B side social live painting
The B side Social was set up by a group of lovely people, mostly friends of my son Tom who wanted a very social event which has the festival vibe though only for one night . It’s held as a monthly event of dj vinyl, food, Tom’s rum bar, guest beers and art. Starting at 6pm and ending at 11pm on the dot, it gets lively very early and the party atmosphere doesn’t stop.
This year an 8ft square plywood board is in place which is painted by guest artists every month.
After a busy summer I was asked if I could do the September slot which coincided with their special ‘girl takeover’. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but have never painted quite on this scale before.
Don and I prepped the board the night before with a brown ‘Truffle’ paint. A great opportunity to get a feel for the scale of it and I quickly upscaled the size of my brushes!.
I wasn’t even really very nervous and decided to go with the flow. I had seen Jen Dixon working the board before looking very relaxed so took a leaf out of her book and she said I was going to enjoy it, so I was determined to do so and let it be. I luckily had some emulsions to work with which cover the board quickly and dry fast.
I painted intuitively with a limited palette with two pop colours I added for ‘pop’ and they really added the ‘Wow’ factor. A luscious copper metallic acrylic I have never used and a vibrant pink emulsion I had been given years ago. ( goodness knows when that was ever used!). The music led my painting and movements too.
The boys on the Sharps beer bar kept my going with great comments and I had lots of the punters coming up and saying how they loved it.
It was difficult to stand back from it because of the crowd, the light was fading fast and I was up and down that pair of steps more times than I can imagine, but I loved it. The music was brilliant and keeps you jigging about.
After three hours I called it a day, but wanted to make it special to BSide and Emma helped me come up with a hashtag. Although some were mortified that I put writing over it, it felt right. This was temporary piece of art, so I hashtagged it #BsSideGirlTakeOver in the brilliant pink.
Danced the rest of the night away and the painting was packed away in the shed for next month’s event. Yay.. awesome job done and I loved it.