Written musings on making art and the results. Life in the slow lane
Walking Backwards
This week or so past I have been working on primed paper to produce a series of squares as a precursor to the painting that is now on the easel. There is a great deal more drawing to come as I work on breaking down the square, but drawings need to be interspersed with canvas to draw together what learning has taken place (if any).
Berardo Gallery, Lisbon
It started with a ‘bucket list’. After twenty years travelling Europe, the US and Africa there are a few places I still want to visit – and no, I don’t need anymore suggestions, thanks… In the past I have visited over 30 countries, but there are places I still want to...
Dead Ringers
It’s monumental. In WW1 1400 of Britain’s bell ringers died. What more fitting way to remember them than to recruit 1400 new bell ringers and have a ’ring-in’ on November 11th on the anniversary of the War? Monumental ambition wants a national muffled set of rings in...
Teasel 2
The ‘Teasel’ painting has come out appearing quite violent, and in my own mind I think of it as ‘War’, the disappearing grid reflecting the breakdown in the rules based international order that has seen Russia and China blatantly ignoring the rules of international behaviour to push forward their own power grabs knowing no-one wants to start a war to make them obey the rules.
Time Lapse
I have been blessed that my cancer is ‘cured’, but I have another test on the 6th June, so the saga continues. Johns’ disease has not improved. We share a past, both having attended the same junior school in Wroughton, Wiltshire, and crossed paths again as students at Corsham, then Bath Academy of Art, in the glorious 1960’s. We didn’t know each other well, being on different programmes, but Facebook and cancer recently brought us electronically, if sporadically, together again.
Out to Grass
the guys would wave and say hello as we mowed their lawns. On one very hot day, I was welcomed with a glass of cooling orange squash. I gulped it down only belated realising it had been diluted with Polish vodka rather than water
When will they ever Learn?
Life expectancy of my son’s generation may even be lower than that of mine because of their obesity and associated problems.
In recent years in the US, Australia and South Africa voices have been raised in favour of low carb diets as a way of reversing Type 2 without resort to drugs. Those voices, Atkins and Banting in Britain, Fettke in Australia, Tim Noakes in South Africa in particular, have been mocked and persecuted by proponents seemingly at the behest of food manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies. Research have grants withdrawn, Universities punish their staff for speaking out, jobs disappear as attempts are made to silence the voices.
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa
If you are a designer, you will enjoy Heatherwick’s spatial planning (I imaging the studio had much fun slicing toilet rolls in modelling) and the drama of the interiors. If you are in to art, then the exhibitions will be thought provoking and will leave you wanting to revisit.The building is a true cathedral devoted to art.
Paradise Lost
In arcadia dogs go.
Alex, in tune with his world, comments “one big wave would wash this clean”. He means houses too.
Found Art
"Painting is washed up. Who will ever do anything better than that propeller? Tell me, can you do that?". Marcel Duchamp 1912 It started with Duchamp’s signature on a urinal. Making a point? Or just a comment on the art around him? Was it really saying this is great...
Teasing teasels
They were used in industry to tease out threads from wool for spinning. Using photographs and drawings I am teasing out ideas about expressing their structure through colour on both canvas, and if I can figure out a simple way of doing it, in 3D too. I have been...
Lanzarote’s Eco-artist
Lanzarote is considered by many César Manrique’s most important work of art. His work and influence have marked the external aspect of the island. The natives say that he has “made” Lanzarote. His desire to live with the volcanic lava led him to build his own house in the Taro de Tahiche, now open as La Fundación César Manrique .
Art: The Future is Yours
Painting like many other creative areas, is more than just a set of skills, much more. I gained a set of spiritual beliefs that I have tried to live by, and which have enriched my life immeasurably. Apart from anything else my visual training has provided eminently transferable skills I have used across a range of art and design disciplines.
Alternative Art Gallery
The camera helps me in my visual playground. It is responsive and instantaneous, and so easy to dispose of unsatisfactory images. It is a strand of my art that I am weaving more and more into finished pieces. This day was particularly visually rich.
Cliff Walk 27
Yesterday the wind howled across the waves. Spume blew across the shingle and was carried through the air like partially deflated party balloons. Wind driven spray broke hard against the cliffs sending a fine mist of saltwater high into the air. Salt obscured my glasses as raindrops rattled on my hood like buckshot.
A Green and Pleasant Land
In this show the scale of the phtographic print becomes part of the thought provoking nature of the art. In some work it gives stature to the banal, allowing the banality to impose itself on the viewer. For others the scale making the works truly revelatory
Luxury on Rails
The beauty of the country is showcased through the windows of this train, as are the local standards of service through the charm and courtesy of the staff. Design harks back to an age when grace and pleasure in travel were key ingredients of the experience, when comfort was more important than style alone
Towards Journeys End
It has taken the year since the operations to fully recover, as much as I ever will fully recover. I’ve had my ‘three score and ten’ now. Probability says I have another decade at least. I intend it to be productive and positive. I paint, therefore I am.
The Past is Another Country
I enjoyed my bout of nostalgia even if it left me grieving for a nation sold down the river by its politicians. Thank goodness some care about our past, and are willing to give their time and pride to share it with others. You can enjoy these escape hatches too, there are 181 of them, not just in England but 22 in Wales, 9 in Scotland, 7 in Northern Ireland
Passion in Poznan
Then there she was, the Beautiful Helena, fully revealed in all her glory. What a night time experience!
Exhibition Time Again
My latest exhibition is in Lewes (see poster) 1st November until 12th December. Get in touch if you would like me to meet you there to discuss the work. Work will be for sale
Hospitality Design Part 3
the designer is in a position once ascribed to the fine artist as being the ‘elite of the servant classes’. The profession needs to address this weakness if it is to achieve the true status the press ascribes in its worship of design.
Lunch Out
The sun tries to break through the autumn mist. Lunch out, “we’re on us ‘olidays”. Well, yes if just not having to go in to work every day counts as holiday. I ought to feel blessed. Really, I should. I am walking some of England’s most spectacular coastline almost...
Hospitality Design Part 2
More companies go bust when they take on marketing just as they realise they are in trouble. Your cashflow forecasting is a way of anticipating events enabling preventative action to be taken.. Also don’t ignore what the politicians are up to – they cause recessions.