Open Studio Dark Fox

Open Studio Dark Fox

Another New Studio

I had around 30 visitors on Saturday and the 20 more on Sunday.

Lots of questions and compliments but no sales.

Between times I worked up the fox drawing and updated my online store, as well as stretching some paper and starting a new drawing.

Dark Fox 11:11

Open Studio Dark Fox

Dark Fox 12:23

Open Studio Dark Fox

Dark Fox 13:53

Open Studio Dark Fox

Dark Fox 14:08

Open Studio Dark Fox

Dark Fox 14:46

Open Studio Dark Fox

Dark Fox 15:52

On Sunday morning I mounted and framed the dark fox so it was on display for the open studio.

One of my visitors pointed me to an interesting artist called Emma Webster who uses digital imagery and environments to inform her paintings. 

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  Instagram each day.

 

Quicksand

Quicksand

Another New Studio

There is a way in which applying for funding sucks the life out of you and makes you perceive your practice as lacking any kind of progress. A lot of applications, anything in ACE projects or DYCP and most other that arrive without fanfare require a well defined project that hasn’t been started yet and won’t be started until the grant is approved. The problem with this is that you spend so much time waiting for the decision, I know you how long you’re going to wait and I know everyone writes that they follow the rules but nobody does, that you can’t summon the energy to do anything once you’ve been declined. Needless to say I didn’t get mu grant funding! Sigh!

The only thing to do is carry on regardless. I’m also getting a bit pissed off with funding providers who will only comment through social media channels. I don’t won’t to be on LinkedIn anymore, I really can’t be arsed with Facebook and obviously I ditched twitter years ago (feels like it anyway). Why they can’t put their posts on a blog on their websites is clearly so technical it is beyond my ken.

Anyway this last two months have been about applying for funding and reaching a point where I couldn’t progress while I awaited an outcome and the subsequent come down. Hence the quicksand, I was already slowing down but the rejection sent me stuttering to a halt. Then there has been the prep for an open studio event next week.

Quicksand

scene notes

At the beginning of the month I had a lot of notes like this one in my notebooks, this one a scene list for woolgathering.

Quicksand

Horse and Fox

Fox

And I decided to build a fox, and then a horse based on the Uffington white horse.

White Horse

Stress Free Living

After painting both and spending a lot too much time working on animating the fox model I realised I needed to build an articulated version of the fox to make the animation easier.

Articulated Fox

In the end I split the body to make the spine articulate.

Fox Drawing

Then made a drawing from the fox model. That will resolve into the scene below.

Fox in the Moonlight

Articulated Fox

I found I would need to build the fox out of something stronger to enable it to stand unaided and for me to change the position.

Flowerbed Drawing 17 03 2025

I also decided to do more work on the flowerbed drawing after it was rejected for the Jacksons Art Prize.

The current state of “Woolgathering” is in these two videos, the second one reduced to five minutes for a competition entry.

 

The rest of time has been spent framing and hanging small paintings in the studio for the open weekend coming up. The hackwork is always like trudging through quicksand and gives surprisingly few rewards when looking at the slightly older work.

Peppers and Fruit

Primrose, woodland plants, leBrun bather, Dunnock

Small Foxes, Apples, Candles, Interior and Glassware

Prints from large drawings

woodland, pigeons and sparrow, still life.

Drawing

I’ve continued to draw every day;

The February drawings can be seen here

and the January images here

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

The drawings are posted to  Instagram each day.

Too Much Space

Too Much Space

Another New Studio

I’m currently torn between the idea of having a strong narrative that is followed through a particular space and the idea of a truly non-narrative space that awaits the visitor to build a story. In a sense like Homo Sapiens Nikolaus Geyrhalter‘s film from 2016 where the earth is seen to be slowly reclaimed by nature. The construction of a story, or do I mean ‘meaning’?, from an experience is something I’d imagine most of us do all the time. I have found that visitors to my virtual environments find it extremely difficult, as if the media itself leaves them demanding to be led.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5450084/

‘Solitary’ 03/01

At the beginning of the month I’d started this drawing while struggling with Unity, so I carried on. First washing then the background over in a filthy grey,

‘Solitary’ 06/01

then building the front tree back out and adding extra branches and twigs.

‘Solitary’ 08/01

Too Much Space

‘Solitary’ 13/01

Adding some lighter hues to the background between the trees and working to create a slight corona effect.

‘Solitary’ 31/01/25

In the end the tree, ‘Solitary’, looks like this and it might be finished.

Flower Painting 2 06/01

I worked over the second flower painting, darkening some of the background and adding depth.

Flowerbed 15/01

As I was still waiting for downloads at various parts of the month I started a new drawing from the flower bed.

Flowerbed 17/01

Flowerbed 20/01

The work is reaching for the multi layered and complex feeling of the overgrown bed while retaining sufficient separation between the plants. Also, hopefully, respecting the qualities of drawing with pastels.

Flowerbed 31/01

Still a lot of work required.

Abandoned Flower painting

Abandoned Flower Painting

Abandoned Flower Painting

I worked on a third square painting from the flower beds but it wouldn’t behave itself, three stages above and below the one I painted out, it’s white now.

Abandoned Flower Painting

Once I got to grips with the HDRP rendering in Unity I started to work through the scenes I wanted to place in ‘Woolgathering’

The first attempt at a meadow.

The second, attempting to get closer to the text of John Clare’s ‘Helpstone Green’

A walk up and down the hill in the second version.

And a very quick run through of the piece as it is at present. I’ve added the red gardens pieces into the mix as well at the back of the original garden. Ultimately there will be more development of that world as I move the sculptures and new ones I building now into the various scenes.

Drawing

I’ve continued to draw every day;

The January drawings can be seen here

and the December images here

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

The drawings are posted to  Instagram each day.