...So I made an abrupt stop and set up an easel with some larger paper and started a copy of a Matisse drawing that I like of a nude in an armchair 1924ish. It is part of a number of similar lithographs of the same model with the same approach. Matisse had gone back to using half tones, and generally exploring atmospheric colour.
Read Moresomething in the air
At first glance they all looked like crows. Yet looking again a different profile could be seen in one of them – it was a hawk; a small one, maybe a kestrel. We only saw it momentarily but this was enough time to pick it out – it had a different centre of gravity, it seemed to get more purchase out of its wing beats.
Read MoreSeason's Greetings
This year's card. Have a peaceful holiday.
Following a thought..
How do your day-to-day activities, interactions and routines condition your opinion making? It is easy to assume that opinions, tastes, are trenchant, deep-rooted and seldom changed. How can they be affected by the physicality of our lives though?
Read MoreNew 3D "sketches"
Folding paper, forming and brushing over paint - the brush , a grubby unchoreographed dance which works off and against the form - sometimes doing it no favours. This adds a sort of counterpoint and the ones that interest me most are when there is an edgy dialogue between form and colour. Close up images can be seen in current work section.
Buildings that aren't really there
...We marvel at computer simulations whizzing us through the virtual skies, swooping on graceful parabolas in and out of the space of the edifice in ways that we could never possibly experience for real - unless of course NASA lent us some sophisticated craft to tootle about on.
Read MoreLines, curves and dodgy hotels
Every one of these buildings is a form of kitsch hotel and we are conned into thinking as we stroll by in ipod oblivion that these new developments are acceptable as they slip under the critical radar on the “regeneration” ticket.
Read MoreMatisse Museum visit
..I came to a conclusion that the Düsseldorf painting was a beautiful “question” whereas the Museum work was a beautiful “answer”. There is an amazing spatial coda being played out in this red interior - and one created like the vast majority of Matisse’s works through synthesised observation.
Read MoreFocal Play
When I reverted to looking at the scene with both eyes they popped back into focus and retained their original green sparkle. This subtle shift of focus, this "focal play", this flit of our eyes moving fractions of millimetres in our heads but yards or miles in our field of vision fascinated me.
Read MorePatience
Patience is an important quality in the studio especially if the work is not going well. Often an artist gets less studio time than they would like and there is a temptation to resolve things before the next block of time as if this will somehow justify the time spent...
Read MoreFresco Poem
I pick up a piece of card
shiny white on one side,
buff manilla on the other.
Read MoreWhen does synthesis become artifice?
One of the most satisfying features of abstract painting is its expressive plasticity – no other visual art seems to have such possibilities. Surprisingly though, there are not many great abstract works of art..
Read MoreMatisse and those black lines
...If you could step into a Matisse painting nothing would bruise you, yet you would always feel the gravity of the situation and never lose your orientation
Read MorePersistence
Painting takes persistence. the role of practice - day to day, week to week studio routines are seldom if ever considered in any assessment of an artist's work
Read MorePeter Hide Sculptures at Poussin Gallery
...I did not really consider issues of weight or mass in apprehending the sculptures. As a painter I probably come at it from a slightly different angle anyway.
Importance
Just a thought...treat anything that makes you feel important with - at best - suspicion and - at worse - contempt.
Olitski versus fear
I was flicking through a magazine the other day and I became increasingly aware of the style of adverts in there. Then walking through town I saw the same thing everyhere
Time and the riverbank
It was my youngest son’s birthday the other day – he is two years old. I bought him a video of Tales of the Riverbank
Milan Kundera and the ethic of the essential
Milan Kundera writing recently quoted Proust from "In search of lost time "In this novel...there is not one incident that is not fictional...not one character à clef says Proust
John McLean exhibition
I went to see John McLean’s new show at Poussin Gallery Bermondsey with Steve Lewis the sculptor. The show had works from various times including a painted sculpture, a couple of small constructions in wood and card and several oval paintings