Simon's Blog

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Now I know she was only 36 when she died, my god 36 and it is 50 years since she died and yet here she is probably more powerful than she ever was! Anyway as I was drawing this I suddenly realised that this might have been how she might have looked at 50 – all the pain of a life spent being exploited and exploiting in probable equal measure etched into her eyes. So very sad.

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My friend’s daughter has asked to make a drawing of Marylyn Monroe as a birthday present and so this morning I started searching for Monroe and it soon became apparent there is no true image of the late star. Every photograph is a manipulation of some truth of what we, the viewer, brings to experience. Now this is hardly a new revelation but it does make trying to produce something interesting an even greater challenge. The flip side of this is that anything you produce could be Marylyn – indeed searching through Google again and again you come up with Marylyn impersonators, some good some not so. It seems we all have our views as to what Ms Monroe should look like.

An interesting challenge.

BTW this is just a first stab at the problem and a particularly good likeness – although as I write this I really don’t know what a good likeness might be!

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So the latest iPhone has arrived and Apple has maintained their tradition of making things a little better but no great earth shakers. Of course Apple will argue that the all new iPhone 5 is the most important phone they have ever made which of course is nonsense. This honour goes to the original iPhone which was earthshaking and literally changed the whole phone market.

Would I buy one? Well not at the moment because there doesn’t really appear to be a good enough reason to do that and surprise surprise my iPhone 4 works perfectly, in fact my iPhone 3 is still working perfectly and being used by a friend who isn’t renown for treating equipment with kid gloves.

So what have we learnt? Well I suspect that we are reaching a bit of a plateau in phone development when all the ‘easy’ things have been done and we will face an incremental world. An interesting thing did come out of the launch of the iPhone though, that the iOS/iTunes environment is the real driver and so perhaps this is where the great innovations will be found that can make best use of all that computing power in your pocket. Only time will tell.

Sent from my iPad

There comes a time when I am using Brushes that boredom sets in. I know the work isn’t anywhere nears as I would really want it but the sterile, inanimate nature of using the iPad finally gets too much and I can’t take anymore. Well I have just reached that point and so this is the final result.

When I view other artists work who use an iPad I marvel at what they can produce. They certain have great skills and must have a greater dollop of patients than I have but given all that I quite like this image.

Sent from my iPad

Last night I started to rematch one of my favourite movies, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and this has inspired me to try and make a Brushes painting. After just over an hour this morning has got me this far. I think it is time for lunch and think about the way ahead.

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After watching the very watchable series by Alistair Sook on the art of ancient Rome I became aware of the cult of Antinous. Now I was aware of Antious but not of his significance in the gay community nor as a cult figure throughout the Roman empire. He was a young man when he died so was captured at his most perfect – not for him the cares of age written large across his features.

Now the challenge for me is to try and convert the sketch into a water colour drawing – let the fun begin!

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For some strange reason Posterous didn’t post this the other day. I must say since they were taken over by Twitter or Facebook or whomever the service has started to become a much shakier – lets see if this one posts correctly.

Sent from my iPad