Simon's Blog

Project LV One – Day 203 – Man holding a box

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Guthlac

When this twelve month creative jamboree started one of the things that really worried me was that I might not be able to produce an item for each day – on I shouldn’t have concerned myself. My creative verbosity seems to have increased over the last six months to a point whereby Vol 7 may contain the most images yet. (Goodness knows what Vol 12 will be like?) Of course many of the images included could rightly be considered to be at best half baked – but then for me most of my life has been a series of such episodes.

Today’s offering is no different. I had decided to revisit the site of one of the early 1980’s photograph I made about the mining industry – Moira furnace – and as yesterday looked like the best day for it off we went. As I was walking along the side of the Ashby canal (note to canal lovers – this is by far the silliest canal restoration in the country as the canal around the furness is just over a mile in length, it was supposed to join up with the rest of the canal at Snarestone, some 6 miles away but somehow the money seems to have run out) I passed a number of people walking their dogs and as I created them Good Morning I realised that not only had the mines gone but so had the local population to be replaced by people from the West Midlands. I knew this was happening but to hear one distinct accent replaced by a different one is quite disturbing.

So I got the furnace and realised that the canal had also robbed me of the opportunity of standing in the same place to take the photograph as I would require divine powers or a boat. As I had neither I had to make do with a rough approximation.

So the grime and menace of an industrial landscape has been covered into a heritage site – the only thing is that all the mines have disappeared, many of the pit yards are now covered by modern housing. It is on times like this you realise that you can never relive the past and you must always move on – after all much as we might want to change the past we can’t.

So I worked on the images last night and I thought that was that. Then I saw a painting on my addiction Pinterest and I just had to make a drawing of it.

The result of all this is that instead of 2 images I end up with three. Ok I could have left the man with the box for tomorrow but I don’t know what I’ll produce today so you just have to post what you have otherwise it will be lost under the what comes tomorrow – much like coal industry of my youth

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged 30 years later, Ashby Canal, Coal Mining, ink drawing, Moira Furnace, photography, Project LV One | Leave a comment

Project LV One – Day 202 – Pen and Sharpie

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Guthlac

I must have got used to the fumes but at the moment I just can’t leave the Sharpies alone. I see an interesting image and I just have to draw it. Hopefully I brings something new to the party.

This is based on one of the famous David portraits of Napoleon and perhaps the most impressive thing about this is that David shows Napoleon’s paunch. Of course it may well be that this was socially acceptable during the early 19th century. In fact the painting is remarkable in that it appears to show Napoleon after a hard day in the saddle, exhausted by the experience or perhaps the pressures of ruling – I just love the comb over.

PS – I’ve just tried to verify whether this is a David painting and I can’t – doesn’t mean that it isn’t just that I can’t verify it – not the same.

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged Alan Rickman, ink drawing, Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon, portrait, Project LV One, Sharpie pens | 2 Comments

Project LV One – Day 201 – Opening old wounds

Posted on November 12, 2014 by Guthlac

It was the summer of love, the summer of power and fear it was 1984. Over dramatic I know but for many people living in the Britain 1984 was the year everything changed. I was brought up in a mining village, although my father wasn’t a miner all of my friend’s fathers worked for the NCB. As with the acrid, sooty smoke coming from the chimney’s on a cold winter’s morning, the NCB got into the blood of everyone in the village.

Then came 1984 and everything changed. One of the most chilling memories I have is standing at night on a motorway bridge watching the first convoy of Metropolitan police officer being ferried north. I had never seen anything like it and in truth there had never been anything like it.

So 30 years later what is left of the mining world in which I grew up? Surprisingly little on the surface as most of the old slag heaps have now been carpeted by tress as part of the National Forest. However, you only have the scrape the soil a little and you come across the blue black slag that all these heaps of human endeavour seemed to be made of. There is still coal mining going on in the area but no longer deep beneath the surface rather under the illumination of the sun rather than neon lights and miners lamps.

So many of the old pit yards are now modern housing estates which seems a strange thing to replace them with – gone is the ever presence winding gear replaced by the equally ubiquitous Sky dish bolted to the side of the houses.

I set myself a project in the early part of the year to record these lost places as part of my 30 years later project. Yesterday whilst wandering around this buried history I started to realise the enormity of the task – just how do you record the missing, the empty space no longer filled with life? Even my archive of old photograph’s I made in the 1970’s and 1980’s is almost totally devoid of any acknowledgement that there was a ming community all around me.

So were to go with all this? I haven’t got a clue but will be an interesting journey – for me at least.

As a bit of a post script – I have decided, at the moment, to include works other than photography in this project – when appropriate.

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged 30 years later, Ballerina, Batram, Coal Mining, drawing, Ellistown, ink drawing, Metropolitan police officer, mining village, Moira, National Forest, NCB, portrait, Project LV One, Rawdon | Leave a comment

Project LV One – Day 200 – Unleashing my inner Vogue

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Guthlac

Yesterday existentialism today Vogue – I shop therefore I am. I guess that sums up my approach to art – lack of any sense of direction – so be it.

Yesterday was my weekly art class and things went better than I thought – which is more than can be said for the proportions of the face but I still like the result.

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged Apple, art class, drawing, ink drawing, Project LV One, sketch, Soft Pastels, Vogue, woman | Leave a comment

Variations on a theme

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Guthlac

One of the artists I find fascinating at the moment is Malcolm T Liepke – an American artists from Minnesota (according to Wiki). Now I doubt Liepke is going to trouble the art historians of the future as he is hardly ground breaking. However, the one thing I find fascinating about the man is that he seems to paint the same woman again and again and again. This reminds me of the work of Edward Hopper , not in style or content, but that he appears to paint the same woman over and over. In Hopper’s case you could describe his work as documenting the life of his wife Josephine.

Who the woman is that Liepke paints I have no idea – perhaps I should find out.

Posted in General | Tagged Edward Hopper, Josephine Hopper, Malcolm T Liepke | Leave a comment

Project LV One – Day 199 – Existentialist crises of confidence

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Guthlac

Thanks to IOS 8 my stylus doesn’t seem to want to work anymore with Brushes, the rather aging graphics app I use on my iPad. Now I haven’t used brushes in months so I have had to learn how to paint using my fingers – which produced this rather haunting image.

This morning I knocked up this little drawing using some of my favourite media – is there a connection? Not sure – you decided.

Posted in Art, Digital Painting, Project LV One | Tagged Brushes, Digital Painting, drawing, iOS 8, iPad, portrait, Project LV One, sketch, woman | Leave a comment

Project LV One – Day 198 – Black and White

Posted on November 9, 2014 by Guthlac

There was a time, perhaps it is still prevalent, when glue sniffing was a bag concern. I never understood this as I found the fumes that glue gave off only gave me a head ache. It is much the same with Sharpie pens. Some people just love the smell I hate it – however they do deliver a really good back without all the messing about with indian ink.

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged Black, Charlotte Rampling, drawing, Glue Sniffing, ink, portrait, Project LV One, Sharpie, Sharpie pens, woman | Leave a comment

Project LV One Vol 6 Book now published

Posted on November 8, 2014 by Guthlac

If you want to have a look at the latest volume then this is the link:

http://blur.by/10IgMrG

Posted in Art, Photography, Project LV One, Publishing | Tagged Project LV One | Leave a comment

Project LV One – Day 197 – It’s Rainin’ it’s pouring

Posted on November 8, 2014 by Guthlac

It is only three days ago and yet already it seems a life away. Ever since Wednesday it has rained on and off and as I write this another wave of drizzle is blowing in. Tomorrow is looking better but such is the wonderful autumn we’ve had it all now seems so depressing.