Dancing Partner

Dancing Partner

Another New Studio

Started to move forward by framing some pictures, the first image ‘Jamie’s Flowers’ was longlisted for the Jackson’s Art Prize.

Dancing Partner

Jamie’s Flowers in C-View

Red Garden 5 in C-View

The second, ‘Red garden 5’ is probably not quite finished yet. I have a small VR environment for the Red Gardens,

It just takes the garden using a 3d background from Google maps and walks through to a 3d exhibition of the existing sculptures and back through portals to the red version.

I took some screen shots while I was in it and used one of them to start a new drawing.

dancing partner

Screenshot from VR

Red Garden 6 17/04/24

Red Garden 6 22/04/24

And these next iterations show it on the 22nd at different stages.

Red Garden 6 22/04/24

After this I did a lot of thinking about where the end point for this work is and I’ve looked again at the theory around the ‘geranium project’ and the inherent dualistic approach I took there. I haven’t resolved that as yet but I ought to for the course I’m currently studying 

Red Garden 6 24/04/24

I worked the surface over more on the 24th, this is the stage where every drawing begins to lose something I think. I also made a small drawing on paper prepared with gesso after a discussion with Terry Chipp who has the studio above me at C-View.

Red Tree 24/04/24

I also spent an inordinate amount of time looking at this scene in the studio.

Studio 24/04/24

The ‘Dancing Tree’ sculpture is crying out for a dancing partner.

dancing partner

Red Garden 6 26/04/24

On the 26th I spent some time recovering the big drawing ‘Red Garden 6’ and added a small amount to the red tree

Red Tree 26/04/24

Finally I spent some time building the base for the dancing partner.

Studio 26/04/24 ‘Dancing Partner’ WIP

I’ve managed to keep up with 30works30days and made this short video of the 2nd second of each submission

April Showers

April Showers

Another New Studio

On the 1st April I happened upon this review in the Guardian  Yhonnie Scarce is an indigenous artist who uses glass to explore the lingering effects of the nuclear weapons testing in Woomera in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I suspect I’ll never get to see it for real but it appears to be very striking, possessing that power that comes from ownership and quiet repetition.

It struck me enough to record it here and I find it challenging because it directly addresses a history that is generally unrecorded and, like so much of our history, speaks ill of us. I’ve obviously never had anything that motivates me as strongly and I’m once again at a bit of a loss. To address this I decided to do the 30works30days project on Artquest to see if it kickstarts anything.

This is ‘What brings you Joy’. Day 3 of the 30works30days project on Artquest. Daffodils, paper, cardboard, found wood, cable ties, 150cm tall

April Showers

The works I’m doing are all linked to video and 3d work and I’m collecting them together here

I decided to make ‘Tree Flower’ the same pattern as ‘Dancing Tree’ and to paint the flower red.

 

The drawing in the background of that sculpture, made by collaging the paper I used on the floor when painting it, has become the basis of ‘Red Garden 5’

This one is the biggest yet and I’m trying to get some of the same dynamic as the VR world into it. I’ve spent a lot of time working on the VR this month, using google maps and google earth as the base of the 3d world and building into it.

The bottom of the garden, lidar scanned with my iPhone and Polycam

As I progressed I took the yellow down to push the space back into the picture and then looked at adding more detail into the tree. The whole needed a lot more depth to the colours as well.

The image below shows an idea of the detail in the tree on 27th March.

The centre apple tree from the garden shows the view the drawing represents, this is from the VR ‘red’ world.

After fannying with the materials for the google model in Blender, and dodging the april showers, I bought some daffodils to give myself a break and started a new drawing.

The first drawing was done on the 2nd April and the second shows how it appeared on the 4th.

I also did some more work on the ‘Red Garden 5’ drawing which I think needs something else in the centre foreground.

I read this thoughtful Guardian article about ai in art. It centres on Pierre Huyghe’s  exhibition in Venice, asking a series of questions about the use of artificial intelligence in art making. It’s an interesting conundrum but the genie is out of the bottle now.

Drawing

I’ve continued to draw every day;

The March drawings can be seen here

and the February images here

There is a link to the previous month’s Gallery on each page.

The drawings are posted to Threads and Instagram each day.

April Showers

Dancing Tree

Dancing Tree

Another New Studio

Dancing Tree

Dancing Tree 27 02 2024

The sculpture I started last month has occupied all my time since apart from a trip away between the 7th and the 9th. I wanted the surface to be active and to give the piece the feel of the dancing tree that is its working title. On the 1st I worked on the surface with an idea of reflecting the way light shows between branches of trees and after a lot of work ended up with an entirely unsatisfactory surface.

Dancing Tree

Dancing Tree 01 03 2024

Dancing Tree 01 03 2024

So much so that I honestly felt it detracted from the form. The view above is more dynamic because the pattern is not flattening the surface.

Studio 04 03 2024

Back in the studio on the 4th I decided to take the pattern off by attaching new sheets to the surface.

Dancing Tree 04 03 2024

This had the effect of thickening the surface and also making it sit tighter to the form.

tree textures 04 03 2024

As I still wanted to get the effect of the sun through the trees, or at least to imply a space seen through the object, I began to make drawings from the object, recording each stage as I went. So firstly I drew the object loosely on A1 cartridge, I make a set of five, then I blocked in the larger forms with blackboard paint and took a monoprint of each sheet. I added additional elements in printing ink and black gouache and again printed each of them. Then I left them to dry while I took a trip away.

Tree Textures 11 03 2024

On my return I decided to split the images into strips and leave white gaps between to have a much more active surface.

Dancing Tree

tree textures process

The gif gives a stage by stage view of the process.

Alongside this I also used the paper I’d put down to catch drips and spills to start a new drawing.

Floor Void 04 03 2024

Leaving the central space left when this was originally used for ‘tree flower’ 

Dancing Tree 12 03 2024

The next thing was to put the black and white stripes on the surfaces and then print the pattern using strips of paper.

Dancing Tree 12 03 2024

Dancing Tree 12 03 2024

The structure doesn’t look like the sun streaming through the trees, but does have some of the dynamism and will work well as part of the three trees set.

Dancing Tree 12 03 2024

It’s worth looking at the difference between the two states, one from the 27th February and the next from 12th March.