I very rarely get inspired to paint these days but I saw a painting by Renoir entitled ‘Onions’ at the Royal academy last week and decided to give it a go.
My painting ‘Onions’ is nothing like the Renior but… The skin of the red onions were iridescent like the back of a beetle, shimmering and layered in colour.
The picture above is of my painting exhibited in ‘The Gallery’ of the West Buckland Festival.
The image above is a drawing I did in 1978, which is part lithograph and part sketch in oils. It is now part of an exhibition in the coastal town of Ilfracombe.
Over this weekend, in the Landmark Pavilion, Sea Ilfracombe will be hosting a major event, which will include exhibitions from professional artists, as well as artwork from Ilfracombe’s schools and community college.
This other image (which is of the same drawing) was taken in September 2010 – I went to collect some paintings from Broomhill Art Hotel after an exhibition I had and took some photos of my paintings and discovered I had created a self portrait.
One of the exhibition’s rooms is dedicated to Marion Richardson Taylor (d. 2010) an American artist (she lived in Europe). The wife of a diplomat, who hosted legendary dinner parties for political figures and intellectuals. Her artistic styles switched between abstract expressionism, portraits, Cubist still lives (maybe?) and small-sized drawings. Taylor constantly had to rethink her art – which gives the viewer of this retrospective the impression that Marion Taylor lacked direction or intellectual conviction in her art – maybe underlining that well-known fact that it is not what you know but who you know that counts.
Easter Sunday in Venice – #cipriani Wow what a hotel… …and what an amazing Easter Sunday – the view from the bedroom window has got to be one of the best ever! The church bells rang out from dawn and the smell of Spring followed the … Continue reading
The derelict painting studios in Exeter College of Art looked smaller than I remember – these were the spaces where I learnt my painting skills and the place where I was told to forget my painting skills. Those were the days when art was promoted as an intuitive process and not a prescriptive target driven qualification.
On the floor below the studio, directly underneath was the library, now devoid of shelves and books. All that information, inspiration and knowledge gone.
The lecture theatre still had its seating but its projection screen was missing. This was the place where I booed lecturers who spewed bullshit and I think I met Sir Terry Frost (?) – the place where I rediscovered Pollock and was seduced by Rothko, learned about Fox Talbot and watched some ridiculous interview reenactments based on articles published in magazines…
Sarah Bennett used this empty vessel to install ‘Institutional Traits (Series 2)’ which comprised of two large printed photographs of the empty lecture theatre. The lighting in the space was (and always was) simple – controlled by two light switches, one that puts the lights on at the back and one that put them on in the front. The two images mounted on the sides of the theatre reflected the lighting options, one was of the lights on in the front and one was with the lights on at the back.
…to be redeveloped as executive housing (maybe).
Sarah Bennett installation at Exeter Collage of Art and Design, March/April 2012
Low quality images from employee photo identity cards have been scanned at a high resolution, enlarged and printed, creating a series of portraits revealing scratches that have been created by interaction with security systems at the workplace and damaged caused by carrying them in, a pocket, a purse, a wallet etc.
The visual representations of the employees have become a map or account of time (or time served) – the electronic data saved on their id cards remains intact. The recognizable features of the workforce have become faceless, leaving our natural verifier of a person’s identity (sight and recognition) irrelevant, the system is only interested in the number or the code identity of the individual.
