Solo show - Paint3d

Invite

The opening of my show coincided with Russafart, an event where all of the galleries and studios in the area opened their doors to the public for the weekend.

As a result, the gallery and my studio have had literally hundreds (possibly thousands) of visitors.   It has been an amazing weekend. 

There was an article in Las Provincias which featured an image of one of my paintings along with Juana Valero rehearsing a performance:

http://www.lasprovincias.es/20120518/mas-actualidad/cultura/artistas-russafa-talleres-abiertos-201205181604.html

With thanks to Marta Lopez Montesinos and José Carlos Díaz for the photos.

(download)

Studio - William Blake and Thirteen

My paintings of Johnny Depp as William Blake and Olivia Wilde as Thirteen are now finished and in the Contemporary Icons section of the website.

William_blake_ii_74_x_132cm_oil_on_canvas_2012

I have photographed both works every hour of painting and you can see the progress images on my Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.191153577614915.50355.100001608235765&type=3

and

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.260605567336382.65612.100001608235765&type=3

Exhibition - 100 Mothers curated by Harry Pye

100 Mothers is one of the most straight-forward and irony free art exhibitions of all time.

50 male and 50 female artists were provided with a canvas and asked to make an artwork that represented their mum.

You can see the show at the Kingsway section of Chester University CH2 2LB.

The show is open Monday to Friday 10am - 4pm until the 30th of March.

http://therebelmagazine.blogspot.com/2012/01/100-mothers-come-to-chester.html


There is a Q&A with me and Harry on the same blog:

http://therebelmagazine.blogspot.com/2011/10/q-with-josie-mccoy.html

Commission of Pat Evans from EastEnders

Pat_evans_watercolour

I have recently finished a painting of Pat Evans from EastEnders. It was commissioned by the BBC for her leaving gift.
I have a long history of painting EastEnders characters, as this was the series I did while doing my MA and for my first solo show. You can see some of the works here:
http://josiemccoy.co.uk/gallery/collection.aspx/eastenders
Later, I was commissioned by the series to paint Cindy for a storyline in 2007. http://josiemccoy.co.uk/gallery/image.aspx/eastenders/Cindy%20Beale
Apparently, Pam St Clement was delighted with her present and I am really happy to have been asked to do it.
For a list of prices and more information about commissions, please contact me at josie@josiemccoy.co.uk

Studio - William Blake - A photo every hour

Day_8_29_20

Over the last month I have been working on a larger than usual painting, from a selection of close up stills of Johnny Depp as the character William Blake in ´Dead Man´ by Jim Jarmusch.

You can see the IMDB entry for the film here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112817/

I have been photographing the progress of the work every hour that I paint and am updating the photo album on my Facebook page every week.

You can view the album here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.191153577614915.50355.100001608235765

I am also writing a journal of the painting:

William Blake Day 1
I arrived at the studio just after 10.30, all set to start the painting. After just 4 hours, I´d finally decided to paint his skin pale green, because it´s a colour I know I can blend other colours into to create the form of the cheekbones (which I knew I´d need to do to make him recognisable), and use Prussian blue. The dilemma was between Prussian blue and Cadmium Red deep and I spent an extraordinary amount of time deciding which one would work best. I was inspired to use Prussian blue by a painting by Mimei Thompson who uses it in a subtle and delicate way, particularly in this painting:
http://www.mimeithompson.com/portfolio/index.php?work=425

Mimei was one of the artists I showed with in June at the 11:11 exhibition.

Within a couple of hours I remembered how overwhelming Prussian blue can be and added in some Davy´s grey. I have used Davy´s grey before for underpainting and like how weak it is for this purpose, so it´s interesting for me to use it on top for a change.

William Blake Day 5
Since then, the painting has changed significantly in both depth and colour and I have painted over most of the green skin with blue and changed from Prussian to Indanthrone blue – a softer option. I decided that the former colours were slightly too acidic after all. Perhaps Mimei´s success with Prussian blue is because she uses other much more organic colours than I do. It really didn´t work with my very man-made looking pastel green.

William Blake Day 8
I´m painting the second blue skin layer today. It´s incredibly hot in the studio (I´m in Valencia and it´s about 35 degrees outside) which is affecting the drying time of the paint. I need each layer to be completely dry before painting the next, and the heat and humidity mean that the layers aren´t drying as ´hard´ as I need. I can get over this by leaving it for a few extra days between layers, but wish I didn´t need to because it breaks the momentum and I want to see how it will look at the end...

By the end of the day, I start to like how the painting looks.

Romeo and Juliet

Given my ongoing interest in other artists´ studios and works in progress, I have decided to add some updates to my blog with some images of my works in progress and hopefully adding a few words to put the images into context.

Yesterday I sent the images of my recently finished paintings of Romeo and Juliet to Opus Art in Newcastle.  Soon afterwards, I got a call from them asking me to say something about why I painted them and if I had any images they could use to show the process of the paintings.  

I regularly document my paintings as they develop, so that I can see the paintings out of the studio in a more objective way.  You can see them, and the blog entry here:  http://blog.opus-art.com/2011/08/05/josie-mccoy-romeo-and-juliet/

So I´ll start my own with my new painting of ´William Blake´ - Johnny Depp´s character in the film Dead Man by Jim Jarmusch.

Exhibition - Josie McCoy: Watercolours

Helena_bonham_carter_watercolo

 

My new series of watercolours will be at Opus Art in Newcastle upon Tyne throughout July.


Opus Art

Milburn House

Dean Street

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE1 1NR

+44 (0) 191 232 7389 

enquiries@opus-art.com  

http://opus-art.com/ 

 

Please get in touch with Opus to see the exhibition as viewing is by appointment only Mon to Fri 10am to 5pm.

 

In their press release Opus write:
From 4 July we will be exhibiting a collection of new watercolours by Josie McCoy. Working from film stills, McCoy’s portraits beautifully capture fleeting moments and present contemporary icons in a vulnerable, unfamiliar light. 

McCoy is a graduate of Central St Martins, London. She took part in the Castellon Painting Prize 2005 at Municipal Art Centre of Alcorcon, Madrid and has exhibited a number of times in the BP Portrait Awards at the National Portrait Gallery, London. She has also exhibited internationally, with solo shows in London, Newcastle, Milan and Santiago de Compostela.

The exhibition runs until 29 July at our Newcastle gallery, where alongside we will also be showing new work from Hector de Gregorio, sheOne and Kelly Jayne. 

Please join us at the private view of this new exhibition on Friday, 1 July from 6pm - please note, RSVP is essential.