Some actual talking about art

I have always intended to use this blog as a platform for artworks, and as a way or recording my progress as I strive to increase my art prowess. Thus I set myself a task - that I will write about art at least once a week and do a bit on a piece of my own also at least once a week.

This week, I'm going to do Landseer, because I picked an artist at random.

Just a brief look at his Wikipedia page will give you the bare bones of his biography and a couple of his more famous paintings. A little more Google-fu and you can see his less famous ones. I like these better. Olga's Gallery has a selection of more of them, my favourites of these being The Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner, which just about brought tears to my eyes, such is the pathos of the subject, and Jocko With A Hedgehog, which cheered me up again. The man was a really good observer of animals, and they way they move and sit. Discussion below the link.

Of Trolling Christians, wherein I suggest a method to discomfit people who try to save your soul.

I know, its basically shooting fish in a barrel in this country, we're damned lucky. But I came across the full text of Luke 6:27-30 in a blog I was reading (Alethian Worldview) and it made me think. So I checked to see that it was indeed the whole section, and found a link to it as well so you can see for yourself. It reads:

  ²⁷ “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.


I draw your attention specifically to section 30. 

The Independence of Scotland, a more serious look at it.

So, Scotland is to be having a referendum amongst the population to decide if the general population is favourable to splitting with the rest of the UK and being a separate, entirely independent country in our own right. The rumouring that I have been hearing is that most people are generally against it - nobody really believes that it will go ahead. An article from the Scotsman claims that 39% of the population are for Independance and the rest against

I will say this - As of now, I hope that we don't achieve full independence. (See below for details)

The Independence of Scotland

So here's an opinion on this snakes nest: 

Nah, not really. I just get the feeling that this is what is expected of me. This is a bit more like it :

I'm sure Mr. Salmond is a nice guy just doing what he think is best, but this was a good opportunity. Also, in the unedited version, checkout the outrageous photobomb from the guy behind:

 It looks like he's watching the photographer as he's taking the photo of Mr. Salmond. It looks like the expression I wear when I watch a little child wanting to "clap ma dug" (pet my dog) while squealing '' A PUPPY!!!!!!!!!'' - a forced-tolerant expression alert for any signs that the child will put its fingers in the dog's eyes or mouth or anus. I'm not suggesting that members of the press should, or would want to, anal-probe the First Minister (though for a man of his age, prostate cancer is a real thing), but I am suggesting that the guy behind Mr. Salmond looks concerned about something and is trying to hide it. Maybe the First Minister has a killswitch which activates a concealed chem-injector rig and dumps 0.1L of pure adrenaline right into his bloodstream and turns him in to an unstable, frothing, homicidal, unstoppable killing machine. My god, it's the perfect plan.

"Friends, Romans, countrymen; lend me your haggis and Irn-Bru, that I may chow down righteously''

Nope, turns out he's just chillin', preaching to his homies. Like a modern-fucking-day jesus. That pose is reserved for fictional people.

Incidentally, something more serious is in the works, I just like to take opportunities for mockery.

I should probably add that these are not my photos and I do not own them or intend to imply that I do - I basically crudely swiped them from The Scotsman's website. They rightfully belong to The Scotsman, I believe, if the photographer has sold his rights to them. 

Oils, Inspirations and Visions

So I've recently been painting in oils. Water Miscible Oils, to be precise. They're made with safflower oil that has been chemically altered at the molecular level to be water-soluble. Paint and chemistry - together at last!

So it was important for  me to try and do some research on the subject, since I have no formal art training and I understand that oils are a highly technical medium. I want to do well right away. I read some online tutorials about the subject as preparation,  knowing, of course, that they wouldn't be quite enough. But at least I have a theoretical understanding of the very basics. I did some Googling around for these tutorials, scanned a few and discarded them, but there were two that stood out as being sufficiently nuts-and-bolts to help me - Jess Bates's website and Bill Martin's. There are, presumably, others that are technical in intention, but I'll have to get arounfdto them later.

It's also not enough to simply know how to do a thing - one also must know what to do with it. Sure I could be trying to do dry tonal exercises on spheres and cones, but to be honest that sucks boaby. I don't have the time or the canvases to spare on that, and little interest. I am aware that I'll probably have to do it to progress in the future, but right now I am focusing on having fun with the medium, mostly just figuring out for myself how the paint feels and works. The only problem is that to do anything other than dry technical exercises, it seems that one needs inspiration. And many days, I find that lacking.

Everyone has their own method of getting some inspiration together. When I feel like I need to do something, but don't have a clear idea of what I need to do, I generally round up my artbooks and leaf through them. I also do this with websites of artists whose books I don't own. So to present a very few of the colossal number artists whose work gives me ideas: dark-themed hyper-realist Michael Hussar, providing, if anything, a gruesome and insightful commentary through his symbolism (check out the piece entitles Vasoline), Scottish Colourist J D Fergusson who evidently delighted in the 'voluptuous delights of life', the expressive work of Chris Dingwell and the fantasy hyper-realism of Christophe Vacher, Paul Bonner and John Howe (I know, there's clearly something about me that loves highly detailed fantasy art). I might also suggest that one checks out the sculptorial/assemblage work of  Christopher Conte, which I discovered through the tattoo blog Needles and Sins. I love me some mechanisms and biomechanical stuff. Oddly not so much in tattoos, though.

Anyway, these are a few of the things that I am drawn to when languishing in the doldrums, or lost in need of direction. Like a dog that instinctively grubs for the roots and herbs that it somehow knows will cure it of its maladies, I return again and again to these people's work, most of all the sketches and preliminaries. There's more, of course, but that'll have to wait for another day.

So there you have it - a little technique, a little inspiration and a buttload of determination, and I'll go from here.

Some of my projects

I've been guilty of neglecting the art intention of this blog a little, but here I present a few of the things I've been working on. 

 The warm  (averaging 9 degrees or so this week) wet weather here in Scotland this winter has caused fungi to sprout everywhere, which continues to delight and fascinate me. I didn't get the chance to do the macro shots I wanted, but next time, dammit, next time.

 This is my very first attempt with oils - a crude, unplanned sketch on a cheap canvas. I find I like the texture of oil paint and I can see me spending a lot of time with oils in the future. A more serious discussion on oil painting  and the way that I am trying to work is set for an upcoming post.

 The outline for a whimsy in watercolour. I think it's going to be an interesting experiment in simple forms and bright colours, but I can't help the feeling that I've got to go weirder.

A sketch in black coloured pencil that I tossed off on the bus home. For style,  I've been working on more solid lines and clearer, simplified subjects. I don't have the kind of control I want with coloured pencil, as it feels a little strange, but I think I'm slowly learning to use it with a bit more dexterity.

For a wee while I'm going to be focussing on the oils to get a grip on them. I know it's generally regarded as a massively complex technique, that requires at least months of academic education and intense technical study to even approach, but I don't have that. What I do have is paint, brushes, some canvas, some time and a fistful of determination, and dammit, I can work with this!

Anyway, that's probably enough excuses for now...