Art

Machu Picchu Revisited

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Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu 1.6.16

Every day is an adventure in the studio and today was no exception. With a sparkling new Arches pad, together with Krista’s prompt to choose our own adventure for this week’s Discover Challenge, Machu Picchu seemed to be the obvious subject to revisit.

Machu Pichhu ii

Those of you who follow my blog will know that the greatest adventure of our lives was the six day trek my wife and I took in 2013 to Machu Picchu. I started the blog in May that year before we left so that family and friends could be part of the adventure, albeit virtually.

Machu Picchu iii

Over the past three years I have posted many photos from the trip, including a gallery in response to Krista’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Reward last year, but with her prompt today and my pristine new Arches pad, I think June may become Machu Picchu month in the studio.

adventure iv

Stay tuned…

From Yard Work to Art Work: The Photinia Story Part Two

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part 2 xii

Photinia II 26.05.16

After Part One of The Photinia Story for this week’s Discover Challenge,
Part Two today is all about the leaves.

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The green bin’s overflowing contents were collected on Wednesday but some of the leaves made their way into the studio…

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…and it was time once again to turn the yard work into art work.

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First another ink drawing using those perfect photinia branches to draw with…

part 2 ink iv

…and then it was time for some colour.

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part 2 x      part 2 xi

part 2 viiib

And finally as a postscript to this post 🙂 an old painting of mine that dates back to 1974. It resides at the back of a shelf in the studio and I have to confess I had forgotten about it until I started painting the photinia leaves this week.

Heath

The title is Autumn on Hampstead Heath a place I used to walk almost every day with my parents during my childhood in London. The painting takes me right back to those distant halcyon days as happy, loving memories of mum and dad come flooding back.

From Yardwork to Artwork: The Photinia Story Part One

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photinia c

Photinia I 23.05.16

Today’s post is all about learning to find beauty and inspiration in the mundane chore of yard work on a holiday Monday.

photinia ix

Yesterday was Victoria Day here in Canada, the perfect time to prune the photinia and clean all of its dried leaves from the studio roof and gutter.

With the concrete cleaned and swept the afternoon was free for painting and photography in the studio with a rescued photinia branch making for the perfect subject…

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and a few of the trimmed branches new tools for drawing with.

photinia ii

Now all I had to do was put the two together. What could be better than an ink drawing of the photinia created with one of its own branches?

photinia vi         photinia iv

Well, perhaps some additional watercolor to complete the picture…

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and we’re almost there…

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So ended a very satisfying day turning the hard work of yard work into art work.

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to be continued…

Face-off

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faceoff iii

Face-off – the photo.

The title of today’s post will soon become evident. Since this week’s Photo Challenge is all about faces it seemed appropriate to begin with this photo of my pencil box with the iconic portrait of Mono Lisa on its lid. It caught my eye as I was in the process of cleaning my white porcelain palette, still with its copse and rubbers image from a few days ago.

faceoff iv       palette face iv

palette face i       palette face iii

Seeing Mona Lisa looking at me in with those eyes that seem to follow you wherever you are, and clearly with this week’s Photo Challenge still in my mind, suddenly it seemed like a good idea to paint her onto the half cleaned tile.

faceoff i

faceoff ii

Face-off – the painting

Mission accomplished, time for her to go.

Face-off – the movie

Weekly Photo Challenge: Face

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face ii

Paul Schofield in The Captain of Köpenick (1971)

face iii

Laurence Olivier in The Dance of Death (1967)

Drawing the faces of these two giants of the English stage revealed to me the power that they could generate with either a distant glance or thunderous frown. Both of their performances live on in my memory as unforgettable evenings in the theatre from many years ago.

copse and rubbers

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copse vi b
 
Thanks to Tina whose wonderful photo of Muddy Waters on her always inspiring blog Travels and Trifles was the starting point for this copse painting that began with loose washes of watercolor and ended with a fair amount of rubbing to create the finished piece, hence the title of today’s post.

copse iii

copse i
At the same time, using the same palette of watercolors on my wet white porcelain tile a somewhat more abstract copse began to appear, as the drying paint was scraped and rubbed.

copse vii

copse ii

Thanks Tina and also Debi whose Creative Zone for Making Art inspires me every day.

good night sweet Prince

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sweet Prince

Today, on the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, these words spoken by Horatio at the end of the final scene of Hamlet seem so poignant and could easily have been written for another sweet Prince whom the angels are now singing sweetly to his rest.