Painting a Picture – Web in the Foreground

Posted on 10/10/201410/10/2014 by Alastair

Sitting on the edge of the pier wall in Swansea docks, eating my lunch and enjoying the amazingly still day during the Mission Gallery Walk and Draw I went on last week, this spider web caught my eye.

There being hardly a breath of wind allowed me the opportunity to get a photo of it with the blurred colours of dockland buildings in the background. I really like those blurred colours – they make me think of this as a piece of abstract painting, perhaps one that has been sitting around in the attic for a few years.

Considering the number of paintings and pictures we have in our attic, that vision of this image doesn’t take much imagination. What’s in your attic?

Strange Eggs, Public Art or Floats

Posted on 09/10/201409/10/2014 by Alastair

These strange egg like objects are of course dockland floats. It looks as though it is some time since they were used and they look almost like pieces of abstract public art as they lie there between the marina and the docks. If they were eggs, I wonder what their mother would look like?

Drawing in the style of . . .

Posted on 08/09/201408/09/2014 by Alastair

My project work earlier this year with the Josef Herman Art Foundation Cymru involved using iPads for drawing. I was interested in using the iPad again on the art walk I went on recently but on this occasion challenged myself to use a much broader “pencil”.

I had asked some of the children on the Josef Herman project to do this in order to emulate Herman’s style more closely. For myself, I thought that it might help me to find a way of working with the iPad that I felt was more suited to the characteristics of the implement.

However, I think I would have to do a lot more in this way to achieve a better degree of comfort with the iPad as a tool for drawing. As I will be returning it to its owner very soon, this is not likely to happen. It’s a good job that real paper and pencil / charcoal is lot cheaper!

An Alternative Viewpoint

Posted on 07/09/201407/09/2014 by Alastair

Last weekend I went on a art walk with Sarah Abbott from the Mission Gallery in Swansea. We went down to the dunes at the eastern end of Swansea Bay with sketch books and cameras, etc.

Sometimes the places you know best are those that are hardest to “see”. I have done a fair amount of photography in the bay but I have not produced a StillWalks video there. Taking a look at a place with someone else can be helpful in that the interaction of perception can prompt a fresh way of seeing the familiar.

Black and Blue

Posted on 23/08/201423/08/2014 by Alastair

The abstract patterns of water in the River Morlais which runs through Troserch Woodland in Carmarthenshire, Wales.

If I had used these images, it would have been in the second StillWalks video I made in the Troserch area. The first was through the woodland (see below) and the other was walking from the woodland, across the fields by the river and back to civilisation.

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Abstract in Nature – Is there a face in there?

Posted on 15/08/201415/08/2014 by Alastair

I am currently working on the post-production for a StillWalks video in Cwmdonkin Park in Swansea. It is a while since I was able to look at the photos and I was surprised to come across the image below. It is not one that I am likely to use in the video but I love the abstract nature of this tree bark.

The colour and texture make it a painting for me, one which makes me feel a little uneasy! Is that a face in there? Can you see it?

Elliptical Illusions

Posted on 10/08/201410/08/2014 by Alastair

I saved the images below from those I took recently while away visiting family. I used my iPhone for all my photography while away and posted images to Instagram.

I wanted to post these images here because, despite my familiarity with the design of MIMA and the obvious link in the arrangement of shapes in the interior around the cafe area, the illusion that is created by this arrangement when seen from a specific angle did not properly register with me until I looked back at the photos.

Josef Herman Schools Award 2014 Exhibition

Posted on 20/07/201420/07/2014 by Alastair

The Josef Herman Schools Award is an annual project hosted by the Josef Herman Art Foundation Cymru which employs different artists each year to work with four South Wales primary schools. This year the Foundation is working with the Tate on a two-year project called Mining Josef Herman; part of a Transforming Tate Britain: Archives and Access programme.

The children enjoyed a promenade performance by Lighthouse Theatre followed by a series of drawing workshops with me in school and in Ystradgynlais, where Herman lived for 11 years. We worked with iPads and traditional drawing materials.

The children researched selected works by Herman provided by the Tate Gallery, London, and made presentations which were recorded on iPads. The exhibition features a selection of their drawing on paper and two TV screens showing both their presentations and animations of the iPad drawings they produced. The exhibition is at The Welfare in Ystradgynlais and will continue until mid September.