A small series of photos hinting at sections of the
Brighton East Pier.
They have been printed onto thick 12x9 inch watercolour
paper (250gsm) and then worked over/into.
The idea was to subtly extended and work away the
boundaries and space of the photographic image.

As of the 10th of December, I have started a 6 week long
residency at the Artist Residence hotel In Brighton. At the end
of the residency in early February, I will be having an exhibition
in the gallery space of the hotel.
A residency is something that I was keen to do once out of uni,
and with this opportunity, the great people at the hotel and the
location, I can't ask for anything better.
I was planning to update regularly in the first week that I was there,
but for some unknown reason, my laptop stopped working for a week.
So now that the Christmas celebrations have finished, here are
some initial photographic forays.
More to come shortly!

Some new (old) bits that I've been meaning (too lazy)
to post. All of these pieces are mainly ideas/studies.
They act as a substitute for drawing, as I don't tend to
draw much.
Both of these cut-into pieces and the small
"portraits" are moving towards something more sculptural.
Working with elements and ideas of sculpture/instalation is
something I have toyed with previously, and something that
I want to progress onto.

A vertical four part piece using A3 size Ilford darkroom
paper. A combination of the tight cropping and the muted,
almost dream-like colour saturation, gives the whole piece
quite a surreal and ominous feel.
Something that seems to be an ongoing theme in my work...

I recieved a painting off a dear friend a few weeks ago.
It's full of wonderful (and dirty) details.

I visited the Tate Modern yesterday to see
Ai Weiwei's "Sunflower Seeds" installation.
Since seeing it on the news a day or two before,
I had been intrigued and I knew it was something I
had to go and see.

Approaching it from a distance, it appeared rather unassuming,
with the scattering of people on it the only real reminder that it was
there at all. However as soon as I set foot on the surface, I was hit
by the sheer monumentality of just what had been achieved.
Then as I sat down and started to run my hands through the
porcelain sea, I felt calm.

While other turbine hall installations of the past have been
all encompassing and awe inspiring in their presence, and have
entertained through scale and interaction, this is the first that I have
witnessed that has made people stop, and think. Apart from a few
young children running around, everywhere I looked people seemed
to be deep in contemplation.

The thing that really touched me though, was when an older lady sitting
across from me compared this hand-made sea to the endless sea of stars
present in the sky at night, of which only a handful can be taken in at a time.

and the second one....

The two completed mixed media on aluminium pieces.
All the different parts have come together quite well,
with the detail of the lighthouses merging in nicely with
the background, to give a kind of foggy washed out effect.

Some progress photos of one of two aluminium pieces
that I'm working on at the moment.
This is really the first time I've "drawn" properly in a while.
The background is a mixture of heavily watered down acrylic,
ink and white spirit built up over a week or so.
I have just started working the drawn part in, which will eventually
be a lighthouse, using a watercolour oil stick.
After these I want to start working on larger more expansive pieces
of aluminium, but I may need more space first.... :p

and three more...

Three new photopaper pieces, following on from
the ferris wheel and burger man ones from a
little while ago.
With these new ones I have been playing a bit
more with manipulating the ink, as well as the
offsetting of sections of the image.

I've been a bit lazy and havn't posted anything in
a while, so here's a three part piece that I finished
a while ago.
I initially planned to cut each section into three equal
pieces, leaving me with 9 pieces. These were then
going to be stiched back together to give a kind of
physical representation of a wave.
However, I didn't think there was any real need to do this,
so I have keep it as a triptych which seems to work quite well.

I've been working a fair bit with photographic
paper recently. It has quite a unique look and feel
to it. A kind of dull deepness...

The chaps over at Holy Ghost have put some of
newest work up on their site.
Much appreciated guys :)

http://holyghostzine.blogspot.com/2010/08/alex-prior.html#more

Another four piece landscape...

A portrait diptych also taken at Coney Island.
I was quite taken aback by seeing this individual,
he seemed quite serene just looking out at the sea...

A few pieces from a new photographic series.
This set use photos taken at Coney Island on a
trip to New York a while ago.
The idea was to subtly, and in some cases not so
subtly, distort and alter the captured image. I found
the location quite surreal, but also very beautiful and
far removed from the hustle and bustle of Times Square...

And finally...a finished piece..
It consists of 11 polaroids arranged together on a
length of steel.
The polaroids were taken in a scrap yard.
Each one conveys a beauty of form and a story
long detached from its owner.