Simon's Blog

Project LV One – Day 210 – Finding Time to Do Things

Posted on November 21, 2014 by Guthlac

Suddenly I’m running out of time…just when will I get around to paint? Don’t know the answer to that but I’m sure I’ll find some sort of a solution.

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged David Tenant, Dr Who, drawing, portrait, Project LV One, sketch | 1 Comment

Project LV One – Day 209 – Walking the Watershed

Posted on November 20, 2014 by Guthlac

I suspect this might seem a lot more dramatic than it actually is, after all it is hardly the continental divide in the USA. However, they both have the same function – one side of the divide the rivers drain into the Pacific whilst the other side the Atlantic, via the Gulf of Mexico. All very wide open country and mountains – unfortunately my watershed was a muddy field between the villages of Fleckney and Kilby in south east Leicestershire. But either side of the hill the streams and rivers drain into different water systems, one draining into the Soar then Trent the other the Welland.

Whilst this might seem slightly dull it does have an effect on the villages on either side of the divide, not only water bills different but also in the summer one village might have a hosepipe band yet the next village won’t, even though they are no more than two miles apart and have the same rainfall.

One final note – the middle image when I was going through the post production process acquired some really awful artefacts – I removed them but then realised that they add something to the image – giving the impression that some mega city is just over the hill in the smog – or is that just me?

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged autumn Leaves, Continental Divide, Fall, Fleckney, Footpath, iphoneography, Kilby, Leicestershire, photoshop, Project LV One, Walking, Watershed | Leave a comment

Project LV One – Day 208 – Dr ?

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Guthlac

Nothing to add.

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged Christopher Ecclestone, Dr Who, drawing, ink drawing, Matt Smith, portrait, Project LV One | Leave a comment

Project LV One – Day 207 – Antidote

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Guthlac

After spending sometime think about the issue surrounding the drawings by Egon Schiele I found myself sitting just doodling Disney characters. Interesting.

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged Disney Doodle, Dumbo, Egon Schiele, ink drawing, Jiminy Cricket, Project LV One, sketch, Up | Leave a comment

Project LV One – Day 206 – Were these works…art or pornography?

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Guthlac

WARNING: This post contains an image which some people might find offensive…if you are one of those people then please don’t read on….you have been warned.

Yesterday I visited the latest exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery, Egon Schiele: The Radical Nude and I have to admit it was one of the most thought provoking exhibitions I have visited in a while. The question as to what is or is not pornographic is today just as controversial as it was 100 years ago – perhaps even more so now given the infinite pornographic images available to anyone with a smartphone – indeed you could be walking around the Schiele exhibition consuming pornographic imagery at same time as looking at Schiele’s work. (Why you would want to do that is beyond me but it could be done.)

I am not going to enter into this unholy minefield other than to say it is a really thought provoking area and the exhibition is great catalyst for anyone to examine their own views on pornography. However, a curious thing happened to me yesterday whilst I was sitting down trying to make some sketches of Schiele’s work (the reason for the warning above). Anyone who has visited the Courtauld’s temporary exhibition space will know that it consists of two rooms, one larger than the other. In the centre of the second, larger, room is a bench where you can sit down and take in the works or, as in my case, make sketches of what is on display.

I chose the two drawings to sketch not for any artistic reason but rather they were the only two drawings where people didn’t stand too long, so allowing me to see the drawings across the room. As anyone who has tried to make sketches of works of art knows the more you do this the more you start to realise the skills being displayed – thus increasing you knowledge and appreciation of the work. (Or is that just me?)

So I sat there sketching the drawings in gaps between people blocking my view. As I did this I suddenly became aware that I had attracted an audience of young children who must have been no more than 10 years old. As I drew I started to wonder why would you bring such young children into this exhibition? They looked bored rigid apart from watching me sketch. However, there was also the broader question of whether the imagery was suitable for young people to view? Are these drawings Art or Pornography? I guess really that is for you the viewer to decide.

So to the two pastel drawings. These are the latest images I created at my art class and I have to say I am quite pleased with them. What they have they to do with Schiele? Nothing but these are images I produced today.

I mentioned yesterday that I was disappointed with the latest Portrait Photographer exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. I’m still thinking about this and I will come back to the matter once I have decided exactly what I didn’t like about the works on offer.

So to the Schiele inspired sketches…they are what they are sketches nothing more than that. You might find them offensive not because of their content but rather who they were executed. This is a fair thing to feel but in my defence they are only sketches – nothing more.

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged art class, Courtauld Gallery, Degas, Egon Schiele, exhibition, ink drawing, nude, Nude Woman, pastel, Porn, Pornography, Project LV One, Renoir, sketch, Soft Pastels | 1 Comment

Project LV One – Day 205 – Winter is coming

Posted on November 16, 2014 by Guthlac

Just a quick quote for all you GOT fans who might find this silly little blog. Actually winter was definitely not coming today in London, apart from the winter wonder land at Somerset House. It has been a long day and I’m tired so I will only leave you with this thought. Why are the winning entries to this year’s Portrait Photographer of the Year so mindlessly boring and dull apart from the Lenny Henry portrait ?

More tomorrow after I’ve slept on things.

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged Ballons, Central London, iphoneography, Kitcam, london, London Underground, National Portrait Gallery, photography, Portrait Taylor Wessing Photographer of the Year, Project LV One, Revolving Door, Skating, Somerset House | Leave a comment

Project LV One – Day 204 – The Bolero

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Guthlac

It comes to us all, those of us who managed to live that long, the realisation that we are only here a very short while and that life is more than just The Bolero.

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged henri toulouse lautrec, ink drawing, Old Man, Project LV One, The Bolero | Leave a comment

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.