THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 18 : Enola Gay

yo!

the artist has noticed this American symbol..

how could he not..

seven years before he was born..

the skys over Europe..

were full of airplanes displaying this recognition symbol..

he thinks of this as the logo/pictogram..

of the American century..

AN AMERICAN LANDSCAPE

in American Art of the 1940 - 1950 period..

Abstract Expressionism..

was the result, in part, of a turning away..

from the horrors of the war..

the artist has read..

that the energy of Pollock's..

Summertime 1948

is descriptive of the energy released by the nuclear bomb..

the airplane that dropped the bomb was called..

Enola Gay..

Mark Rothko 

 

"There is no such thing as good painting about nothing"

THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 17 : A BOOMER'S PAINTING

yo!

here we are in the artist's studio..

what a mess..

well it's a grey January day..

and the studio is cold and unused..

THE LANDSCAPE THAT WAS

this canvas was started in 1984..

and was part of a series about Idealised Landscape..

an American USAAF decal from WWII..

with a quatrefoil in the centre of the star..

a promised land..

this image was his thing for a while..

this was the first one in 1985..

a nice dove of peace vibe happening here..

Lavender Mist..

probably the artist's favourite..

Jackson would have approved..

military vibe here..

you may notice how the colours of the rectangles..

either side of the star are different from each other..

the idea was mood and balance..

a balance of power..

A BALANCE THAT WAS

so 70 years of Pax Americana..

gone like snow on the water..

next time on..

THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

painting over paradise..

the fool on the hill..

the future that was..

THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 16 : IN CAMERA

 inside a black room..

in the local contemporary art gallery..

the artist waits behind a closed door..

he has his Sony RX100 pointing at the blackness..

the door opens..

and our boy shoots..

this is what he thinks photography is..

the unexpected..

the happy accident..

the lucky break..

chance meeting..

like Kandinsky..

seeing his painting upside down..

in the moonlight..

abstract.. 

innit!

THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 15 : In the shower with Janet Leigh

 WOMEN WASHING

people were maybe expecting..

something like a Degas or a Bonnard..

the artist in residence..

has come up with this..

it's Janet Leigh acting..

from the shower..

in 'Psycho'..

the artist in residence..

 has married her with this wifey..

from a Vim advert..

it's a play on Munch..

more or less expressive..

it is also about Marilyn..

and Andy..

it is the destruction of his icon..

it is a screen print..

a pattern..

but not a repeat..

this is interactive..

you get to play with the flaps..

re-arrange the image..

but not the ending..

SHE OPENS HER MOUTH TO SCREAM

but the pot has boiled over..

the acting dead..

are dear departed..

a moment of pure cinema..

"the darndest thing I ever saw"

worth 15 minutes..?

the suspense is killing me..

bit of a chameleon this one..

THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 14 : In Waterstones Cafe

 NEITHER WOLF NOR DOG

our artist..

is sitting in Waterstones Cafe in Nottingham..

it's a cool place..

great coffee and staff..

great big windows with a view..

he is reading a book he has found in the store..

it is a good book and he has purchased it..

by a guy name of Nerburn..

INDIANS I NATIVES I AMERICANS I ORIGINAL I PEOPLE

his mind is taken back to some paintings he made back in 2008..

he had this huge roll of heavy weight rag paper..

which was pure white..

and empty..

he cut it up into rectangles..

and put the in the bath..

to soak and get rid of the rolled ness..

once flat he decided that oil paint would bleed into them..

and leave a nice yellow linseed oil stain around the marks..

he just painted some figures..

in his 'survivors' style..

that he had been using for a short while..

the figures were on wheels..

after Giacometti..

and with a somewhat De Stijl look..

the paint was thinned down some and has run..

he has called this work..

NATIVE AMERICANS

and there are more like these..

INDIANS I NATIVES I AMERICANS I ORIGINAL I PEOPLE

these labels are discussed in the book..

NEITHER WOLF NOR DOG

as are many other interesting revelations about..

these people..

Dan an old Indian man..

makes a series of talks..

that are enlightening and pertinent..

he is able to view the world through both his eyes..

his Indian eye and his white eye..

maybe check this out for yourselves..

and get a coffee too..

SURVIVORS

 

THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 13

our artist is 19 years old..

he is finally at art school..

just..

he is on the foundation course..

and will have to be accepted on a Dip AD course..

in order to progress to degree equivalent qualification..

that was what there was..

then in 1971..

BRUCE DAVIDSON

becomes a part of his plan..

but not before..

ELLSWORTH KELLY

who has shown him this figure..

he likes this figure or shape as he calls it then..

he plays around with it..

a lot..

he will play with this for some while..

and he will bring Bruce Davidson along too..

he has found screen printing..

and he likes it..

he starts with this Bruce photograph..

from East 100th St..

in Harlem NY..

photographs of our boy's first screen prints

he loves this picture..

it has all the fresh bright future in it..

OK some jerk has spilled filler over his silk screen..

and it could have been..

all she wrote..

but our boy just shrugs and soldiers on..

maybe he is just lazy..

and can't be bothered to make a new screen..

maybe he is short of time..

but really he just likes the white out shape..

with the bits missing..

he prints both on sides of the paper..

then cuts out the 'flap' shapes on all but one side..

then he folds them back..

with another print underneath..

and anyways..

when he is experimenting with printing colour over black halftone..

he discovers what a moire pattern is..

again he likes it..

in fact he loves all of this stuff..

this is why he has studied for years..

Art School..

Heaven..

AFTRE BATHING AT BAXTERS

he has made a choice..

and chose being with his girlfriend..

on a Graphic Design course..

is the way to go..

OH DEAR

he has no idea what Graphic Design is..

and will struggle to make his Fine Art ways..

fit in and take off..

it's like Joe's Garage..

he has to make imaginary paintings in his head..

so..

eventually he will revert to Ellsworth and Bruce..

and create a book..

on his own dime..

SYMPHONY A RIFF NUMBER

where each page is a variation on a theme..

using his two favourite items..

sometime later..

The Scream..

up next on..

THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

Iconoclasm..

a 'flaps' extravaganza..

BRAESIDE ; FULL DISPLAY

the display cabinet and all it's secrets.. 

At Braedside all is quiet..

no cell-phones in 1959..

no traffic on the quiet road..

360 degrees of garden outside..

why not follow the links below each picture..

Cockatoo plane

pilot bird pilot..

Virginia Stuart Sea Pieces

an early art college cup and saucer..

sea pieces in paper-mache

just another great terrier and some ceramic shoes..

cockatoo plane and prop..

you can just make out uBABE..

faintly and on the right..

Snowy and Toto the border terrier..

stand guard..

maybe a little 'at ease'..

but that's the way things are..

down here in..

BRAESIDE

next time..

those promised garden shots..