Unknown to me until this morning the 29th of October has been an arty day often. Facebook memories reminded me of four exhibitions that I have taken part in.
Be the Flamingo in a flock of Pigeons.
Also 7 years ago I went to see Grayson Perry in Birmingham. A funny coincidence because I also went to see him 3 days ago in Truro.
Today was always going to be arty as I needed to hunt down a sketch that had been cleared away since the annual summer tidy up. Then I met a fellow artist while I was walking the dogs and we had a bit of an arty natter.
But the actual project of the day , finding the sketch has failed. Instead loads of colour exercises were dug out of files. The mess they created on the spare bed has shamed me into finding a way to use them up in collage and paper weaving projects.
I am having a bit of a creative experimentation phase using watercolour, weaving and collage. The colours of the sea around us are constantly changing and I photograph and paint them often, mostly as never to be seen ideas on paper.
This image started life as a storm picture, the colours featured are the sea, old military concrete, rust and vivid seaweed all tossed about in the sea . Then I chopped A3 paper down to A4 and used the cut off pre-painted paper to weave into the A4 and made a weaved image to collage onto the A4. Sheet. There is a curious pleasure in destroying an image to create a new and unexpected one. I like the sense of unity that my mark making on the original sheet brings to the new weaved image. I like that there are now 3 or 4 layers all telling the same story but in a very different way.
My original was just swirling wave forms but the woven piece almost tells a more accurate account. This is not an area of gentle sandy beaches and murmuring flisvos.
Waves don’t often hit our shores gently and there is more concrete than sand. This area has been a port for more than 1,000 years. Waves slap hard against cliffs and man-made structures which are built to be resilient. The collision of water and hard surfaces is the soundtrack of a walk by the sea. The sharp angles and abrupt colour changes of the woven areas are a good reflection of the sound and sensations of being at one with the sea in an area that is not completely natural and unspoilt. A little arty, digital tinkering makes me want to try this again.
But for now it is just a fabulous design for a stained glass window.
Our Autumn Equinox performed pretty well yesterday. Our 12 hours of daylight were sun-filled with just a hint of chill.
And if natural sun were not enough we popped along to Devonport Market Hall to see Helios an installation by Luke Jerram.Featuring a giant orb, representing the sun and an ambient soundtrack that represents many of the cultural, social and science impacts that the sun has on humanity around the world.
Bean bags and chairs are provided for static appreciation and the architecture of the Market Hall encourages 360 degree viewpoints.
I managed to get one of my complicated images. Which has half of my body balanced on a table and plugged into the mains via a socket extension. A dangerous position to be in, if it wasn’t just a trick of many lights.
12 hours filled with sunlight of different sorts. My final moment of sun worship was a little on the chilly side but worth the cold to spend time swimming towards the setting sun.
Helios is free to visit at the Market Hall, Devonport. Open daily until Sunday 28th September.
Friday already and a fabulous bouncy bob at high tide.
Nothing starts the day better than a challenging swim in a very well-understood and respected bay.
There is a turn in the weather so on our return I decided to do some autumn chores in the yard. I was energised for action by the splash and bounce of the sea.
Before loading the garage with summer paraphernalia I collected a stored portrait. A friend and I plan to have a good old natter about the experience of having our portraits painted. My two were painted 10 years apart and I have never before viewed them together.
I had no idea they had both chosen almost identical colour palates.
Seeing them together and again is a curious feeling.
If I posed now the hair would be grey, the black garment would be a swimming costume and the deep jewel red would be a towel or robe. Cold water swimming is my superpower, I wish those younger women had done it because it really gets me through the tough days. And those two younger versions of me had some really tough days.
Mythical creatures on a mystical night. We camped overnight under a full moon and read books about mythical creatures.
As luck would have it the mythical creature in the book was a Leviathan which we had visited earlier in the day.
Overlooking Plymouth Sound for overnight camping we were not troubled by the low sad songs of unhappy Leviathans. Instead they jumped and frolicked in the bright moonlight which was untroubled by clouds or any other weather predicament.
The Leviathan and a full moon at StonehouseThe Leviathan and Plymouth Hoe
It helps, of course, that Nana drew a Leviathan a few years ago.
It has been a blisteringly hot week. I have always been a lover of hot weather but as I have aged my tolerance is reducing. I have a new understanding of seeking out shade, a light breeze, avoiding the hottest parts of the day and sun hats. Sleeping at home daily has become like the giddy first nights of a holiday trying to adjust to flimsy bed coverings.
Abroad I love the abstract shapes that sheets form after a night of fitful sleep in a foreign climate.
This week I have had abstraction at home.
Which I agree does not look all that exciting, but by reducing the detail and adding some colour my bed looks like a sculpture.
Something I might never had discovered if my tolerance for heat had not diminished. So maybe I am not so bothered after all.
Is that why the Italians in particular are so brilliant at creating folds of fabric from marble. Bright Sunlight and folds of bed linen every morning before they even get up.
I always thought this failed attempt at a colour wheel looked a little like a Phoenix from the side .
Combining her with a pigment tray from the near the Vatican and some printing experiments has been interesting.
I think I like her best as a dark disco creature.
The reason for all this artistic time wasting, is that for once I am as prepped as I can be for the next art exhibition. The original works are ready and framed. I have done my experimental print run, and am now just waiting for the real print run to be done. The mounts and envelopes are in the studio. Everything is poised for the next flurry of activity, but creatively I am at an impasse. So footling about with some odds and ends was quite cathartic. I might even have rinsed JMW Turner out of my head.
Over the weekend I believe I finished my project of creating art inspired by the work of JMW Turner and his locations. I have been focussed on that for about 6 weeks. Doubtless some of the stuff I have learned along the way will stick with me. The random technique that I really like is staining watercolour paper with cold tea. So here are some tiny tomatoes in the saucer of a blue glass cup and saucer caught in sunlight. Nothing Turneresque about it apart from tea stained paper. To be clear Turner did not dye his paper with tea but it was an option to create paper that was more authentically matched to watercolour paper of 200 years ago. I might also try bolder colours like beetroot or turmeric.
Just a waterfall in the English countryside, below a pond.
With a glass shute that humans and cows can walk under.
And a message.
If people, or cows for that matter, for just one minute, allowed Modern Art to get into their heads rather than allowing it to flow over their heads, the world would be a very different place for them.
Or maybe significantly different. Not so likely for the cows.
5 minutes is all it takes at Delamore Arts. Staying longer is even more interesting.
Beltane , Mayday, caught me out yesterday. It was a day filled to the brim. Not another thing could have been squeezed into any second of the waking day. So much so that the blog was brief and largely unexplained.
I combined two exercises from Paint Like Turner to create a painting of our local tidal pool.
The first big takeaway was that watercolour painting 250 years ago was not done on paper that was anywhere near white. So the process took about 24 hours as I dyed paper with cold tea.
The process and the result.
Then dried the papers in hot bright sunlight, which bleached out the colour a bit. I think I quite like painting on imperfect slightly beige paper. In real life the image has a warmth about it which I quite like.
Then to read the instructions and dig around in my paint store for the suggested colours or as close as I had.
I was working from one of my favourite, very atmospheric photographs of the pool.
At this point I should point out that this is the pool on an excellent day.
And this once again is the painting. Very curious to create art from firm instructions.
I need to sort this horizon out before actually attaching the mount.
I was quite thrilled that the painting more or less has a Turner colour palate as demonstrated by the biography I am also powering through.
But the painting is nothing like a Turner in reality and much more like my photograph.
Which rather neatly brings me to the end of the day. Which was spent with a huge glass of Pimms , celebrating a friend’s success in the London Marathon. 26 miles of determination and endeavour.
This photograph has the colour palate of the sun going down through a glass of Pimms.
theoldmortuary.design 