Diary

We're out of Manchester.  We're out of the Lowry.  You'll notice, by the photographs, on this new post that we didn't take them.  I'm in a stolen car, driving to Heathrow airport whilst we should be in Bristol.  But I digress.   Thank fuck that's all over.  I'm really, really pleased with what we did and how it came out.  So much of what we painted came from standing in front of the wall, rather than drawling over a sketchbook.  It's not so much whether its right, or it works - because in a couple of months its going to be painted over anyway.  It's more about how I'm going to push and develop my ideas and keep moving forward.  Lets see where we go for the rest of the year.  And if anyone see's Lister, tell him I miss him.  

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Nice surprises are good and Ben Frost (our favourite artist from Sydney) turning up today was a nice surprise.  Unfortunately he didn't have the time to help us and we didn't have the time to go and party, so after a brief exchange he continued on his upwards journey.  The news that tomorrow was to be our last day painting - and now we were going to have to work through the night - was not a nice surprise.   At 10 'o clock the following morning we were hallucinating and fighting like a couple of pre-menstrual teenagers as team Lowry fumbled into work.  The buzzer sounded, pots of paint and brushes were put down and our time was up.  Cleaners arrived to make good our mess, photographers of high standards were called into action and Steph and I made a dash for the train station.    

As soon as we get some good photographs of what we painted, we'll put them up on the site.  Until then we'll put up some more of our photographs.

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Another long, long day.  Since being in Manchester, all we've seen is the apartment and the Lowry - I'm sure Manchester has a lot more to offer but unfortunately we have our priorities the wrong way round.  But, hey, look how cool the wall's turning out.  When we arrived I had some sketches of the words but no idea of how they would fit, the colours and what to do with the background.  I know I've given the Lowry some headaches by not having detailed drawings and colour schemes of how the finished wall will look but I really enjoy working when I take my inspiration from the blank canvas.  By not having a concrete plan it left room for an  innovative new idea to develop and I'm pleased with result.  Two more, exceptionally long days and we're out of here.  http://www.thelowry.com/event/ben-eine

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Things are really beginning to come together now.  Steph and I have 3 helpers from the Lowry so fortunately we're not doing everything ourselves.  Saying that, we're still working until past midnight and are back in again in time for breakfast.  If this wall was in the street we could get away with it being much scrappier, but as it's inside a museum - and the shape of the room dictates that you have no choice but to be right against the painting - we're trying to make this as neat and professional as possible.  We have until Saturday, when the doors open, to get this wrapped up.  By which point, we'll be down in Bristol, painting something else.     http://www.thelowry.com/event/ben-eine

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Easily went up pretty easily and that gave us an idea for the scale and the size of the other words.  Whilst the team were finishing off the background on Easily, I busied myself with sketching up the rest of our phrase.  The difficulty with this particular painting is the design of the wall, each panel is either concertinaed, has a bizarre overhang or in one case a convenient flight of stairs meaning no other words fit nicely on one panel nor can I stand back and look at my sketches to see if the word has the continuity that I need.  Anyway, enough of my moaning, progress is being made and by the end of today we should have a lot more colours to show you.   

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Easily - the first one finished......one down, 7 left and the clock is ticking......

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After a trip down to the Paint Shop we could finally get started, fortunately the Lowry had sorted us out with some helpers because this wall is massive, its the biggest indoor wall ive attempted to paint, 82 metres long and just over 5 metres tall in most places. 12 hours later and a few blisters we had finished, each of the 18 or so panels making up the wall have been painted a base colour. Tomorrow we start sketching up the words, as I have no idea if they are all going to fit, it could be a little stressful.   But I have chosen a phrase where I can loose a few smaller words if it looks like I'm  running out of space.  As soon as we have art on the walls we will do another post.

From a very sunny Manchester, cheers Ben and Steph 

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For the next 2 weeks, this is our home.  A few months ago, The Lowry in Manchester asked if I would be interested in doing an installation.  I took a trip to Manchester to see what this involved and overlooking the docks, facing Media City (the new home of the BBC) there is an 82 metre concertinaed wall inside the museum space.  The only requirement from The Lowry was they wanted to communicate something to Media City, outside of that I am being completely left alone to my own devices.  These images are from before we were let loose, every couple of days we are aiming to update this blog with our progress in as real time as these kind of things allow for -  long days up a ladder and tiredness allowing.  Check back in a few days to see if we've kept to our promise.  http://www.thelowry.com/event/ben-eine

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