Written musings on making art and the results. Life in the slow lane
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The Art of Remembrance
Three of my relations died in France, and one of my partners. Grandad, I was told, suffered the after effects from a gas attack until his death in the 1960’s. OH and I have bought one of the ceramic poppies in memory primarily of her Australian antecedent.
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Grappling with technique
Grappling with technique is part of finding the language appropriate to express the ideas. Oddly enough it is whilst grappling with technique that I miss the art college atmosphere, where other experience and knowledge of techniques can help bounce ideas around beneficially.
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NYNY WTC remembered
In 1976 I took advantage of Laker Skytrain to fly to the USA to see the celebrations of the bicentenary of their independence. New York was the destination and for three weeks I walked the city with a camera photographing anything that caught my eye, predominantly architecture and sculpture, including the Twin Towers
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Snow white?
When a student in the 60’s I had a series of lectures on colour and perception. One in particular sticks in my mind. A series of panels of white paint were placed under the light from a slide projector, in front of a black background. As each panel was added it made the previous panel…
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Cyprus Notes
The holiday makers lie broiling in the Mediterranean sun. Bronzed bald headed muscle men stride past mounds of bright reddening flabby granddads; slender brown bikini clad beauties strut their flat stomachs past roly-poly grandmas sunbathing topless like obscene beached whales
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Mythmaking
The importance of drawing. It doesn’t pay to cut the mythmaking short, neither for the colour transitions nor for the line drawings.
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Putting The Pain in Painting
The large format oil pastels drawing culminated in one exploring the colour of the California Poppy, drawing no. 5 in this metre square series. I thoroughly enjoyed making the drawing and I think they were all very successful.
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He who hesitates is lost?
I have never really thought of my photographs as art in their own right, any more than I think a page from my sketchbook is. I have seen the camera as a tool and only now am I beginning to think of them as possible art forms
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Castles in the Air, Dreams Earthbound
the trip would take me out of myself and into a different landscape. Indeed the whole trip was a reminder of what a cobblers our government has made of our road system whilst reminding me of just how beautiful England is.
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To Paint is to Love Again
Henry Miller wrote ‘To Paint is to Love Again’ (Cambria Book s published by William Webb in California in 1960). It is a book title that has engraved itself on my mind, and today looking at the progress in the studio I felt the first return of the joy
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Canvas, Convolvulus and Carpets
The last major piece I did was based on an image of fuchsias but the recent drawings seem to be taking me away from this – although it may change when I start working on the canvas that is now on the easel ready. Nothing more terrifying than a large blank white canvas
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Drawing and the Garden
The garden is endlessly fascinating. Even as a student I painted images of a lawn. Now I am working on images of my own garden again. I made a little drawing of grass, which to my surprise seemed to work well, and I have been exploring the imagery further through a series of drawings.
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