Arts Derbyshire

Artist profile

Walt Shaw

I am a visual artist and a musician living in south Derbyshire. I have exhibited widely in the UK and also in Germany and in Paris.

Similarly as a percussionist I have performed in a range of bands all over the UK and also in France, Germany, Budapest, and Sarajevo.

I am fascinated by the possibilities of process.

I spend a lot of time thinking up new methodologies for process and trying them out.

This applies equally to the sound and music experimental work that I do too.

A fundamental in all this is the energy, the spark, that arises from accidents.

The spotting of accidents, the selection or rejection and the subsequent exploitation of them is key to the process.

This for me is part of a sequence involving a huge number of micro-decisions one makes to arrive at the final outcome.

Certain themes occur regularly in my work.

 In no particular order, these are Music, Biology ( from my previous career as a Biologist ), Landscape, Objects.

I will always be thrilled by the alchemy of creative outcomes, the fact that something entirely unique and new emerges from nothing, that did not exist before.

When it’s rolling well, it feels like some very deep energy is emerging and the artist, myself, is a channel for its realisation.

It really is a piece of very special magic and a privilege that one is able to do it.

Creative Genre

  • My 2-D art is predominantly abstract. although it contains visual references to landscape and Biological structures. I work in various media, oils, acrylics, pastels, charcoal, collage and mixed media. My percussion work always seeks to link with my visual art and is abstract, almost painting in sound. Running parallel with my 2-D art. I also construct wall mounted 3-D assemblages, which contain found and manipulated objects. Like many artists, I am a natural hoarder and am always on the lookout for found objects.

Work Undertaken

  • I am open to opportunities for exhibiting in galleries
  • art trails
  • art fairs and so-called alternative spaces
  • such as empty shops
  • industrial spaces. I have done many workshops with all ages and I'm especially interested in workshops that relate sound and mark making. I have performed in this context
  • with spontaneous percussion sound and the production of improvised drawings and paintings stimulated by these different senses. I am always open to discussion
  • presentation and Q & A about the creative process
  • both in general terms and relating to my work of the last 35 years.

Work in Education

  • I taught in secondary schools for 19 years. I have done many workshops in schools and other organisations
  • both with my visual art and with music and sound.

Portfolio

Portfolio

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