The Weeks Are Flying By!

Well now this week was a little bit less hectic.

Lets see now what happened? Well the new work is flying along handsomely, Mummies Little Solider is finished and Luke 18:16 has also bitten the dust, and number 3 is hot on its heels and number 4 is not much further behind that, with another few roughed out in need for some serious work. All in all I think that the whole body of work for the New York show will be done and dusted by the end of Sept....PHEW!

                                                                        LUKE 18:16 (detail)

This week I met with the gallerist who is putting on the New York show, was a good meeting cos he bought the beer, so there's a bonus right away! we had a chat about how to promote the show and the theme on the opening night, its going to be a very Mason Storm affair! LOL No details yet, don't want to spoil the surprise!

                                                

The Olympics started and I am looking forward to seeing some Judo, not sure how well team GB's Judo will go but still good to cheer the chaps and chapess's on.

                                                           

                                                                 GB's Winston Gordon

Saturday I went with Mrs Storm to visit the David Bailey exhibition at the Royal Docks, just down the road from the Olympic venues. The exhibition was great, it was chosen by Bailey himself and showed the old East End as it was and the new East End as it is, from the grim 60's up to about 2010, some lovely images of his I have never seen before.

                                              

Entered an open call for a show and got a piece of my sculpture excepted which is very cool indeed, and it's even cooler as Mrs Storm had one of her photos accepted too so we get to exhibit together again! :)



Ooooh also joined a new gym, its very posh with all sorts of goodies, a swimming pool and boxing/cage fight training area and lots of lovely free weights and all the latest machine weights, and the best part is it doesn't smell, I'm getting too old for crowded smelly gyms! LMAO

                                            

So it was a subdued week, one where work was the order of the day, I will seek to redress the balance very soon! LMAO

                                               

                                                         Roll on Monday!

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

Well now, another week is over and another one has just begun, that sounds quite philosophical, and I can only hope that's the correct spelling!
So now last week, where to begin?
Spent most of the week running around gathering bits and bobs for the weeknd photoshoot, props and clothes of all shapes and sizes for my fabulous models.
But before that there was friday, and the chace to be an extra in the new Hellraiser movie, I would love to show you a pic or two from the set but I can't because the makers would have the house, the Venice flat and the collection of luxury soft furnishings off me. Suffice to say it was a long old day. We got covered in bloody goo, then we got to lay down in a big pile of half nakedness for a few hours where we were liberally sprayed with more red goo....delightful!

Then as an interesting contrast in the evening myself and Mrs Storm attended a lecture by the chap off the Culture Show who was talking about Caravaggio, my fave artist. He has written a book and it's the most informative I have read, well researched and well written. Found it a bit heavy going at some points but well worth a read if you like that kinda thing, which I do.

Then on Sunday myself, Mrs Storm and about 2 tons of costumes and props arrived at the photography studio in Walthamstow for the last shoot for reference material for paintings for my New York show, did I mention I am doing a New York show? LMAO
We had 3 models in, I have posted a pic of each one but only a snippet because I dont want to give the whole game away as to what the whole theme is.
As ever the models were brilliant and Mrs Storm snapped exactly what I wanted, so now its time to get oil on canvas...booooooo!

Me and the model Damien

                                                              Me with my model Kane

                                                               Me with my model Layla

And then comes Sunday evening/Monday morning and a painting is done, with a second hot on it's heels, so here is a sneaky peek at one of them entitled 'Mummies Little Soldier', and shhhhhh dont tell anyone about it, it's just between us! ;)

                                                                Mummies Little Soldier

That Was The Week That Was!

Well it's been a busy old week.
The spectre of producing work for the solo show looms heavy over me like the cold dark finger of death, but it will all get done, I hope ;)

Well so this week was all over the shop. On Monday myself and Mrs Storm attended a production of Shakespear's Macbeth in the fabulous setting of the Temple Church at the Middle Temple, it was very atmospheric and a great evening, especially as we got to meet up with a friend from Facebook for the first time so it was a great evening all round.

On Tuesday we popped along to the BP portrait awards show at the National Portrait Gallery, where there were some fabulous paintings on show, and as I love the figurative it was a great day out!

Wednesday, head down and back to work!

Thursday evening myself and Mrs Storm were invited along to the BAFTA headquarters in London by Actor, Writer and Director Ray Burdis to see a pre release screening of his latest film 'The Wee Man' which he wrote and directed. Its about Glasgow underworld figure Paul Ferris, it's not for the squeamish but it was right up my street, a few scenes made Mrs Storm jump LOL and the scene with the homicidal Dwarf has given me nightmares. Ray and his family are lovely and it was a great evening, so a big thanks to them for that.

Friday finally rolled around and I thought maybe it was time for a rest however myself and a cohort jumped into the car and took a trip down to Dartford in Kent to train with the British Olympic Judo Squad. It was a great night especially as we got to meet up with some old mates from previous squads who are now coaching this years team, a great night and only a few bruises!

And now head down and back to work! Boooo! LOL

LITTLE PHOTOSHOOT

Well now this Sunday saw me and Nicky (Mrs Storm) back in the studio to do some more photography for the New York solo show. We have been creating images to use as reference for the finished oil paintings. (see earlier posts, or dont bother if you can't be bothered)

We had 2 shoots booked the first one was with Maria, a wee person who was fabulous, she turned up had all her own costumes and was very professional and very nice indeed. The shoot only took about 30 or 40 minutes, Nicky doing the photos while I directed, sounds like I know what I am doing but it was basically me saying er do this er could you do that? etc etc.

We got the results we wanted, so were all geared up for the second shoot. The model we had booked for this one was booked independently and not through an agency.

She was due to arrive at 2.30pm but at 2.45 said she was stuck in traffic and not moving, so we only had the studio util 4pm so we had to cancel her as she said there was no way she could make it, which was a real disappointment as it now means that puts us back and the pressure is now on to get 3 shoots done the next time we are in the sutdio.  Still we got one shoot completed so you can't complain, well you actually can complain but no bugger will be listening! LMAO

Me and Maria

SOLD!

Just sold this oil entitled 'Thug 4 Life'.
It's a tribute to Norman Rockwell and his fabulous painting 'The Runaway'  with my own twist to it. Mine is not that far removed from the original with just a few subtle changes.
I love Normans work and this painting is a favourite, I hope he would have seen the funny side and appreciated my homage!
Well now someone else likes it too so it's off to it's new home in the USA next week. BON VOYAGE!!!!

ROCKWELL'S ORIGINAL

MY VERSION

REPETITION

I had a few pieces in a show at Gallery 90 cuarated by my good friend Stealer Artman, its was also a special show because I got to exhibit alongside Mrs Storm (Nicky) who showed some of her photography, a triptych of me, so even more special! LMAO
The theme of the show was repetition so I took some of my old images and reworked them, I turned my Ai Wei wei oil into a panel with the image repeated 4 times, I did a triptych of skulls called very originally 'Triptych' I did a multi repeat image of the Messiah for Life Madonna, ink jet on canvas and two new sculptures. Three skulls painted in a Hirts kind of style called 'Hirst in Line' and a piece entitled 'Andy Can Can Can' a small tribute to Andy Warhol.
Although I sold noting at the show I have since secured a buyer for the 'Hirst in Line' Skulls! wooowoooo

 

 

 

HIRST IN LINE

ANDY CAN CAN CAN

THE ILLUSIVE MASON STORM by Nicky Storm

 

WEI TOO MANY inkjet on canvas

MADONNA OF THE GHETTO inkjet on canvas

TRIPTYCH inkjet on canvas

Bits and Bobs

There was me running away with myself and I haven't updated you on the other stuff between the old solo show and now so ok here goes.

Had a couple of pieces in a show in Weston Super Mare called 'Reserrection' put on by an artist called Jamie Paul Scanlon, the idea was that artists would paint images of the famous and infamous who are no longer with us.  I put in an A1 framed print entitled 'Death List 1' which sold, another A1 print called 'Messiah for Life' which didn't and my oil of Sir Thomas More which did sell so all in all not a bad show at all, and I got mentioned in the local rag as one of the top players in the urban art field, the mad fools!!! LMAO

Now usually I do an oil and then produce a print run from that however I did the Messiah for Life print which was a manipulated photo and did a print run of it. Then someone saw the prints and wanted to know if they could buy the original oil? I said it doesn't exist so they basically said "make it so" and I did and it's now sitting happily in its new home up in Cheshire.

Oh and further down the list of blogs you can see the photo of portrait competition winner 'Louise' and I never updated it, so here you can see her photo and the finished oil.

DEATH LIST 1

                                                                LESS IS NOT MORE

                                                        Competition Winner LOUISE

MESSIAH FOR  LIFE

BEEN A WHILE

Bless me father for I have sinned, it's been a long while since my last confession, I mean Blog, probably cos I forgot the flippin password to this page! LMAO
So what's been happening? Not much really other than me being gloriously magnificent!! ;)

I have a solo show in New York in December (woowoo) at least I better had otherwise all this work is going to waste!

So I have a rough theme for the show which is 'What Lies Beneath?', its about the side we show people and the side we don't want them to see, its about good things and bad things, hypocrisy, double standards, hope, anti racism, anti sexism, anti bigotry, love etc etc.

So for the last few weeks myself and Mrs Storm have been in the photo studio creating the reference material images which will be turned into the oil paintings, its been hard work but a lot of fun. We have had a bunch of great models and friends helping out and we are about 2 shoots away from finishing the photography. I have 3 paintings on the go at once so its a NIGHTMARE!!!!

Below are a few pics from the shoots, hope you like them and I will update this weeks coming shoot on Sunday or Monday if I have any energy left, actually what am I talking about? Mrs Storm is doing all the photography, I just swan around like Steven Speilberg, but am about as dynamic as Stephen Hawking!

How Much Does That Lot Wei

What a great title!!
The Tate Modern Gallery have just bought a big pile of Ai Weiwei's ceramic sunflower seeds from his big installation in the Turbine Hall at the gallery.
They have apparently bought 8 million of the litte things, from a total of about 100 million of the individually hand made pieces.
So there are still 92 million floating about, and if you would like some genuine (fake) seeds please feel free to contact me and Snake Oil Productions and we will send you a bottle of the genuine (fake) seeds for the very low sum of £100. This is your chance to own some geniune (fake) Weiwei sunflower seeds!

The Lucky Winner!

This is Louise, and she is the lucky winner of a Mason Storm portrait.
On Feb the 16th myself and Nicky Storm attended the Last Tuesday Society Valentines Masked Ball, a glorious affarir of masks, good company and fabulous costumes.
We were running a competition in conjunction with the Last Tuesday Society and basically we went around snapping (or rather Nicky did) all the lovely people who had attended and took their details, all the names went into a hat (tupperware box) and Louise was the lucky winner who will be receiveing her 20"x30" portrait in the next month or so.
The Last Tuesday masked balls are always a great night out and there are always plenty of fabulous people to mingle with!
I will keep you updated on the paintings progress!