Daniel Ibbotson
Contemporary mixed media abstract artist.
The inspiration for my art comes from the emotional energies I experience in my daily existence. My work reflects my endless fascination for the contours and rhythms of natural and man-made landscapes around me.
I create stratified, highly textural, mixed-media contemporary abstract artworks by fusing discarded and recycled materials with a variety of mixed media using self-developed techniques.
My objective is to convey alternative perspectives of figurative imagery which resonate with the observer but often only emerge when viewed repeatedly over time. Stimulus comes from everyday observations of objects and structures, such as the pattern created by a woodpile, the furrows in a ploughed field or the repeated symmetry within an architectural feature, seascape or landscape. My love of old maps, satellite imagery, facades, favelas and archaeological records all serve to inspire me and the movement of crowds, flocks, herds and shoals within delineated spaces can also be found in my art.
My work contains a multitude of discarded materials and found objects collected over time. Each component carries a fragment of memory from its original owner, imprinted and forever embedded within its structure. Like holding a shell to an ear to sense the sea, being open to what lies beneath the surfaces of my works has the potential to reveal harmonics to resonate with the viewer's own inner vibrational field.
As a contemporary artist of more than 30 years, I also draw on opportunities working as a specialist decorator which has afforded me innumerable opportunities to collect waste materials such as scraps of wallpaper, dried paint, coloured sawdust and used sandpaper. I also use objects discovered within in my local environment, some found discarded and some naturally occurring weathered materials. These components are fused to create multi-layered, highly detailed works of sculptural abstract art.
Each background begins with a visual representation of an experience, on to which dozens of layers of additional material may be applied. The backgrounds are mostly obscured and ambiguous, leaving the observer to imagine how they relate to the sculpted surface. Each lamina is treated to create a specific effect and finish, dependent on its position and significance within the artwork.
The surface processes may involve different types of detailed painting and colour wash, relief carving, cutting, tearing, abrading and burning. My material manipulation techniques have been developed experimentally through processes transposed from my decorating craftsmanship. The use of recovered materials, amalgamated with emotive recollections of my immersion in the landscape, provides me with unlimited opportunities to create textural layers in my art which in turn reflect my gathering and collecting of inspiring elements of my own life experiences.
In my exploration of artistic experimental processes, I recycle and reuse canvases to reflect new experiences thus creating a layer of inherited memories within the piece. The final outcome is intended as an ongoing, serendipitous experience for the observer as the work reveals its infinitesimal detail captured within the strata over time. The narrative in the organic-like layers of my abstractions echo my resonance with the ambiguity of everyday life; seen, hidden and implied.
All my artworks contain rhythms derived from personal experiences and pay homage to the disciplines of my past, including my vocations as a professional footballer, dance teacher, specialist decorator and also being a father to two children. Like the materials I collect for use at some time in the future, my life experiences and emotional records may have no particular prominence or intent at the time of storage but they re-emerge when triggered by my reflective scrutiny of life in the context of the wider landscapes.
Observers frequently comment that my attention to detail and the deliberate placement of minutia becomes more apparent with time so that the artwork resolves its initial apparent ambiguity through an ongoing narrative with the viewer. In this way, each artwork represents a period of discovery in my own life and includes my commentary on the ever-changing world around us all.
Dan at the Venice Biennale
Some of Daniels Work
Awards, Events and Exhibitions:
European Cultural Centre Biennial Art Exhibition, Venice. April - November 2022. Invited artist.
Manchester Art Fair. November 2021. Self-representing artist exhibitor.
Craftsmen at the Priory, Lanercost Abbey, Cumbria. August 2021. Invited artist.
VIOLA TRICOLA. June 2021. Art trail & selling exhibition. Carlisle, Cumbria. Organiser/exhibitor.
World Health Innovation Summit. May 2021. Geneva. Official artist.
INSPIRE. May 2021. Popup selling exhibition, Carlisle, Cumbria. Organiser/exhibitor.
Cancer Care Centre 2021, Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle, Cumbria. Commissioned artist.
PRESENCE. December 2020. Popup selling exhibition, Carlisle, Cumbria. Organiser/exhibitor.
Visual Art Open Emerging Artists Award 2020, UK. Finalist, Painting and Mixed Media category.
PROSEED. August 2020. Popup selling exhibition, Carlisle, Cumbria. Organiser/exhibitor.
Cumbria Open 2020, Upfront Arts, Hutton-in-the-Forest, Cumbria. Special Gallery Award.
Castlegate Prize 2020, Castlegate House Gallery, Cockermouth, Cumbria. Shortlisted in final 60.
Manchester Art Fair 2019, Self-representing artist exhibitor.
Green Door Art Trail 2019, Milnthorpe, Cumbria. Exhibitor.
Salon des Refusés Summer Exhibition 2019, Margate, Kent. Exhibitor.
The Lake Artists Summer Exhibition 2019, Grasmere, Cumbria. Selected to exhibit.
Carlisle Living Magazine Creative City Award 2019, Cumbria. Runner-up.
Carlisle Living Magazine Best Cultural Initiative Award 2019, Cumbria. Winner with West Walls.
West Walls NOW 2019, Upfront Arts, Hutton-in-the-Forest, Cumbria. Design director/exhibitor.
Cumbria Open 2019, Upfront Arts, Hutton-in-the-Forest, Cumbria. Exhibition runner-up.
CCA Art Gallery 2019, Carlisle, Cumbria. Exhibitor.
Gallery No. 3 Annual Exhibition 2018, Carlisle, Cumbria. Exhibitor.
Mile5st0ne, The Old Firestation, Carlisle, Cumbria. 2018. Solo exhibition.
Royal Academy of Arts 2018, London. Shortlisted for the Summer Exhibition.
Cumbria Open 2018, Upfront Arts, Hutton-in-the-Forest, Cumbria. Winner & public vote runner-up.
Gallery No. 3 Annual Exhibition 2017, Carlisle, Cumbria. Exhibitor.
Eden Arts C-Art 2017 Rheged, Penrith, Cumbria. Public vote winner.
West Walls at The Palace 2017, Bishops Palace, Dalston, Carlisle, Cumbria. Exhibitor.
Art is from the Heart 2016. World Health Innovation Summit. Geneva. Official artist.