New paintings and regular art updates.
Photo taken from my computer screen which explains the distortions and shadows. But it was a drawing I did in the 1980’s. I used derwent pencil colours to do the shading. I did a series of drawings that were included in an exhibition in Stafford or Lichfield. I don’t remember it’s so long ago.
I would like to go back to some of my old ideas. I’m going to try and find the pencils again. I don’t think they will have degraded over the years.
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Youdraw.com where I drew for years before having problems logging into it a few years ago. But unlike other Web pages they have tried to modernise it. In the past it relied on java script, but now they have got rid of some of the glitches. There are still a few problems but I’ve done three drawings recently.
I’ve now counted that I’ve done 13690 drawings there! That’s mad, but true. I love the simplicity of the site. Two blacken, two erasers. Simple.
My drawing challenge today is to sketch some repetitions. I’m not sure what it’s going to be. Might be roof tiles, bricks or leaves.
It’s pouring down with rain outside so I might wait a while for the rain to pass over. The picture above is a house leek that I’ve duplicated to bring out the pattern more. That brings in the idea of repetition, the leaf shapes twist and turn. I shall ponder on what to draw….
This is from last year or the year before when I was taking photos at Spode and manipulating them in the layout app that I use to mirror and duplicate photos.
I haven’t been down to my studio at Spode for months with the lockdown, it just didn’t feel safe. The studios are not easy to socially isolate at, with mixed toilets and narrow corridors. I need to go back and build my confidence again. I’m still paying the rent though. I won’t give up on the idea. Just wait! I hope I will soon be creating there again
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Home made coleslaw (cabbage, carrot, red onion) with reduced calorie mayonnaise. A small piece of brown seeded bread with a bit of pate, a couple of chopped up tomatoes, half an avocado pear and some de-stoned red cherries. Also a few cheese and onion potato crisps. On a Portmeirion plate. Why? Because I liked the colours mainly. I watched a programme about still life last night and the interest that images of food created was fascinating. At one stage still life was seen as the lowest form of art, but the innovations of artists gradually made it more accessible and acceptable. Artists like Paul Cezanne and Pablo Picasso bought new definitions of what still life meant. Art is fascinating. It’s funny the ideas you can get by staring at a plate of food. X
Take a dramatic photo, mirror and duplicate it, and you can get some interesting effects.
These were done in the layout app I downloaded. It’s linked to Instagram and Facebook so you can post your results to the feed of both of those platforms.
Urban sketchers Stoke-on-Trent challenge today, Light. I had got some new permanent markers so decided to do something colourful. I did use a fine liner pen and a 6b pencil. Also used an almost dried up pale blue felt pen to add some shading to the window frame. The standard lamp has a lampshade covered in sequins. (speckles on the drawing). There will be another challenge in a couple of days. I wonder what it will be….
22.4.20, about a month into lockdown. I wonder what was going through my mind? I don’t think I was as nervous then as I am now. I was thinking about food. Now I’m thinking about not going out, despite the pubs opening up carefully and hairdressers and other non essential shops. Do I feel like going out? No, I think this is too early. Especially where alcohol is involved. I’ve seen groups of four or five men walking past the house, looking like they are off for a ‘good night out’.
What can I say. I understand people need to escape. I feel so tense I’m shaking. How do refugees and people in war torn areas survive? We are lucky. The problem might cause massive problems with wealth but I want people to be safe and survive this. Ah well, maybe I will do another drawing x.
my attempt at the great wave after Hokusai.
I’m writing an assignment about the artist Hokusai and his ink and wood block print, The Great wave, or The Great Wave off Kanagawa produced around 1830. He had previously painted two other great waves in 1803 and 1805. There is a collection of 36 views of Mount Fuji by him.
I found out that he had been influenced by an artist called Shiba Kokan, who in turn had been influenced by Western Art. The Portuguese first started trading with the Japanese as early as 1543 and later the Dutch came along and started to trade with them in 1609.
Hokusai’s first waves were not as stylised as the Great Wave, but over the intervening 30 years he honed his style. His wave painting has a low horizon which gives it a more western and also menacing feel. The wave towers over three fishing boats, threatening to swamp them, Fingers of water claw the air in a very fractal pattern, and a tiny Mount Fuji sits in the background, apparently encircled by a threatening sea and lowering clouds.
Did you know the wave emoji is based on Hokusai’s work, and this in turn is linked to the waving hand emoji. There is a site called emojipedia that gives lots of interesting facts about emoji icons.
I wont go into great detail about the assignment, but I had to link in semiotics and other ways of critically appraising art works. I was up till 4am trying to pull it all together!
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Oh I do like playing with paint. For example this is a little canvas I’m working on, it’s a WIP, (work in progress). I was thinking of adding some patterns and decorations to it. Maybe in the sky. Some stars, a comet, maybe a pattern in the glass. I haven’t decided yet. It’s another acrylic on canvas. I was trying to make more of a stylised character out of it.
Better get on and do some more work on things.
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