you do know that feeling right ...????

You know that feeling when you are trying to turn an opera house into a tropical Island without making any structural modifications to the original building .....

1. So if this is you procrastinating, what does your typical day look like? How long does it take to finish a piece? Do you work on multiple or one at a time? *-*

fine questions ...... I always have several pieces in progress at any one time I like to have several styles in progress simultaneously..... the swirly works in the background of this picture are a fast attempt to assemble works for shipping to galleries .the 'swirly' paintings are watercolours ( have come to be known as my ' signature style ') ... on a heavy gsm home made paper ..... they take around 60 - 100 hours of successive layering .( not including paper production or framing time ) ..... the thing that I am looking at on the floor is a pile of comic style illustrations ... lining up for a second edition of a book that will coincide with a gallery launch later this year of which there are over 100 re drafts the cartoon illustrations take around 1-2 hours each ................ there are bold coloured acrylics and oils as well which take anything from 1 day to 6 months .... depending on the intended price range subject matter and technical depth of the piece ..... and the architecture .....the various sheets on the worksurfaces and work easels are architectural illustrations for two different project submissions ...... .. well the current 2 projects are around a week old ...... although obviously from a consultation point of view they tend to take months to a year or so from design to build .........did that answer everything ? x ...... hence the reason I seldom stop to document myself doing all that needs doing x

ha ha ... of course then there is also traditionalist carving techniques employed in the sculptural works .... in wood and stone ..... but I only tend to find time for these ... in between the rest x

... and a typical day ...... gosh that really depends on which country I am in ..... but t generalise ..... up at around 6.30 ..... coffee and a tweet or two ..... then a little physical endurance ... generally sculpture ... although at the moment that comprises a gallery remodel and a large wooden boat project ...... ideally back at the easel for around 2-3 ..... with a movie or music ..... switching between projects every 3 hrs or so .... of course always subject to change depending on travel times and classes booked / gallery appearances ....

no rest for the wicked they say ..... I must have been a bit of a git in a previous life ; )

'........on the road again , I just cant wait to get on the road again ....'

sigh , but it just isn't true is it willie ?? .....more like ' Band on the run ' .... or '  Lawyers , guns and money ' !!

here is the vague schedule I will be attempting to adhere to this year ... well the first six months anyway maintaining small fundraising events, Exhibitions and addressing student audiences about a broad range of subjects from the complexities of running an Art Business, to Political and Financial restrictions in current academia

1st Feb - 19th Feb 2017 : Looe /St Ives Cornwall U.K

19th Feb -  5th March 2017 : Amsterdam Land

7th March -22nd March 2017 : Plymouth / London

22nd March -30th March 2017: Amsterdam Land/ Lieden

30th March - 17th April 2017: Looe / Plymouth / London

17th April - 25th May 2017 : Amsterdam Land / Berlin (sporadic)
( 1st April - 25thMay 2017 : South West Tour (ongoing Dartmouth to St Ives)

somewhere here there is a little tour of Italy including Venezia

22nd June2017 + : Amsterdam/Venezia

1st July 2017 : Plymouth/ Looe

1st August - 28th August 2017 : London

1st September -  19th September 2017 : Plymouth / Porthmaddog @ Wales

1st October -  mid October 2017: Dallas USA San Francisco CANCELLED

Mid October - end of October 2017 Italy

end of October 2017 Amsterdam

November 2017 Cornwall/ Devon

1st December - 15th December2017 The Hague / Netherlands

Christmas 2017 London / Cornwall

January 2018 Amsterdam Netherlands

February 2018 Venice Italy

March 2018 Amsterdam N.L

April 2018 - September 2018  Cornwall U.K

September 2018 Porthmaddog Wales U.K




there are still available appointments , but they are running out ... so if you want to book a last minute Appointment /Workshop / Artclass / ArtB&B /  Excursion /Commission/ Collaboration  then please do get in touch x

the rest of the Diary will be posted once I get back to the Workshop in The U.K x

'perpetually transient across several wildernesses !'

Artby Valerio's Art B&B Cornwall 2017

'The Pirate Ship Project'

the notion of attempting to find a secure means of positioning oneself in times such as these are not for the faint hearted.

amid my findings from the most recent set of semi voluntary experiments ... I decided that I really needed a base of operations .... one that was not liable to fluctuations of the contemporary nature .... a place that regardless of market inflations of crashes .... a place that could not succumb to the whims and wanton desires of hell, high water ... or even woman scorned a bolt hole ...a fall back position !!

and unfortunately the boat or the caravan are the only sensibly priced options for now at least

So I field tested this thing last year this Art B&B in the temporary arrangement that I had set up in Amsterdam , and the whole thing completely rocked !!

So the amalgamation began to grow the Art B&B is now an actual additional branch to the independent works and spaces that I like to develop part of the unbranded ' brand ' if you will

It is with great pleasure that we can announce a whole artistic academic vacation option right here in the sunny seaside town of Looe in Cornwall U.K.

the Art B&B Boat Building / Tipi Option will be running simultaneously to our new collaboration with The MeneGlaze Guest House for the summer season of 2017

So we will have a fine set of facilities on land as well .....

.....Either you can come down and stay in one of the Tipi accommodation options on the waterside in the stunning wooded estuary ... you can learn to build your own small boat in less than a week .... while learning the traditional techniques that are being used the refurbishment of the ' project boat ' that I am currently dismantling


....or you can come and stay in one of the wonderful guest rooms each with en suite bathrooms  in the Guest house and sign up for our in house  Art Classes and Creative disciplines programs with full use of the Art Studio and the gallery exhibition option at the end of your stay ,hosted by a fine selection of the established local artistic talents that reside in concentration in the area, offering short courses in every artistic medium conceivable  ( and of course I will personally be offering a scheduled sets of classes amid the syllabus but please check availabilities and dates  )

So Get in Touch with either myself or Meneglaze guest house Directly and we will look forward to discussing your Holiday options and assisting in fulfilling your creative tendencies.

check out the ArtB&B listing on the official www.airbnb.co.uk website for more information and booking options

and this is what we have come to accept as a functioning system ?????

8 September 2016 15:37

Dear Mr Valerio ...... we want to help you build your audience ....... Dear facebook and twitter ......you are so close to reaching a bigger audience !! Do you know why the high street is failing ? Well you see first there was nothing ....just like some mud .....and a few trees and stuff ( personally I think it was fine like that but whatever ) .... Then some sort if practicle minded folks .....seemed it sensible to reshuffle some of that mud ...and those tre...es ....they formed dwellings ...not out of a commercial drive ....but well I guess that sitting around in damp caves or just the raw elements can get a little depressing .... I know I have tried both So some innovators come up with these settlements .... And decide to link them with others using still the same mud and trees you find lying around .....why ? Well guess your nieghbour might have silver in their mud ....or wheat instead of trees .....or whatever So you have this high street that innovators built ......you have merchants and tradespeople turning raw material into things Maybe some of those things are desirable .....or better yet ....useful .....maybe even both Then there is this new guy ....or girl ... That says they can organize all of the finer points ...of all that has transpired quite naturally anyway .....for a fee of course These are what I call the percentage people ....and unfortunately their way of conducting business has become so ridiculously acceptable ....it seems no one sees the common theme here So when twitter send me e mail saying ....oh mr valerio we want to help you reach a bigger audience .... You are a fucking liar !!! You see the reason people start going to the high street ...is that they can get a wider choice from a collaborative source of producers than they can personally produce at home ...or in the garden The reason they start going to high streets further afield is simply .....variety ..... The exceptional choice .... The option of finding something useful or beautiful ....that they cannot get from the high street at home If there is nothing of interest ....if there is nothing useful or beautiful .....no rarity .....then people will simply no longer go there Regardless of how super convenient or super megalithic your market place is ..... This is where democracy really functions .....with the individuals commercial choices ......why is there a tesco ...or an albert heijn on every corner ....is it for my convenience ??.....or the convenience of the over sized grotesque that has become our consumerist culture ....that would be better losing money from a none profitable store ...than allowing an opening in the market for the option if a healthier competition So social media ....I see the planned trajectory of all this ..... You want to over inflate each digital market ....until a billion assholes all vying for that last little bit of existing trade can't understand why they are no longer getting suitable exposure in a growing crowd if traders....but reducing customers .... Induce them into a mania ... Tell them that for a small fee they can have the preferential treatment .....get 50% of these assholes to sign up to this promotion idea .....just as planned obsolescence renders it completely redundant .....at the launch of the latest app ......what a fucking farce So no face book and twitter ...you have it all backwards .... If you want to prolong the life ...of your soulless digitized enterprise ..... Then you will need items .....ideas .....and personalities that will maintain an interest in what you originally were ......social media The same is true of the labour market ...... Students and interns .....completely devalued the notion of the valued employee ..... You know an actual skilled and experienced individual . Mortgagees inflating the housing market to catastrophic ends ..... Yes yes I know your parents can help cause they made some money in property ....now they are downsizing .....to assist in paying your eduction ... .which used to be free ....covered by the state as an investment in the future state ...... By taxes ...... Ever heard the term money for old rope ..... Well I can't believe we are still buying the same ....slightly alternately branded .....' The slightly less than new rope investment opportunity for those not liable to be liable ' ......and this is a generation that kept telling us that we would have to grow up and take responsibility ...... 30 pieces of silver or the cheese in a mouse trap ....and the only way you can make it feel like a good deal ...is by dragging us over the same damn cliff ....with assurances if the property ladder .... A term first coined by that wonderful humanitarian ....margaret fucking thatcher Is it not so obvious that we are attempting to recycle the very land we live on ....for over inflated prices ....so no genuine craftsmen traders or merchants can possibly subsist a rental habit of this nature For who ...well I see a breed of folks ....they seem to waddle about in crowds ..... Blue suits and brown shows ..... Covered in personal refinement product .....the bankers ...the politicians ..... The estate agents ....the percentage people .... Who have nothing to sell but the promise of maximizing your potential ...... In short .....vermin A group that through too many middle class comforts have become completely complacent .....completely interned..... Completely accepting if the idea that a touch screen and a mocha ...can be the 'tools' of any trade Not only can this not continue ....it has to be stopped ..... Non participation .....might actually be the key x Or how about ...like lemmings we whip ourselves into frenzy over a failing economy ....that might well have actually been completely fictitious ....well certainly since the 70s at least But what do I know

Artby Valerio Amsterdam / London / Plymouth 2017

' A crumbling Perspective '

2016 Original Watercolour A2

Big Reveiw T.V

oh dear what can I say .......

well its wonderful to know that in a tiny place like London you can find stuff like a Bakers that do ' artisan ' bread  ...and even a Hair Salon ... that does well you know hair ...

which is it going to be ... should we all be delighted that some great big corporation have assembled a team of worldly twenty something year old salary secure little bitches ( men and/or women ) and  have suddenly taken a interest in the small business owner on the high street ?

or should we all be completely disgusted that once again we have been fooled .... I have been watching a few things today ...well it is a Sunday as well as a new years day ... so as well as producing immaculate hand rendered images ... trying to reclaim the word artisan ..... and designing a few buildings ..... trying to offer some value to the word genius again!! and in doing so ... I kind of get the feeling that some one in middle management who couldn't get their daughter into anything prime time ... came up with this little gimmick .... and its all very trendy ... very nice ..... very skinny jeans and beard .. but no axe ... and if you are anything like me then the whole thing stinks as bad as a coca cola advert.

I don't have a problem with the people in London having access to.....o.k sure if they want to call it 'artisan' bread to justify the extra pound twenty that it will cost over your usual loaf ..... I don't mind if they have access to bread ... or Italian hair products .... or any of the other things these people need to justify the sorry state of their day.

I would prefer if they grew the fucking wheat themselves .... or at least a portion of it at least .... and same with the coffee ... and grapes ... and milk ... and all of those lovely naturally sourced fair traded Himalayan salt / coconut oils .... or Ethiopian goats cheese ..... I am spending quite a lot of time at the moment in this ridiculous monument to its own arrogance that is London Town .... and aside from absolutely loathing the place ( literally it takes me about 1-2 hours in this place before I start considering getting myself tested for torretts syndrome ) and you know what you should do .... we should run a national advert .. not one of these fucking lovely local ... keep it in the community adverts .... we need a great big government  sponsored add ... that simply says   London : although you might not notice at first ... we have more than coffee franchises and Old Money so don't bulldoze us just yet ..... although I am sure you know where my vote sits for that already

so just fuck right off ..... stop trying to rebrand yourself as some grass roots champion of the people

right now we need thinkers and we need farmers .... and that is about it!! anyone reading this that thinks they might be able to offer some respite for the world ... by carrying on , erm carrying on .... or worse if you are attempting to emulate or perpetuate the colossal failings of the previous generation !! if you are a student attempting to ' improve ' the prospects of your own directionless assholery by paying a fortune for a worthless education whilst taking a few shifts in some grotesque coffee franchise , or some ridiculous middle management type that has resigned themselves to working in some non tax paying corporate edifice ... be that public or private , so that you one day might be able to afford your own little middle class off grid personal paradise ( which seems to be the common consensus ) ....I am afraid that you are so grossly misinformed as to perhaps actually be one of the most dangerous creatures in the world !!! happy fucking new year !!!

Christmas Competition 2016

Like / Comment and Share

..... or whatever it is you usually do for these types of Digital nonsense

So for our Christmas giveaway well what's on offer ?

1st Prize Weekend getaway at our Art B&B facility In the City of Amsterdam including accommodation for two people for 3 nights with breakfasts and provision for 2 classes of your choice from our inhouse team of makers /doers/ thinkers/ practitioners ( t's and c's apply )

2nd Prize  Weekend getaway at our Art B&B facility in the beautiful fishing village in Cornwall including accommodation for two people for 3 nights with breakfasts and provision for 2 classes of your choice from our inhouse team of makers / doers / thinkers / practitioners ( t's and c's apply )

3rd Prize Original Large watercolour by Valerio dated 2016 from the Why Not exhibitions in Amsterdam as well as a signed copy of the recent publication ' 101 reasons to choose a vocation in the creative Industries '

what do you have to do to be in with a chance to win one of these awesome prizes

just the same as you you would for any other of these strange social media competitions

first we want you to Like the Post

Then comment on the post by simply typing ' liked '

Then Share the post

its that simple .... competition open until December 28th 2016

Good Luck and looking forward to seeing you Dreckly x

Artby Valerio / Tiffany Gallery

Artby Valerio /Tiffany Gallery

2017

11 years / 33 years

Artby Valerio

Cornwall

Art B&B/ Artists Holidays/ Workshops / Classes

Art Gallery and Design Studio

Amsterdam

Art B&B/ Artists Holidays/ Workshops / Classes

Art Gallery and Design Studio

to Simultaneously celebrate both Artby Valerio's official 11th year and the Tiffany Gallery's official 33rd year we are going to be celebrating whilst deviating a little from our usual portfolio's , just to keep the stimuli fluid and the mind receptive to such , its good for artists to reflect on more than mere imagery !!

get in touch via any of the usual and conventional means for questions queries and information !!

What Kind of Artist does not produce prints of their work ????

well me actually !! and with good reason ...

so prints .....

you know people have asked me if I have a business card ... and when I first started out I used to quite like having them ... they gave me a sense of being ... my name and vocation was on a little card ... and I could introduce myself with just this little piece of card ... and hand them out to just about anyone who wanted them ... but after 10 years ... you print quite a lot of business cards ... I still have left overs from the various sets I have done over the years ... postcard and flyers and posters and hand painted signage ..... when I was last asked ' do you have a business card ' I simply replied ' of course not '

you see with 7 billion assholes in the world and a fair portion of them being self employed .... you probably have about a billion assholes in the world ...all wanting business cards .... a billion assholes ( that's the same amount of people that don't have access to sanitary water ... every year needing reprints and the such ... just as I used to.

all wanting and vying for some version of a percentage off one of the other billion assholes ( the self employed ones ...not the water restricted ones )

a billion assholes ... now I used to do a print set of business cards and postcards every year ... each time with a new image .... to keep the presentation dynamic , and differing .... to show the scope in the latest range of works x  a billion assholes all hawking e solutions and plumbing services .... logistics management , and art teachers ..... how many trees do we have left ???


so prints ... yes I did produce a few versions ... in the early days I used to just run them off my dads home printer ...to ensure that my stock lines had a reasonably priced product range ... to squeeze as much cash out of my target demographic as I could .....

later I started to mess around with limited editions and so forth ... with all of the print testings and artists proofs ... a single A 1  image in a limited edition series of 100 ..... when that is delivered ... or comes of the presses .... it surmounts to quite a lot of sheet material ... indeed in a block ... it just looks like wood .... indeed ... exactly what it is !!!

so along my travels I am fortunate enough to come across quite a few other artists .... now most artists would pain to admit it .... that for every 100 prints that you might produce ... say 25 % wont sell .... maybe ever ... and I meet a lot of artists ..... and I see a lot of piles of discontinued ... or unsold prints and I started to do a little calculating ... now even if we had enough materials for housing .... even if we had sufficient housing ... then I would deem this less of an issue .....But I like the woods and the forests and the streams and rivers ... indeed if I am urging to render .... these would be the places I would go to find my solitude and attune my inspiration ... I would meditate on the potential manifestation and consider its intrinsic value , I would think about the people way off back there in civilisation .... my potential customers ( and quite often ... really nearly refuse to return )

So now I do not produce prints at all ..... I will not carry a business card ... especially in this the digital age ... you wanna know who I am ... google it .... better yet ask me ... and make a note because thus far it has been quite the odyssey....

you see the thing that I notice in the weird world of urban creatures we have created , is a common theme .... there is a person out there ... a type of person ... a humble and integral human that when they are asked a question ... they keep there answer short and concise ... and they look you in the eye as they make a claim about the story they took part in .... if the person or story is interesting then the concise short answer will flush out more questions from the interviewer  ' you did what ???..... how did that come to pass?? .... where were you when?? ... and of course ... what happened next ?'

then there is the business card guy .... the urban dweller ... the Donald Trump in Training ... these people often don't even need to be asked a question ... they close their eyes and open their mouths ... and quite often recite their own mantras of self importance even if the interviewer has lost interest and gone home ....

but this ... in this modern age of ours has become abundantly clear ....People like Donald Trump need business cards ... they need make America great again slogans and rhetoric ... well advertised ... almost seemingly plausible announcements and advertising ... but like coca cola ... these people are poison .... so that is why I will always side with the underdog ... they tend to be the more interesting aspect !

Coca cola and Donald Trump for president and Rolf Harris Prints from a notable publisher ..... and mountain streams and fresh fruit for life and hand carved loved or loathed ....original articles  for art ..... which do we really want to put our faith , our hope , our efforts into ???

so no I am afraid I cannot offer you prints of the works I have suffered to produce .... nor would I want to ... and really wouldn't you rather I leave the woods where they are ... so that we might encounter each other there one day .... and no business cards .. no advertising ... no slogans ... just wondrous and creative humans being , well human I guess x

engage with me on that level .... and should you show an interest in what I am doing ... I will probably respect you a little more ... and want to know a little more about what you are doing ... and what you have done ... and once we have made that wonderful connection ... you will be in a position to say ' I cant afford one of your large originals ... could you do me a print ' ... and I will explain ...probably not quite as much as I have said here  that if you want a smaller one .. no problem .... you want one rendered in a slightly less labour intensive way .... and jeez you know what ... I produce these things as diary entries ... I make my own paper ( as paper really reflects the fragility of the medium and I don't need them cast in steel ... or cut from stone ... or mass produced in plastic ... to attempt to offer artificial validity to a body of works ) they cost me nothing but my time ... and they are encapsulating my life experiences they are my diary entries ... and if I see that you desire for ownership out weighs my want to be able to later reflect on that particular creation or occasion ... and I think you might be a nice human ... there is a very good chance that discounts are plausible ( depending on your means ) and if I really like you and I think you are worth my time ... the I might be able to find an old business card here some where .....

Artby Valerio New Year Benefit Auction x

                                         Details will be posted shortly ...watch this space x