METROPOLITAN LINES An Exhibition by Martin Church

​Metropolitan Lines
Artist: Martin Church 
July 30th - August 13th 2021
Preview 6th August 7 - 9pm
martinrchurch.com

The exhibition consists of approximately a hundred small works, forty A3 size works and several larger canvases. They are all reproductions apart from one canvas which was made with acrylic paint.

The drawings are executed from life, representational and mostly record the commute between Harrow and Hackney between 20.8.2019 to 16.5.2021.

The main activity is to draw on prepared newspaper or card with mixed media. The object each time is to create a composition which ultimately works at some level of significance.

Although I usually sit in the same place each time to draw, the images vary considerably because everything is changing all the time. The light changes if the train is underground and of course passengers are constantly coming and going and moving about. One must not be seduced by the detail as much as keeping the overall image working at some level.

The materials used are mostly fugitive, impermanent and ephemeral including newspaper, spray paint, cardboard, self-adhesive labels, ball point pens, felt tips, correction fluid, colour pencils, nail polish and collage.

Usually the newsprint is sprayed with white gloss paint to reduce absorption and to partially obliterate the text and images printed on the paper.  The sprayed paint can become a compositional component as does the newsprint grinning through.

The prepared ground is fragile and beautiful but often gets torn or damaged so sometimes repairs are made to the paper, the evidence of which become part of the image.

Because of the impurities and lignin in the newsprint the paper often begins to turn brown and deteriorate within a few months. The better work is therefore scanned and printed onto 100% cotton paper with pigment ink. This reproduction process somewhat sanitises and flattens the various mixed media and damaged grounds into an immaculate facsimile which is of archival quality.

Each work is titled with the date, time and location.

A few original works are included in the show for comparison with the reproductions.
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Some of the work has been enlarged and printed onto canvas. In order to make a canvas forty inches wide, two strips of canvas were sewn together. A white border surrounds the image and the title is hand painted or printed in the footer.