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On Monday, I discovered a couple of tiny paintings of Norfolk that I did years ago - each of these canvases is 3” x 3”. The children demanded that they be put up in their room.
( +6 )
tags:
On Monday, I discovered a couple of tiny paintings of Norfolk that I did years ago - each of these canvases is 3” x 3”. The children demanded that they be put up in their room.
( +6 )
When I did that meme in yesterday's post, it came to my attention that whatever LJ did to the Scrapbook some time ago completely messed up the links embedded in my old posts containing photos of my paintings.
I've managed to retrieve some of the photos and popped them in an album on Flickr so I have a record of them. This made me recall that a fair few of them are now in the possession of friends, some of them thousands of miles away, and thus I become even more annoyed with LJ for "disappearing" a random assortment of the high-res versions.
This is titled "Home" and is drawn from my memories of the Big Island (Hawai'i), which I visited from Oahu as a child. It's the first one I did after moving to London. Hangs above the stairwell in our house.
( More )
I should very much like to get back into painting, as all of these were executed well before the children were born.
I've managed to retrieve some of the photos and popped them in an album on Flickr so I have a record of them. This made me recall that a fair few of them are now in the possession of friends, some of them thousands of miles away, and thus I become even more annoyed with LJ for "disappearing" a random assortment of the high-res versions.
This is titled "Home" and is drawn from my memories of the Big Island (Hawai'i), which I visited from Oahu as a child. It's the first one I did after moving to London. Hangs above the stairwell in our house.
( More )
I should very much like to get back into painting, as all of these were executed well before the children were born.
tags:
Here are two things that have provided pinpoints of light in these dark times.
The first is the release of roya’s EP, “trax”. Roya & I went to high school together. She now lives in Sweden. We see each other every few years when she passes through London, usually on her way to someplace more exciting. Roya introduced me to the internet (back in the days of dialup and BBSs) and the Simpsons (you know, when it started). She was the first programmer I ever knew. She was, in short, much cooler than I am, and she continues to be in these haunting electro tracks.
[The cover of the trax CD EP, two stickers, and Roya’s note to me. Click here to access her Bandcamp site, where you can listen to tracks and/or purchase her work.]
The second is a Dutch artist who was having a small exhibition at ESTEC the last time I was in the Netherlands. I was immediately attracted to her abstract, heavily textured paintings. I noted an area of one piece that had been done with a palette knife and we then had a long chat about her intricate, labour-intensive construction process. I was secretly delighted at some similarities to my own, and inspired to try some of her more sophisticated elements. It is my ambition to own one of her Lyrical Incandescent or Geological Series pieces.
[“Through the Heavens,” Nicole Cijs, from the Geological Series. Click the image to view her web site.]
The first is the release of roya’s EP, “trax”. Roya & I went to high school together. She now lives in Sweden. We see each other every few years when she passes through London, usually on her way to someplace more exciting. Roya introduced me to the internet (back in the days of dialup and BBSs) and the Simpsons (you know, when it started). She was the first programmer I ever knew. She was, in short, much cooler than I am, and she continues to be in these haunting electro tracks.
[The cover of the trax CD EP, two stickers, and Roya’s note to me. Click here to access her Bandcamp site, where you can listen to tracks and/or purchase her work.]
The second is a Dutch artist who was having a small exhibition at ESTEC the last time I was in the Netherlands. I was immediately attracted to her abstract, heavily textured paintings. I noted an area of one piece that had been done with a palette knife and we then had a long chat about her intricate, labour-intensive construction process. I was secretly delighted at some similarities to my own, and inspired to try some of her more sophisticated elements. It is my ambition to own one of her Lyrical Incandescent or Geological Series pieces.
[“Through the Heavens,” Nicole Cijs, from the Geological Series. Click the image to view her web site.]
tags:
I haven't painted since my trip to Norfolk in April - and I still haven't shared all the pieces I finished while I was there - so I was feeling a little down when I unearthed these this evening.
I painted these in Cambridge, probably not long before we moved, and forgot about them.
Two 8' x 8' canvases, gesso primer slashed with a putty knife, acrylics and watercolour washes
( Four more, details )
I don't know. They're okay, I guess. I was trying to create impossible creatures - things that might look real at first glance, but then wrong on closer inspection. I succeeded at that, anyway, but the execution falls short of the vision.
I painted these in Cambridge, probably not long before we moved, and forgot about them.
Two 8' x 8' canvases, gesso primer slashed with a putty knife, acrylics and watercolour washes
( Four more, details )
I don't know. They're okay, I guess. I was trying to create impossible creatures - things that might look real at first glance, but then wrong on closer inspection. I succeeded at that, anyway, but the execution falls short of the vision.
[Image of two 3" x 3" canvases, showing the same view of the Norfolk broads on different days. One a sunny blue sky over a golden reed bed, the other a cloudy grey sky over a green reed bed.]
Humuhumu and I spent a week in Norfolk with her paternal grandparents. I did a bit of painting whilst I was there. These are two quick ones I did after walks along the dyke next to the River Waveney in the broads.
( Closeups of individual canvases )
I brought home five sketches done by my maternal grandfather from my visit to my parents. I plan on having them framed when we eventually move to our new house.
The first is a pastel study of a street corner in Brooklyn, NY in 1947, where he and my grandmother lived after the war. I love the old car and the elevated train track, which is actually still there. It's one of the few paintings he signed, dated and labeled - generally he did none of those, making it difficult for us to date and locate his work.
It's labeled "Corner of Hendrix and Fulton" and if you look at Google Streetview, it looks surprising similar now to the way it did then.
( Three figure studies )
My mom thinks this looks like New England. It's much more impressionistic than his usual work, which was quite meticulous, more like the first pastel drawing of the Brooklyn street corner. I think it was done later in his career and that he dashed it off in a few minutes. In the lower right hand corner, you can see that he simply ripped it off his easel without bothering to remove the tape or trim the edges. I'm not sure he thought much of this painting, so I'm surprised it's survived as he had a tendency to burn anything he thought was sub-par.
A good deal of his work hangs in my parents' house. He built frames for the ones he liked best. These weren't among his favourites, but they stood out to me when I looked through the portion of his unframed portfolio that passed to my mother.
The first is a pastel study of a street corner in Brooklyn, NY in 1947, where he and my grandmother lived after the war. I love the old car and the elevated train track, which is actually still there. It's one of the few paintings he signed, dated and labeled - generally he did none of those, making it difficult for us to date and locate his work.
It's labeled "Corner of Hendrix and Fulton" and if you look at Google Streetview, it looks surprising similar now to the way it did then.
( Three figure studies )
My mom thinks this looks like New England. It's much more impressionistic than his usual work, which was quite meticulous, more like the first pastel drawing of the Brooklyn street corner. I think it was done later in his career and that he dashed it off in a few minutes. In the lower right hand corner, you can see that he simply ripped it off his easel without bothering to remove the tape or trim the edges. I'm not sure he thought much of this painting, so I'm surprised it's survived as he had a tendency to burn anything he thought was sub-par.
A good deal of his work hangs in my parents' house. He built frames for the ones he liked best. These weren't among his favourites, but they stood out to me when I looked through the portion of his unframed portfolio that passed to my mother.
Ladies and gemplums and uncategorisables, I present you with a backlog of photos from the holidays.
First, Christmas Day, on which I received a pounce from Telstar and a lot of pretty clothes as well as the usual Pile O' Books. ( A Cat, A New Outfit, A Pair of Furry Boots. )
Next, a trip to the seaside town of Southwold with the Little Niece and Little Nephew 2 on a quest for All The Fish for their mummy's birthday feast. ( A Nephew, A Portrait of an Auntie by Niece Aged Four, A Portrait of an Uncle, Fish for Sale. )
The 1000-piece jigsaw completed by Father-Out-Law and myself whilst listening to sea shanties and reciting poetry. ( A Goth Extravaganza. )
The bloke went on a shoot and brought home some avian prizes. ( A Pheasant Plucker. Caution: contains dead game. )
Finally, a thing I painted. It's not finished because the two halves aren't blended together very well yet. It's rather larger than most of my pieces. ( Atoll/Island, in progress. )
First, Christmas Day, on which I received a pounce from Telstar and a lot of pretty clothes as well as the usual Pile O' Books. ( A Cat, A New Outfit, A Pair of Furry Boots. )
Next, a trip to the seaside town of Southwold with the Little Niece and Little Nephew 2 on a quest for All The Fish for their mummy's birthday feast. ( A Nephew, A Portrait of an Auntie by Niece Aged Four, A Portrait of an Uncle, Fish for Sale. )
The 1000-piece jigsaw completed by Father-Out-Law and myself whilst listening to sea shanties and reciting poetry. ( A Goth Extravaganza. )
The bloke went on a shoot and brought home some avian prizes. ( A Pheasant Plucker. Caution: contains dead game. )
Finally, a thing I painted. It's not finished because the two halves aren't blended together very well yet. It's rather larger than most of my pieces. ( Atoll/Island, in progress. )
I dug up an old incomplete canvas this weekend and finished it off. Materials: 8" x 8" x 1" canvas, milliput, acrylic gel, acrylic paints.
( +3, details )
( +3, details )
I finished painting the baby Cluster spacecraft!
In brief: 2 coats black ink on the engines. 3 thin washes royal blue on the solar panels, followed by 1 wash of black ink, 1 wash light blue, 1 wash royal blue and dry-brushing with white. Metallic silver on the gaps between panels. Top details received additional coats of metallic gold.
( More views of completed baby spacecraft. )
For those who might be interested in such things, I include the main playlist for this effort behind the cut. I tend to listen to the same set of songs on repeat while I'm painting.
( Musical inspiration. )
...I just realized that this list doesn't look very cheerful even if you don't know the songs. I swear, I was having a great time.
In brief: 2 coats black ink on the engines. 3 thin washes royal blue on the solar panels, followed by 1 wash of black ink, 1 wash light blue, 1 wash royal blue and dry-brushing with white. Metallic silver on the gaps between panels. Top details received additional coats of metallic gold.
( More views of completed baby spacecraft. )
For those who might be interested in such things, I include the main playlist for this effort behind the cut. I tend to listen to the same set of songs on repeat while I'm painting.
( Musical inspiration. )
...I just realized that this list doesn't look very cheerful even if you don't know the songs. I swear, I was having a great time.
After beating the crap out of myself, in a good way, at the gym, I spent today painting the four little Clusters that I picked up from the workshop this week.
In brief: 4 layers of gesso primer - the resin they're made out of is thirsty. 1 thin yellow wash. 3 texturizing layers with sucessive addition of brown. 1 thin dark brown wash. 1 coat metallic gold paint.
Tomorrow: Solar panels, engine and top details.
( From the beginning. )
In brief: 4 layers of gesso primer - the resin they're made out of is thirsty. 1 thin yellow wash. 3 texturizing layers with sucessive addition of brown. 1 thin dark brown wash. 1 coat metallic gold paint.
Tomorrow: Solar panels, engine and top details.
( From the beginning. )
.
