reflectionspaintings and photographs from a Manchester Canal to a Swedish Lake exhibition catalogue TAG 3D VR Tubes Artists Gallery
MEMBERS ONLY ART GALLERY 3D Virtual Reality exhibition of Tubes Artists Gallery are offering the TUBES Galleries to artists with a TAG Member Plan. painters Tubes magazines associated partners for this unique global artists gallery are World Art Exhibitions and Exhibitt 3D VR New Zealand. TUBES are working with associates to develop the galleries on a constant basis. Initially th Tubes Artists Gallery is a space for solo exhibitions. During 2020 will add a large gallery space suitable for Artists affliations Studio Group exhibitions, special annual shows for Academies and Art Associations. TAG-TUBES offer membership to independent artists on an subscription basis paid annually with a realistic commision percentage fee on Sales. E-commerce with Pay Pal is integrated and this will be expanded to a universal twelve month interest free plan for the artists collectors and all art buyers. All of which is included in the annual subscriptition. Full details will be published on painters Tubes magazine platforms. The Tubes Artists Gallery Membership includesThree 10 day 3D VR exhibitions per annum with a maximum of 18 pieces of work. Twenty four page Artists Catalogue (online version is included in membershipsubscription fee, the printed versions can be pre-ordered at low cost to the artist).Marketing and premiere digital invitations to your contacts and existing collectors. A unique Gallery URL for your collectors to visit. HTML5 embed code to post the exhibition onto your own webspace. An article about the show in painters TUBES magazine. e-commerce Pay Pal connected exhibition. Review published onto three TUBES global website platformsAll administration and delivery to clients (globally) through TUBES logistic partners (Tea House Transport for UK deliveries and Parcel Hero inc. Worldwide). Delivery costs will be included in the prices quoted in the exhibition. Offer to register in the Interest Free Customer Plan (available June/July 2020) Artists Guest invitations to exhibit on the TAG stand at UK, European and USA shows and fairs scheduled for 2020 and 2021. TAG Membership £45 per annum for three Solo Exhibitions 15% commission of the Artwork sold in the VR gallery and the pop-up exhibitions and fairs TAG membership sign up available on www.tag-tubes.com please note: TAG Members will also have a preferential offer of exhibiting in the World Art Exhibitions throughout the UK and Europe from September 2020 www.worldartexhibitions.com and the interest free plan via www.worldartfinance.com
reflections Manchester Canal to a Swedish Lake painting and photographic exhibition by Manchester born Artist Denis Taylor This is the inaugural exhibition of Tubes Artists VR Gallery and features work created by artist, writer and exhibition curator for TAG. The paintings and photographs exhibited were created between 2005 and 2018 at Studio 4, Ancoats Manchester UK and Studio 5 Ekerod, Skane Sweden.This exhibition is to give fellow artists a complete view of how a TAG three dimensional virtual reality interactive on line exhibition is designed and how it operates.It is also to demonstrate the unique advantages of becoming a TAG member, advantages that Tubes believes is the way forward for contemporary artists in the 21st century.TAG & Tubes are working closely with World Art Exhibitions and will invite artists who become members to be their guest exhibititors at the Pop Up exhibitions and Art Fairs scheduled for 2020 - 2021 throughout the UK, Europe and the USA.painters Tubes Magazines have been researching the best platforms for 3D VR exhibitions forover four years and believe the platform on offer to TAG members is by far the closest one can get to visiting an exhibition in a real life situation. Painters exhibit your Art with Tubes Artists Gallery Go over to tubes-tag.com and sign up to become a TAG member Only two artists per month each with a 10 day solo exhibition Gallery space available for May 22nd to May 31st please book in advance Front Cover; Denis Taylor Self portrait over a photograph of the Canal near Studio 4 the faded background photograph on this page shows a number of the reflection paintings at Studio 5, ready for selection by the artist to go to Buy Art Fair Manchester 2014.
photograph:taking a shadow selfiewalking on the canalon a sunny day.May 2005
reflections“ it was in 2004 that I found myself relocating my studio from Sweden to my home town Manchester. The reason for my relocation was both practical and psychological. Practical because I needed to manage a financial negative surplus and deal with a psychological issue. A situation that had occured because, I had not only lost sight of the person (and the artist) that I once was, but also I had lost my art and design company and my livelihood. Both circumstances was the result of survival from a malignant tumour, one that I was told, was terminal. I had a slim chance of continued existence, and that wasonly by agreeing to dramatic surgery. It worked and I survived, but only just by the skin of my teeth. What was left of ‘me’ however, seemed, at least to me, not worth saving. And that was the problem I had to solve for the sake of my own life and my family. The blow back, after I told the truth to Lloyds Bank was that they decided I was a bad risk and pulled the rug on the company, one that had provided income for the previous 12 years. I had also lost my self respect as a man. That once confident self motivated artist, that I once was (at that time), destroyed. Today we label this condition post-operative depression. In 2005, it still wasn’t officially recognised as a negative condition and in general ignored, unless you could persuade someone that the condition was dangerous to your life and needed urgent treatment, or you could pay someone to do help you. It was a job that should have been free, but I could achieve neither. My relocation then had two objectives. Stabilisation of my growing financial crisis and the bigger problem of rediscovering the person and the self belief in myself as an artist. The plan was reasonably simple. First find a place that was cheap to live in. A place that was isolated to help with the analytical introspection, so vital for the rebuilding of another self, one that I was so desperate to find. I had to keep my secret from public view, because it would be seen weakness and I needed to get a paying a job. So I chose to return to an area I knew instinctively. That place was to the North East of inner City Manchester. I was aware of old Wellington Mill, in the district known as Ancoats (now renamed to New Islington). An area I knew very well from my childhood. The premises available was the old toilets of the cotton mill that was located in the central yard. The Mill was occupied by what could be seen as society misfits, but were in fact fellow creatives. Music rehearsal rooms, visual artists and a few nice eccentric humans, but that many people would not socialize with. The ‘hut’ as I came to affectionately all the old toilets, had been made liveable by a video making company, they had installed a kitchen and a shower, needed because they made pornography on the premises. The guy who ‘run’ the Mill was a mister fix-it, a Mancunian called Tony and a fellow who became a close and valued friend. n other words the Hut was perfect, some time later I christened my new place of abode - the Hut - (Studio 4). So here is my story about how the artworks ‘reflections’ came into being and their part saving me from self destruction and enabling a re-birth of the person that most people now know as Denis the artist, the writer and the editor of painters TUBES magazines.
photo above: The walk back to the Hut from Manchester Centre with Bridge 5 in the distance.below: The yard and the Hut (Studio 4) with graffiti decoration by Kelzo
The above photograph is how I remember the Ancoats area of Manchester from the 1960’s. It was here the Ancoats hospital was located – Famous for its ground breaking surgeries and the place where my father was a patient for four years, before his death at the tender age of thiry nine years old. It was an area I knew well because of my daily visits to my fathers hospital bedside. I chose Ancoats in 2004, because it helped me reflect how my dad fought to live and finally succumbed only when all hope had gone. On the opposite page is the canal and the bridge. The one in the distance in the bridge closest to Wellington Mill and the Canal pathleading into the centre of Manchester, a mere ten minute walk away. The bottom photograph is the infamous Hut. The outside was decorated by a graffiti artist who had a studio opposite me. He is now a very well known and respected visual artist, his graf tag name is Kelzo.
...the concept for the series of Reflections paintings came about as a sort fortunate happy accident. I had registered as an artist with the North West Arts Council on my arrival back into England after working in Sweden on a 5 year project for the International support Group and the Swedish Governments Estonia Trust Fund (After 5 Years Project and Heart 2 Art Exhibition). It didn’t take very long for the Arts Council to contact me and ask if I would give a live demonstration of painting – as a sort of public attraction – for the annual Canal Barge celebration day at thePortland Basin Museum. Of course I agreed, as this would be a testof my resolve to re-enter into the public arena. One of the effects of my condition was to avoid any form ‘of social interaction whatsoever. I set up my easel and put on my headphones – knowing this practise always had helped me to quickly enter the ‘subconscious’creative zone in the past. I breathed a sigh of relief as only the staffof the Museum was present. The weather forecast was for Sun andShowers, so I thought only a very few enthusiasts would show up to look at a collection of old Canal Barges. I painted for at least three or four albums plus a host of favourite singles on my mp3 player when a small boy tugged my arm. I lifted the headphones from one of my ears. “thats a good drawing Mister.” He said, I smiled. “No, my son it’s a painting.” I said in the kindest way I could to correct him. I then turned around to view what appeared to be about one hundred people watching me. I put my headphones back on, turned my face to the work and finished the painting. I started another painting on the remaining prepared hardboard I had taken to the commission. And when the sun finally faded to twilight, I went back to the hut and reflected on what the day had taught me. I felt better because the idea for whole series of paintings called ‘reflections’ was born and it was this title that would apply to my entire time spent in Ancoats and the Hut.
reflections a beginning...one of two paintings from the Barge Day at the Portland Museum ©Denis. Private Collection Manchester UK.
“give me the real thing...give me the real thing...” These were the words createdby Sean Ryder and set to a pulsating aggressive rhythm by the band the HappyMonday’s. The music and the words pierced my brain as I walked day after day on thecanal, thinking deep about who I was, and not finding any answer.As I progressed up the canal path I willingly complied to the psychological torture bythe music and the words of the Stone Roses...”It seems all gone....I’m begging You..this is a mystery not to be solved..” The words and the tune played repeatedly in myhead. These were the sort of statements I identified with.I realised I was starting to enjoy the self induced horrors of depression. That wassomething I could not allow to become entrenched in my soul. It was around this timethat I started writing more on daily basis. And painting every night and through thenight at those times of torturous insomnia. I also began playing more Joy Divisionmusic – in particular the track ‘Atrocity Exhibition’ ..the line “this is the way..Stepinside “ had real meaning to me, knowing how Ian Cutis the singer of Joy Division hadkilled himself rather than live with his condition.
I was now at the lowest point of a four year self analysis and a self medicating recovery program.The self medication consisted of home grown marijuana – I knew its properties and its dangers. It could have taken me either way with the psychological issues I was trying to expunge. But it also had positive affects. The most important being ‘awareness’ of place. My canal walks were now filled with wondrous observations -- the wind on the canal water broke up the reflections into fantastic abstract patterns and the colours beamed with positivity. “...medicine is magical and magical is Art...” said Paul Simon in my headphones. I agreed with him. I was almost at the beginning of the recovery I thought,but actually I was only entering the second year of my Ancoats Canal isolation and the ultimate ‘cure’ that I so desperately sought after. I didn’t know at this point, that that would take much longer to achieve.
By the end of the second year at Studio 4 the Canal environment began to change. Manchester’sattitude to the neglected parts of the inner city had changed dramatically. It was realised that theCity had much to offer, and that there was money to made in the property renting market.This was accentuated when the British Government, more or less, forced the BBC to relocate tothe new thriving Salford Docks area. This stimulated the thirty something, who would never havedreamed living in the North of England otherwise, suddenly targeted. Manchester as ‘Cool’The influx of students also helped the attitude of the council to start to think out of the box.Before long the bulldozers moved in and began ripping up the old Mills in Ancoats, the ones thatcouldn’t be adapted for ‘apartments’ (i.e. too much money to save). They began to be replacethem with new glass and steel constructions and ‘trendy’ new architectural design. The coloursreflected on the canal changed with the new direction. Red Cranes, turquoise covering sheets,steel fencing and all manner of bright blue signs and yellow workers clothing seen in the canal.This new Council led direction of replacing old mills with new buildings helped to The
The new colours began to stimulate my imagination and after completinga whole series of painting that reflected the old mills I now started toconsider using abstract forms and colour to reflect the new.In many ways this new ‘wave’ of building gave my mind a fresh direction,not unlike like the changeI was seeking within myself. I then started in earnest to tear down the oldDenis and rebuild with the new.
A week or so later I had a relapse. It was the result of nightmare about myoperation and the consequences of the procedure reverting to a failure.I awoke in a blind panic early one morning and went straight to the Canal.Coldly I had decided that ending my life was the only realistic conclusion thatI had left. I looked down onto the Canal – and what was reflected back at mewas a stranger, someone I could not even recognise.The path near the bridge was still surrounded by old mills, the bulldozers hadnot reached them as yet. I pulled away from the canal and walked for hourstowards a town near Manchester called Ashton-under-Lyne, I left the canal justpassed the Portland Museum and had breakfast in a cafe.After breakfast I calmly walked into a hairdressers and told the barber to cutall my hair off. The new Denis had won. I walked back into the City on thepath and passed the new apartments being built and felt I had reached a pointof rejuvenation. It felt good. This was the beginning of total renewal and thereinvention of not only the Ancoats district but also of myself.
New Work at Studio 4Ancoats 2006 In the third year of my isolation I became far more psychologically balanced. The new building that were going up all around the Hut (Studio 4) lifted my vision. It was the colours of the building equipment and the renovation of the old building that exposed the original orange of the Victorian bricks seemed to sing out - “paint abstracts,” I’d completed painting the old Mils, in daylight and at night by the light of the moon. I’d painted them in Sunset, in rain and overcast conditions. I studied them, sketched them until they became second nature to me. When I finally realised that by walking on the canal for two years I could paint the feeling of them and I wanted to make the old into new – Just as I had renewed myself. My good friend Tony (the caretaker of the mill) called round at the Hut for a morning cup of tea. It was an habitual ritual that we both enjoyed. I mentioned I wanted to create abstract work. He looked and in a typical understatement told me he had found a large sheet of blue Perspex - and asked “could you paint on that?” The idea excited me for it was the perfect base for abstract contemporary works of art. I managed to get my hands on a limited range of cheap acrylic paint They were excellent because the pigment was extremely strong and vibrant – Made in China of course. After a test I started by cutting the Perspex sheet into a 400mm x 600mm format. I had twelve pieces all told. I painted these quickly without preconception or design – I still believe they are the some of the most important paintings I have done – to date.
abstract #4abstract #4abstract #4
The beginning of 2007 was a special time time. The new abstracts had convinced me into‘trying’ out new materials to paint on. That year was the anniversary of the death of HenriMagritte, the French Surrealist, and one of my favourite artists. His series ‘the treachery ofimages’ was a turning point in Art – exemplified by the painting “Cest n’est une pipe.” (Thisis not a pipe). The idea occurred to me that as a Homage I would paint in the style of thecanal abstracts and call this work “this is not a chair’
Once again over a morning cup of Tea I talked about the idea to Tony, and as usualhe thought for a few moments - “I have one you can use – its bit grubby mind.” Iaccepted immediately and two days later I had the Chair and began work. It tooksix months to complete. In September 2007 – just before I was ready to return toSweden I mounted the exhibition - “this is Not a Chair.” which was opened at thebeginning of September 2007.
Back from England registered Swedish resident with a new company.I returned to my Studio in Sweden – I continued with my self help. I was a new personality butmore work was needed. During 2008 I began writing as part of my art practise once again andpainting in a custom made studio and gallery. We held our first show in 2014 which was a non-commercial exhibition followed by exhibitions in fellow artists studiod in Sweden up to 2014.I also participated in the group show “defining the elemental” at Crossley Gallery, HalifaxYorkshie, UK, along side friends and fellow artists (included: Shaun Smyth, Steve Stringer,Richard Fitton, Ian Norris, Nicki Heenan, Miranda Richmond, Jeanette Barnes, Richard Clare andBarry De More.)I began writing for the International Market Magazine (2015) for quite a while until a life longfriend of mine from Art school, suggested I become an Arts Editor for a dedicated paintersmagazine – It was then that painters TUBES magazine was born. My mission was now clear –that was and is to create authentic paintings and support other painters who do likewise –So far, so good.
photographs: left- painting one of the abstract paintings in Stu-dio 5 Sweden - Also shown is the incomplete painting which wasexhibited at “defining the elemental exhibition at Dean Clough,Crossly Gallery, Halifax, Yorkshire.Below - A new abstraction of Reflections - inspired by the lakesnear studio 5 - “Reeds on the Water” 1200mm x 1200mm .Acrylic, Charcoal and Oil on Finnish Oiled hardboard mountedonto a wooden frame.
Photograph above: Tubes and Editors office.Canal paintings on the walls, with “this is Not a Chair”Version #2For the extracts from the novel “the Protos Loophole.” asemi-fictional story which was based on the experiencesoutlined in this catalogue go to: https://denisartist.comfor more information on TAG and Tubes please visit thefollowing websites: www.painterstubes.com. www.painterstubes.gallery www.tag-tubes.comassociate company: https://worldartexhibitions.co.uk
TUBES 3D VR Gallerywww.tag-tubes.compainters TUBES magazinewww.painterstubes.comTAGwww.painterstubes.galleryassociate companyWorl Art Exhibitionswww.worldartexhibitions.co.ukStudio 5 SwedenEkerodsvagen, Munka Ljungby, Swedenall images and words çopyright: Denis Taylor/painters TUBESmagazine. ©2014 - 2020