Tag Archives: Thinking

Dancing Partner

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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

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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

  • Draw Every Day – March 24
    Draw Every Day – March 24
    Draw Every Day - March 24 Continuing to draw every day, in the 15th sketchbook since the ...
    See photo »

…and the February images here

  • Draw Every Day – February 24
    Draw Every Day – February 24
    Draw Every Day - February 24 Continuing to draw every day, in the 15th sketchbook since 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.

April Showers

Self (It really is all about me!)

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Self (It really is all about me!)

Another New Studio

Self (It really is all about me!)

08 02 2024

Having reached something of an impasse in the last month what with finishing things and so on I decide to start a self portrait. So on the 8th February I spent two hours working from life and arrived at the above. The proportions are ‘ish’ and it looks nothing like me.

09 02 2024

On the 9th February I spent another two hours…

12 02 2024

Then after the weekend I spent a further two hours on the 12th February. Again it’s beginning to look vaguely as if it might be a relative of mine.

Self (It really is all about me!)

14 02 2024

On the 14th I spent 3 hours mostly measuring the features against each other and refining the shape of the head. It might be worth mentioning that I decided to do this after seeing the press reports for the Courtauld exhibition of Frank Auerbach drawings particularly Adrian Searle’s review in the Guardian

But It really is all about me!

 

16 02 2024

I worked some more on it on the 16th bringing it almost to a conclusion after just over 11 hours.

19 02 2024

On the 19th I spent the last hour I’d allowed myself, for now, to reach this state.

judge for yourself

It’s ok, but you can judge for yourself. It really is all about me!

Tree Flower 12 02 2024

Obviously that wasn’t all I did during the first half of February, I also continued to work on sculpture. I repurposed the abandoned original support for the three trees half size maquette I made in January and also did some more work on the story for the Gardens project.

I looked up the idea of Eudaemonia that I encountered in Will Storr’s ‘The Science of Storytelling’ which is the only readably intelligent examination of the process I’ve found yet. Storr posits a 5 act structure for storytelling, Act 1 – This is me and It’s not working; Act 2 – Is there another way?; Act 3 – There is. I have transformed; Act 4 – But can I handle the pain of change?; Act 5 – Who Am I going to be? Essentially though I don’t think there is a set of rules.

I found myself distracted by an idea for the garden that goes back to the original impetus of recording the resting places of cats that have owned me over the years. To bring in an avatar of a cat that guides the player through the garden and instructs them on the quest, the quest being to find where cats go.

That’s where eudaemonia comes in, it is the state or condition of having good spirit, according to Aristotle. The eudaimonic life is one of “virtuous activity in accordance with reason” Or being happy by living with purpose.

Also on the 16th February I attended the first online seminar in AN’s Framework series Module 1. It was all about funding, different sources etc. Very useful if I can ever shift myself to apply it. I would post a link but the notes are not online yet.

Standing Nude 19 02 2024

After the weekend I spent some time buggering about with Gravity Sketch on the Quest 2, It’s been updated but it’s still very glitchy for me. Keeps dropping out and repositioning itself.

So I went back to ‘Gesture VR’ and did a drawing using passthrough.

Standing Nude 21 02 2024

On the following Wednesday I got sidetracked by the roof repairs at home and went to the studio on the 22nd, tidied the drawing up and stretched two new sheets of paper.

Studio 22 02 2024

At which point the studio looked like this.

Three (separate) Red Trees

To shake myself up a bit I took apart the three red trees, I should really take them somewhere and coat them with GRP, to give myself more room in the studio.

Structure 25 02 2024

Then I used the wood I got from c-view where my studio is, to make a structure for a new sculpture.

Dancing Tree 27 02 2024

On the 27th I attached surfaces to the structure – this is fairly heavy cartridge paper – and painted it with watered down Indian ink. It’s called ‘Dancing Tree’ for as long as I can remember it.

Drawing

I’ve continued to draw every day;

The February drawings can be seen here

  • Draw Every Day – February 24
    Draw Every Day – February 24
    Draw Every Day - February 24 Continuing to draw every day, in the 15th sketchbook since the ...
    See photo »

…and the January images here

Draw Every Day - January 24 Continuing to draw every day, using sketching pens, japanese brush pens, a set of moleskine coloured pencils, a Koh-I-Noor 4B and Derwent watercolour and liquid charcoal washes.  The 14th sketchbook was completed on January 24th and a new A4 book started on the 25th, when I also started drawing with a set of marker pens. Double page spreadsuntil the 24th. 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 December's drawings here -
  • Draw Every Day – December 23
    Draw Every Day – December 23
    Draw Every Day - December 23 Continuing to draw every day, using sketching pens, japanese ...
    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.

It really is all about me!