Mat Barber Kennedy

Away From Home exhibition

2011-08-28T07:13:00.001-05:00

Every year, for the last three years I have led groups of students and recent graduates from the American Academy of Art on a painting trip. It began as an idea that I might share something of my approach to gathering material for my work, but it has become a distinct group of young men and women who are building accountability to each other, sharing their thoughts and their critique with one another, communicating regularly and now exhibiting together in the first of a series of exhibitions of their work.
The Sons of Turner.
A group of painters and illustrators who are talented, driven, curious, connected and at the beginning of the long road ahead. And me, no longer their teacher at the Academy, but not quite able or willing to let go.
Come on out to Ontarioville to see what we've been doing.

(poster design by Son of Turner Patrick Vertino currently operating south of the border dowm Mexico way).

Boston Project

2011-08-10T21:18:00.000-05:00

So I seem to have been working on this Boston Hotel project for ever. Its certainly dominated my summer and almost my every waking hour for the last three weeks since I got back from Wisconcin. I am producing a suite of 12 26" x 18" paintings and 4 11" x 9" paintings of Boston landmarks.
This is the hotel's main facade.
I'm nearing completion on the 11th of 16 and I'm getting very tired.

I need to push that shadow around the entrance canopy under the projecting portico.

Last Post from the Door County Plein Air Festival

2011-07-23T23:12:00.000-05:00

Pre auction viewing outside the tent

Well today was the big finale in Fish creek: The Quickpaint event. The 40 of us in the festival, plus about one hundred other painters gathered in central Fish Creek this morning from about 6.30 in the morning to stake out our spot to paint. At 9am a horn sounded and we were allowed to start our paintings and at 11 it sounded again and all work stopped. Then the 40 festival artists had to frame their work and display it on easels around the perifery of the marquee on the green for the public to see, and at 12 noon the auction began.

Pre auction anticipation inside the tent

The crowd was several hundred strong, every chair filled, people on the grass, people standing at the sides and at the back and beyond the tent into the park. It was my first time to see an auctioneer work and he had the crowd laughing and bidding competitively from the getgo. Prices began at $500 for each piece and almost all of them went up in $100 increments, then 50s as bidding slowed.

My piece, on the fireplace at the clients's house, two hours after I finished the last brushstroke

I have to say that I was uncomfortable about the public auction thing for the past 48 hours. It seems to be an opportunity for artists to be publicly embarassed in the event that the work is either not succesful, or the crowd just dont connect with it.

After the auction I went to visit a couple of galleries here that I had heard great things about, and it was great to walk in and have the opportunity to chat at length with the owners and to find that they knew of me and my work and had already heard about my week. So........hopefully I shall be able to show my work here in the future?

This evening I went back to the Art School for the final event of the week, which was the opening reception for the public. I had expected to see my last four paintings on the wall but there were only two because I sold two more this afternoon. This evening I sold my wash drawing of Sister Bay, so now I'm thrilled to say, I have left the Peninsula School of Art with only one painting for the exhibition which runs for another couple of weeks. Painted 11. Sold 10. I haven't had that kind of batting average in a LONG time.

Friday. The grand Gala opening

2011-07-22T22:56:00.000-05:00

Spent the day running from point A to point B today. Submitted all 10 paintings this morning. Got them all stamped, the last three framed and the paperwork done by one oclock. Sadly the official stamp on the back of my sunset pen and ink wash drawing soaked through the paper and showed in the top corner of the sky so I had to get that piece off to a framing shop to be rematted and framed. Then I went back to the Woodwalk Gallery where I began a painting last night and was able to get it finished and back to the gallery by 4pm. Drove into Fish creek to scope out my subject matter for tomorrow's "Quick Paint" event which is open to all painters and is, by all accounts a crush in the centre of town with people jostling for positions to set up in. Then back to the Art Centre for the gala opening at 5. Each of the 40 artists had 4 pieces in the gallery and a stack of numbered backups in boxes in a neighbouring studio. From 5-6 the Pallette Pass holders (who paid a premium) were given exclusive buying opportunity on the works. Then the gallery closed for half an hour while the sold works were removed and new works brought in as required from the boxed piles next door. By 5. 20 I had sold all four of my pieces. A huge relief and a huge affirmation that, even in this context, watercolour is still able to hold its own. Then after the restocking the gallery opened again to passholders who had paid $60 to come for the silent auction. Everyone had 4 pieces on the wall again and bids were invited starting at our gallery price. I sold two more which came off the wall at 7.30 when the auction closed leaving only 2 paintings and two nails, and in the studio next door my last two paintings which will be hung by lunchtime tomorrow ready for the opening to the public tomorrow night. So three openings, three different vibes, and three different groups of paintings. As it stands, I have sold 6 of my 10 paintings with still the opening to the general public to go. Tomorrow begins at 5.30am with a drive down to Fish Creek to secure my spot and set up, although I cant start painting untill the horn blows at 9. Here's the barn that I finished this afternoon. Its going on the wall tomorrow.

Thursday In Wisconcin

2011-07-21T23:33:00.000-05:00

A huge day today. I thought about what Gabriella posted on my blog yesterday, and also about how out of place I have felt at times here at the festival, and I realised that I've not really let myself go since I've been here. I like what I've done, and I've taken on some new challenges and pushed myself hard. But today I decided to get out there and paint for me. So I did the red barn this morning and the 10 x 30 closeup this afternoon. The weather was a little less punishing although still in the 90s and I had no shade for either painting but they were really enjoyable and I felt a sense of urgency and determination as I did them.

At 4pm I had to leave the north end of the peninsula and drive to my assigned painting for the day which was another barn which is also on a 10 x 30 panel but it still needs work so I'll finish that tomorrow after I frame everything that I've done this week to hang in the exhibition which opens tomorrow night.

Day three in Wisconcin

2011-07-20T23:11:00.000-05:00

so today was a day that was prettty much planned out for me. I was to spend all day in Sister Bay. Consequently I spent WAY too much time on a watercolour of the corner of a department store in record breaking temperatures. Its another tight painting, which should havetaken three hours but took five. Still needs a little something in the flower bucket.

Then I walked down to the beach and immersed myself in the lake with all my clothes on.

Then all 40 of us were gathered in the cental park to paint at sunset while the festival's patrons and sponsors wined and dined in a big tent and asked questions as we painted. I worked on a large wash drawing until it got too dark to see. I have to put tone on the extreme foreground still.

Tuesday at the Door County Plein Air Painting Festival 2011

2011-07-19T22:31:00.000-05:00

Up at 4.50 to get to the Three Springs Land Trust Preserve for a dawn painting. Ended up doing a painting sitting inside the livestock barn where there was no sunrise to be seen (mercifully) and a lot of mice and a dead possum. Spent 5 hours working on a painting of a door and two fisherman's buoys but I cant upload it because I spent three hours framing my first four paintings at the Gallery, and now its downstairs in the back of my car, its 10.30 and I'm too tired to do the stairs.

This evening I went off into the hinterland and painted my first real landscape of the week. Inspired by the other 39 artists, all of whom are oil painters. 10 x 30 Watercolour. 3 1/2 hours. I'm definitely working more slowly on my paintings here.

First full day at the Plein Air Festival

2011-07-18T21:36:00.000-05:00

Its been a long day. Began at 5.45 with the alarm and out to paint at Gills Rock which is about as far up the peninsula as you can go. Spent the entire day at Weborg's Dock, a commercial fishing dock which is small by comparison to the ones I was painting in Maine last month, but fruitful nevertheless. I spent the morning on a 10x30 gesso panel of the roof of the main shed, which was lined with seagulls when I began at 7 but devoid of birdlife for the next 5 hours while I painted in the hot sun.

The afternoon was a little more loose on 14 x 20 paper. A fish steaming boiler smoker type thing and a little smoking shed.
Then off to the local art store where they had to call around to find three pieces of matboard the same colour, off to a meeting at 5 and then an evening to meet the festival sponsors and the hosts. Now I have to get some sleep before tomorrow's dawn painting. 10 artists and 40 or so of the festival's "premium pass" followers watching as we paint the sunrise at Three Springs Nature Preserve. I have no idea what I'm going to paint but hopefully there will be a nice barn to look at.

Door County Plein Air Painting Festival 2011

2011-07-17T23:31:00.000-05:00

Woke early this morning, packed my bags, went with the family to the studio to pack my equipment and supplies, then drove 6 hours north to Door County, Wisconcin for the 5th annual Plein Air invitational week event thing. Which feels unnervingly like a competition/ "art as spectator sport" kind of thing at the moment. I must say the adrenaline has been coursing through my veins since I arrived late this afternoon. Or that might just be the shakes after a six hour drive on an empty stomach. Felt immeadiately welcome at the Peninsula School of Art, hosts of the week's events, although somewhat confused by the array of compulsory "Quick Paint" events and mandatory location paintings to be done over the next 5 days. After 2 cups of coffee and a granola bar it was the general consensus among the artists that I was sat with, that there was time to get a quick one in before sunset, so at 6.45 we left in a convoy of cars. The convoy pulled to the side of the road on a bluff overlooking endless fields and trees, and I sped on in search of something with some straight edges. And I found this.

Sunday. 1 hour evening painting. County road F and EE

High Watermark Exhibition, London

2011-07-05T10:09:00.001-05:00

Just returned from London where I delivered two pieces to the Bankside Gallery for the second annual High Watermark Exhibition. An exciting collaboration of Britains two Royal societies representing the very best of British Watercolour. The exhibition begins at the Bankside Gallery on Thursday 7th July running until the 24th and moves to The Mall galleries to reopen on August 16th closing on the20th. If you like watercolours, you will see the best of the best here and admission to both venues is free.
click to access the Royal Watercolour Society's website
for more information at Bankside
for more information at the Mall Gallery

travelling

2011-06-16T00:14:00.000-05:00

Santa Fe

So I returned from Maine with arms full of sketches of boats and harbours and seascapes and guns. Two beautiful weeks up and down the mid coast around Boothbay Harbour. And I am mindful of the fact that being somewhere else is what I like best of all. Even if where I am isnt all that exciting in and of itself.

Its the fact that its not home that creates a crackle of tension.

A sense of discovery.

A quest to find something. A fear that I'll miss something

Off to Boston for four days to paint works for reproduction to hang in the corridors and guest rooms of the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel

Very exciting.

Glock

2011-05-19T16:45:00.000-05:00

I'm in Maine drawing and painting barns and boats and seascapes. And when its raining too hard to paint outdoors I'm working on a series of paintings of guns. On the one hand they are beautiful objects, painted with tenderness in watercolour, which is often synonymous with still lives. On the other hand they are dreadful and terrible things which have no place in my home. I've done three in the series so far. Each 8 x 20

Notes from Maine

2011-05-15T09:13:00.000-05:00

Boothbay Harbour in the rain 2011

I'm in Maine, painting for two weeks, gathering information and ideas for my studio paintings for the next year. There's something to see everywhere I look, and the coastline is so complex that I know I'm missing so much everytime I drive past another country lane. I've spent the first week looking mostly at schooners and shrimp boats on the coastline but over the next week I hope to concentrate more on barns and farm structures.
I have 8 of my recent graduates with me and its good to sit together around the huge farmhouse table every evening with our paintings and drawings to talk things through and work on new things.

Short film by Randy Vreeland, graduate of the American Academy of Art

2011-05-07T00:29:00.000-05:00

Before and After
Over a period of some 5 or 6 weeks, maybe longer, I was documented working on an illustration from the Banthanti story. The film was the brain child of Randy Vreeland under the wing of Bob Drea, head of Photography at the school. I was only able to work on the piece sporadically between classes (hence the long timeframe) and the interview was conducted at the outset, before anything but the designwork was begun. I've never seen myself draw and paint before, so thats interesting to me, even though listening to me talk is a bit like nails on a chalkboard! So click on the link for a 7 minute demonstration of what I do, and thanks Randy for leading me through this.
Before and After

Spontaneous, Inspirational, Messy and Not in Your House

2011-04-29T17:00:00.000-05:00

Sign your children up for

Half-day Summer Art Camps with

Mat Barber Kennedy (RI, FRSA).

Monday 20 June - Friday 24 June
Monday 15 August - Friday 19 August

9.30-1pm (bring a sack lunch). Cost $220 (includes all art materials)

Discounted price $190 for siblings or for students attending both weeks.

One week, half day camps for children between 8 and 13 years of age.
Drawing and painting from real life and from the imagination.
Whether your child has a passion for art or is simply interested in trying something new and messy they will receive inspiration and instruction that will encourage their creativity to flourish. In the relaxed and non-competitive environment, children gain knowledge and confidence, while developing critical thinking skills.
We will explore drawing, painting and collage working both from observation and abstractly in a range of media.
Pencil drawing, Charcoal drawing, Watercolor, Collage

Students who have attended before or who attend both camps this summer will be given more advanced curriculum building upon the skills already covered, including

Working from photographs instead of copying photographs

Continuous line drawing

Tonal techniques such as hatching and scribbling with style.

Mat Barber Kennedy has been a professional artist for twenty years exhibiting his work in galleries throughout Europe and the United States. He teaches painting and illustration at the American Academy of Art in Chicago and teaches drawing and painting workshops across the nation.
As part of the homeschooling community he is passionate about teaching and encouraging children to find their voices through art.

Classes will be held in the studios and gardens (weather permitting) at MBK Studios, 1706 S Halsted St. Chicago Illinois 60608

All materials supplied.

Places are offered on a first come first served basis and are strictly limited to 9 students per class. Secure your child's place by posting a comment below or sending me an email.
A 50% deposit is required to complete the registration process by cash, paypal or personal cheque. Balance is due on the first day of class.

MBK Studios . 17O6 South Halsted . Chicago . Illinois . 6O6O8 .

tel / fax . 3 1 2 . 4 3 2 . 9 0 3 2

w w w . m a t b a r b e r k e n n e d y . c o m

email . m b k @ m a t b a r b e r k e n n e d y . c o m

Urban Surface solo show opens this weekend

2011-04-07T13:29:00.000-05:00

Join us for the Private View
Saturday, April 9 · 5:00pm - 10:00pm

Exhibition runs until April 30th 2011

	Renaissance Fine Art & Design 246 West Main Street Carmel, IN 46032

	The Urban Surface Exhibit includes over 40 of Mat Barber Kennedy's Architectural Watercolour Paintings. Mat's passion for aging architecture is evident in this extensive body of work... Urban Surface will allow the viewer a glimpse into this Artists personal journey, where time worn beauty meets brush and pigment, creating an insightful accounting of our time and culture.

Surprise Trip to London

2011-03-30T01:52:00.000-05:00

Flew to London on Monday to attend the Private View of the 199th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters In Watercolours at The Mall Galleries. I was thrilled to be this year's recipient of the St Cuthbert's Mill Award.
St Cuthberts Mill has been making watercolour and printing papers since the 1700’s, and I look forward to working with their Waterford papers. I've been a saunch Arches man for 20 years but it might be time for a change.

New Work for Boston

2011-03-27T16:28:00.000-05:00

Over the last month I've begun working on a series of paintings of Boston architecture for a hotel project.

The design team has been very specific about sizes, proportions, and subject matter, so I've had the unusual challenge of formatting my work according to specifications.

I hope that the client likes these first pieces. I'm feeling rather unsettled by not having met them face to face.

An uncharacteristic uncertainty.

First night nerves, as it were.

Wilson's Cove, Maine

2011-03-11T00:19:00.000-06:00

Well its a quarter past midnight on Thursday night/ Friday morning and I've finished this large commission all but the framing. I hope to have that done by breakfast time so Sherry can deliver it to the client and I can go to bed.
The original brief was to go to Maine to paint the family home, but as I spent time with the grandson of the carpenter who built the house for his family, and a whole bunch of other houses in the area, I saw it more as a painting about the builder than about the building. I had the old workshop unpadlocked and I sat in there one afternoon and painted the view from the grandfather's workbench.
The painting is 26 x 11.

10 songs that got me here

2011-03-06T15:49:00.001-06:00

Well, here is a list that could have been so very different. I could have configured this in a dozen ways or made it a list of 100 instead of 10 but I'm pretty pleased with it as it stands. Interestingly enough, some of my favourite punk bands never made it onto the list, nor some of my favourite music over the last ten years. What this represents isn't necessarily my favourite songs of all time, or even my favourite artists but these are songs that typify what I love about music and how it relates to the ever-changing shape of my life. Over the last few years I have loved lots of stuff, but I'm less formed by it these days. Maybe I'm less shapable.

Click here to hear the list, in chronological order:

1. Frank Sinatra

The Tender Trap

From the 1955 Motion Picture of the same name

An all time favourite in our household. I grew up listening to Big band jazz, swing and a liberal selection of vocalists from both sides of the Atlantic. Frank and Ella were and remain in my heart. This was the first Sinatra song that I learned to sing start to finish and my mum and I sang it often. When I was given a place on the Masters program at the Royal College of Art in the late 80s I rewarded myself by going out to buy 20 Frank Sinatra Albums.

2. Barbara Streisand

One Less Bell To Answer / A House is Not a Home Medley

From the Album Barbara Joan Streisand, no date on the artwork or label but some time in 1971

Hal David, Burt Bacharach and Barbara; it doesn't get much better than that. Fantastic orchestration by Peter Mats. This sends shivers down my spine every time. The key change, the layering and what a fantastic voice. Since my mother died I can no longer bear to listen to Barbara Streisand.

3. Yes

Starship Trooper

The Yes Album 1971 Yessongs live version 1973

I have always listened to whatever my older brother listened to, in fact I still do and we were in a band together for much of the nineties. Until punk changed everything he and his friends listened to Emerson Lake and Palmer, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Jethro Tull and of course Yes. I loved Roger Dean's fantasy artwork, and for a young teenager reading Tolkein it was easy to escape into the imaginative world of Jon Anderson's lyrics. Incredible complex landscapes, amazing musicianship, and an unashamed ability to indulge themselves in endless excercises in pomposity and pretension. Even twenty years on we used to sit down and listen to this stuff and marvel at the complexity. How did they manage to write this stuff?

4. Siouxsie and The Banshees

Icon

Join Hands 1979

Not from their first album which I adored but which my brother owned but from their devastating follow up. I bought it the day it was released and remember clearly the hideous empty feeling when I first listened to it and disliked every song on it. I rang my brother almost in tears because I wanted to love it so badly. He told me to try it again and to consider that there might be something to it. This album grew and grew and grew and perhaps never stopped growing on me so that it is now almost too painfull to listen to. I could have chosen any track from Join Hands. Saw them I don't know how many times between 78 and 88 by which time I found them to have run out of things to say and I could no longer persuade myself to like what they were doing. Last time I saw Steve Severin was at our wedding in1990. That's like a trophy for me.

5. Killing Joke

Unspeakable

What's This For 1981

The second wave of punk was in full flow during my University years, exemplified by The Birthday Party, Bauhaus, The Southern Death Cult and Killing Joke who brought an electronic dance groove into the equation. The bass player, Youth went on to engineer a good deal of dance music in the eighties and nineties. Very musically able and with political leanings to the extreme left, Killing Joke have always been close to my heart from the very first time I heard them in session on the radio on the John Peel show late one school night, listening with the headphones on and the lights off. They are the only group who have ever brought me to tears during a live set.

6. David Sylvian

Brilliant Trees

Brilliant Trees 1984

My brother introduced me to glam rockers Japan in 1979. We followed them through their metamorphosis into romantic songsmiths and electro pop stars. Sylvian's musical ability is truly awe-inspiring. My brother and I sat on a bed in our flat North London in 1984 and he told me he missed his fiancée and wanted to have this played at their wedding. It was a rare talk about his feelings and I shall remember it always. He didn't have it at his wedding but Sherry and I did at ours 5 years later.

7. Nick Cave

The Mercy Seat

The Tender Prey 1988 Live version from Live Seeds 1993

The Birthday Party were a vast powerhouse of anger and aggression. Their song King Ink gave me my moniker for the eighties which I wore on my leather jacket everywhere I went. After they split I wanted Cave's solo career to be a continuation which it wasn't but I tried hard to enjoy him as much. Over the years however he has created a rich world of horror folk lore, storytelling, tearing at his tormented soul, wrestling with the bonds of guilt and suppression of his catholic upbringing. The band has been like a who's who of punk and independent music greats.who's live shows seem like a greasy lounge act, all cigarette smoke, whiskey and the nastiest badass songs. He has managed to live with integrity and consistency because he is truly great at what he does and a creative genius.

8. The Wonderstuff

40 Years in the Bathroom

Hup 1989

I left England for a year after my masters and returned to London to find my friends listening to bands I didn't know. A new thing seemed to have happened in my absence and I remember being at Jon Taylor's house getting a crash course in who's who. I could have chosen The Stone Roses' "I am The Resurrection" to represent the new batch but instead I chose the Wonderstuff because they were the band that we saw the most in the next few years. Hup was their second album and its all this good.

9. Electronic

Get the Message

Electronic 1991

I loved Joy Division and New Order and could have included a song by either. This however represents a period of change in my life marking the end of bachelor ways for me and many of my friends. I married in 1990 and my group of close friends all did the same over the next three or four years so that less and less were we all together out at clubs or gigs. For Jon Taylor's stag event we traveled up to Manchester in a van for a weekend festival at the height of Madchester, a time when The Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses, The Charlatans and Electronic were changing the sound of British pop. Barney Sumner and Johnny Marr, the best part of the Smiths combine to create a dance anthem. Ecstasy

10. The Foo Fighters

All My Life

One By One 2002

For me Nirvana and Ministry and Nine Inch Nails and the Lemonheads and the Pixies best represent the American strain of the development of music in the post punk world.

Sherry and I were depressed but hugely interested by Kurt Cobain's sad end but his sound lives on in so many other bands. The Foo Fighters leave me in no doubt that Nirvana were a rare combination of talents, a sum much bigger than their parts. The raw energy and formidable musicianship of the Foo Fighters embodies what I love most about music now and always.

See my New York Paintings at the Museum of Science and Industry in London this weekend

2011-02-04T14:23:00.000-06:00

your text

THURSDAY 3 – SUNDAY 6 FEBRUARY 2011

SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON SW7

Visit the Watercolours + Works on Paper Art Fair this week to see my recent New York paintings at the Linda Blackstone Gallery.

Work featured at the exhibition covers ink, pencil, crayon, chalk, pastel, gouache,watercolour, or charcoal.

and a wider range of original art on paper, including prints, photographs, posters and artists' books..

The earliest works to be offered for sale at the fair were created in the late 15th Century, and the most recent will have been drawn or painted in February 2011.

All the pictures at the Watercolours + Works on Paper Fair are for sale, at prices from as little as £100 up to £100,000 and beyond. Every picture will be vetted by a committee of museum experts, and will be labelled with full details including the price.

http://www.worksonpaperfair.com

Weathering the Storm

2011-02-02T07:44:00.000-06:00

There's 20 inches of snow outside, drifting to 6 feet against the buildings. The snow trucks cant keep up and arent even trying to reach the sidestreets. The wind is blowing with 50 mile an hour gusts. Whiteout conditions on the roads. The temperature is heading into the minus figures over the next two days. They are predicting minus 20-40 degrees fahrenheit with the wind chill. Thats in the minus 30s for those of us who work in celcius. Thunder and Lightening while it was snowing last night. I have a cold. And I can scarcely remember what it was like to sit in the warmth and paint on location. Yet I know it will be warm again. This too shall pass. On the bright side, I get to spend the day with the family because I cant even get 8 blocks down the road to the studio.

big snow people

2011-01-30T14:34:00.000-06:00

Its a beautiful snowy day at the Lakehouse in Indiana.
I just built huge snowpeople of Baxter and Gibson and me out on the frozen lake while Ella the dog ran wild in the soft deep powder biting snow and nipping at our gloves. Marvellous.

If I could somehow enjoy Chicago's protracted winter like this then I wouldnt feel quite so envious when I think that right now there's several million people living in the USA wearing shorts.
I do love Chicago. I do. But it never ceases to amaze me that we had established a colony in Savannah way before the midwest became settled by Europeans. So why on earth didnt everyone just move south that first year when it became obvious that the winters here were incredibly cold?

Coming back to architecture

2011-01-17T17:10:00.000-06:00

So I was talking to one of my students last week, at the beginning of a new semester. I was speaking, as I so often do, about honesty and painting because you can't not, and because of love, and it came to my mind that I've spent my whole life looking at buildings and gaining something of a foothold as a painter of cities ........and so much of the work on my blog is about a city in the Himalayas that exists only in my head and in a terrible future. So as a reminder to me as much as to anyone who might read this, here is something that I did this weekend, its addressing what I truly love, painted in a simple way that I hope expresses something of my joy. Its not finished but its close.

The Epo Dock.

2010-12-30T15:33:00.000-06:00

Well its been a long time on the drawing board at school but I'm finally finished and pleased with The Epo Dock. It was great to work on this with Randy Vreeland and Bob Drea in the Photography department this semester and the final result is a painting and a short film in which the image develops from concept to finished work with a soundtrack of me talking and, much more bearably, Erik Satie's music. I shall post the movie as soon as Randy is happy with it in a compressed state. It was difficult for me to work on something in such a series of small snippets and to know that its progress was being recorded, and I have to confess I found it hard to stay focussed on the piece. At times it felt a bit unemotional, a bit like going through a process of colouring in. some of that was due to the extended period of time (eight weeks!) and some of that is due to my uncertainty of approach when it comes to using fineliners for my primary drawing. I'm so much more accustomed to the springy expressiveness of a crow quill nib. Anyhow. Here it is. The Epo Dock. It goes with the earlier posted pieces under "Himalayan Memoir", "Battling" and "Morning in Banthanti". The city of Trone has now been renamed Banthanti for reasons which I can explain if anyone is interested.

The Epo Dock. A work in progress

2010-11-17T20:37:00.002-06:00

I have been painting this piece for about a month now in little snippets of time that I can take while I'm teaching at the Academy. I'm working on this as part of a project called Before and After with Randy Vreeland and Bob Drea in the photography department, or rather they are artfully documenting the work and I'm doing the painting. Part video, part time-lapse photography with voice-over recorded before the piece was begun. Hopefully it will turn out to be an interesting way to see an image emerge from concept to completion.

morning in Banthanti

2010-11-01T12:06:00.004-05:00

Well its taken a while to get this posted but here's the final painting derived from a drawing that I had been working on last month. (http://mbkstudios.blogspot.com/2010/08/work-in-progress.html).

This is the second piece that I have done on clear film and I'm still not sure how I feel about the limitations with regard to my layered approach to painting. Its great that the media is so forgiving because I can literally remove anything that I dont like. But I miss the ability to layer and mix my colours optically on the page. Also the issue of focus and cast shadow becomes a problem and creates a difficulty that I have yet to solve on a flatbed scanner and with traditional framing techniques.

Weekend in Maine

2010-10-18T11:58:00.005-05:00

Just came back from Wilson's Cove on the coast of Maine. I was asked to paint the Wilson family home but as I spent time there and heard stories of the great Grandfather who built the house, and several others along the coast, whose name lives on in the people and in the cove itself the painting began to hinge upon the legacy of the man rather than the appearance of a building. So now I have returned to Chicago with a preliminary painting of the house as seen from the woodshop, and a selection of photos of tools and varnishes.
A fabulous October Saturday painting the house from the woodshop, surrounded by tools that belonged to the carpenter that built the house, the woodshop, the bench, and the window that I was looking through.
I hope that the final painting will be about a legacy much more than a house.

The 40th Annual Pilsen East Artists Open House

2010-09-25T12:49:00.003-05:00

Friday Oct. 1st, 6-10pm Opening Night Gala, 2003 S. Halsted St. Chicago IL, co-hosted by Gapers Block, The Chicago Arts District, and the Chicago Dept. of Cultural Affairs. I shall be showing 6 pieces from a larger series of paintings of tools and buckets in the curated show at 2003 S Halsted St.

Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 2nd & 3rd, 12-7pm. I shall be showing new works from Savannah GA at 1900 S Halsted St.

This is a multi-location event, in the format of a self-guided walking tour, the event spans approximately 6 blocks. The central location of the event is South Halsted and 18th Streets in Chicago. Please visit the info center at 1821 South Halsted for maps and event details.

The 40th Annual Pilsen East Artists Open House will feature the work of both established and emerging artists in Chicago's oldest art community. Some neighborhood favorites include, Floyd Davis at Artpentry, Jeremy Ehly, The Chicago Art Department, Bridget Bolger & Scott Multer at South Halsted Gallery, TEMPLE Gallery, the showPODs, Rooms Productions, Mat Barber Kennedy, Brian Mancl, Orlando Espinoza, Studio 101, and the EP Theater Garden Festival. Newcomers include, Human Thread, The Black Cloud Gallery, 569 Door on the Left, and Phoenix Gallery.
This event is a self guided walking tour of the intimate world of the working artist. This neighborhood of creatives welcomes you to experience art at its source as you visit their home, studio, theater, dance space, gallery. More than 60 artists will participate and be on hand to discuss their work and share their creative process, don't miss this unique perspective.

For more information contact:
Cynthia West, Director
Chicago Arts District

312-738-8000 x 108
cwest@chicagoartsdistrict.org
www.chicagoartsdistrict.org

Making the beds

2010-08-31T22:22:00.003-05:00

I've had these bunkbeds in my mind for three years, and consequently I've had the boys sleeping on the couch or on mattresses on the floor for far too long. The idea is a response to their insatiable desire to climb things and to hoard things. The ladders are metaphorical trees and each bunk has a hideyhole for special items. The beds each have a bookshelf at the foot end and a reading light at the head.
They took six days to build (my own creation story) and cost about $500 plus I owe my friend Nate a beer.

work in progress

2010-08-05T00:56:00.002-05:00

I'd like to think that I'm able to think outside the box and stay inside the lines.

I'm spending a lot of my time thinking.

And drawing

I dont know what I'm going to do with this one.

Its early morning on my first day in the Himalayan megalopolis of Trone.

Back from Wisconcin

2010-07-23T12:21:00.003-05:00

Three days to share what underpins so much of what I believe about painting and drawing.

I talked a lot

Painted some

Walked up and down some

and hopefully connected with the students , meeting them where they were and coaxing them along.

The Peninsula School was a wonderful environment in which to work. Well equipped, well staffed and well...a long way north. I hope to return to teach again in the future.

Here's the still life that I did using a split triad (indigo, burnt sienna and yellow ochre) and employing the white of the paper to create a dynamic space. We talked a lot about composition.

Exciting week ahead

2010-07-17T20:37:00.003-05:00

I'm off in the morning for the 5 hour drive up the coast of Lake Michigan to Door County. I'm teaching watercolour painting for three days at the Peninsula School of Art and I'm very excited about the adventure. I'm really hoping that I get a lot of painting done alongside the students. I'm taking a bucket and a dozen old tools in an amunition chest from the Korean war. No paintings of bowls of primroses or country barns on this workshop.

Savannah

2010-07-13T17:02:00.003-05:00

I'm spending most of my time this summer working from my sketches and photographs of Savannah GA.
I spent a little over two weeks down there in May and I got enough work done there to fuel a whole year of painting back here in the studio.
This is one of a series of three exploring different wall surfaces from the old city.
The other two are stucco and clapboard.

Looking Back

2010-07-06T23:18:00.003-05:00

I've been looking back through some of my paintings from the last eighteen months and thinking about where I've been and where I'm going. Metaphorically. And I came across this one which was just a sketch on some unpromising paper which got all wrinkly in no time. But when I saw it again after several months there was something really surprising about it. something about its punch, its positive and negative balance. something about the edges of the shapes. Something to do with the breadth of media and surfaces. It surprises me because it looks like one of my paintings done by someone trying to paint like me but with a different personality and a different box of paints. I wish I hadnt sold it and I wonder where it is hanging now. I don't normally feel like that about me work.
My favourite bits are the black building (I NEVER use black paint) and thewhite space in the bottom left corner.

Last chance to enroll

2010-06-22T09:25:00.004-05:00

There's still time to sign up for the summer Art Camp at MBK Studios.
The camp is for 8-12 year olds and runs Monday 28th June to Friday 2nd July 9.30am -1pm
We'll be covering drawing and painting techniques and creative thought.
Contact me for more information at info@matbarberkennedy.com

Summer in the City with Children

2010-06-04T10:33:00.002-05:00

Half-day Summer Art Camp with award winning artist Mat Barber Kennedy.

Monday 28 June - Friday 2 July

9.30-1pm (bring a sack lunch). Cost $200

A one week half day camp for children between 8 and 12 years of age.
Drawing and painting from real life and from the imagination.
Whether your child has a passion for art or is simply interested in trying something new and messy they will receive inspiration and instruction that will encourage their creativity to flourish. In the relaxed and non-competitive environment, children gain knowledge and confidence, while developing critical thinking skills.
We will explore drawing, painting and collage working both from observation and abstractly in a range of media.
Pencil drawing
Charcoal drawing
Watercolor
Collage

Mat Barber Kennedy has been a professional artist for twenty years exhibiting his work in galleries throughout Europe and the United States. He teaches painting and illustration at the American Academy of Art in Chicago and teaches drawing and painting workshops across the nation.
As part of the homeschooling community he is passionate about teaching and encouraging children to find their voices through art.

Classes will be held in the studios and gardens (weather permitting) at MBK Studios, 1706 S Halsted St. Chicago Illinois 60608

All materials supplied.

Places are offered on a first come first served basis and are strictly limited to 10 students.
A 50% deposit is required to complete the registration process by cash or personal cheque. Balance is due on the first day of class.

a list

2010-05-25T11:34:00.002-05:00

I'm interested in art and passion and architecture and cheese and truth and storytelling and history and the future and my family and why I'm here and making sure that I dont waste time.
Days are too short. There are too many books waiting to be read. I will do something today.

some stuff I done today in Savannah

2010-05-15T17:53:00.006-05:00

Here's a couple that I did today.

I've been here for almost two weeks and I think I'm beginning to find my stride here.

Today I did a series of paintings and drawings of Victorian machines in a shed.

I painted the shed and drew the machine

and I painted the machine and drew the shed

Reworked New York Pieces

2010-04-28T03:48:00.005-05:00

well its four in the morning and its time to frame these last two ready for New York. I've been tinkering with them since they first appeared on the blog a few weeks ago. And now I'm out of time to tinker.

I'm also too tired to sort out the formatting so there's lots of empty space. ............Unlike New York.

Currently on the board

2010-04-20T13:53:00.002-05:00

I'm working on three large New York "towers" at the moment for Art Expo in New York in May. As always i'm running out of time and have set myself a goal that I will struggle to reach. Next Wednesday the clock runs out and I have to have finished and framed these plus two smaller pieces and get on a train to New York.
The square painting is the eighth in a series of twelve that I've been working on for two years. Affectionately referred to as the "Bucket Series". I'm presenting the first 8 at the Biograph Theatre this sunday evening at Ethosphere, a celebration of Faith through the arts. Its exciting to be able to get some reaction to something that I've kept under wraps for such a long time.

Between now and Sunday I have to finish the semester at school , wade through a mountain of grading and have a birthday party for Baxter.
Its good to be busy.

easter 2010

2010-04-04T19:21:00.004-05:00

Easter Sunday
Hugely encouraged
Vastly grateful

I feel like
I'm OK
even without
an iPad

or
an easter egg.

Anti-Sceptic

2010-04-04T12:31:00.004-05:00

Mercer and Broome, New York work in progress
I just came out of the Apple Store here in Chicago. Throngs of excited people playing with the long awaited iPad launched yesterday. A sales associate gave me tour and let me test drive the shiny slab. Its gorgeous. The building at Mercer and Broome is gorgeous also.
But only one of them has easy wipe surfaces.

I sat on a train in London a couple of months back and I looked down the carriage at the plastic moulded seats and the gently curved extrusion of seamed acrylic panel walls and I wondered if we are becoming an easy wipe culture.

Whats it all about?

2010-03-19T10:17:00.004-05:00

The older I get the more I ask myself, my students and anyone else who'll listen,
"Whats it all about?"

Here's one thing it seems to be about for me:

There's a difference between painting a portrait and painting what somone looks like.
At some point painting or drawing stops being an excercise in technique and process and starts to become a series of lies to expose an underlying, subjective truth.

Battling

2010-03-16T18:59:00.002-05:00

Sometimes its a struggle to find a space to paint a painting. Sometimes its a struggle to get the paint to stick to the substrate. Sometimes its a struggle to get my emotions and my ideas to line up. Sometimes its hard to focus a composition from the infinite options. Sometimes its hard to know whether its good enough, or relevant, or even valid. Its rarely easy and when its easy its safe.

I think its vital for an artist to enjoy the battle.

Himalayan Memoir

2010-01-12T19:38:00.003-06:00

There was always a tremendous excitement in the Base whenever one of the big EPO trading vessels pulled into dock. Those ships were huge and it seemed to our young minds that there was nothing that they could not do. I dreamed of leaving all of this behind, The Academy, the endless rock sorting with papa, the biting winds.
I wanted to join the crew of EPO-3, to get out of the canyon and seek my fortune as a winchman. I began to spend my evenings in father's workshop building my first crank.

A month in which a ton happened and I wrote nothing

2009-11-10T18:55:00.003-06:00

well its been A month in which a ton happened and I wrote nothing. This is the smallest painting I've ever done. 3" x 3". A self portrait. Inspired by Katie Fowler at the American Academy. I use The bucket more and more as a metaphor for myself.

On a completely different subject, the solo show at The University Club of Chicago came down today and I have to say it was a hugely affirming success at a time when I was beginning to wonder if people actually bought paintings anymore. More later. Thanks to all who came.

On the upside: I Sold 9 of 26
On the downside: I didnt get to see the gorgeous view from the balcony and I missed the hors d'ouvres at the preview. Cant do everything I suppose.

AAAAArgh!

2009-10-04T13:34:00.003-05:00

This is no time to blog. I'm doing this while I cram heated up Chinese food down my gullet. Last day of prep for the next show. Shippers come tomorrow. Its out of my hands. I've lost a big spool of picture hanging cord. Chinese finished. Back to it.

Time.

2009-09-28T21:34:00.004-05:00

One week to go before the shippers come to pick up the work for my solo show at the University Club here in Chicago. The deadline is going to be tight.

It occurs to me that I will forever allow my work to

e x p a n d

to fill the time available, and no amount of preparation and lead-in time will ever be sufficient to avoid the adrenaline-fuelled slog that has preceded every exam, presentation, report, lecture or exhibition I've ever done.
Its all become so familiar. My stomach no longer churns with the terrible doubt that I will get things done on time. Instead there is a peaceful acceptance that there will be enough time, but only just enough time if I work all the waking hours that I can, to get done what needs to get done. And that is the truth for me regardless of whether I start that realisation a month ahead of the deadline or a week or three days. There's always only just enough time.
How much more urgent would my life be if i brought that to my time on earth? How much more would I value each moment? How much more could I acheive, create, give or appreciate?

The morning after the night before

2009-09-17T19:28:00.004-05:00

I've been working with ideas for The Last Supper for much of the year.
I see it as both an ordinary meal shared by everyday people and the most extraordinary meal ever eaten. It is both rich with meaning and significance and humble in its content and context.

And then it was over and then sun rose.

So the blog and the website are now one.
It is finished.

The beginning of the End

2009-09-06T22:46:00.003-05:00

So I'm getting paintings together for Art London and a show in Amsterdam and my solo show here in Chicago in October. And its this revealing of the work that is the whole point really. Painting is pointless until someone recieves the image. So even without a gallery or a client, I believe you have to paint for an audience. A someone.
My someone is Sherry, my wife, my muse.
This painting is going to London on Tuesday though and Sherry hasnt seen it yet...so its on the blog.

The beginning of chaos

2009-08-27T23:05:00.004-05:00

I'm getting ready for a solo show here in Chicago at The University Club, and I'm surrounded by piles of things. Framed paintings, unframed paintings, empty frames, drawers full of card and cut mattes. There's paintings to finish, paintings to scan, paintings to frame, title, price and archive. There's Loud music on and no one else in the building. its late at night and I'm drinking coffee. Barefoot. slightly panicky. Comfortably certain that it will all get done. Glad the dog isn't here. Wishing my mum could see all these paintings before they go off to the gallery. This is the part where I need to work with a calendar, apportion the days, quantify the tasks and the hours available, know myself, push myself, be careful not to make mistakes. Hold the knife just so. Put the coffee down in a sensible place. Sleep enough to be awake enough. Here's a snapshot of the studio before the crunch takes its toll. it wont look like this in a week or two. Perhaps I'll remember to post another photograph at the end of September just before I hang the show.

Thinking about what I'm doing

2009-08-15T14:30:00.009-05:00

I think one begins to discover what one is about through the process of painting over a long time.

The more I paint the more I see my critical view of the world.

The more I paint the more I discover about my passion and the more I understand WHY.

I know what I want to paint before I paint.....

but I discover something about who I am after I paint it.

Bob no longer my uncle

2009-08-14T16:06:00.004-05:00

It used to be that I liked watercolour because I could do one everyday. start it in the morning.
Have some lunch.
Tweak it in the afternoon and

Bob's Your Uncle

...another painting done. It was very rewarding. It was immeadiate.

These days it takes me much longer and while the paintings are definitely a lot more, what you'd call "better", they do leave me feeling a little trapped. My paintings taunt me. I'm challenged to go bigger and paint with more complexity. "Beat that" each one says. "Beat that or you're not improving".

and I wonder why it is that one wants to improve?
why is it that one doesnt merely want to "do"?

recent communications and lack thereof

2009-08-14T10:28:00.003-05:00

Well on the one hand no one wants to read stuff written just for the sake of it and on the other hand you need to stay on the line if you want to use the telephone. Know what I mean?
Its been three weeks.
So the state department got in touch and asked if I'd be interested in doing something for Obama to give to the 20 international heads of State at the G20 summit later this year in Pittsburgh. That made my day.

Complex and Conflicted

2009-07-25T19:32:00.006-05:00

I want to paint something which is the equivalent of what Mark Buehrle just did

I want to paint the perfect popsong like Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would Suck Without You

I want to paint like Geoff Hurst scoring three against Germany in the World Cup of '66

I want to paint with the pure heart of my little children
I want to paint with the honest raw emotion of the Pistols
I want to paint just how much I love all this looking around
I want to paint MORE
I want to paint like James Bond thinks
I want to think like Da Vinci.

Georgia O'Keefe Influence

2009-07-23T19:16:00.003-05:00

For decades now so many artists have been drawn to the Santa Fe area where they become bewitched by the work of Georgia O'Keefe. She's revered in the cannon of 20th century American artists like some irresistable flowery uberwoman of waterycolourness. Go do a google search and you can read tonnes of verbal ravings about what her work "means".

Me? I'm the complete opposite apparently.

pushing the perspective

2009-07-23T14:57:00.004-05:00

This started out as a demo painting that I was doing in class to show some elements of perspective. The source material was a watercolour that I painted on site in Venice looking at the same buildings but from about 150 yards to the right. What started out as a somewhat technical excercise has yeilded a painting that I rather like. It surprises me in a way that few of my paintings do. Its warped by even my standards, but more than that, I'm surprised because I've never been there, never stood in that spot, never seen the Palazzo Malipiero Trevisan look so majestic.

My memory of the building is inextricably linked to the memory of my father growing increasingly frustrated with the old Venetian lady who repeatedly sat pressed up against his side despite his protests in the international language of speaking English slowly and VERY LOUDLY.

Its slightly odd that I should care so much about perspective that I make it a central element of my teaching and yet in my own work I am currently trying to unlearn what I know and find a more naiive approach to space.

vessels

2009-07-22T21:17:00.004-05:00

Here's a cup.

Famous people use cups like this

Even the Queen

I like the thought that we are all united in oneness in certain banal ways.
I dont want my cup to be bigger than anyone elses.
I just want some tea and a nice sit down....and to some extent I think we all do from time to time.

2009-07-22T21:02:00.009-05:00

I got new glasses

They help me to see straight

which was never my intention

this painting is called

"An Exactness of Geometry"
for people who are interested in the direct painting technique which I've been relying on more and more over the last five years
or

"Untitled VII" for those who enjoy concepts
or

"My New Glasses" for the rest of us.

Taking the Plunge

2009-07-21T22:08:00.000-05:00

A tentative beginning to A Brave New World

It seems to me that one ought to have a blog.
It seems to me that everyone needs to be heard. Everyone now has the right to speak their mind into the brave new interweb world. But most of us have nothing to say most of the time, and none of us has the time to sift through all the cyber babble.
So this will be heavy on the images, light on the verbal droolings and absolutely open for reaction, comment, critique and jokes from anyone who cares to type.

Now I have to work out how to post an image.