Psyberspace

Here is another cross. This one is a hybrid. The back-ground is paint and the verticals are digital. There is no original either, the base image was from a shot I took of part of the canvas, resized from landscape to square, beefed up the image in post-production. I think it will make a good print.

I still have the 600×600 mm original acrylic but it got tortured out of recognition! A lot of agony & ecstasy.
This one shows a some of what I learned over the three days. Layers. Removing paint in a variety of ways. I will keep going with this. More hybrids, and perhaps the other way around too! I could print the vertical on the texture.

My goal is to make a set of physical ones.

Some more from the workshop soon, I still have the photos to take.

Later: Saturday, 5 July, 2008

This image is now featured in the Gallery

full size

January 22, 2008January 28, 2018

Brian Grimwood – illustrations – book & chat

I am back from the workshop and had a bit of a browse of the bookstore. The little “Coffee With… series caught my eye… because of the illustrations on the front. (Coffee with Michael Angelo, by James Hall, fun!)

On Amazon (click the image) you can see links to the others in the series, I particularly like the Mozart one, interesting use of colour. The artist is Brian Grimwood, I have just been exploring his website with delight. Ok, it is commercial art, but it is art. The image that follows is a good example of artistic exploration. I am in tune with that right now having been doing it solidly for three days. My hunch is that these illustrations are all digital, and he is a lovely digital sketcher!
Continue reading “Brian Grimwood – illustrations – book & chat”

January 20, 2008

In the thick of it

Photo of the view, first night on the workshop:

The next day I learned a lot about paint. My first real go at real-media in a long time, decades!

The focus and the exercises were great.

One small bit of real paint from my exercise sheet.

I finished up doing some acrylic seed heads, but they are gone, apart from a digital sketch I made on the Tablet at the end of the day: the usual digital follows.

Poppy Seed
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January 20, 2008

Gessoing Boards

Here is another shot of preparations for the wkshop.

January 16, 2008

Paint, board and stuff…

Acrylic paint, Gesso, and lots of MDB (Medium Density Board). I looked at a lot more than I bought, it is such a lolly shop out there. I hope this will enable me to mix all I need, at least for the weekend retreat. I then spent the rest of the day priming the boards, more to do tomorrow. The 500 ml of Gesso is almost gone, I’ll need more.

And, yes, that is my coffee.

January 15, 2008

Workshop Retreat on my mind…

I am getting ready for a painting retreat led by New Zealand artist Jane Zusters. Just as I am thinking of doing oils I think I will be doing acrylics at the retreat. Real media looming after all these digital images and work with the printer.

I am so “self taught” it is weird to go into a space where I will have a teacher. I am enjoying it so far, even though it is still four days away. What is useful is to get advice on materials, options, possibilities. I am going on another shopping spree tomorrow for media! What a blast.

January 15, 2008

Re-worked Landscapes

These two are familiar. I used images from Thousand Sketches but did them anew. Subtly different, more in tune with where I am at now.

Hills
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Mt. Lyford
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January 15, 2008

Transition

I popped in a few casual doodles a few days ago. They appeal more now when I look at them after having had six days tramping. It is the time in the hills that confirmed the landscape project. Now I can see those few doodles as real transition pieces from one project to the next. Look at this one, I don’t think I posted it yet. Looks like a nice sort of bookend to me.

(Later: I had posted it but it did not show??)

Transition
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This reminds me of a story I heard that John Badcock, between series or projects does a self portrait as Christ, makes sense to me.

PS: John Badcock mentioned in Thousand Sketches here and here and here.

January 15, 2008March 21, 2022

Landscapes

North Canterbury

A new project. Landscapes. Unsure as ever but need to follow this. As in the Earth Crosses the starting point is Thousand Sketches. One or two are coming straight over as part of the new series, but mostly I am redoing old ones and making new ones. I want to find about a dozen I like.

Some new aspects I am noticing. The calligraphic lines, all of them in this series. while digital, will have this, I am pursuing this. The other new thing is that I will use these sketches to make oils. I will post them as I do them but on the whole I’d like to present a selected set of them, digital images and corresponding oils.

What I like is that via the blog the unity of the work is maintained. These images can “phone home”.

I wrote this to a friend who commented on my work:

“The whole cyberspace side of it is important to me, I think it will impact art more and more. The objects, even when one off and in paint etc, can have a ‘virtual life’ as well, they can forever be linked to the artists words and to other items in the project or series… books & letters did it occasionally, but it was complex, hit and miss. I think it is a significant step in this era. So I am glad you noticed that aspect of the work.”

January 14, 2008