Category Archives: gardens project

Gardens Project 12: First Post in 3 Months

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Gardens Project 12: First Post in 3 Months

At Christmas, as I was awaiting new year with bated breath, ready to make myself new resolutions and approach 2022 with a renewed vigour I got offered a job. Quite out of the blue an agency I had signed up with when I retired emailed me to see if I wanted to take up an interim position at a college not too far away and within a couple of days I’d spoken to the college and decided to go.

The good thing about this is that it shifted me out of my rut and meant I had, for at least some of my days, a defined purpose that wasn’t just about me. The bad thing is that even though it was initially only four days a week focus on anything else goes right out of the window.

I have been doing some things though…

I’ve joined a website for Yorkshire Artists, https://yorkshire.art/directory/artist/ian-latham/

had a meeting about the lemniscate project,

Three Lemniscate maquettes

Three Lemniscate maquettes

I’ve carried on drawing every day and you can see the February images here

  • Draw Every Day – February 22
    Draw Every Day – February 22
    Draw Every Day - February 22 Continuing to draw every day, in a molskine sketchbook using a ...
    See photo »

The drawings are posted to Twitter and Instagram each day.

and produced a couple of bigger studio drawings.

Gardens Project 12

Drawing of a fox in the garden at Balby – Charcoal 100x90cm In Progress

Gardens Project 12

The attic studio from above – pencil 90x90cm

I’ve also had to revisit the gardens project in VR as I made a series of mistakes that meant I had to rebuild the environment. My lack of knowledge leads to my constant stepping back to check and repeatedly changing my mind about where I’m going with this project. I do think (?) that I know what the installation will look like now, the piece will be entered through interactions with a set of platonic solids and will explore their associations with the classical elements. The faces of the dodecahedron being used as entry points to the different experiences.

I’ve started to adapt the narrative into a twine so that I can explore the different routes through it. This in effect doubles the number of chapters, or at least chapter headings? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t.

The Gardens project posts start here 

I also finished my painting of a rose

First Post in 3 Months

Balby Rose Oil on Board 50x50cm

Gardens Project 11: Hackwork and Ennui

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Gardens Project 11: Hackwork and Ennui

Langour of spirit is about right as far as the ‘Gardens Project’ is concerned.

I’ve got, finally, the topography established for the glover street scene. It took about 230 hours to get it looking the way I wanted. I’ve noted before that this is because of my lack of knowledge which leads to the iterative process of build, test, scrap, rebuild, test, scrap and on. I’ve also built the Introductory scene in outline and started to model the oak leaf as the overall box for the environment.

There will eventually be an introduction leading to the oak leaf and six chapters built around the gardens that will be accessed through the oak leaf at the whim of the player.

Hackwork and Ennui

Gardens Project Plan

I’ve planned this out to complete over the next six months frustrations notwithstanding, but then I got a job, so that’s going to slow it down somewhat.

Given those frustrations I’ve continued to paint.

holly leaves oil sketch

Holly Leaves, oil on board, 10″10″

I added a 10”x10” oil sketch of the holly leaves on plywood and finished the Bathroom Still Life.

bathroom still life

bathroom still life, oil on board, 50cmx40cm

This one is 50cmx40cm plywood and is another oil on board.

I made three small (30cmx20cm) oil on board paintings of lens flares from my camera trap.

lens flare painting

Lens Flare One, oil on board, 30cmx20cm

lens flare painting

Lens Flare Two, oil on board, 30cmx20cm

lens flare painting

Lens Flare Three, oil on board, 30cmx20cm

I also made a garden painting the same size,

apples

apples, oil on board, 30cmx20cm

and a painting of honeysuckle.

honeysuckle

honeysuckle, oil on board, 30cmx20cm

I added a sparrow to my bird collection

sparrow

sparrow, oil on board, 10″x10″

Finally I began a 50cmx40cm of a rose from the front garden.

rose - in progress

close up painting of a rose in progress

I’ve carried on drawing every day and you can see the November images

  • Draw Every Day – November 21
    Draw Every Day – November 21
    Draw Every Day - November 21 Continuing to draw every day, in a molskine sketchbook using a ...
    See photo »

The drawings are posted to Twitter and Instagram each day.

The Gardens project posts start here 

 

Gardens Project 10: “One apple behind another, some distance apart.”

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Gardens Project 10:

One apple behind another, some distance apart

mixed media drawing of the garden at Tickhill Road

Large Garden Landscape (work in progress) mixed media drawing of the garden at Tickhill Road

“I saw a bird in the garden this morning, it wasn’t moving. When I went out to see if there was something wrong I saw that it was one apple behind another. Some distance apart. “

I’ve spent a good deal of time mistaking things for something else. In essence I made a career of it. I often see birds that aren’t birds, rabbits that are frozen into instants waiting to be caught by a passing glance. I once saw angels stirring their wings on the facade of the Sagrada Familia and shifted my feet to see them turn to plastic bags.

“This morning the silhouette of a deer in the distance resolved into a woman walking a small dog, and a large stone used to stop joyriders. Is it true that the closer you get to things the more difficult it is to name them?”

“Distances in the garden arranged like a victorian toy theatre, the flats guarding the succeeding views as you wind towards the fence. Out of the side of your eyes birds flit between branches punctuating your progress with commas.”

small mixed media drawing of the garden at Tickhill Road

Small Garden Landscape – Version One small mixed media drawing of the garden at Tickhioll Road

“Reification or Gestalt Figure-Ground? Is the illusion created by the action of recognising an implied form or by the failure to distinguish a form from it’s surroundings?”

“This morning (another morning) a bird flitting through the trees next to me landed on a branch and became a curled dead leaf waiting to fall.”

“This morning (another morning) a pigeon turned into the leaves of a bramble by my feet.”

small mixed media drawing of the garden at Tickhioll Road

Small Garden Landscape – Version Two small mixed media drawing of the garden at Tickhioll Road

These notes were made over the last month as I try to articulate the things that are driving the Gardens Project. I’ll post a more in depth look at that that I’m working on at the moment.

As well as spending more than 200 hours working on the terrain for the first chapter of the Project (It’s not complicated I’m just not very good at remembering how to use 3ds Max so I’m relearning) I’ve been painting again.

5 small paintings of mushrooms picked off the lawn, and some poppy heads

Dried Poppies from the garden

Dried Poppies from the garden

And I’ve just started a still life of the bathroom window sill.

bathroom window sill

bathroom window sill – work in progress

I’ve also got two more months of drawing every day

The finished gallery from September can be seen here

  • Draw Every Day – September 21
    Draw Every Day – September 21
    Draw Every Day - September 21 Continuing to draw every day, in a molskine sketchbook using a ...
    See photo »

and October through this link

  • Draw Every Day – October 21
    Draw Every Day – October 21
    Draw Every Day - October 21 Continuing to draw every day, in a molskine sketchbook using a ...
    See photo »

The drawings are posted to Twitter and Instagram each day.

I also completed the drawings that illustrate the beginning of this post, and made some small paintings of holly leaves that I’m not sure about yet.

One apple behind another

Large Holly Leaf

One apple behind another

Holly leaves

and made a maquette of oak leaves as part of the gardens project introductory scene.

oak leaf maquette

oak leaf maquette