I was lucky enough to wangle another visit to Chris Orr's studio yesterday. He was having a three day open studio event and my parents are on his mailing list so were invited. Mum couldn't go so it was suggested that Dad and I go.
Chris's wife, Kate, met us at the door and showed us some work as Chris was talking to someone else. It was lovely to see her again, she even enquired after my progress with the course, and she wanted to catch up on Dad's news. I had seen most of Chris's recent works in February, but it was wonderful to look through his lockdown series again. Dad hadn't seen them so he was interested and we enjoyed deciphering some of them - I never feel culturally clever enough for much of Chris's work as there is so much in there, many references that I don't pick up on as I'm not well versed enough in classic literature etc.
When Mum and I visited in February I saw 'Rustbucket' for the first time. This was a print that really stayed with me and I looked it up on Chris's website several times. I think I thought it was just way out of my price range so I enjoyed looking at it but that was it. In the week leading up to the open studio I thought about it again, but didn't look it up, I just hoped I could see it again.
There it was, beautifully framed hanging on the wall!
Kate and Chris bade farewell to their other guest (they seem to know all their customers very well!) giving Dad and I a chance to peruse the bookshelves of the little room next to the main studio where the lockdown prints were. There were an awful lot of fascinating books and we noted rather a lot of RA catalogues, we wondered whether being an RA, Chris gets them at a good price?!
We meandered back to the studio next door and I couldn't help but stare at 'Rustbucket' I admitted that it had caught my eye last time I came and it would be a perfect fit in our slightly boaty family. I had completely forgotten how much Chris's work was and so when I enquired I was directed to the price list and realised there was nothing under about £800.... GULP! Oops!
I had one of those moments when I realised I'd always regret not buying it. Dad could see I really wanted it and even offered to go halves and call it a birthday present. I told him that would be several birthdays and Christmases! But that no, I'd buy it myself. As soon as I said it I was delighted! This is what savings are for, those moments in life that are a bit defining. It really felt like that... what came next was just the icing on the cake.
We now had Chris completely to ourselves and had the most wonderful conversation about his work. Dad was trying to figure out what the first print they bought was (I silently chuckled as Mum had had the same conversation last time!) and we gained some further insight into some of the prints.
I told him how using pressed flowers in soft ground etching had fed into using caustic soda on lino, and that I was fascinated by how different processes influenced each other and pushed each other on. Chris has used a mixture of techniques and it was brilliant to talk about this with him. I was especially interested in how he achieved some of the textures on his perspex engravings and he got out his box of tools and showed me a wonderful selection of roulette wheels. They seem to produce the most amazing results in his hands and I'm thinking I might have to ask for one or two for my birthday to give them a go (if I can wait that long!).
He had one of the plates from Tide Runs Strong Here printed on it's own and explained how he had used spit bite to achieve all the gradations in depth in it. I've often wondered about this one and previously assumed it was a lithograph (which Chris has used a lot) because of the painterly effects used in it. I'd heard of spit bite but never figured out how to do it or the effect it gives. Hearing Chris explain it was brilliant, especially with such a brilliant example to see all the variations possible in front of us. I really want to try it now! Chris directed me to Norman Ackroyd as the master of the technique, I need to go to and stare at those some more now. I'm so lucky having parents with such fantastic art on their walls!
Dad said that he particularly loves Jaguars Children and Chris told us that it was about his own family and his children. This made it even more special to Dad I think. Now I have a better understanding of it it makes me chuckle - it really does sum up the chaos of family life (and I have much of the chaos still to come).
For Rustbucket he told us that he was fascinated by the lives of the men (it was always men) working on the lightships and how they worked 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off. We pondered how awful it would have been to be aboard in bad weather! Chris told us that he'd applied for a job as a DJ aboard one when it was used as a pirate radio ship, he didn't get it and said that as it turns out that probably wasn't a bad thing! He particularly loves the names of the ships and how they get them.
I was really touched by how interested he was and how generous in talking process and showing me his tools. I told him him that for me his work is home. I've grown up with it (and new ones keep appearing) so it feel familiar and comforting but provided me with a lesson in having to keep looking again, and again, and again as there's so much to see and discover, it's impossible to see it all in one looking. Chris asked whether the familiarity was a good thing or not and I assured him it was which he looked pleased about! He told us that when he was starting to make work he used to have a guy who bought it in bulk and travelled the country selling it door to door. Chris said that financially it was fairly disastrous as he made barely anything from it, but as it turns out it was brilliant for getting his name and work out there and into peoples homes, so when he had exhibitions and became better known people suddenly though "Oh! We've got one of his" and were more interested because it was familiar. He discovered he already had a country-wide audience. He noted how often it was the children that then wanted a piece as, like me, it reminded them of home as well as being something desirable to have on their wall in itself. There was definitely this element of 'I want one of my own' for me. Rustbucket is stunning in it's own right, but it's also my personal choice from an artist that filled the walls of the family home.
I asked Chris whose work he has on his walls, who does he lie looking at when he's no longer staring at his work on his studio walls. He said that he was good friends with Paula Rego and felt their work had elements in common. He also likes Cornelia Parker, and is great friends with Terry Frost. He said that he and Terry both love each others work, despite their work being very different. They have traded pieces so both own each others work.
These are some more of Chris's prints that I'm particularly familiar with:
And here it is... so beautifully framed and hung as soon as it was home!
