more cloud gazing this week, torrential rain all day tuesday (a typically british summer’s day) – this was the view from the window at about 6pm…
a room with a view
i hadn’t really noticed how prominent these power lines were before; my days must be slowly draining of any meaningful structure if i get distracted by this visual discordance with nature’s billowy curtain… today when i awoke, i did, for a brief moment wonder what day it was, whether it was indeed saturday already, and that a day of to-do-tasks might await me, tasks which fuel so little enthusiasm as to be remotely filed and archived for just such rainy days…
i am now aspiring to be a full-time, working artist after receiving written confirmation of the non-continuation of the day job contract (a sad sign of the times) – perhaps it is for the best, every cloud has a silver lining, or is that silver-toned..? in the manner of the featureless, grey days i have been feeling somewhat melancholic and the vast canvas of the sky seemed to be a reflection of the reality of recent events…
i have an appointment next week to get some business advice and hopefully formulate a plan… thus, i have not been motivated to paint much, well perhaps for an hour or so, here and there, when the mood takes. it seems too self-indulgent to ‘just paint’ when real-life concerns pile up like the laundry, and then there has been the issue of the quality of daylight…
here are a couple of close-up images of lichenscape II in progress, taken earlier today…
detail of the surface of painting, lichen on stone textures
i had a rash moment of destructive thinking when evaluating this canvas (perhaps inspired by these photographic reframings, seeing paintings within paintings), deciding that i might cut up the canvas into nine smaller ones – the lack of a decent-sized space to work in is almost unbearable at times…
i have found that in attending to these two large canvases (the lichenscapes) it has clouded my creative process – i realise that i am trying to condense into these two paintings a subjective concern which would be better pursued over eight or ten (or even more) works… myriad other thoughts (too nebulous to be proper working ideas) also run through my mind, and then i have to remind myself to just focus…
another detail of the textured surface of a painting
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yesterday evening i attended the private view of the current exhibition rebirth. lorraine cooke, the curator, has done an amazing job in bringing this show together, i feel most privileged to have some of my work included in it. i realise that i am still reticent in ‘working‘ the private view scenario, as i slowly perused the exhibition – this is probably due to a) being very slight and thus am less ‘visible’ in a busy gallery crowd, and, b) a (now) love/hate relationship with the new dr marten boots; i walked to the gallery from the train station and worked up some fine blisters – such small injuries can really be the breaking of the spirit.
i also met and chatted with the artist veronica grassi – she has some quite beautiful textural, sculptural pieces in this exhibition. barbara leaney’s dogwood sculptures are also quite spectacular, as are the smaller, detailed works of the contemporary japanese artists included in the show. i urge anyone passing through the fine city of norwich to go and see the exhibition at art1821 – it is open until 8th september 2010 – you can also read more about the rebirth exhibition on art 1821’s website…
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to further the idleness of my daily observations, may i introduce my humble sketching kit (i always travel light, a habit instilled in me since inter-railing across europe)…
my winsor & newton sketchers’ box of watercolours
a tiny tiptree jam jar (for water)
an assortment of sketching pencils, mostly derwent & caran d’ache
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and a composite image of the sketchbookiness of the last few days, 21-29 july, 2010…
skies and clouds sketches
monday, mid afternoon, looking east across fields towards marshes, high up in the sky, grey centre… in graphite, pencil and watercolour…
wednesday, early afternoon… looking east, cooler, bright, clouds moving fast… in graphite and pencil…
thursday, late afternoon, slim, dark clouds moving laterally, about 5pm…
it is becoming slightly obsessive; i have a mild desire to master the morphing art of the skies…
and i penned another haiku poem, or an ode to a cloud…
a cloud
tarnished silver
darkened the weeping willows
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i am thinking of joining the cloud appreciation society, whose pledge is to fight the banality of blue-sky thinking…
click here if you would like to see my cloud drawings animation from last year, the art of idleness…
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last chance to see… textures, traces & elements at beyond the image gallery – the exhibition closes at 4pm on sunday 1st august 2010.
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The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
Marcel Proust
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