John Cage – As Slow As Possible

I need a new category; I’m going to call it ‘dressing up box’. As a kid I had one of those – an old suitcase actually – full of bits of material and cast-offs, rejects to everyone but a child in the 1950s with no access to Toys (were) Us. One of the rejects was a bright purple table cloth my dad brought back from his time in India during WWII. It was embroidered with silver wire thread, and totally unwashable which meant it never saw a table. My mother complained that he’d brought bananas for her sister, although how … Continue reading John Cage – As Slow As Possible

The Lonely Palette

I came to this podcast somewhere in the middle following a recommendation and I’ve been working my way through the rest because they are superb. New to the whole art history malarkey, my co-student and I, both of us with more science in our lives than art, were floundering around in what seemed to be impenetrable verbiage about paintings we’d never heard of. It all seemed so far removed from what we both understood, and it used language that was unfamiliar – some of it language we thought we already owned but that seemed to have been re-purposed. Left to … Continue reading The Lonely Palette

Supplementary project

One of my found photos is a still from the Loch Arkaig osprey cam taken just after the first chick hatched and while there were still two eggs. Of all the photos, this is the one I actually wanted to paint and, for the assignment, I will. But the specifications are that each painting should be on a 6″ x 6″ square of HP watercolour paper and I really wanted to make something bigger. So that’s what I’m doing; getting it out of my system, maybe! This is the tipping point; the support is flimsy and won’t take much more … Continue reading Supplementary project

Seas of Mars

In July, NASA’s Mars rover, Perseverance, left Earth. In February 2021, it is due to land in Jezero crater which was formed billions of years ago and where there is evidence that water once flowed from the hills nearby, dropping mud and sand on its way, forming a delta. It’s a hot spot for the likelihood of finding signs of ancient life. This painting and video were made using NASA images of the surface of Mars at Jezero crater, and the subtitled commentary of NASA’s video of the landing site. Continue reading Seas of Mars