Funny Old Life

It has been such a long time since I touched this blog or anything else to do with my art practice.  I was struck with a diagnosis of MS after having severe sight problems for months.  This seemed particularly cruel for anyone creative and I wept bitter tears. 


However, there are worse things and now that the dust has settled and I can see once more (a bit dodgy round the edges maybe), I am ready to pick up where I left off with a greater respect for myself, my health and going with the flow.  It certainly gives you a new perspective on life.


I am currently in Australia and picked up a sketch book and some crayons the other day to 'play' with whilst I am here and have gained inspiration from gallery visits and the beautiful landscape and colours.  For the first time in ages, I am looking forward to getting back into the studio and working.

Quiet Sunday

 

A quiet day in the studio after a leisurely start, coffee and a walk in the sunshine.   Played around with trying to transfer images using wundaweb and gave up after a frustrating couple of hours getting nowhere.  Will have to rethink that one.

The image here is one of a series using collaged material, acrylic paint and oil pastels - it's quite a long canvas and I have cropped the centre for the blog.  Enjoyable experimental stuff really.

in the absence of feeling

 

Unbelievably, here we are wending our way through March.  Despite the fact that I have been largely absent from blogging, I am busy painting which was my main focus for 2011.  A week away with the laptop for company and I have been catching up with digital imagery,  playing with Photoshop and trying to gather a photo collection to use in my artwork.  This little image came from gazing out of a window and not being able to recall feelings that I'd had about a situation.

I notice that many of the blogs I follow are having a quiet time, so hopefully we are all enjoying a period of high productivity or complete relaxation.

Most Useful

The Telegraph Saturday Review had a really useful list today of online archives - here are a few of them and a bit of blurb taken from the article. 

www.moma.org/collection  - for the most comprehensive modern archive by a single institution to date.

www.vggallery.com/letters - Van Gogh's 902 letters - £450 for the new Thames & Hudson book - or free to view at this site.


www.books.google.com - 15 million publications - I just checked out the complete collection of Life magazine - worth a look at the front covers dating back to the 1950's.

www.europeana.eu - By 2016 all public domain masterpieces in Europe  should be accessible through this site.  It currently has 15 million to view.

http://threadsoffeeling.com/ - Tokens; mainly a tiny piece of fabric, left by mothers to identify babies left at the Foundling Hospital between 1741 and 1760.  Heart-rending.

Work in Progress for January

mixed media & collage on canvas

I am so sorry not to have posted for such a long time.  Christmas and the infections of the season got in the way.   But it's back to work now and on with a plan for 2011.  

In as much, as one can plan for anything, I intend to let printmaking take a back seat this year and concentrate on painting again.  I did a bit of a swap over last year and experimented quite a bit with gelatin print, digital and collographs but by late 2010 I was itching to get messy and started to dig out some failed works to paint over.  Less stressful than staring at a white canvas and wondering where to throw the first blob of paint!

I  decided it was time to rejoin the artistic community and signed up for the local Visual Artist Network.  They have a nice exhibition space and I felt it really was about time I put myself out there more. 

I've also joined a photography group in attempt to improve my grasp of this weighty subject.  I really feel pretty hopeless about the most basic information required to take a decent shot.

And then there's the Latin to think about...New Year Resolutions and all that:)

London Trip

Returned last night from a weekend trip to London and a flying visit to Tate Britain.  Had a peep at the Saatchi Gallery and ended the visit at The Royal Academy to see the Glasgow Boys ( http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/glasgow-boys/).  Tate Britain was full of greatness and a joy to spend a couple of hours before it closed looking at some old favourites.  The Glasgow Boys was a really good exhibition of artists with whom I was not previously familiar and whose capturing of light and colour held me spellbound.  It was well-attended but I managed to see everything without being trampled underfoot.  

I found most of the Saatchi gallery's current collection predictably dreary.  It neither excites nor shocks any more.  It was however, interesting to hear a guide trying to justify some juvenile dross to a party of schoolchildren.  Despite the no entrance fee policy these days, it was very quiet, with a collection of gallery attendants who were barely civil.  It all felt a bit parallel universe.  But hey I'm only a punter.

Collagraph II

 

A second run of collagraphs with chine colle.  It's starting to feel like a race against time before the Festive Season takes hold  and everything grinds to a halt for a few weeks.  Although it is good to get work out at any time of the year.

Collagraph

Been painting, making little boxes, small sculptures and working on some collographs for a change.  This little landscape is a collagraph with chine colle and is headed to Australia with 3 others in the series.

I have also been working on making the studio a warmer place to work during the winter months.  Last year was a battle with condensation damp getting into everything and the summer was such a non-event that I knew I was going to have to get some heat going.  I now have curtains at the windows, some old underlay and carpet on the floor and a thermostat on an oil radiator to keep the temperature level.  So far so good.