Sunday 29 November 2015

Drawing and 2015 Virtual Futures Salon | F**king Machines



November has been crazy busy. The Robot Sex discussion at the Virtual Futures Salon is now accessible as an edited playlist on youtube, the first (the whole session) of which is above. Special Thanks to Luke Robert Mason for all his hard work!

This session has proved to be very interesting in that there are several points that I wish to develop as written papers - and will certainly aim to be involved in at least two future-tech oriented events in 2016.

In the meantime, I have discovered that two of my drawings have been pre-selected for the Mall Galleries - so will have to get the work up to London in January, and at the beginning of the month I went to Scotland for a beautiful wedding - managed to do a little drawing whilst I was there - oh and of course.. I'm always drawing Ed...

Lochinver landscape...

A small drawing of Ed sleeping on the sofa...

. Short blog this month - am planning lots of things for next year....

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Sunday 8 November 2015

Robot sex and all that....

One of the main interests I have (apart from figurative drawing and painting!) is exploring our understanding of and our representation in virtual and digital spaces. My initial degree in London encompassed notions of the body in terms of traditional figurative approaches in art, along with sexuality and new technologies (a later blog will cover this...) - Virtual Reality  (VR)in particular. I eventually did my PhD on it.

I was part of the early VR and' Digital Revolution' in the early 1990s, when VR was clunky and hyped - but the internet (1.0) was just entering our homes. I worked with a company called Virtual S as a work placement during my degree - and we worked on the the first sex themed immersive virtual world in 1991/92. It was pretty awful and clunky (it was gamified about using condoms...) - but it was fab at the time, and contested some of our understandings and ethics of reality and the body. I looked at the idea of body suits with Mark Bennett (who also took the black and white photos below of actress and TV presentet Margi Clarke ) that were connected to technology, and wrote for his publication 'Black Ice'.



The following images were taken from the original VR experience.




 It was a wild time, with the work being shown as part of the emerging underground sexual sub-cultures of the time that were developing in London.  I had lots of fun and met some incredible people at conferences and events where I gave talks and presentations about my work - a few are listed below (links to some Wikis and personal web sites...):

Leigh Bowery  Sandy Stone  Stelarc  William Gibson  Bruce Sterling Sadie Plant  Rosi Braidotti  Orlan Kevin Warwick

I was lucky enough to give a talk at one of the Virtual Futures sessions at the University of Warwick during the 1990s.

http://issuu.com/lukerobertmason/docs/vf95programme/1?e=0

 I am pleased to say that the nature of those conferences has been revived by Luke Robert Mason - and I gave a presentation at Virtual Futures 2.0 in 2011 - so it was great to see him again and some other familiar faces when I was recently invited on a panel to discuss 'Robot Sex' by Luke - for one of his Virtual Futures Salons in London.




I am currently still looking at the digital body, as well as doing my more traditional drawings and paintings using pencil, paint, canvas and paper. More on this later.... in the meantime.. here's another 'selfie'....


Saturday 17 October 2015

Created in Portsmouth Art Trail

Haven't been contributing to this blog for a  little while. Had to think over the loss of my brother, and my partners dad over the summer, and had to get back to some teaching - and also doing all sorts of other creative things (like going to a drumming workshop with Carl Palmer from the '70s prog rock band Emerson Lake and Palmer!) Our POISE events have really taken off - with some great poetry, music, installation and traditional arts, and has been ongoing every month.

Our facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/POISE-Events-1480785755547750/

Here's our big group painting for the POISE event BLANK CANVAS


But - I am writing this today because the Created in Portsmouth Art Trail is on and landscape painter Colin Merrin has kindly given me a corner of his studio to show some of my work. So please do come along to the Waverley Road Studios in Southsea over this weekend (17th 18th October 2015) Work is for sale - so do come and pick up something original for the coming holiday season if you are in the area.


I will be returning to writing this blog more frequently now - so watch this space!!




Monday 20 July 2015

LIFE....

Well.. I was going to write about drumming... but things happen. Over the last couple of months I lost two people in a very short space of time - one to old age, and one to cancer...

 My partner's Father, and then my dear Brother.

..and I never drew either of them.

I'm just going to have to draw everyone who is dear to me. The experience of drawing and observing the living person is an intimate process of memory as practice; and I need to get that practice under way.

I keep drawing (the lovely) Ed.. and will start to invite friends and family to sit for me. I encourage anyone reading this, and who has an interest in drawing and painting, should make such a connection with their loved ones if they haven't done so already.

The lovely Ed (as usual!)


But onto other things...

Poise

Myself and my musician partner Ed and violinist Catherine Ward, along with artist Colin Merrin and poets Sam Cox (Poet Laureate of Portsmouth 2012-13), Paul Valentine and Stella Bahin created one of our evening experiences of creativity in Colin's studio - a further development from our early research into the concept of the 'mash-up' - as a way of getting cross creative and interdisciplinary work into action and into the locals!

Using our various synaesthesias, we played music to paintings, whispered and performed poetry, painted and drew; we drank wine; I beat the drums and we had a great time with an invited audience. We will be doing more of this so please contact me if you would like to be on our invite list for future events.

Stella whispering poetry

Drumming to Sam's words

Drumming with Catherine 

Ed playing to Colin's paintings

Those of us left at the end of the evening! (Colin's taking the photo!)

Courses over the summer.

I am about to take my summer leave from University, but will be running six one day courses at the local Forge during my break, as well as continuing my regular 'Drink and Draw' sessions at The Golden Eagle (we hope to have our first fun 'Summer Exhibition' at the Pub this year!).

Here's the details of  my portraiture courses:
http://yurtsummercourses.weebly.com/figurative-portrait-studiesportraiture-in-the-age-of-the-selfie.html

.. and three one day sessions of this course for general arts:
http://yurtsummercourses.weebly.com/art-for-the-individual.html

Please do sign up - but places are limited.

We have the America's Cup sailing competition this week (23rd-26th July) in Portsmouth - so I aim to have a small stand at the Southsea Night Market this week with my work on show. Please do come along and say hello!

Finally...

Life is short... make the most of it - get out there and do your stuff with your favourite people.. don't wait... do it now!!

This simple short post is dedicated to the memories of Jack and John - about living life to the best that you can, whilst you can. 

Thanks for reading this.



Sunday 31 May 2015

Drawing naked ladies...

This past week, I have made a concerted effort to draw and do some drumming.  The drumming will keep for another blog date for now... But... Last week I did some life drawing at Colin Merrin's Studio in Southsea. He has sessions on Thursday evenings. He has a fab studio, and I loan him my easels and drawing boards. I hadn't done any proper life drawing (other than some quickies when I am teaching it to the computer gaming/animation students at uni) for some time, so I really enjoyed it. I had introduced Mimi the model to Colin - she also models for another artist friend of mine, the fabulous Chris Wood,  and she does a fantastic job. Here's the drawings I completed of Mimi for that evening.

Below are my initial sketches of Mimi.

The above were done quite quickly with simple, and straight forward pencil on cartridge paper. Then I changed position to draw the longer pose. This time, I moved across the room, and used compressed charcoal and white chalk, along with a putty rubber.



I also managed to get a ticket to an event at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. They were doing an event that really intrigued me. It was an afternoon life drawing session with a performance artist, Sue Maclaine. She does a fabulous performed study of\the artist model, muse, writer, mother, lover and drug addict Henrietta Moraes. She was of course the model and lover for one of my favourite painters, Maggi Hambling. As a student at Central Saint Martins in the early 1990's I used to gate crash all the Friday night art private views down in Cork Street, and I was lucky enough one Friday evening to gate crash one of Maggi's. I met George Melly, one of Maggi's close friends and saw all sorts of wonderful people along with meeting wonderful paintings (when you see one of Maggi's paintings and drawings in the flesh, it's like introducing new friends into your life). So, getting an opportunity to see how this interpretation of Henrietta would be portrayed was an opportunity not to be missed - I also think I owed myself a treat after all my marking at the end of an academic year.

The performance was fabulous. Sue really managed to capture the sense of a bohemian life in both language and the poses she held. There were about 20 people in the audience in the Pallant House lecture/studio; all with their sketch books (I managed to grab an easel), drawing away, whilst Sue gave us an inkling as to what happened to Henrietta, and her life as muse, model and all round bon viveur. The first few sketches were all done on one sheet of paper. Sue, in becoming Henrietta, gave an outline and introduction as to the contents and nature of the performance - we did lots of short poses.


All the time, she was changing pose to imply conversation with Deakin or Bacon, and the poses flowed within the narrative of the piece as a whole. Eventually you almost forgot you were drawing, and were simply drawn in by the pictures painted in your mind by Sue and her very carefully observed poses that have been well documented of Henrietta. She was spot-on! The next series of poses were a little longer and more complex. Sue Maclaine had totally become Henrietta for me.


She (Henrietta) then sat, with her robe casually wrapped about her, and talked to us about her relationships, her drug and alcohol consumption and her awkward attempt at burglary.


This was then followed by a longer pose, and a telling of relationships, including that with Maggi. In this time of micro-celebrity and the 'selfie' - this sort of work, describing our  relationship to notions of the self and contexts in culture - contains so much depth, it may be in danger of becoming sadly obsolete in our chase to be lost in the 'cloud' of data where so much of our contemporary selves appear to be living. I suggest that Drawing (with a capital D) consolidates self and others. Sue then adopted a classic Henrietta pose - (for 8 minutes) - which was a great finale to the all-too-short session! I was sad, as I had to let Henrietta go...


Well... this just makes me want to do loads more life drawing sessions. I will have these works with me on the 21st June at the Spice Island Arts Trail where I will be showing work in the Royal Naval Club in Old Portsmouth.

Next time... more about drumming!!!





Sunday 3 May 2015

Building up a sketch book,,

Have been drawing the musicians at the The Golden Eagle pub - they always have a lively set of bands most weekends - and with the current bank holiday in the UK, this weekend is packed with them!!... 





The band is called The Power of 3 and you can visit their web site here

I do these studies fairly quickly in a small sketch book with either a graphite stick or soft pencil as the musicians are playing - so there's lots of movement. I like to try and get the look that a musician projects when they are 'in the zone' and really getting into their music. 
These drawings are all being completed in one small sketch book. It's quite satisfying seeing the work build up - I did try to do 'a drawing a day'(as mentioned in an earlier post) - but as soon as I put myself under that sort of pressure, then I don't do it! The trick is to have a small sketch book and pencils in your bag - and take them around with you everywhere.. just on case!


Here's another quicky sketch of (the lovely) Ed.

Am also thinking about entering another drawing competition...... watch this space... In the meantime, the sketch books will probably be on display at the Spice Island Art Ttrail in Portsmouth on the 21st of June.





Friday 27 March 2015

Come and see me!

I have been selected for this years Portsmouth Spice Island Art Trail, part of the Portsmouth Festivities Cultural Events! Yay! Not sure of the venue yet, (still to be confirmed) but you should be able to see my artwork and have a chat with me on the 21st June. Please come back and check for further information.

Drink and draw has been very busy! Now a regular feature on Tuesday evenings at The Golden Eagle on the corner of Delawere Road, Southsea, these sessions are proving popular and great fun. One or two of us went to see the Film 'Mr. Turner' at the  Portsmouth Film Society which was absolutely brilliant. Timothy Spall played a totally convincing Turner with humour, tragedy and a great sense of passion and dedication to painting.

Inspired by the film, and Colin Merrins sketch book work (see previous blog post for details) I have also been trying to carry my small sketch book around with me, so that I can draw where ever I can, along with my graphite stick. (I tried to do a drawing a day.....no such luck!!)

A few quickie sketches done in my little book... I have given one or two of them away!


The band I'm in (Earspoon) continues to practice and progress well - we have got some practice space in one of the cafeterias at the University which is great, where we can spread out a bit and not worry about the neighbours!!  We hope to play in one or two local festivals over the summer - so again, please come back to this blog for further information if you want to come and see us or download our music (once we've recorded one or two songs).

In the meantime, have lots of work to do - such as lectures to plan and a written paper to complete for a conference in London in April! 






Saturday 28 February 2015

It's been a bit mad - so I haven't updated for a while....

Work at the University has been very busy this academic year. With my usual lectures for Media Studies, I had the opportunity along with fellow artist Chris Wood to teach some life drawing to Computer Games and Games Enterprise students in their first undergraduate year. They were a great bunch and really got to grips with image making! I also got to grips with my drumming as well - I see the act of drumming as very similar to the act of hitting the canvas with a paint brush. I use the Cajon and the Djembe - and even had one or two proper drumming lessons from Kevin at the wonderful  Garden Music School. So hopefully it might inspire some more artwork for me too.


I always ask to have a go on the drums at any live gig I can get to... here's a chance at
The Golden Eagle pub where I do my Drink and Draw evenings!

Drink and Draw.

I am happy to say that Drink and Draw on Tuesday evenings is going well. After a short break for the holiday season we are back drawing in front of a log fire with a pint or two. We have a great group who display some strong talent and a joy for creating things! Many thanks to Lou and Cliff, the Landlords at the pub, who provide a friendly and relaxed atmosphere and lots of objects to draw!!







Sketching

Have started to do a lot more sketching as well, when I have the chance - (the lovely) Ed - my partner  - must be sick to death of me drawing him all the time! I have been inspired by meeting with artist Colin Merrin who does fantastic landscapes. He does at least one drawing a day - so that's what I am going to try and do. So here's some more recent attempts...


The lovely Ed putting up with my staring at him all the time!

Wood Engraving

As my Christmas present to myself, I booked up to go on a one day wood engraving course in January with David Peduzzi - which was an amazing experience! The technique is fascinating, and you get a great sense of satisfaction when you see your work printed at the end of the session! Highly recommend it!! Here are my feeble first attempts!! 














Drumming and sausage rolls..

So - at the moment I am drumming with (the lovely) Ed who plays guitar and fiddle (amongst other things!) in a new band called 'Earspoon', along with Meg ( on bass), Jay (guitar and vocals) and Phil (ukelele). I have found that being in a band does mean that I make sausage rolls for band practice!!! Look out for us at Open Mic nights in and around Portsmouth ...

Sausage, sage and onion... and a veggie one!!

Sky Arts and the BBC

It's rather amusing to know that I have been repeated yet again on Sky telly for the Portrait Artist of the year  2013 - I did watch some of the 2014 sessions, and am highly amused with the BBC 'British Bake Off /Sky Portrait arts format for their Amateur Artist of the year show. I love Una Stubbs who is one of the presenters, she always comes across as very sincere... but I am intrigued by all this interest in the arts, when arts and culture is being all but eradicated from the UK education curriculum.

Finally in this update...

 I have currently just set up my page on the Saatchi web site with some of my drawings available for purchase, and I am considering new projects for the spring and summer... watch this space!!