Category Archives: Painting

My Motif

Posted on by
Reply

motifA motif is the centrepiece of a Roman mosaic. Not the square yards over square yards of dolphins and nude girls, 3-dimensional optical illusions and fighting bulls, straight lines and wiggly lines, stars and ships and lizards, but the small piece in the very centre of a grand floor.

It’s the mosaic’s valuable part, the part you treasure, the part you take with you when you move from one villa in the south of Rome to another in the North, or whatever the Romans did.

Here is mine.

It’s made of approximately 120 pencils, coloured and standard “HB” ones, cut into 5..7mm discs (using my Dremel 3000 and it’s diamond cutter tool), laid upside down and cemented together with Copydex, a rubber-like arts and crafts glue.

We don’t have a Roman villa to surround it, and we don’t have a grand marble mosaic floor to surround it either, but we are quite happy to have it hang on the wall.

 

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Corporate Meeting Results

Posted on by

doodles_lowresI need to be on full alert in some meetings that I attend at work, while some other meetings require just listening in at a reduced level of alertness. When attending teleconferences of the latter kind, sometimes I make use of the spare capacity, get my graphics tablet out, and doodle around with Artrage. I like these six doodles shown here, which I drew in order from top left to bottom right.

Each is a very simple random doodle, filled with plain colour. None has any artistic merits, but I like the fact that you can see a plan emerging from a random doodle top left, to something like a flower bud in the bottom right. Oh, and I also like the bold colours.

The plan improves and colours are chosen more considerately, as I move from doodle to doodle. Predictably yet frustratingly, the spontaneity of the first doodle is lost. I need to learn combining the spontaneity of the first with the planning of the last.

Time to join more meetings. Bring it on!

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Not Sure if I Would if I Could, But if I Had…

Posted on by

2011-09-25 12.59.33I couldn’t quite figure out this Nicholas African guy until I re-read the De Young museum‘s exhibition sign (luck that I took a photo): It is Nicolas Africano, silly me!

Nicolas Africano. He’s an unknown to Wikipedia, but not to a wealth of arts- and sculpture oriented sites. Here are a few more examples of his beautiful cast glass sculptures:

Woman Eating Fruit by Nicolas Africano 1997 Cast Glass (on Flickriver)

Untitled by Nicolas Africano 2006 (De Young Museum, San Francisco) (on Flickr)

Untitled (Standing female figure in skirt), Nicolas Africano 2005 (on cva.edu)

I find his cast glass sculptures insanely beautiful. Breath-taking, leaving me at a loss for words but with tears of joy. I don’t have money in the area of $30,000 to spend on a piece of artwork, and I am not sure if I would if I could, but if I had, I’d sink onto my knees in front of it every day under the sun in admiration.

 

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Not So Lazy

Posted on by

figurines I live in constant fear that you might think me lazy, so here are two –yes, not one, but two- very early samples of my recent stone masonry project. Plans are, as always, huge and somewhat involved, but for a first try-out, I thought I made my own Easter Islands replacement and my own little sailboat. Both are approximately 5cm (2″) tall. The head is polished, but I didn’t dare polishing the much more fragile boat.

Since both items are destined to be given to friends soon, I took those images to have some kind of memory. I hope my friends like them as much as I do.

These are simple soapstone carvings, a material I started playing with after we’ve been to the Henry Moore retrospective at Tate Britain a few weeks ago. Fascinating stuff, both the soapstone and Henry Moore’s work.

I guess you’ll have to watch this space.

 

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

In Defiance

Posted on by

Defiance (Detail, lowres)I went through a small number of experiments with paintings of a very depressed mood. All but one ended up unfinished and abandoned, but they might have helped me out of a painter’s block (chiefly caused by focussing on too many other things, so it’s more painter’s neglect than block), and a somewhat depressed spirit. (The surviving one is still work in progress, by the way.)

Here’s one that I started, enjoyed, and completed during last week. You might find it depressing to see a foul weather scene being painted during some of the finest days the 2009 summer had to offer, but honestly, a clear blue sky doesn’t offer much excitement, in painting terms.

Click here, or the tiny detail shown here, to see the complete picture. I should add that my camera struggles to resolve the subtle nuances in colour and tone of an oil painting, and often struggles to focus well. You should come around and take a look at the real thing.

In Defiance.
Oil on canvas, 24×36″ (60x90cm).
August 2009

 

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

David Hockney and I

Posted on by

Alfred-lowres The BBC runs a new program on David Hockney, and The Master contributes three little paintings, which you can put [...] onto your phone or computer. These downloads are available right here, and for 48 hours only.

Once David Hockney’s time-limited offer has expired (why this childish for-48-hours-only nonsense anyway?), feel free to take one of mine – that’s OK as long as you don’t change it or pretend you made it yourself. I use Alfred on my mobile phone, and use the Manukan Island sunset as a desktop wallpaper.

Whether you chose David Hockney, one of mine or maybe one of your own making, I find this is a very nice way of personalising an impersonal device.

An endless number of web sites and utilities help you to create the wallpaper that fits your phone from an existing image; see http://www.mytinyphone.com/p/make-wallpaper/ for an example. Go for it!

 

Related articles by Zemanta

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

A Job Complete: The Swan Quadryptichon

Posted on by

leo (detail) Allow me to introduce Leo. Leo completes the Swan Quadryptichon:

Swan Lake, Lost and Found, Gunter, and now Leo. It’s always nice to complete a painting, but to complete a project of four paintings has an extra level of satisfaction coming along with it.

Leo.

Oil on canvas, 12×50″
March 2009

Click here, or click the thumbnail, to reveal the complete painting.

You can see the complete Swan Quadryptichon here, all four of them side-by-side, and in chronological order left to right.

 
Related articles by Zemanta

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

With Two Geese and a Turtle

Posted on by

With Two Geese and a Turtle (detail) Allow me to introduce the latest exhibit: With Two Geese and a Turtle.

I’ll leave it to you to work it out. The solution can be found on the wall of every second home, or so it would seem. Mystery solved or not, I hope you like it.

 

With Two Geese and a Turtle
Oil on canvas, 16×20″
March 2009

 

Click here, or the thumbnail, to reveal the complete picture.

 

 
Related articles by Zemanta

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Polly

Posted on by

polly (Detail)Allow me to introduce my little blackbird: Polly.

Nothing much to say about this quickly done simple oil painting, using a pretty good but terribly sticky acrylic medium: Daler-Rowney Alkyd Flow Medium, diluted with 25% of purified linseed oil.

If you are experimenting with oil paint, I surely recommend this medium. Among the acrylic media, this is far superior compared to Liquin or Galkyd.

Polly
Oil on canvas, 10×12″
February 2009

As always, click here, or the thumbnail, for the complete picture. The real thing is on permanent exhibition somewhere in W7.

 
Related articles by Zemanta

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

When the Milk Goes Off…

Posted on by

When the Milk Goes Off - lowres You may have seen the ArtRage sketch a few days ago. There’s not much more to say about this, except that you can now come and see the real thing, in oil on canvas.

Click here, or the thumbnail, for a larger version.

When the Milk Goes Off

Oil on canvas, 12×16″
November 2008
Medium: Daler-Rowney’s Alkyd Flow medium, linseed oil, turpentine

I hope you like it.