Richard - Saturday Life Class

My picture from life class on Saturday. A similar approach to last time, again using drawn line with a mix of transparent washes and more opaque paint in places.

Michael: Print in progress 6

I've cut away more of the linoblock, and printed it in darker blue and brown on top of the lighter colour.





The image is starting to emerge. Now I have to cut away more of the block, and then print the last colour.

Michael: Tony Bevan at the De La Warr Pavilion

A few days ago, I went down to the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea to see the artist Tony Bevan talk about the installation that he has created for the gallery there. The installation comprises three paintings, so big that they each almost completely occupy one wall of the room in which they are hung.

Images © Tony Bevan, De La Warr Pavilion

Two portraits face each other. Bevan said that they are self-portraits in that they are his own head, but they're not meant to be about him; it's just that when he wants to paint a head, his own is the most convenient. The head on the left (top image) is influenced by Franz Messerschmidt, an 18th century German sculptor.

The third painting turns out also to be a head: it's the back of an enormous Buddha statue in China. The spirals are snails, the traditional hair of Buddha.

"When the Buddha was sitting under the Bodhi tree he was so deep in meditation that he was unaware that it was extremely hot. A group of snails saw him and realising the importance of his thoughts, crawled up to cover and protect his head with their bodies. The snails died from exposure to the hot sun and became honoured as martyrs who had died to protect the Buddha." (Iconography of the Buddha, V&A website.)

Tony Bevan was "in conversation" with Richard Cork, the art critic. At one point, Cork asked, "Because you've painted the back of the Buddha's head, should we read this as somehow symbolic, the idea perhaps that you are turning away from religion, or even that religion is turning away from you".

Bevan replied, "No, it's just when you visit that statue, you climb up a mountain, and the first sight you have of it is from the back."

The paintings are acrylic and charcoal on canvas. The canvas is covered with acrylic polymer that sticks the charcoal to the canvas. It's not clear from the photos, but the white background is actually white paint over the natural brown canvas. The paintings are so big that Bevan painted the canvas flat on the floor, using a ladder to check the progress. When he finished, the canvases were rolled up, taken to the gallery, and then put on stretchers. The first time that Bevan saw them in the traditional vertical position was when they were hung on the gallery wall.

The exhibition continues until 13 June, 2010.

Michael: Print in progress 5

I made a proof of the linocut in black ink, on the white background that I printed the other day, and decided that it still wasn't working.

So I've made two new decisions: the print will be in colour, and it will be a reduction print (that is, there will be several layers printed on top of each other).

But one decision I can't make is which colour.

The dominant part of this image is the shadows. Warm sunshine on white buildings creates blue shadows... But will blue still be too cold? Would a warm yellow/orange/brown be better?

Solution: Print half the edition in blue, and half the edition in brown.



As this is now going to be a reduction print, there will be more colours on top of this. Back to the cutting board to cut the next stage.

Sheri - Congregation, in situ

Last night I had a thoroughly enjoyable evening at the Congregation performance. It was brilliant to see all of the paintings together, on the pews. The performance consisted of some lovely piano playing and singing and a few spoken word pieces, all composed and written especially to accompany the paintings. Words can't quite describe it!
Here are a couple of photos from the church:

Michael: Croydon Art Society exhibition

The Croydon Art Society are holding an exhibition at the Clocktower Galleries. The exhibition runs from Saturday 15 May to Saturday 29 May 2010.


Pile of pictures, prints and cards waiting to go to the exhibition.

Michael: Ashdown Forest again

Another painting of Ashdown Forest.


Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 cm.

I like the flat broad areas in the foreground (bottom two-thirds), and the softer colours in the background (top third), but I'm not sure that they work together.

Yes, it's Ashdown Forest again. The subject matter might not be revolutionary, but this is probably the first landscape painting that I've done that isn't square...