Project LV One – Day 173 – Ink Doodles

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Guthlac

Dr James Fox

I find sitting down and making images from what I might see on whatever screen I might be watching at the time very relaxing.  There are no doubt many purests that might think that this is not real art or some other non existent distinction or current trend.  Frankly I don’t care because this is where I started on this peregrination and I guess one day it might end there.

Woman Walking

It really doesn’t bother me what image takes my fancy to try and make a version of in my own hand.   At one time it was really important to me to try and make a likeness of the person I saw but now I know that if I really wanted to make a good likeness then I can – but this may require more energy than I am willing or able to put into the making of the image.

BC

Nowadays it is just the joy of making the image that is important – and why the hell are we all doing this if that wasn’t the case?  I’m really glad I don’t have to pay the mortgage by my efforts because I guess I would be destitute a long time ago.

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Project LV One – 172 – Still Life

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Guthlac

Coconut

I hate still life.  There I’ve said it but I’m afraid it is true.  I find making a still life drawing very hard and in the end soul destroying.  I’m not a huge fan of still life paintings either – the number of Dutch master’s paintings I’ve skipped by is too many to remember.  They are brilliantly observed and painted or drawn but it isn’t my cup of tea.

So today in the art class we had to draw a coconut.  It was mind numbingly difficult and at the end all I felt was drained and a little disappointed.

Apples

In contrast I made some quick sketches of apple’s yesterday which I found really fun to make and I think have a lot more life.  Ok they don’t have the control of the drawn still life but I found them much more rewarding.

After Schiele

Whilst I had my pastels out, now there is a statement you don’t hear too often, I made another version of the Schiele painting and then finally I made a quick portrait.

Quick Pastel Portrait

Still the great thing about the still life exercise this morning was that it was something that I usually avoid so having to sit down and look at the coconut for two and half hours was worth while – even if I never do that again!

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Project LV One – Day 171 – Presenting Mr and Mrs Grey

Posted on October 12, 2014 by Guthlac

Mr and Mrs Grey - small

Over the past few weeks I have been working on a Grey project.  It has been a fascinating project that has really got me to think about painting seriously.  I have no idea where these paintings will stand in my creative journey other than they represent what I painted at a certain time in that journey. I hope that I won’t look back on these paintings in a year’s time and wince – although that may actually be a good thing as it might mean that I have grown as a painter.

Anyway, I like these paintings and they represent one strand of work I have been producing in the autumn of 2014.  The other strand of work is a more realistic approach as demonstrated by the Girl into Woman painting.

You see the present with your eyes but hear the past with your ears.

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Project LV One – Day 170 – Over Ambitious

Posted on October 11, 2014 by Guthlac

Mr Grey 002

One of the many walls that I am hitting as I start this painting odyssey is being far too ambitious.  For years I have been able to create really moody images using photography and photoshop.  So naturally I’m attracted to such images when I come to painting.  The only problem is that they are at the very edge of my performance envelope.  The consequence is that I am having to work really hard to even get close to making an acceptable painting.  Now I know that I will benefit in the long term and yes I am learning a huge amount but boy is it a hard and painful road where my technique is always letting me down.

Nude Sketch

From time to time I have had to retreat back into my comfort zone and make little sketches to keep my morale up and remind myself that every day I am making progress.  Everyday new neural pathways are being laid down.  Every hour I spend trying to make this painting is another hour towards my 10,000 hours.

You’ve got be strong to be better.

 

 

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Project LV One – Day 169 – Internal Contradictions

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Guthlac

Lucian Freud

I have learnt the hard way that there reaches a point in the life of any painting that the internal contradictions are greater than the paintings ability to recover.  When this point is reached then there is only one thing for it – gesso the canvas and start again.  I have reached that point with Mr Grey and I know the reason for this.  The painting was started over two years ago and I hadn’t really paid too much attention to the details of the of the image I was using.  It had sat there waiting to be finished and this is what I started to do this week.  It wasn’t until a day into the painting that I realised that I had made a big mistake and no matter what I did it made the painting worse.  In short the internal contradictions became too great.

Blank

So there is nothing left to do but to get the gesso out and start again.  It is sad but another lesson learnt.  Many more hours to go me thinks.

 

Posted in General | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Project LV One – Day 168 – Apple Strudel – WARNING contains a drawing showing nipples

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Guthlac

apple strudel

I’m in a bit of a Germanic mood at the moment.  This has been encouraged by my recent visit to the latest version of Germany – there have been many.  Whilst there I bought a book on Gustav Klimt which was fascinating – not least of which because it was in German and I couldn’t understand a word.  I know this sounds crazy but the printing quality was excellent which encouraged me to do some research to try and understand what the book was discussing.  A fulfilling exercise in itself.

I guess this Germanic interest, especially in Austria, was also stirred by a recent series of TV programmes by the excellent art historian Dr James Fox (Bright Lights, Brilliant Minds: A Tale of Three Cities).  The first of these programmes was about Vienna in 1911 ( might have been 1912 but it matters not), here he discussed the confluence of art and culture that came together in Vienna at that year.  One of the artists he discussed, other than Adolf Hitler, was Egon Schiele – one of the most incredible artists of the twentieth century.

Egon Schiele Nude 001

Now I have already posted a copy of one of Egon Schiele’s paintings – this is another.  Now there is no doubt that much of Schiele’s work has a very sexual element – as did some of Klimt’s and so it is difficult to find work to copy that is on the artistic end of the spectrum (what a hugely subjective selection process and in the end totally fruitless – however I can’t help my inner prude).  Disregarding the sexual content of his work he was one of the most original draughtsman you will ever find.  The marks he made were so purposeful yet so precise it is a joy to behold.  There is a show at the Courtauld that intend to visit before Christmas – I can’t wait

Portrait of Helene Klimt_

So whilst I was copying Austrian greats I made this little sketch of one of Klimt’s paintings of his niece – unfortunately I don’t have the deft touch of either Klimt or  Schiele but I enjoyed making the drawing. Fortunately, I have no real desire to study the works of Adolf Hitler, although, as Dr Fox’s points out, the history of the 20th century may well have been a whole lot different if he had been accepted as an artist.  We will never know.

I’m on the phone booth across the hall…

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Project LV One – Day 167 – Old Grey Man

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Guthlac

OGM 02

Forms are being completed, interviews booked – oh the joys of getting your name back on the system with the right documentation! Still it is my fault so I have no one else to blame but myself.

As a means of distraction I am reworking, make that finishing, an old painting I started some time ago.  It is part of the grey series.  There is a long way to go but it is showing promise – bit like all the form filling – sort of.

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Project LV One – Volume 5 has now been published

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Guthlac

Project LV One - Vol 05

 

If you want to view the book then go to

http://blur.by/1EpYafT

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

Project LV One – Day 166 – The recovery starts today…

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Guthlac

Egon Schiele

I wish it did but I am still feeling the after effects of the traumatic events that happened on Friday.  Drama queen I know but that is what I am and how I feel won’t change because, on a global scale, everything has turned out ok and I, in truth, have only marginally been inconvenienced.

As part of our homework for the art class I am attending we have to look at artists and how they worked and also try and copy some of their work.  We also have some other things to do which no doubt will form the basis of the forthcoming blog entries.  So for ten minutes this evening I sat down and made this little Egon Schiele inspired drawing.  I haven’t really tried to make it too much like a Schiele painting or drawing but just enjoyed making the drawing.

This drawing is also the first art work in my new Moleskine sketchbook – having lost the last one along with my Passport.  I wasn’t going to replace the Moleskine when it was full but know I just couldn’t help myself this afternoon in the local supermarket.  When you open the first page there is a section which reads

“In case of loss, please return to:…”

Perhaps if I had filled that in last time I might one day see the book again.  We will never know.

 

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Project LV One – Day 165 – When is a drawing of an egg an oeuf?

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Guthlac

Egg Art 01

Terrible pun I know but there we go.  So today I started my new art class and I have to say it was great fun.  For the first lesson we had to we had to draw an egg and I have to say I found it really exciting – what does that say about me?   The only problem was that we were supposed to use a graphite pencil rather than conte – I never do things I’m supposed to do in a class and must be a bit of a pain but hay ho I am a paying customer.

When you say ‘draw an egg’ it sounds so boring but it really was fascinating given the shade and shape.  The tutor asked me if I was enjoying this and I said that I could spend the next ten weeks drawing an egg(s).  Fortunately for my fellow students (and me I guess) we won’t be doing that.

Egg Art 02 Egg Art 03

As a warm up before the start of the lesson I drew a quick sketch of an egg in one of my sketch books.

Egg Art 04

Go to work on an egg…as the old ad used to say.

Posted in Project LV One | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment