More Illuminated Words

Here are a couple more letters to which I have added colour and effects, to brighten and illuminate, but also distress!

More illuminated alphabet

Here are some further letters illuminated in photoshop etc.

Art on display

It’s been quite a while since I last posted on my blog. But I have been busy with my art work. I have had a couple of low key exhibitions. Currently I have work on display at our new shop, Keepers Preloved, at Farrington Gurney in Somerset. Here are a few images of my work, and I will post more later. Though they are all framed, some are only temporary. It’s good to get work on display, and I have had some very positive comments.

More painted cutlery

More decorated cutlery from our Cornish holiday. More idle drawing and painting to record the sights and sounds of Cornwall.

And Finally…St Ives Holiday Scrapbook 2012 Day Seven

Finally the last page of the St Ives Holiday Scrapbook 2012. Sad Saturday!!

We had time for a trip into St Ives in the morning, for brunch by the beach at Porthminster, a purchase of some art, and a general browse around the town. We stopped off at the newly-opened Heartlands, a converted old mine, for lunch and a look around the craft workshops, and Urban/Street festival(!!). And then the long drive back, and home, just in time for Dr. Who on the telly.

Bo Lee. Nocturne

Nocturne is the title of the current exhibition at the Bo Lee gallery in Bath. It is showing the work of two of its artists, Rose Sanderson and Patrick Haines. These artists have overlapping concerns and influences. Both draw inspiration from the animal kingdom and Natural History, both often make use of ready made objects, and both have a dark and sinister side to their work. Patrick Haines’ sculptures are the most overtly strange and unsettling, while Rose Sanderson’s deal more with fragility and mortality.

In this show Patrick Haines is exhibiting work that is larger in scale (includes more objects and items) and has more narrative (suggests a more detailed story) than I have previously seen.

Rose Sanderson has also moved from small intimate paintings of birds and butterflies on single book covers, to larger scale paintings which spread across several covers.

Patrick Haines creates delicate and detailed sculptures of birds and other feathered animals, and juxtaposes these with various everyday objects. Often he uses books, his sculptures eating into the fabric of the object. Other times he uses light fittings, rulers, and, in his largest piece here, furniture and fixtures from a Botanists study, which is alive with sinister beasts, and sinister animal parts.

Shock and Awe

Another double page Apocalyptic Illuminated Initial. I have drawn these more fully in pen prior to adding colour. It was started a while ago, along with several others, and I am in the process of attempting to complete them before I start new works.

I have it in mind to make a colouring book-An Illuminated Apocalyptic Colouring Book, of depressing and fatalistic images.

Presenting work

Progress on actual art work has been slow of late, but I have made some progress with reproduction and presentation. I have had several images digitised in preparation for Giclee prints. Having worked on colour balancing and refining the quality and scale of the images they have printed some out for me. It isn’t a cheap process, but will allow me to produce good quality reproductions of my paintings and drawings. I don’t know if you can see the quality, or the comparison with the originals in these photographs. The colour and detail is very good. The only thing you lose is the texture and fragility of the paper they are painted on, and the gold, whilst an accurate colour copy, doesn’t have the sheen of the original.

I have also, finally, chosen a moulding for the paintings, so that I can move closer to having them framed and completed. I have had two thicknesses or widths made, in plain, unfinished wood. If these work I will experiment with the finish. I think I have a good idea of what I want, but haven’t been able to find it in any framing or art shop, so will have to get them custom made or do it myself. I envisage a dark frame with gilding. Upon the advice of people whose opinions I value, I am also considering dark coloured mounts, sympathetic to the colours of the individual art works.

At the moment I am leaning towards the larger, wider frame. I want the works to almost feel architectural, like panel paintings or altar pieces, that require the viewer to lean in and engage with the image at a very close and intimate distance, having been initially struck by the overall impact and “splendour”. Any feedback gratefully received.

New Work

After a prolonged hiatus due to work and family intrusions over the last couple of months here is a new post! And a new piece of work!

As is often the case, it took some external stimulus or deadline to provide the motivation, and this time it was a friends’ birthday that lead to the completion of a new piece of work, and hopefully further creative endeavour. So here it is, composed along familiar lines, and with the intention of being a simple expression of life, with some clumsy latin, Veni (I came) and Vita (I lived). Happy Birthday Verna Ventham.

An Apocalyptic Alphabet

Here are a couple of pages of my initial letters. As I have said before I was exploring the use of words around the trees, selecting words primarily on a gloomy and pessimistic theme. In the first ones the lettering is a fairly standard heavy font. In subsequent examples I started to use lettering that is intended to be recognisable. These two are almost finished. A little tidying up is needed, and replacing of the words at the top, with APOCALYPTIC ALPHABET, I think.

Once again, if you click on the image then zoom in you get a version as seen through a magnifying glass. Really quite interesting.