ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM

      It was Karen’s birthday recently, and we went down to London to see the Abstract Expressionism exhibition at the Royal Academy.  We were both blown away by the work on show.  It ranged from the influences and beginnings, right up to some later works of the artists involved in that movement.
      One of the influences was the work of Armenian-born artist, Archile Gorky, which was brilliant in itself.  The highly expressive lines in his drawing were very influential on both Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock.  There was a whole room of Gorky, one of de Kooning and two rooms of Pollock.  All of which buzzed with life and living expression.  It was fantastic to see a good range of work from these greats.  However there was a vast number of other artists’ work on display too.
      The Franz Kline had an immediacy and boldness of expression.  Minimal, both in their colours and in their forms, but violent in execution. Very striking.
      The Robert Motherwell pictures, of which there were only a few, were in some cases similar to the Kline ones.  But there was a collage of his which I really found exciting.  It was a picture of New York City, in mostly blue and black, and was very loose and free.  I kept on being drawn back to it, again and again.  I am after all a collage artist myself.
      Mark Rothko had a room to himself too.  I have seen some Rothkos before at Tate Modern.  The disorientating dreamlike pull of them holds me trance-like in the grip of their dark beauty.
      There was also a lot of work by lesser-known artists of the era.  The Lee Krasner paintings showed a similarity to her partner Pollock’s, but her work had something beautiful about it too, and was distinctly hers.  Joan Mitchell’s work stood out, as did the Clyfford Still and the Sam Francis ones.  There was also a black-painted wooden sculpture by Louise Nevelson.  This was a large wall assemblage of boxes and a vast array of wooden objects, like bits of table and chair legs, wooden tools and cut-out shapes etc.  All painted black, I found it quite difficult to focus on and it grew in time as I stood before it.
      Most of the work in this exhibition was vast in size. Some of it was hard to take in without physically moving along it, or standing at a range of distances away. One thing for me is that I like to get up as close as possible, to see the way the paint reacts against adjacent colours, to study the brush-strokes, and to nearly be able to feel the textures and any objects embedded within.  Almost to breathe it all in.
      There was so much to see, and I’ve only scratched the surface here really.  What I would like to have seen was some work by Robert Rauschenberg, but there was nothing of his.  Perhaps he was not officially an abstract expressionist, but he was working in that time and place, and with those influences.  All in all though, it was a fantastic experience to be amongst some of the greatest work of the twentieth century.  We were in there for just over two and a half hours, and we both came back feeling inspired.  I’d recommend it to anyone.

Shem

 

New Shemboid album has arrived!

I have just uploaded the new album to Bandcamp and is available for download now.

"Dissonant Dissident" has eight tracks in all and runs to approximately 62 mins.

If you wish to hear it, you can either click on the Shemboid tab above
 - or -
click on the link below.
http://shemboid.bandcamp.com/album/dissonant-dissident

There are some CD-R copies.
It is a limited edition of 50, which are hand-numbered.
They are available now!

Shem Sharples news

All the song-based music making I do is now on www.shemsharples.com

If you are interested in the singer of songs stuff, then pleas feel free to take a look on there for the latest info and upcoming gigs etc.   Generally the Shem Sharples thing is more active than the Shemboid thing at the moment.

However, the new Shemboid album is just getting printed up as we speak.... for more details, click the Shemboid tab above.

Have fun!

S

Artwork 2015

Here are a few of my art creations over the last few months......enjoy

Shem Sharples - Collage untitled 1

Shem Sharples - Untitled monoprint - 2015 - 1

Shem Sharples - Untitled monoprint - 2015 - 2

Shem Sharples - Untitled monoprint - 2015 - 3

Shem Sharples - Collage untitled 2

Shem Sharples - Collage untitled 3

Shem Sharples - Collage untitled 4

Songs and open mic. activity

Hi all,

I'm doing an open mic. gig this coming Sunday 18th January 2015 at Telford's, Chester.  Please come along if you can!  I'll be playing some new songs, ones I have never played in public before.  Also an older one (or two, if there's time!).  Of course, Thor will be joining me on bass.
I have been working extensively on getting a lot of my old songs together, beating them into shape, re-writing parts and generally improving them.  Some of these songs are decades old and hardly anyone has ever heard them!
I have also written a good number of new songs, which nobody else has ever heard yet, (except Karen).
I'll introduce them gradually into my sets as time goes.......(check out the open mics!)
There is a video recording of  "Jackdaw Alien" on Youtube, filmed at Alexander, Chester, in December.  Check it out here :-





If anyone out there would like us to do a set, or give us some gigs, it would be most welcome.
Please get in touch!

Thanks,
Shem

Live Rev Rev album feature on Schott's List

Dan Schott has done a feature on the latest and last Rev Rev album.  There is a track available to listen to through his website - "Fields of Glowing Plasma".
The link is here

http://schottslist.wordpress.com/2014/12/08/fields-of-glowing-plasma-by-rev-rev-a-schotts-list-exclusive/

Shem activity and a SHEMBOID GIG!

Hello again everybody!

SHEM
I've been doing lots of open mic gigs in Leeds and Chester lately.  Thor has kindly joined me recently and we're getting a set together and have about ten songs of mine that we've been playing so far.  Thor is playing bass guitar and I am singing and playing acoustic guitar and harmonica.  We are going to do much more in future and hopefully get some good recordings done and bigger and better gigs too!

REV REV
I think that's just about it for Rev Rev now.  I can't see us working together any more.  Our last gig was at Telford's Warehouse on Friday 13th June 2014.   There is a clip from it on the Rev Rev tab.  Hope you like it....Neon Fish Are Flying....

SHEMBOID    GIG   UPCOMING
I have been asked to do a gig at the Recon Festival in Leeds on Sunday the 28th September.  It is at Hyde Park Picture House.   I am very excited about this and been working out lots of ideas for it.  I have not done any Shemboid gigs for a few years now and I'm looking forward to working in that mode again.  I will keep you posted about this one.....it is an afternoon gig, I believe....

Okay that's all for now, thanks
S