Project LV One – Day 164 – Still Not Got Over Things

Posted on October 5, 2014 by Guthlac

Grey Face

I’ve still not got over the trauma induced by the totally cavalier attitude of the British Embassy in Paris – more unhelpful and misleading advice you could not wish to recieve. I intend to write about this when I feel able to – not just yet I fear.

So this is the first drawing I have made since getting back from Germany.   As I write about this my mind has swung back to the back street’s of Nuremberg and the collected works of Kevin Coyne.  We had gone to Germany to collect paintings for a forth coming exhibition of Coyne’s work in Derby (Links Below).  All of Coyne’s work was in one room and I guess this is what happens to most artists when they are gone – consigned to a small room which slowly gathers dust.  The very very few make it beyond that.

Kevin Coyne Collection

So if you get a chance check out the exhibitions in Derby between November and February and I hope this might lead to something of a revival in fortunes of the late Kevin Coyne and his wonderful wife Helmi.  Now if only I could get over the stupidity of the British Embassy in Paris I might feel so much better about the whole thing.

 

Kevin Coyne Links

DEDA Exhibition web page:

Crowd Funding WebPage

Wiki Entry

 

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Project LV One – Day 162 – Coming Home

Posted on October 4, 2014 by Guthlac

20141003-IMG_001665 20141003-IMG_001666 Ferry Funnel

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Project LV One – Day 161 – Museum

Posted on October 4, 2014 by Guthlac

20141002-IMG_1667 - Apple 20141002-IMG_1668 - Green Light

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Project LV One – Day 160 – Travelling

Posted on October 4, 2014 by Guthlac

 

Dover

Ferry to France

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Project LV One – Day 163 – A Loss

Posted on October 4, 2014 by Guthlac

Good Bye to Lost Work - Export

Nobody likes loss.  Many stories have been written, films made about the pain of loss.  Some are clearly far more important than others but when you have some form of emotional attachment to something or someone the pain is always there.

Over the past few days I have been touring through France, Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg.  I have many fine memories but there is one thing that has caused me surprising amount of pain.  I say surprising because at one stage yesterday there was a chance that I might have been stuck in France for several days.  You see I left my bag containing my passport at a drive station somewhere in Germany.  After much official confusion – I will tell the full story over the next few days – I was able to get back into Britain.  It was then that I also realised I had a sketch book in the bag as well.

Of the two loses the passport was far more serious but retrievable – the sketch book was not.  So I am left with just the digital images I made from many of the sketches in the book which I guess is something.

Of course this loss, when compared to that of a loved one, is nothing and I wouldn’t want anyone to even think I am trying to compare the two.  However, I do feel a loss and created this image as a reminder of what I may have given up forever.  What an idiot I am at times!

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Project LV One – Day 159 – A Book Review?

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Guthlac

Wooster and Jeeves

So I was wrong – I have got time to make something today before all the travelling starts.  I have just finished listening to the latest instalment of Stephen Fry’s autobiography series.  This one is entitled  – More Fool Me and continues the story, sort of, into the early 1990’s and starts to deal with Stephen Fry’s addiction with cocaine.  The first half of the book is a long recap of the previous two books in the series: The Fry Chronicles – which deals with Fry’s teenage, University and early showbiz life; and Mohab is my wash pot – which deals with life prior to this, however as I have not read nor heard this book I have only Stephen Fry’s word on it.

So what did I think to the third volume.  In a word – disappointing.  Fry’s magisterial command of the english language  is still much in evidence but some how this was too self absorbed and didn’t have the same pace and scope of The Fry Chronicles.  The last part of the book is a day by day diary entry for late 1993 and doesn’t really lend itself to audiobook format as the entries for each day are self contained and don’t have the usual flare and continuity of Fry’s normal writing. At the end I was left with my disappointment with the book.  In short it just wasn’t up to the high standards of The Fry Chronicles and in some ways seems rushed out and that saddened me greatly.

 

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Project LV One – Day 159 – I DO NOT BELIEVE IT

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Guthlac

20140929-IMG_001662

As I will be busy most of tomorrow I thought I would get this day’s post in advance.  Also I just couldn’t wait another moment to let cry my outrage.   IT IS NOT YET OCTOBER AND CHRISTMAS IS ALREADY IN THE SHOPS!  There that’s better but should you venture into a large nation wide garden centre chain (why would you they hardly sell anything to do with garden’s anymore?) you will have discovered that Santa has been there already.  This ghastly display is but a small part…I could go on but I think my head will explode!   Too many exclamation marks I know but sometimes….

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Project LV One – Day 158 – After the Lord Mayor’s Show

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Guthlac

Ink Drawings Combo 0001

It really is a strange thing to do – combing a heavy American academic work on Stalin and the audio book of Stephen Fry’s latest autobiographical tome.  I find myself reading the Stalin book with Stephen Fry’s voice with strangely disturbing results.  I really hadn’t realised how much of my energy had gone into the previous fortnight’s work and so I was totally drained.  This sounds like some effete nonsense but I comfort myself in the knowledge that I have done a real man’s job for over 30 years and see it as a reward for all the black days I suffered.

But for all this languishing on a chaise lounge  waving scented handkerchiefs in a perfumed boudoir , this is how I imagine a true effete to spend his or her day, I have this project to work to.  One piece of creative outpouring a day for a whole year.  So this morning I created these drawings and combined them into a little image for your examination. Enjoy.

yester me yester you

 

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Project LV One – Day 157 – The Point of No return

Posted on September 28, 2014 by Guthlac

SP 028

It has been my experience that a point is reached with any painting that the internal contradictions are so great that you either say enough is enough or you scrap the whole thing and start again.  I feel I have reached that point with this painting.  It has been a very hard struggle to get here but boy has the journey been worth it.

Sam Combo 004

Sam Combo 003

The purpose of the painting was two fold;  Firstly, to try and make something approaching a likeness of the model I used – I’ve achieved that within reason – there are always things I would improve but that will come in the next painting – hopefully;  Secondly, to learn what it is like to take my time over a painting and really work the process, to learn lessons about the craft of painting.  Boy have a I learnt a great deal.  And the final bonus is that the photograph doesn’t do the painting any favours which is almost a back hand complement or perhaps I’m a crap photographer – not really the case.

This has taken almost two weeks on and off and it has been exhausting.  I need to recharge my batteries and do something completely different – I know I’ll go to Germany.

 

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Project LV One – Day 156 – Hair…another step towards the 10,000 hours

Posted on September 27, 2014 by Guthlac

SP 025 - Hair

Good old Malcolm Gladwell – he really has set me on my way.  For those of you who don’t know Mr Gladwell was the author of Outliers: The story of success in which he puts forward the idea of you can only be considered a master in a subject if you have put in 10,000 hours of practice.  Well at least I think he does but as I have only got my general knowledge (should that be general ignorance I’m really not sure) and Wikipedia your guess is as good as mine.

At the moment I am reading a rather depressing history of Stalin written by an American academic – high on detail and accuracy low on fluidity and style – much the same as the high end of American journalism – well at least viewed from this side of the Atlantic where we are used to a more rip roaring approach which unfortunately lead to the hacking scandle so perhaps it is not that food after all.  To compare and contrast this heavy tome I am listening to the latest of Stephen Fry’s autobiography which really is the mirror image of the Stalin history – light on real detail other than the title tattle of every day life and written with Fry’s delightful style, both lucid and ludicrous at the same time.  Another gem.

Which brings me to hair.  Over the past few days I have been working on a painting of young friend of mine.  After some false starts, documented in this blog, I have slowly created a painting that is in some ways satisfactory, only some ways.  So now I have to address the vexed question of how to paint the hair with no real idea how to proceed even after studying how  great and not so great painters have approached the problem. One the reason for this is that they have had years of experience, 10,000 hours again, whilst I’m a neophyte struggling to find his own rhythm.  The only way forward is to sit down and get my hands dirty, both metaphorical and literally, after all I have many more hours to mark off before I reach 10,000.

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