Bisa Butler – portrait artist in quilts

Somebody remind me of this for when portraiture comes around in this module. I’m a child of the flower-power generation, a hippy, a 1960s Brighton art student who somehow ended up in science. Butler’s colours sing from that palette but they’re singing a very modern tune, setting right some cultural wrongs by depicting black men and women with a dignity they were never quite accorded at that time and which our white world still struggles with. Butler trained as a painter and describes herself as a portrait artist, but uses the medium of fabric and thread to make her art. … Continue reading Bisa Butler – portrait artist in quilts

Bisa Butler quilts

Sometimes you look at something and absolutely wish you’d been the one who made it. These are quilts depicting black men, women, and children ‘whose stories were forgotten or overlooked’. Bisa Butler is essentially a portrait artist who uses fibers and quilting as a medium according to My Modern Met’s Sara Barnes (6th Feb 2020), and it’s spectacular. Perhaps the colours take me back to the vibrancy of the 60s; but if they do, these are the 60s grown up and giving a population of people, allowed at the time and for many years since, only to be niche, their … Continue reading Bisa Butler quilts

Brighton galleries

Where can you see Banksy, Damien Hirst, Grayson Perry, Sir Peter Blake, Bob Dylan, Ronnie Wood, and Billy Connolly originals within a few yards of each other in right-on-the-street galleries? Brighton. There’s a detailed account of these galleries on my Drawing blog. Castle Fine Art – Lanes. Dylan, Wood, Connolly Kellie Miller – no photos. Art Republic – Banksy, Hurst, Perry, Blake Continue reading Brighton galleries

Colour theory revisited – Part 2, research point 1

I’m coming back to this after a few months’ break while finishing the Drawing1 module and my understanding of how to tackle these research areas has grown, along with my ability to process and retain something of art’s back story. The purpose of this research point is to discover more about Chevreul’s role in the development of colour theory and look to see who and how this has influenced in their practice of painting. My first stop was a paper by Georges Roque (Chevreul’s colour theory and its consequences for artists, 2011) which details the manner of Chevreul’s insightful discovery … Continue reading Colour theory revisited – Part 2, research point 1

Drawings of several faces & a cat

After finishing with the hot whales, I realised I’d been asked to revisit line drawings of faces from an earlier part of the Drawing1 OCA module and so I recruited some suitable internet models and bashed out a few interpretive copies in conte crayon on A1 flipchart paper. Cheap as chips. This first one took just five minutes and probably met the brief somewhat, whereas the later ones took rather longer, having not met it at all. There is at least some line visible in this one.   This rather gentle old chap I managed to turn into a Burglar … Continue reading Drawings of several faces & a cat

Final assignment for the Drawing module – in paint!

This module has taken eighteen months, partly due to my taking too seriously tutor advice to slow down, thereby missing a deadline. It means I need to finish the next two modules in the same time. No pressure then. The Drawing unit sets out the basics of mark-making with reference to still life, landscape, the human form, and – in my case – whales. This is a detail from the larger A1 piece, made in acrylics on white cartridge selectively prepared with layers of black and white gesso for substance and texture. There are nods here to Hambling, Turner, Klee, and … Continue reading Final assignment for the Drawing module – in paint!