Home

BANKSY PRESERVED

On Portobello Road there are some great street graphics.
There is also an interesting illustration in the changes to the perception of those that view it…..there was a furore recently as a council cleaned up some street graphics by painting over them. One of the pieces of graffiti was by Banksy and the community was outraged.
Here, on Portobello road; a Banksy piece is saved behind aerated perspex.
Something seems a tad wrong with the whole preservation of that which should evolve…or is Banksy dead!?

CAMPER AND CAMPANA

A Camper shoestore in London has great wall graphics by Campana.
A shortened version of their explanation Goes like this…..
“TORN LEFTOVERS
Old advertising hoarding. What is on the walls are printing errors, paper used for colour callibration…then thrown away. Visual pollution waste posted to the wall becoming art. CAMPANA”

WALLPAPER AND POETRY

I was having a beer on Portobello Road , I walked to the loo past very pink old fashioned wallpaper that, on closer inspection, had me mentally ‘high fiving’ whoever was it’s creator.
It turns out that there are a pair of creators.
It’s a company called Timorous Beasties….and was founded in Glasgow in 1990 by Alistair McAuley and Paul Simmons, who met while studying textile design at Glasgow School of Art.

http://www.timorousbeasties.com/about/

The name comes from a Robert Burns poem called ‘for a mouse’….
Here’s the first stanza but go and have a look at the site that explains the poem.
For me it’s all about the last line..when you look at a bird flying, or a fish swimming, or a mouse cowering and wonder at their luck….their inability to think about the future and therefore their living for the moment alone and not constantly fretting about what may be.
Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim’rous beastie,
O, what panic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi’ bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
Wi’ murd’ring pattle!

http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/mouse.html

CRACKINGTON HAVEN

CAWSANDS

The stones on the beach are so flat. I picked up a handfull and they became a little man. Here he is on a slate doorstep.

EYEBALL

After the Tate and the Saatchi Gallery, I whipped out the travelling watercolours and painted the first thing that came to mind…..a twisted, tired, yet happy eyeball.

SAATCHI GALLERY: NEWSPEAK

Newspeak is an exhibition of up and coming British art talent.
Great gallery….pedestrian show….or so I thought as I walked past the first artist. Karla Black had a series of 3 sculptures that made me think back to student days…..forgot to hand in a project so tip out the contents of the bin and talk up a relevant and ‘oh so plausible’ concept banter. Karla had raided a building site.
see image: Karla Black, PLEASER.
I had seen an article about Barry Reigate and the images looked great in the magazine…on the way to Gallery 4 I was still seemingly surrounded by Grade A student works.
Reigates’ work was ready for me but I was shocked….it was 3D!
Again; anyone could chuck stuff on a canvas.
Thankfully; everything turned a corner from this point…the work was not 3D.
It was just so brilliantly executed that it struck out of the wall. The fact that it was actually flat seemed incomprehensible.
see image: Barry Reigate, VORACIOUS IMPOTENT PENIS 2009 and REAL SPECIAL VERY PAINTING 2009 (including a step by step close up to show a seemingly 3D aspect of the piece).
The theme of actuality being an optical yet painted illusion continued in Gallery 7 with William Daniels.
Again, what seemed a tacky construct using aluminium foil was a set of unbelievably brilliant pieces using oils alone.
see image: William Daniels, STILL LIFE WITH FLOWER AND CURTAINS 2007
(and again, details).
It just kept getting better….
A brilliant installation by John Wynne.

And my favourite – Phoebe Unwin.
see image: Phoebe Unwin, GIRL and FALLING SUNGLASSES.

KATARINA VESTERBERG IS MY TURNER

I have a few pieces from this artist and she and Turner are one of a kind….for me anyway.
That same strong brushstroke seemingly creating a perfect scene by accident…but each time the scene IS perfect and so there is no accident but intuition.

J.M.W.TURNER 1775 – 1851

I went to the TATE BRITAIN Gallery and spent a long time in the Turner Exhibition where I was completely amazed by his early works and the detail within.
Once you peer into the paintings, as closely as is possible….it became obvious that his later; more abstract landscape work is an obvious evolution.
The very same brushwork but on a larger scale. What seems to hold little detail, becomes detailed as you stand as far away as possible.
Follow the images as I have laid them
out and you will hopefully see what I mean….
Starting, each time with the image in it’s entirety and followed by the brushwork, as detail alone.

SKETCHING THE VIEW

After imbibing so much art I actually set about using my Windsor & Newton travellers watercolour set….
This is the view from Shepherds Hill, looking over Priory Gardens towards Alexandra Palace.