Tag Archives: Paint

Onions, 1881 – 2014 #tarot = #painting

Tarot: The reversed 9 of cups is a signal to go deeper into the painting. Look beyond surface appearances and things that seem like coincidences or accident. What might spirit/the universe/God be trying to tell you? Make a point to deepen – or to begin – your spiritual practice in whatever way you are drawn to do so. There is more to a still life than meets the eye.

I have been inspired to paint, people have excited me and non-verbally encouraged me. I saw a painting by Renoir entitled ‘Onions’ at the Royal academy a few years ago…

Onions, 1881 is a painting of just six plain onions and some garlic and is a remarkable sensuous still life, their papery skins explode with colour and shape, making something from the ordinary magical and interesting. The lack of content and minimal subject matter belies the exuberant and controlled, skillfully executed gem. I wish I had painted it.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Oignons (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Memories: Renoir, dead birds and rubber gloves, stolen kisses, life, stillness, pouches of Chinese fresh drinking water, broken dreams, lost lovers, onions, sections of discarded fishing nets strewn across the tourist beach, lovers in the darkness groping for the dark, hands first finding spaces, then they find there mark, my father, my ghost, my hopes and dreams, stinking of rotting carcasses [Read More]

I painted the one below this week:

Paradigm: Clients are always shocked when I suddenly present to them a ‘painting from life’ – I appear to produce slap-dash imagery as my main artistic process, this isn’t because I haven’t mastered the basic fundamental skills of ‘traditional’ painting and drawing because I have and I am more than able to produce paintings in a typical style or pattern of work; a pattern or mode of working, arranged in order to form semantic constructions and express relations(hips) to the real world.

#Divorce and the #afterlife – a painting proposal

Any person who calls themselves an #artist should be ashamed of themselves – because they are a #liar.

The only true pursuit for the creative process is the creation of the commodity. There are no such things as art schools, public art and art galleries, they are simply empty vessels containing and perpetuating the (economic) elitist stranglehold on the common man’s freedom to think for himself.

The powerful use art to bludgeon the weak into submission by edifying their wealth with totems and monuments to their self glory. [Read More]

Any person who calls themselves an artist should be ashamed of themselves – because they are a liar.

(Commodity) art is created for and by the wealthy.

Painting has always been dead: Rubber gloves, stolen kisses, pouches of Chinese fresh drinking water, broken dreams, the constant questioning and declassification of what art is and what the content is has lead to this so called crisis in painting (there has always been a crisis in painting) – Painting is dead – the exponents of Conceptual Art tried to destroy the art object but failed – thought and the idea is the object. The primary aims of Conceptual Art in the 1960?s was to carry out a theoretical examination of ‘art’ and through understanding propose ‘concepts as art’, sections of discarded fishing nets strewn across the tourist beach, lovers in the darkness groping for the dark, hands first finding spaces, then they find there mark, my father, my ghost, my hopes and dreams, stinking of rotting carcasses [Read More]

Peter Bright (aka This Window) – homo symbolicum

…to be able to imitate the real world is useful when trying to turn your back on it.

: Peter Bright (aka This Window)

A degree of pressure can give you the ‘edge’ and help you to effectively perform but excessive stress and worry can reduce your productive output and make it difficult to make the right decisions.

Artists and teachers have argued for years that to fully understand the processes required in creating non-representational art, a knowledge of basic representational ‘tricks’ is vital – to be able to imitate the real world is useful when trying to turn your back on it.

Memories: Dead birds and rubber gloves, stolen kisses, pouches of Chinese fresh drinking water, broken dreams, sections of discarded fishing nets strewn across the tourist beach, lovers in the darkness groping for the dark, hands first finding spaces, then they find there mark, my father, my ghost, my hopes and dreams, stinking of rotting carcasses [Read More]

The Defeatist: I have never been a true artist. The naked truth is I have been and still am a liar. The pointlessness of producing art for decoration and pleasure is a perverted masturbation fantasy – a process for the deluded mind. Art and its prettiness have no place in any intellectual society – it has no place in a capitalist society …

The only true pursuit for the creative process is the creation of the commodity. There are no such things as art schools, public art and art galleries, they are simply empty vessels containing and perpetuating the (economic) elitist stranglehold on the common man’s freedom to think for himself.

The powerful use art to bludgeon the weak into submission by edifying their wealth with totems and monuments to their self glory.

Any person who calls themselves an artist should be ashamed of themselves – because they are a liar.

There is no such thing as an artist – I am a painter, I create decorations for walls.

#Divorce and the #afterlife – a painting proposal

Wistman’s Wood

Memories:

Dead birds and rubber gloves, stolen kisses, pouches of Chinese fresh drinking water, broken dreams, sections of discarded fishing nets strewn across the tourist beach, lovers in the darkness groping for the dark, hands first finding spaces, then they find there mark, my father, my ghost, my hopes and dreams, stinking of rotting carcasses and seaweed, paintings of objects, places, people and dreams. I think I am back!

Interiors:

Life has changed, I have lost the familiarity I had of interiors, objects and experiences (but this is actually very liberating).

People:

Support and understanding (love even). Waking up on sofas, stumbling back to my temporary home. Meeting new people who have inspired and have opened my eyes to new (and not so new) things. Love, hope, care, faith, determination…

: Painting

: Print

: Friends

: Self

: My Parents

: Wood

: Print

Wistman’s Wood:

Wistman’s Wood is a magical place (I visited again last weekend) it is where pitted stone becomes knotted oak and the moss and lichens weld everything seamlessly together. I have found calmness and a really odd inner strength in that place. I’m not that into ‘finding God’ or ‘finding myself’ but it is a place that forces these contemplations and ideas (punching you in your back) into your consciousness, making you wake up and get on with it.

I have struggled to regain my ‘voice’ with my painting, I have however been inspired by a series of events that have given me a jolt (made me truly feel again) and believe in myself. The self doubt has gone and I have realised that I should stop bleating and get on with my life (and my Art).

Divorce is a gut wrenching thing to go through – there is always that cloud hanging over your head that smothers you with an overwhelming sense of failure. Yes it is tough but…

I have begun a series of paintings based on the things that have inspired, disappointed and shaped my afterlife after failure:

Sketch in oil paint 2012

Oil sketch on board 2012 (smaller than A4)

I’m not sure why I have painted this image but…

We were given a potted pepper plant and I have loved watching the peppers grow, changing colour from green to red. I took loads of photos of it but decided to see if I could paint it in oils. I have done three versions of the same plant, two on board and one on canvas – the image above is the first sketch.

An oil sketch or oil study is an artwork made using oil paints, abbreviated in handling and looser than a ‘finished painting’. Originally these were created as preparatory studies or modelli, to gain approval for the design of a larger commissioned painting. They were also used as designs (working drawings) for specialists in other media, such as printmaking or textiles. The concept of a free-flowing painting became acceptable as an independent (finished) work, with no thought of it needing to be ‘finished’.

Sometimes you just have to get back to basics and do a simple still life – returning back to the basic skills of painting a real subject is an interesting exercise – even if not very rewarding.

Sketching: Other common tools for making marks include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses…