Steyning Arts Trail – Beeding Chapter

On the verge of Day Three of my first arts trail and I’ve found that time evaporates between chatting to visitors and co-exhibitors, and dashing into the tent to put everything upright again after successive gusts of wind suck the tent sides in and out like a cosmic hokey cokey. As far as I know, it’s all still there so I’ll be off to sit to attention under a camper-van awning and brace myself to take charge of dog, cats, and chickens while Jill goes off to check out some venues in Steyning.   Chuck chucks with fluffy knickers 🙂 Continue reading Steyning Arts Trail – Beeding Chapter

Assignment 1

After a bit of a hiatus due to finding there was more to do on the Drawing1 course than I’d realised, I’m making a start on this. I have a jug that defeats me every time I draw it and an onion that doesn’t – not so much anyway – and the colours are marvellous. Elsewhere, I’ve been up to the ears in brutalist concrete and grungy graffiti so going smooth and shiny will be a challenge. Here’s the image (my own) that I’m working from: I love the colours and the reflection, and the tiny hint of a demarcation … Continue reading Assignment 1

Outdoor landscape

I’ve been working up to my third assignment in the Drawing module of my OCA course and, after going a few rounds with townscapes and statues, may have found a home under a flyover again. First there was this, albeit rather more painting than drawing although those seem now to be interchangeable, a scene I pass by quite often along the river bank. Then these A4 sketches (the first of these three is the monochrome photo – mine – I used to map out the shapes)   And then, much larger A2 sized monochrome and full colour versions. You can … Continue reading Outdoor landscape

‘What are you looking at?’ by Will Gompertz

Subtitled 150 years of modern art in the blink of an eye, this is not for the purists but it is for me. So much so that I have all three versions – audio, kindle, and paperback; one to listen to while mooching around, one for its search, links, and notes facilities, and one to flick through when neither of the others will do. I have the kind of memory that places something on a page – bottom left, middling-ish on the right, that sort of thing. I can do it with ebooks so long as the font stays the … Continue reading ‘What are you looking at?’ by Will Gompertz

What are you looking at? by Will Gompertz

Subtitled 150 years of modern art in the blink of an eye, this is not for the purists but it is for me. So much so that I have all three versions – audio, kindle, and paperback; one to listen to while mooching around, one for its search, links, and notes facilities, and one to flick through when neither of the others will do. I have the kind of memory that places something on a page – bottom left, middling-ish on the right, that sort of thing. I can do it with ebooks so long as the font stays the … Continue reading What are you looking at? by Will Gompertz

Assignment 3 – an outdoor scene

The brief includes straight lines, elements of perspective, and some natural objects. I’ve chosen the scene under the Shoreham flyover – an area above which roads and slip roads curve and swing, their huge struts with their feet in land used sometimes by keepers of horses but more often left to its own devices. There are other bridges in the distance, and tall shrubs between them and the concrete posts. It reminds me of a scene from Metropolis, the 1927 sci fi film directed by Fritz Lang. My sketches are quite stark, reflecting what I now understand to be brutalist … Continue reading Assignment 3 – an outdoor scene

Literary artiness

Some of the prints on sale at The Basement are from my book, Not Being First Fish, which is on sale at Steyning Bookshop. Also on sale there is Fat Mo, the cover of which I painted at school when I was about seventeen. I’ve manipulated the colour in Paintshop Pro and added the text (obviously, or that would have been well prescient!) Fat Mo is alternatively available from here where all the revenue goes to a charity, Respond, that supports adults with learning (intellectual) disabilities who’ve experience sexual abuse and exploitation. As you might imagine, Fat Mo is not … Continue reading Literary artiness

Aphantasia – absence of ‘mind’s eye’

Nothing to do with never having seen a Disney cartoon, and everything to do with mental imagery, aphantasia is a newly described condition in which people are unable to exercise their ‘mind’s eye’ or ‘get a picture’ in their heads. Typically, they’ve thought other people were speaking metaphorically and, when a range of neuropsychological tests became available through a research project, were surprised to find this wasn’t so. Rather like colour blindness, you have no concept of the missing colour and so no way of knowing you can’t see it unless you come across someone who can. One of the … Continue reading Aphantasia – absence of ‘mind’s eye’