Category: Uncategorised

I’ve often driven past this old abandoned church. And wanted to stop and look. Now it has a for sale/sold sign posted outside. So, I finally stopped, and took a wander around it. It was locked, alas. So I could’nae look inside.

I read online that it’s a Grade II listed building, thought to date to 1878 (so not that old!); the asking price was quoted as £75K! Not that much, really. In todays’ market.

A bit further down the same road, there’s a little pond. Never ever seen anyone making use of it! Sad, really. I stopped a d ate my lunch there. Wrote a pome, as well!

So, I keep working on a few ideas. I hope something good might come of these explorations.

Time to take a break and continue trying to book some paying work… as ever!

Can’t stop tweaking it!

LATER…

Found a fab new location for sitting, snacking/eating, etc. and drawing, reading, n’ all that.

This seems better than the previous one. Bolder, simpler, stronger. Just, um… better.

FOOTNOTE: Sunny Daze…

Sitting in my car, in the blazing sunshine, and looking through the sketchpad I brought along, I was struck by the light coming through the pages… I like these images, and I feel the process of layering by backlight could prove quite fruitful, perhaps? Who knows!

One of these pics also highlights the texture some of these pieces are acquiring. The combo of the grain of the paper, and the varied mediums, in this case pastels, creates some interesting textures.

I have a bit of music by Sun Ra, on CD and mp3. But not much. I’ve seen a couple of documentaries about him, as well. Rather like Frank Zappa, he’s someone I find captivatingly interesting, whilst not quite knowing or liking all (or even very much?) of his recorded musical legacy.

One of the many things I love about both Zappa and Sun Ra is their ornery charisma. They were who they were. End of… The World had better take note!

I’ve tended to feel I must hide away, to survive being ‘different’. I admire these artists for their, ‘fuck y’all… I’m taking my brand of madness to the world!’ That makes it sound aggressive and negative. And there are times when those notes dominate with both Zappa and Ra.

But I think their love of music, artistic freedom, and exploration, are all much more powerful and attractive aspects of their fecund creativity. And in these respects, what they do – not always easy or ‘beautiful’ (and certainly not commercial!) – reminds me of Picasso, in terms of untrammelled and volcanic artistic energy.

I must and will acquire both this fabulous looking book, and at the very least, listen to and explore a lot more of Sun Ra’s fascinating musical universe.

And to that end, I just ordered the above, on CD.

Hmmm… Well, you can’t win ‘em’ all. Not much in the way of making art today. And this – the above – is all there was.

The black and white pen drawing? Well… hmmm!? I s’pose it’s me trying to be boldly, bravely, foolishly unfiltered. It’s a bit cartoony, to be honest. I don’t like it, as is. Is it going anywhere? I’ve no idea!

I wanted to work a bit on contorted hands, in this wee interlude. That’s what these am. Again, none too chuffed. But is there any mileage in any of this? Again… no idea!

I s’pose at least this means I’m taking some risks? maybe there’s something sculptural I can get from some of the hand studies?

Hmmm!?

I think I’ve improved the black and white pen and ink version, somewhat. Maybe I can explore the ideas within it more? We shall see…

I gathered together most of my Picasso library just now. I know there are some titles that are missing. Not sure offhand where they are?

But it’s nice to see most of them together. And a reminder that as well as looking at the pictures – the main reason for having most of these books – I may also want to read some of them!

Wow! We’re watching Monty Don’s Around The World In 80 Gardens, again. He’s in Mexico, and he starts in the brutally but beautifully modernist settings of three Luis Barragan buildings.

I love old traditional – conservative, even (note small ‘c’!) – art and architecture. And old grand homes. A lot of this kind of modernism leaves me cold. But this stuff? It blows my mind. And I think I mean that in the fellatio sense…

The use of colour and water, and the attention to small details, as well as the huge slabs of colour… breathtaking.

Truly astonishing stuff. And, despite the intellectualism and grandeur, very – to me at least – warmly human.

The use of the hot oranges and pinks… it is soooo divine.

Are those monumental pillars real? And look at the guy… he took himself seriously, bless him.

The architect had the large lectern you can see above, as a place where he’d display inspirational images.

By contrast, Los Pazos, by Edward James? Well, that’s for another post…

Bought this beauty today. The fourth – and as far as I know? – final JPiF tome on the mighty Picasso. This gets the fuller than full six stars. For being an utterly wonderful treasure trove of mind-blowing creativity.

This book highlights for me why having plenty of books on one particular artist – especially when that artist is Picasso – can be very useful. Here, ‘Women & Children By The Sea’, which gets a full colour reproduction in Picasso 1932 (see below), only appears as a small, almost incidental, black and white image.

The same goes for ‘The Rescue’, which you see on this other recent post of mine.

One of the many things I love about Picasso – perhaps the core and most fundamental thing? – is his unbelievably prodigious creativity. I may not – indeed I certainly do not – like all of his art.

What I absolutely adore, however, is the off the charts energy and creativity. He bothers and reworks ideas multiple times, in multiple ways. And he employs multiple styles, even multiple modes: painting, drawing, prints, sculpture, ceramics, collage, to do so.

Almost inevitably – and especially so with such huge talent – this seemingly unfiltered scattershot approach yields a great deal of wonderful work.

Indeed, I’d go so far as to say that Picasso is almost singular; unique in his astonishing bravery, to work as freely as he does. I know of no other artist who produces such a variety of art.

One of the things that had me really bummed out about art and me, was my inability, as I saw it, to reduce my own polyglot interests to a singular marketable style.

Picasso teaches me, gives me permission by example, to be much freer, multifaceted and… here’s a key revelation, to not know. This connects back to that Tove Jansson Moomin cartoon, where he dons a beret and steps off a cliff!

Perhaps I feel vindicated, in that I have never liked, trusted or believed in the smug certainties that so much of the world presents to us. Picasso seems more real and human, because of the universe that’s inside of him, that comes out through his art.

By contrast, most ‘professional’ art limits the maker and their humanity to much narrower margins. Of course the art produced in this more common manner can still be sublime. Indeed, the singular concentration produces a different type of artistic excellence.

But it remains true, at least for me, that you can’t have the very unusual kind of genius that was or is Picasso, without the freedom and the diversity that mark him out.

*Another example of a piece I love, and recently utilised, this time ‘Woman Sleeping on a Red Cushion’, that appears here in a lesser light than in Picasso 1932.

PS – Picasso was always fairly unabashed about sex. And in this volume the phallic element is possibly more ‘in your face’, literally and metaphorically, than any other. A topic I will be turning to some time fairly soon!

To finish… two heads are better than one, runs a certain saying.

Once again I’m mining the rich seams of Picasso. In this case a series of Crucifixions, that he had in turn based on Matthias Grunewald’s famous Isenheim Altarpiece.

Step by step…

I like having a record of the steps along the way. As sometimes there’s alternative stuff that might be worth pursuing further.

I’m happy with both of these, to some degree. I feel like there are decent threads to be developed. But I’m not so sure I’m quite there yet.

Of the two the black and white seems stronger, to me. At least as it stands.

Rex at The Granary did a great job framing these. And at a very reasonable price, as well.

I picked Teresa up after work, and we then dropped the two pieces to Dan & Amy (& co.), at home.

Blah…