Tagged: Art
Doings x
The Sketchbook Revival has proved to be a family life line in this strange and weird time and has become a part of our routine, like furniture in a room. In fact a few odd things have become a part of our routine: Over lunch we all do a number puzzle (this makes it sound easier than it is – some of them are real buggers) which over in North London my Father and Brother are also doing (It’s sent out in the morning..and I hear it’s being passed on to all manner of people who want to give their brain cells a beating). Then after supper, when work is finished and the day is drawing to a close, we gather round the kitchen table to follow the sketchbook revival, never knowing what we’re going to be asked to do next. This time together is not about comparison or competition, but connecting and just doing; Here’s a thought: if you don’t do art because you think everything you produce is sh*t, think about who’s made that decision? Is it limiting? Why should you limit yourself? Now put it into perspective – are you ever going to sell your art? No. Will it be a fun thing to do? Possibly…but until you try with an open mind, you’ll never know…and let me tell you from experience..shit art has real comedy value.
But that’s now come to an end. (Although you can still follow the series until April 26, link here) Sob. So what next??
My mother sent a link this morning to Firstsite and their Artist Activity Packs which can be downloaded for FREE. All manner of artists from Jeremy Deller to Annie Morris to Anthony Gormley and Grayson Perry have or are intending to contribute, offering projects, thoughts and inspiration, designed for children and adults alike that can be explained or done on a sheet of A4. A quick look through – the first pack is 26 pages – reveals all sorts of gems from drawing a self portrait with your eyes closed to making a chain of people designed by Anthony Gormley. Can I underline – this is pure gold dust and liquid star beams and basically the stuff dreams are made of: Can you imagine all these artist’s competing to come up with the best ideas..and then giving it out for free???
(All pics Firstsite and Pinterest)
Sorted. With a huge, happy smile.
Laters, Kate x
Day 3
The hump day of the week, highlighted by a rebellion from Charlie over running this morning. All I can think is, why wouldn’t you? The sun is shining, the sky is blue and the blossom is out. But there’s that expectation to lash out at, the enforced decree. I think it’s what Boris Johnson is so scared of hence his fudged message: Stay at home, unless you have to work at work, which you can only do safely, but your bosses will decide what that means. Certainly on run, there was very little difference, the main roads are the same, the residential roads are quiet except for builders, who were told to shut up shop, but now are considered able to work safely. A builder working safely? The niggling feeling is Boris is trying to blur the line between caring and the economy. I wish he would just make a strong stand one way or the other.
Charlie did go for his run – the threat of losing time on Fortnite was a powerful motivator. But we ran different routes.
The big success has been the daily sketchbook challenge. On day one Carla Sonheim explained her daily page dump – drawing a box, dividing it up, filling each square with different subjects: day and date, a diary entry, an ideas section, a drawing and an anything goes box. We’re all doing this every day so that by the end of this we’ll all have diaries of this bizarre, never known before time to look back on and remember. Once that page is complete, there’s a different artist offering something new to do each day.
These were from blob drawing and looking at food.
The idea is not for perfection – and the random nature of the vintage-handmade-sketchbooks really helps with that.
The email of ideas comes in at 12. I find myself looking forward to it.
Laters, Kate x
Stone Faced x
It took me a while to understand the appeal and connection that I felt to these little pieces of art from the moment I first saw them. I think it’s to do with the every day made beautiful, the worship of nature, a celebration of simplicity and a special sense of appreciating there’s something in the act of giving over time to create something that has honour but no practical purpose except it’s own sense of wonder.
(All pics Pinterest)
I also think, on a subliminal level, they remind me of the sea urchins we go diving for in Greece.
For objects so small, their voice is big.
Laters, Kate x
Itching x
I’m meant to be doing something else today, so of course all I can think of is painting faces. Weird, wonderful faces with many loose lines yet inherent simplicity. They should play with media – the sharpness of a black pen against the contrast of chalk pastels, spreading on the wind, sitting on a solid flick of acrylic with the wobble of a lead pencil. The colours should be muddy, yet poignant – diluted pinks, distilled greys, a touch of yellow, a hint of blue. The back doors should be open with the sun shining, a cool breeze, music quietly playing – Maurice Ravel’s Deau Melodies heraiques sung by Victoria de los Angeles – and a strong cup of tea in a flat bottomed chine cup at one degree above blood temperature.
Until then, I’ll just eat the inspiration.
Laters, Kate x
I C U….
Australian artist, Jennifer Allnutt, has been painting rocks and stones with eyes to then return them to the landscape from whence they came with the wish that they can be found or lost forever.
(All pics Pinterest)
Kindness, magic, setting something free, message in a bottle, transformation, reaching out to strangers, giving something we take for granted another story: There’s something here that catches a special zeitgeist and pulls on the heart.
Laters, Kate x
Art x
It’s half term this week and we’re decamping to Kent for a taste of the simple life. If you have a moment, watch the BBC’s Celebrity Painting Challenge available on iplayer. There’s something incredibly joyful about the participants happiness in creating. Makes me want to pack a paintbrush….
Back next week, laters, Kate x
Captured x
Inspiration x
This morning I have two fruity magpies in the garden which proves that the days are pushing towards spring and that there has been enough time to retrospect the New Year. I’m not a great believer in resolutions, but I ‘ve found that organically something takes root each year, even if it’s unintentional. This years adaption has emerged like a fresh breeze, a feeling of wonder, a walk in the park: One day a week, usually a Wednesday, I take something that has intrigued or justified further exploration and follow it back to it’s roots, taking in the offshoots along the way. This week didn’t start with a person or a thought, but a podcast. There are so many out there, the only stipulation was it had to last ten minutes – the time it takes to tidy a kitchen. I found ‘The Psychology behind with Dr Linda Papadopoulas’ I listened, enjoyed and went back for more. That’s when I found her interview with Jordan Stephens from the Rizzle Kicks,(also to be found on Spotify) the cheeky scamps of British hiphop remembered with joy and mental connections of summer fun and lazy days. This was overlaid with the memory of a talk Jordan gave about toxic masculinity, a subject normally avoided by your average rapper. It paved the way for an inspirational interview that leaves you rewinding it in your head for a long time afterwards.
The next step back along the chain was the original Ted talk: Everyone loves an underdog, given by Jordan that inspired Linda to interview him. It’s the anti-hot house talk that many parents need to hear, how expectation can be a killer of growth. In it he mentions an ex-girlfriend, Cecilia Knapp who’s a writer, and you’re in the moment thinking what is this bed of creativity that bled, fed and made these attitudes? So you follow the story because Cecilia Knapp has made a Ted Talk too.
And I can only hope that by now you are as blown away as I was by her talent, performance skill and art, revelling in her silky words, caught in the rhythm of her mesmeric story telling.
The final step was to her website, to find she regularly gives performances – and that’s where this story will end – a trip to a poetry reading given by Cecilia Knapp, because I’ve never been to one before. But I couldn’t be more excited: There are times when the internet becomes a weapon of war, anger and destruction, but like most things, it has a flip side, a slip side where, with the slightest of pushes, a wondrous world of imagination awaits.
Laters, Kate x
Shadows
All these art works were created by Kumi Yamashita using a combination of solids and a single light source.
She says ‘ I sculpt using light and shadow. I construct single or multiple objects and place them in relation to a single light source. The complete artwork is therefore composed of both the material (the solid objects) and the immaterial (the light or shadow).
(All pics Kumi Yamashita or Pinterest)
Pure magic.
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style 