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Wool Gathering

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Wool Gathering

Another New Studio

Wool Gathering

Studio 05/08/2024

After disassembling the sculptures and creating an empty studio I embarked upon a period of rumination. Is the next step to develop a better VR for the ‘Red Gardens’  or to stop for the moment and find a new direction? I spent a week or so working on the bigger ‘Gardens Project’  adapting it for a later version of Unity and working out how to direct the audience through it. The problem remains that people are not used to any agency in works of this nature and would, it seems, rather be led. My study of this is with a very small sampling of visitors to the studio but giving a user anything other than the ability to move, stop and start again, introduces far too much of a learning curve for the controls.

Flower Bed Cards 12/08/2024

Flower Bed Cards 14/08/2024

As a side note this blog’s illustrations are presented in chronological order through August and are discussed later on.

The many things I need to resolve are both frustrating and make me feel guilty because I’m sitting in a big empty space and working at a computer and as result of this I am engaged in ‘Wool Gathering’  I link to the OUP blog rather than the dictionary because of the discussion. Wool Gathering is generally regarded to be a fruitless pursuit but after examining the etymology of the idiom Liberman suggests that this must not have originally been the case as the activity is goal oriented and required concentration. That’s why I think it fits with the things I’ve been doing this month.

I have an absolute love for and a profound difficulty with flowers. I love to see them grow, to watch them in the garden year to year, to see which return and which retreat, contemplating their intricacies. Every so often I draw them and fail miserably in making that record. The drawings I’ve done this month reflect this difficulty varying between the abstraction that records the garden most accurately and the representation that becomes miserably like a flowery thing. The more like flowers they look the less like flowers they are.

I made the twenty small images above as a set to arrive at a card to send to a friend. They are derived from photographs of the flower bed from above. The bed has perennials planted amongst pelargoniums and various self seeded flowers like Nigella and Red Shank.

Flowers (1) 16/08/2024

After I’d finished the cards I spent some time making some larger drawings over the sheets I’d used to protect the floor when I was painted the red sculptures. I’m just concerned to pick elements that give the impression of the flower bed.

Flowers (2) 16/08/2024

The first two worked quite well I think because the flower forms are not obvious.

Flowers (3) 19/08/2024

The next two are less successful because the big flowers are too flowery.

Flowers (4) 19/06/2024

I struggled particularly with this one because of the Gazania that dominates. I got frustrated enough to build myself a table.

Studio 23/08/2024

Alongside these there are three paintings made in my attic at home, this one oil on board, the others on paper.

Wool Gathering

Flowers (5) 26/08/2024

Flowers (6) 26/08/2024

Flowers (7) 26/08/2024

I’m still in two minds about these.

Studio 28/08/2024

Exploring the method further I’ve stretched paper for more drawing and I’d begun a larger drawing before realising that the lack of variation on the surface before starting was limiting the possibilities for the drawing.

Wool Gathering

Flower (8) 28/08/2024

This is the drawing after I applied loose red and white emulsion over the drawing I’d already started that was failing.

Flowers (8) 29/08/2024

This is the drawing the next day after I’d started to bring it back towards a finish.

Flowers (2) Maquette 29/08/2024

Flowers (2) Maquette 29/08/2024

The real purpose of the drawings is to work towards sculpture and then take this into the virtual space. After some works in the sketchbook I built this maquette form the second flower drawing. This is where wool gathering gets you, towards something even if I’m not quite sure what it is yet.

Drawing

I’ve continued to draw every day;

The August drawings can be seen here

  • Draw Every Day – August 24
    Draw Every Day – August 24
    Draw Every Day - August 24 Continuing to draw every day, finished book 18 on 24th August and ...
    See photo »

…and the July images here

Draw Every Day - July 24 Continuing to draw every day, finished book 17 on 10th July and continued in new book using brush pens and a mixture of black, grey, sepia and sanguine ink. I was 65 on the 8th July. The drawings are made any time from 9:00 am at the breakfast table and occasionally later in the day if I'm away from home. The drawings have been posted since the beginning, 6th May 2020, on instagram https://www.instagram.com/latham_1959 You can see previous months through the galleries page https://www.ian-latham.com/blog/galleries or you can go straight to JUne's drawings here -
  • Draw Every Day – June 24
    Draw Every Day – June 24
    Draw Every Day - June 24 Continuing to draw every day, in book 17 using brush pens and a ...
    See photo »

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

The drawings are posted to Threads and Instagram each day.

 

Centre Apple Tree

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Centre Apple Tree

Another New Studio

I just completed the Contemporary Art Academy PG1 course with a session where the participants delivered an ‘elevator pitch’ summing up our practice using the insight gained from the course. This is obviously really difficult because it is hard to articulate in the first place and remains hard in the final analysis.

I said something like “My name is Ian Latham and I build mixed reality installations. These involve physical sculptures alongside virtual environments (worlds). I use found and reclaimed materials, branches, scaffold planks, insulation foam etc., to build objects and structures based on my suburban garden. The virtual worlds that work alongside these explore the process of creation using LiDAR scans of the sculptures at various stages of their creation. The juxtaposition of these objects with representations of the garden IRL suggest the process of growth that I’m exploring.”

There were lots of hhms and aahs along the way, a few digressions and an element of self deprecation that was described to me as apologetic. All in all it was a great experience, it’s good to meet a group of peers and discuss the work rather than the life of being an artist.

I made this video for the presentation but in the end didn’t use it as we were trying to present ourselves as if we encountered someone while networking.

 

Centre Apple Tree

Red Garden Six

Since the last post I finished Red Garden Six with the addition of the red tree in the foreground.

Centre Apple Tree

Red Garden Seven 07 06 2024

Red Garden Seven 10 06 2024

I also took Red Garden Seven through two more stages. I’m not entirely convinced by either of them but I am persuaded there is nothing more I can do with either.

Two Red Trees – Pear and Apple 17 06 2024

I continued to work on the “Three Trees version Two” but it morphed into the “Two Red Trees – Pear and Apple” that will sit at the entrance to the virtual exhibition, and the physical one come to that.

Centre Apple Tree

Two Red Trees – Pear and Apple

The exhibition will have “Two Red Trees – Pear and Apple” at or just past the entrance, a new piece “Centre Apple Tree” in the centre of the quincunx and the first version of “Three Red Trees” at the top left and the “Dancing Partners” at top right. The various drawings may be displayed alongside although part of me thinks they’ll be separate.

Two Red Trees – Pear and Apple – Detail

Centre Apple Tree

Centre Apple Tree

Centre Apple Tree

I spent the back end of the month building the new “Centre Apple Tree”

And drawing it.

We had an unusual spell of good weather, for June, as well so I did some drawing in the garden.

Climbing rose 21 06 2024

Garden 26 06 2024

Hydrangea 26 06 2024

 

Drawing

I’ve continued to draw every day;

The June drawings can be seen here

  • Draw Every Day – June 24
    Draw Every Day – June 24
    Draw Every Day - June 24 Continuing to draw every day, in book 17 using brush pens and a ...
    See photo »

…and the May images here

Draw Every Day - May 24 Continuing to draw every day, finished the 16th sketchbook on the 26th May,  after drawing with a set of watercolour pencils since the 12th April. The 16th sketchbook covered the fourth anniversary of daily drawing, on the 6th, and ends with the 1,481st consecutive drawing. Started book 17 using brush pens and a mixture of black, grey, sepia and sanguine ink. The drawings are made any time from 9:00 am at the breakfast table and occasionally later in the day if I'm away from home. The drawings have been posted since the beginning, 6th May 2020, on instagram https://www.instagram.com/latham_1959 You can see previous months through the galleries page https://www.ian-latham.com/blog/galleries or you can go straight to April's drawings here -
  • Draw Every Day – April 24
    Draw Every Day – April 24
    Draw Every Day - April 24 Continuing to draw every day, finished the 15th sketchbook on the ...
    See photo »

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

The drawings are posted to Threads and Instagram each day.

Tripod Tree

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Tripod Tree

Another New Studio

The whole month has been a bit of a let down for me as it has been broken up by time away and illness. I read an interview with Nicola Tyson  who talks of a practice defined through drawing and escaping the line. There is definitely something in the fact that Tyson was born in 1960 so she had the same kind of art education as I did. The desire to draw was instilled in people of this generation and it’s difficult not to start there. It also often becomes an entirely separate discipline to the painting or sculpture.

Tripod Tree

Dancing Partner 29 04 24

At the start of the month I solidified the ‘dancing partner’ structure by adding paper to the sides to turn it into a tall tent.

Tripod Tree

Dancing Partner 29 04 24

Dancing Partners 01 05 24

After this I painted it to lean against the original ‘dancing tree’. I’m not sure whether I’m going to match the surface finish yet.

Red Garden Six

I added the dancing tree to ‘red garden six’ but decided that it didn’t fit the space as well as I’d like. It seems too deliberate. Possibly not big enough.

Red Garden Six

On the 16th May, after a week away, I started to change the drawing.

Red Garden Six

Red Garden Six 16 05 24

Eventually simplifying the structures and darkening the trees.

Red Garden Seven

I also started a new drawing, ‘red garden seven’ using the paper I prepared with gesso.

Tripod Tree 22 05 24

After another few days off because I was ill I started to use the insulation foam c-view have given me to build another large tree sculpture. Tripod Tree.