Project LV One – Day 316 – Foxton

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Guthlac

Foxton Locks

One of the joys of being me is that when it is beautiful spring day I can get out and go for a walk.  Perhaps it is my inner hippy but there really are more important things than money.

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Project LV One – Day 315 – Stairways to Heaven

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Guthlac

Stairways to Heaven

 

They really do like staircases in Liverpool.  The one on the left is from the Museum of Liverpool and the one on the right is from the recently refurbished Central Library.  The library, by the way, appeared to be a much better use of public money than the new central library at Birmingham which appears to be a bit of a white elephant.

Port Sunlight

In the afternoon we went onto the marvelously and proudly Victorian Lady Lever museum at Port Sunlight.  It is quite amazing (too many superfluous adjectives? Perhaps) just how much money can be made out of soap.

 

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Project LV One – Day 314 – Mona Lisa

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Guthlac

winona ryder

Has anyone in the last 100 years or so actually spent time with the Mona Lisa in the Louvre?   I have never visited the museum so I can’t say what it is like for real but for what people have stood in front of the painting have told me or from what I have read it is not a pleasant experience.  The Mona Lisa, after all, is probably the most famous painting in the world and so it will always be very very popular and so very few people indeed get the chance to examine it for anything other the briefest of moments before being hassled along.   So who really knows what the painting look like?

The only reason I ask this is because I spent quite some time with a copy of the painting at the Walker’s Gallery in Liverpool yesterday.  Was this the real painting? Of course not but, according to the blurb, it is considered to be a close approximation of the original and so probably I, and anyone else who might take the time to sit and contemplate the Liverpool painting, have a better feel for the original than the millions of visitors who file past the painting each year.  Is this valid?  Not sure but it is a thought that came to me as I sat there yesterday with the Hans Holbein (studio of) painting of Henry 8th glowing over my shoulder.

Fauvisim No 001

 

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Project LV One – Day 312 & 313 – Away Day

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Guthlac

Greek Priest

Just got back from a day out at Liverpool and the Wirral…plenty of art of the highest standard.

Cheek Bones Soap

 

 

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Hubris

Posted on March 7, 2015 by Guthlac

Excessive Pride or Self Confidence…now which politician does that remind you of? I know this is a bit of a silly question as the list could be along and distinguished(?) but the one politician, for me, who embodies this more than any one else is Alex Salmond. He is widely accepted as one of the most nimble footed politician around and it is also seems widely accepted that he will be in Westminster after the May election. One is definitely true, the second well we’ll see.

So Mr Salmond has been making a big noise, what else, about how the SNP will be ruling the roost come the next parliament as they will have the power to effectively veto any policy they don’t like. This assumes that the SNP will get anything like the seats that they are predicted to do so, which includes Mr Salmond gaining a long term Lib Dem. seat. It also assumes that the Labour party want to play ball with the SNP which I think might be a harder thing to do than Mr Salmond thinks. After all there are a large number of north of England Labour MPs who look at the advantages given to Scotland and might think enough is enough. Equally, there is the problem of Labour in Scotland and the need to differentiate themselves especially with the 2016 Holyrood elections coming up. In short Alex Salmond may be in for something of a surprise once the dust has settled from the next election.

Which, I guess, is why the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon is playing things much more calmly. Instead of banging around about how the SNP will be a major force at Westminster she is carefully laying out the ground for some form of Alliance/Coalition of the left of centre parties who might wish to support the Labour minority government. Again she is aware that she has a second election to win after the one in May so needs to position the SNP in such a way as to make the most of what might fall out of the Westminster election.

So which view will prevail come May? Well I suspect this will be effected not by the Conservative, Labour or SNP vote but rather the Lib Dem. vote. If this stands the test in enough of their seats then all this shouting and boasting of Alex Salmond will be for nothing because they probably would be another rerun of the current government and Alex Salmond would not have been elected to Westminster. Now that would be hubris.

Simon Marchini
http://www.simonmarchini.co.uk

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Project LV One – Day 311 – Look behind you

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Guthlac

Being Watched

Another day another painting exercise…which is far from completed.  Anyway as I was looking at the photos I captured of the progress I noticed that I was intently being watched.

 

 

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Project LV One – Day 310 – Some Thoughts

Posted on March 5, 2015 by Guthlac

Singer Sargent Exercise 002

There has been a continuing line of criticism thrown at the BBC from members of the press, who for reasons they have yet to explain want to scrap the organisation, that the BBC is dumbing down.  If this argument doesn’t fit then they argue that the BBC is too elitist and don’t reflect the average users tastes and views, which of course means their own.  In short they seem to hate everything the BBC does and will only be happy when the organisation turns into some British version of Fox News (sorry that is my prejudice but sometimes I wonder if these critics have ever watched TV…sorry)

The worrying thing is that from time to time something is produced by the BBC which makes me  start to agree with some of the criticism and the latest example is The Big Painting Challenge.  The premise of the programme is simple – find the best amatuer artist in Britain.  The methodology used to find the ‘best’ is that each week the selected artists will have to complete a different set of artistic challenges.  They will be judged and at the end of each programme one of them will have to leave.  This is where the problems start.  The programme claims that they have selected the top amateur artists but it is unclear how this has been done.  After some very light Googling it becomes clear that talent is not uppermost in the production team’s mind:

Item 13 of the terms and conditions states:

“…the following will be taken into account: skill, enthusiasm, drive, love of painting and art, lively characters who are comfortable being filmed….”

“…We will be looking for a mix of finalists to reflect the range in age, location, gender and diversity of amateur painters in Britain….”

Then to reinforce the point each artist is asked to supply

“…a recent photo of yourself;…”

(To see full terms and Conditions click here)

So it would seem that artistic talent is not the aim of the programme but rather to make an correctly mixed group of photogenic people.  This then destroys the claim that the programme is trying to find the best amateur artist.  In short as one blogger described it the production team were looking for an art version of the Great British Bake Off or the Sewing Bee.

I have nothing against the artists as they are doing something I could never do it is just the slight of hand of the BBC to make outlandish claims about finding the best talent when that isn’t what they want to do at all.  Instead they just want to find the most photogenic mix and then give them a series of challenges and talent is of little importance. It makes me so angry that I will start to read the Daily Mail!! …ha ha.

Oh it feels good to get that off of my chest.  Anyway, here are a couple of quick sketches based on this week’s programme.

Una Stubbs Man with Glasses

BTW the painting at the start of the blog is another in my continuing painting exrcises.

 

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Project LV One – Day 309 – Crisis

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Guthlac

Singer Sargent Exercise 001

Every now and then I suffer from some form of crisis or another – this weekend was one of those times.  As a way of getting back to what I like doing I decided to get back to what I like making.  I have also decided to try and make a series painted sketches in the style of John Singer Sargent as a means to try and put some structure into my painting development.

Last Tango in Halifax 001 Last Tango in Halifax 002

So far I am pleased with what I have made.

 

 

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Project LV One – Day 308 – Just a sketch

Posted on March 3, 2015 by Guthlac

Colonel Blimp

 

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Project LV One – Day 307 – I agree with Frank.

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Guthlac

Mia and the moon

For reason that are not worth going into I ended up making these images of one half of a rather good local group called Mia and the Moon.  A video of one of their songs is below.

Mia and the moon No 2

On top of this I spent much of the rest of yesterday watching the final few episodes of the latest season/series of House of Cards.   Because I don’t want to fall foul of upsetting anyone’s enjoyment of the series I will try and tip toe around any spoilers whilst setting out my thoughts.   On the whole this is a gripping must watch series with many twists and turns along the way as Frank Underwood tries to be the president that no one voted for.  There are some duds along the way but to discuss those would involve spoilers which I’m trying to avoid.  My only criticism is that this is no longer the same House of Cards we saw in series one and two.  Instead we have a much darker programme which I guess reflects the gravitas of the Presidency.  The problem with this is that the lightness of touch is gone and we see the true face of power and how it corrupts even the best of people, which Frank Underwood certainly isn’t. There were times I thought that Kevin Spacey was trying to do a really quite good Richard M Nixon impersonation.

In the end I felt that House of Cards had moved away from the very black comedy of the original British series  to the paranoia and greed of Breaking Bad.  I can’t wait until the next series but I will miss the lighter touch of series one and two.

Hazel-2

So this morning it was back to the art class and two hours of doing battle with a painting.  It was just starting to work when we had to stop – such are the joys of art classes.

 

 

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