Post-Apocalyptic Adobe Workout

Dei Gaztelumendi is a young Spanish illustrator from San Sebastian. This is a fascinating time lapse film of him at work, showing the process from pencil drawn sketch through Adobe Creative Suite and all the host of computer manipulation and enhancements that are now part of the vocabulary of slick graphic illustration. Norman Rockwell would have loved it.

Frames of reference

A Taste Of Apocalypse

There’s been a lot in the media recently about 2012 being the year of apocalypse or some sort of catastrophic change predicted in the Mayan calendar. Last summer, instead of our usual holiday to Gozo where I paint my beach scenes, we house-swapped for three weeks in the French Pyrenean town of Quillan and discovered the neighbouring village of Bugarach. Property prices there have gone sky high after thousands of people flocked to the area believing the nearby mountain to be the only place on earth to be spared this ‘apocalypse’. Apparently in 2011, the local mayor began voicing fears to the international press that the small town would be overwhelmed by thousands of visitors in 2012, even suggesting he may call in the army. Continue reading “A Taste Of Apocalypse”

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For Lucian Freud

This is weird. Straightaway Kensington rooftops then a glimpse through a window, as if I’d seen it before. These people are familiar. We see them on the street, in the newsagent, in those boots sometimes, shuffling. Why the hawk? A Peregrine Falcon? Keen eyes and full of energy. I had no idea this film existed until I stumbled upon it today, so now I will share it. Continue reading “For Lucian Freud”

Frames of reference

Wallace Collection Frames

On a recent visit to the Wallace Collection I was lucky enough to get to see inside the lecture theatre on the lower ground floor, where they display some of their historic collection of picture frames. Many of them original frames for paintings on the floors above, now exhibited in new frames. Continue reading “Wallace Collection Frames”

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Seeing Double

Phoebe and Lydia Lake are artists. They’re also identical twins, which means they know a thing or two about symmetry. So last year, when they were 20 years old, the Tate Britain decided to film their first encounter with one of the museum’s most famous holdings, The Cholmondley Ladies, painted sometime around 1600-1610 by an unknown artist. An inscription describes the ladies as members of the Cholmondley family (pronounced “Chumley”) who were born on the same day, married on the same day and “brought to bed” (gave birth) on the same day. Continue reading “Seeing Double”

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Paintings From The 1960s

A group of paintings by John Hubbard made during the 1960s will be exhibited at the New Art Centre near Salisbury, from 4 February until 15 April. His work from this time, though based on landscape, was essentialy dealing with atmosphere and the movement of light, rather than any specific feature of the landscape. He quotes Turner’s words, saying he was trying to consider “every part as receiving and emitting rays to every surrounding surface”. Continue reading “Paintings From The 1960s”

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Mexican Miracle Paintings

Today I passed by the Wellcome Collection on Euston Road in London and noticed a banner advertising Mexican Miracle Paintings, an exhibition that opened in October 2011. I don’t know why I’d not seen it before. I pass by here frequently. It looks like a great exhibition. Continue reading “Mexican Miracle Paintings”

Frames of reference