ART, Everything you don't have to do.
Just been to Upfest, a street art festival in Bristol spread out over the town, packed with artist doing their thing, had to dodge the British weather but still got to see some great art. Another thing to add to my list of things to try.
Up to now I have never made time to sketch while on holiday , this year I set out to change that making a little time to stop and sketch.
After you get over the strangeness of getting your sketchbook out in public, making time to sketch and not to just grab photographs, makes you more aware of the place even if it’s not always captured in the sketches.
Got to get into the habit of doing this more as it’s more personal record of the places you visit, I am sure they will help me remember if I want to make paintings later.
The standard of work in this exhibition is tremendous; I always come away appreciating the skill and talent of the artists. I have taken a few pictures of my favourites to add here.
It is a competitions so you have to select your own favourite, mine was (Rhyming slang for worth nix) by artist Janne kearney
I have been trying my hand at painting for about 3 years now, so I thought it might be interesting to go back to the beginning and attempt another version of an earlier painting.
I have always liked this portrait by photographer Ronald Vogal who kindly gave me permission to use his photograph as reference.
I have use oil paints on canvas as apposed to Acrylics on paper but still I am pleased with the marked improvement in my technique.
I am certainly looking forward to trying this benchmark again in another 3 years.
I have been working on my art class summer project Senses.
I had the idea of creating 5 tarot like cards one for each sense, trying to add a little twist to each illustration Sight being blindfolded in the dark and Smell being roses and something rotting in a bag, I guess you get the idea.
The sixth sense is just suggested by a downturned card and the tarot.
Thanks for dropping in.
Had a trip down to sunny London to catch the exhibition at the Royal Academy “America after the fall” before it all finished to make way for the Summer exhibition.
Took the audio guide to learn about the pictures how they fitted into the exhibition and some background on the artists, My real reason in going was to see Grant Woods American Gothic, it was a great surprise to see his other work especially Daughters of revolution which I thought was as wonderful picture full of satire and hidden meaning.
Just finished a short term at art class, closing for the summer.
This term we looked at the senses and the parts of the body we use for them ears, noses, eyes, lips and hands looking at the anatomy and how they fit into the face really good stuff, if like me you like faces.
we made some 3D heads from dough, morphed animals into faces and faces into animals, sketched each others bits and looked at cartoons and how the artist simplify the features to capture expression.
I have planned two final pieces to complete over the summer, one painting which I have posted my sketch here and a set of 5 tarot cards covering each of the five senses and hinting at the sixth.
Thanks for dropping in.
At my local Art group we had a lecture and demonstration on sculpture using papiermachie by a local artist Annie Wootton , it was one of those lectures where you go away thinking, I’ll have a go at that!
Easy materials and a little mess made it very appealing, I had an idea for a super hero character using comic books, so I started out to make the figure, using aluminium foil and covering it in masking tape, there it stopped no comic books so it went in a box waiting for the day I picked some up.
Easter break from my art class and we are encouraged to try something new, out comes my super hero but with no comics, I set about making some modifications, and ended up with Birdman.
I might still find those comics and have a go at my super hero idea.
We have come to the end of our art class pathways project, its been another interesting term first looking at perspective line and colour, then looking at maps and aerial views finished up exploring something alternative.
Working with the idea that the body is full of pathways, I found some vintage anatomy illustrations and used these as the starting point for my painting,
Had a go using acrylic inks on paper in a very loose style, with big brushes and many layers, I am pleased with the results and it should create some reactions on the little gallery wall : )
