiscent of a similar representation used by my idol, Frida Kahlo, while my crutches are propping up my right food Dali-style since, which, owing to nerve damage, otherwise flopped involuntarily to the floor. Meanwhile over the bleak landscape, the pins which pierced my leg pierce the ground, and on the right, a theatrical proscenium arch likewise propped up by a crutch and a swollen leg demonstrates that despite all of the horror around me, the show had to go on: Something demonstrated by the fact that I was up on two chairs, my leg outstretched, painting this powerful work.

Come back tomorrow for my next featured work, and in the meantime, please consider coming along to my exhibition. More details can be found on my website, and on that of The Strand Gallery.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacy-brown.com

Apr 14

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New Woodcut: Boats in the Porto Santa Lucia, Naples

Introducing my new (and second) woodcut print: Boats in the Porto Santa Lucia. Like my first woodcut completed earlier this year, my second is inspired by the incredible Christmas trip I took with my partner across Italy, from Venice, to Rome and ending up finally in Naples.

This woodcut was inspired by our first morning in Naples when, with the sun shining a surprisingly summery warmth upon us, we headed down to the city’s Mediterranean port and were bowled over. Of course we’ve all heard of Naples’ bigger industrial port, but just around the coast, in front of the upmarket Santa Lucia region and around the Castel dell’Ovo is a beautiful little marina full of all of the shiny white yachts, fishing boats and other marine paraphernalia you would expect.

Boats in the Porto Santa Lucia, Naples (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, woodcut (3 plates) printed on fabriano)

I was unsurprisingly obsessed by the water there and all of the brightly coloured ripples reflected from the boats and the harbour walls. This woodcut is an attempt to capture them. It’s a multi-plate print which means that a number of plates are cut and combined to introduce different colours into the print. Below are shots showing a print of each coloured plate individually, which combined together really bring the work to life. You can also see the plates set out alongside the inks and rollers in the printmaking studio, as well as a series of prints hanging up to dry – editioning is tiring stuff!

This is now my second woodcut and my seventh print since I started printmaking last Spring. I can say without hesitation that I now consider myself to be as enthusiastic a printmaker as a painter and I can’t wait to make more!

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacy-brown.com

Nicholas de Lacy-Brown’s new solo exhibition, When (S)pain became the Norm, will be at London’s Strand Gallery from 13 – 18 May 2014. For more details, click here.

Mar 19

My Barcelona, on canvas: Separatism

While last week I shared with you one of my more sedate paintings of Barcelona – an oil landscape of the Port Vell – this week, as the tales of my recent Barcelona travels draw to a close, it’s inevitably time to share the second of my two paintings featuring Barcelona – and this time it’s a far more vibrant affair. Part III of my España Volver series, Separatism, explored the fragmentation and political division which is shared by two autonomous regions of Spain, the Basque Country and Catalunya (Catalonia), both of which have a historically fractious relationship with the Spanish nation to whom they are, for some unwittingly, part of a national whole.

By way of demonstration of the political and social fragmentation which means that these two regions sit so uneasily with the rest of Spain, the symbols painted across my painting are framed in the shapes of a jigsaw puzzle which, rather than fitting together easily, is in part broken and displaced. Emerging out of and contained within the pieces of the puzzle are a series of images representing the shared values and passions of the region – food, wine, art and maritime history, as well as icons that are unique to the regions. So out of the Basque Country comes Frank Gehry’s famous Guggenheim building, while in Barcelona, the capital of Catalunya, we have Gehry’s magnificent beachside Peix fish.

Separatism: Catalonia and the Basque Country (2009, Oil on canvas, © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)

Representing the Basque town of Saint Sebastian, I have painted a conch shell pierced by arrows (St. Seb’s bay is known as La Concha because of its curving shape), while Gaudi’s iconic Sagrada Familia takes centre stage in this painting, with a dual purpose as a fork on which a juicy salsa drizzled prawn is poised; symbol of the gastronomic prowess of both regions. Meanwhile, further reference to Catalunya’s artistic prowess is made in the broken egg, representing Catalunya born Salvador Dali, while around the canvas, various symbols of Gaudi are represented, from his Passeig de Gracia paving slabs on the left, to the Casa Mila chimney which emerges atop of a bottle of fine Rioja wine.

Of course there’s violence too, with an illustration of the ETA bombings over on the right; symbol of the violent means which some separatist idealist have gone to to make their point, as well as the spiralling energetic core of the painting – a further demonstration of the plethora of cultural, social and historical influences which have made the regions as richly divergent as they are today.

And for those of you who would like to see this painting closer at hand, it will be on exhibition, along with the rest of my España Volver series at London’s Strand Gallery between 13-18 May. More details can be found here.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacy-brown.com

Nicholas de Lacy-Brown’s new solo exhibition, When (S)pain became the Norm, will be at London’s Strand Gallery from 13 – 18 May 2014. For more details, click here.

Mar 12

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My Barcelona, on canvas: Port Vell

Back in 2007, when I had finished 5 years of full time legal studies and was waiting for my professional training to begin, I decided to take advantage of having a certain amount of time on my hands both to travel as much as possible, and to teach myself how to paint in oils (having thus far painted largely in acrylic). The two things inevitably combined, and having travelled to a few cities in Spain and beyond when venturing to and from my family home in Marbella, I decided to test out the results I could achieve in oil paint by working on a series of cityscapes and landscapes based on those travels. You saw my Venice paintings which I worked on around this time. Having mastered that watery city, I decided to move on to a series of seaside cities, and Barcelona was top of my list.

It was therefore as part of that series that I painted this work of the Port Vell. As yesterday’s post showed, Port Vell is part of the expansive marina and beach which now provides Barcelona with a beautiful Mediterranean facade where previously (pre-1992 Olympics) there was only a heavily industrialised port. Being filled with yachts of many shapes and sizes, this painting would have been a challenge for the most seasoned of oil painters, but for me, a mere beginner, it presented even more of a challenge. I was nevertheless pleased with the resulting work, which captures, I think, something of the compact collection of yachts which fill Barcelona’s marina, as well as illustrating something of a transitional weather effect as the sun begins to shine from under the passage of a thick layer of grey cloud.

Seascape VI: Port Vell, Barcelona (2007 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, oil on canvas)

Strangely, despite making 7 visits to the city, I have only painted Barcelona twice. While I’ll give you a glimpse of the second work sometime soon, I think that further Barcelona creations are somewhat begging. Watch this space.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacy-brown.com

Feb 26

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Aix: City of a Thousand Fountains

After a week of “sneak peeks” via my delacybrownart twitter feed, I am delighted to be able to share with you the final and complete image of my major new oil painting on canvas – Aix: City of a Thousand Fountains. Started shortly after I returned from my first visit to the stunning Provençal city last summer, I set out to capture something of the sun drenched joie de vivre which Aix excuses by the bucket in a work which eventually took me 7 months to complete.

As the painting’s title suggests, the work plays on a well known descriptive adage which notes that the city is one of “a thousand fountains”. While that may be something of an exaggeration, the motivation behind the statement can be well understood – one of the most notable features of the city is indeed its plentiful and elaborate fountains, one situated in what seems to be every square and street, in the middle of junctions and on street corners. It really is a city where water flourishes; where splashing running currents sparkle playfully in the sun.

But in choosing to symbolise several of these many fountains, I decided to play with the themes somewhat, combining those fountains with the very predominant cafe culture which is an integral aspect of the city’s character, and which fills it’s many multi-coloured shuttered squares with life. It is in one such square that my work is set, a square which also plays host to a series of Provençal shops and peeling old vintage adverts upon the walls. And there, on the typically dressed chequered tablecloths of cafe tables, my fountains, rather than plates, are the dish of the day.

Aix: City of a Thousand Fountains (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, oil on canvas)

Meanwhile no painting of Aix-en-Provence could be complete without a reference to the magnificent Mont Sainte-Victoire, the mountain which so seduced and fascinated the artist Cézanne for years (resulting in a series of canvases which continue to be his most enduring works) and which features monumentally in my work, dominating the upper half of the canvas. I remember so well that moment when, last summer, my partner and I climbed up the steep hills north of the city to the exact place where Cézanne used to paint the view of the mountain which obsessed him the most – and turning to see that same breathtaking visage which had so captivated this master of modern painting. It was at that moment that I knew I had to make my own homage to that incredible view, and that brilliant artist – and it was at that time when this painting was born.

The keen-eyed amongst you may also notice that I have included a further homage to Cézanne, by featuring his famous card players sat at one of my café tables, as well as a whole host of other details which I now share with you in the gallery of details featured below. Hopefully you will enjoy looking at the individual aspects of this painting as much as I enjoyed painting them. It was, with every brush stroke, like revisiting my holiday to Aix afresh, and for that reason alone, it was surely worth the 7 months slog to complete it.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacy-brown.com

Feb 24

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Ripples 2: Venice (Rio della Guerra)

With my solo exhibition fast approaching, I am going full steam ahead in an attempt to get my collection ready for its big unveiling this May. Not only am I working concurrently on three oil and acrylic canvases, but I also have several gouache works, a new woodcut edition, and old woodcut edition, a new etching and several Norm sketches on the go. It’s a daunting task trying to get all of those works completed in less than 3 months (with the fact that I work full time as a lawyer also being something of an issue…), but I am happy to say that the factory process is in full flow, churning out the works at a steady and pleasing pace (factory = me). As if by way of demonstration, this week I will be sharing not one, but two new paintings with you – one which sees the completion of an ambitious canvas which I started way back last summer, and the second, today’s, which I begun only a few weeks ago.

Yes, hot on the heels of my Natale Italiano posts, and my obsession with the abstract forms created by rippled water, as subsequently demonstrated in my posts on ripples photographs, paintings, my recent woodcut, and in the first of my new gouache ripples collection, I now present the second gouache painting of the series: Ripples 2: Venice (Rio della Guerra).

Ripples 2: Venice (Rio della Guerra) 2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, gouache on paper

As with the first piece, this painting focuses on the rippled reflection, rather than showing both the reflection and the scenery it reflects. Focusing on the ripples rather than on the real world above them means that the viewer is left with the more abstract image which nature creates, causing one to question what is actually being shown in the image when seen at a first glance. Is it just an unplanned abstract image, or something more illustrative? It is only after some time that you then realise that what this painting shows is the underside of a bridge, an iron railing, and a building punctuated by windows behind it, albeit rippled into a charmingly haphazard abstract form.

I’m so excited by the prospect of a world in ripples that I could go on painting them forever. The only trouble is, I don’t think they’ll actually be on show at my solo show in May, which means I should really start concentrating on other works. As to which – come back a little later in the week, to see the work which will be central to my solo exhibition in May.

Until then, have a great week.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacy-brown.com

Feb 17

New painting alert! – A week of sneaky-peeks on twitter

I make no secret of the fact that I am a great creative, spending hours of every day and week creating, whether it be sketching, painting or printing, or further afield cooking up feasts in the kitchen or closely acquainting myself with my camera. However, since starting work full-time two years ago, the rate at which I complete the large scale oil paintings which I used to create on a regular basis, and many of which will be on display at my forthcoming solo exhibition, has really slowed. Last year’s Autorretrato took me around 9 months to complete, and the work which I turned to shortly after completing that one – my painted exploration of Aix-en-Provence in the South of France was commenced as long ago as last summer.

So it is with a great degree of excitement that I am but mere brushstrokes away from completing this homage to Aix which I have been working on tirelessly (on and off, admittedly) for the last 6 months. Fairly large in scale (1oocm x 75cm) and big on detail, it was always going to be a fairly ambitious project, containing as it does a landscape and cityscape all rolled into one together with illustrations of some 9 of the city’s famous fountains as well as a number of shops and cafes.

As I approach the completion of that work, I wanted to share the excitement with you, and what better way to do that than share some exclusive peeks of the details of the work? Starting from today, I will be sharing one glimpse a day of my new painting – it’ll be a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, with little pieces of the work being released day by day before the whole painting is unveiled next week. But while the first peek is contained here on this post, it’ll be the only one – for all of the rest, you’ll need to check out my twitter, @DeLacyBrownArt, from which I will be posting a new detail of the painting every day this week. And as if that weren’t incentive enough to follow me, my twitter will also tell you whenever a new Daily Norm post is published!

Aix: City of a Thousand Paintings (2013-4 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, oil on canvas) Detail - Ribbons!

So please do check out my twitter, and come back again to The Daily Norm soon to see the complete image of my brand new oil painting. Arghhh, the excitement!!

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacy-brown.com

Feb 15

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Printmaking Progress V: Woodcut Ripples

Having satisfied myself that I have learnt the basics of etching in both zinc and copper (and having quickly realised that I am probably not all that good at Linocut) my next challenge in my quest to learn the multifaceted skills of printmaking was to learn the art of woodcut. This sudden desire to print images from carvings made in wood was very much inspired by the work of Felix Vallotton, whose superb satirical woodcuts stood out for me way and beyond his paintings at the recent Paris Grand Palais retrospective.

So when I saw a multiplate woodcut course being offered up at my favourite art college, The Art Academy in London Bridge, I jumped at the chance to enrol.

The night before the course began, I wasn’t at all sure what image to portray with my wood. On the one hand I wanted to emulate the moody mysterious social scenarios created by Vallatton, but on the other, I wanted to continue relishing in the fond memories of my recent Italy trip. Nostalgia eventually took precedence and I decided to continue my new experiment in Venetian ripples.

The wooden plates and a first proof

That’s all very well, except that as I was about to discover, woodcut is rather tricky for a newcomer to the medium, and having chosen a photo on which my image would be based, and drawn it onto my wood, I soon found trying to cut the fluid curving lines inherent to watery reflections nigh on impossible to cut. Yet despite a few scratches, a punctured thumb and a clear case of repetitive strain injury in my forefinger, I persevered, and the photos on this blog show both the finished woodcut print, as well as a range of prints taken along the way when I was using just two plates (and therefore two colours) before I added depth to my image with an additional third plate.

The finished print and a detail shot

Ripples on the Rio della Guerra (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, woodcut print on paper)

Not bad for my first attempt – I love the fact that when you first look at the print, it looks almost like an abstract expression before your mind becomes acquainted with the various darker shapes which make up the underside of the bridge, and the windows of a nearby Venetian house – all seen rippled of course.

Much inspired I’m sure that more woodcuts will follow as I continue my merry journey into the world of printmaking.

Alternative colours and a print run of the final print

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacy-brown.com

Feb 13

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Three months and counting… My art exhibition is on its way!

In exactly three months time, the Strand Gallery in the heart of London’s West End will throw open the doors to my brand new solo art exhibition, When (S)pain became the Norm. As my first solo show in 6 years, it will be one of the most comprehensive exhibitions I have ever staged with some 50 paintings and 50 sketches and prints covering the triple theme of my 2008 accident, works inspired by Spain, and the Norm after which this very blog is named.

On paper, three months looks like a while, but I know that it will fly by. So as much as the excitement is beginning to build, I face the next 3 months with some degree of trepidation as I look forward to the amount of work which is still before me. Working now daily to promote the event, finish paintings, order frames, sort out catering, buy bubbly and send out invites, the heat is really on, but the anticipation is starting to fill each preparatory activity with the kind of thrill that only an event of this scale can create (something which I’m sure any wedding couple to be can probably appreciate).

You’re bound to hear a lot more about the exhibition over the next few months, but in the meantime I leave you with the first of my official exhibition posters for the event whose launch marks the start of my marketing drive which commences this week. Just as that poster suggests, I ask that as many of my followers and readers alike consider marking the date in their diaries and heading over to London Town this May 13-18th, to share in this super special event with me.

More details of the exhibition and my art can be found at www.delacy-brown.com