THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 29 : Venice

 

first posted in 2020..

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this is a 'figures in a souk' painting.. 

 

but it relates to venice italy..

 

there is a movie also

  don't expect a plot..it's more a painting than a regular movie..

nobody expects..

 

 

click pic to enlarge..

 

 

www.figuresinasouk.com 

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"

NOBODY EXPECTS TO PAINT VENICE

 yo!.. reflection.. innit!

You never set out to paint venice..

I did set out though..

a long time ago..

GO FORTH AND MULTIPLY

you start out standing..

proud to steel her anything she sees..

bright colours..

loosely applied..

in harmony..

and fresh..

and then a day comes..

when you feel..

that that work..

is unfinished..

lacking in some way..

so you give it a make over..

maybe some of it survives..

maybe not..

usually though..

you can see some of what was there before..

and it may be that..

the new version is better..

maybe not..

but anyway..

time moves along..

and the painting is still there..

and you feel like..

it still needs more..

so you give some more..

sometimes the mood..

lightens..

sometimes not..

you find yourself..

a longways from where you set out..

and it's getting dark..

KNOWING WHEN TO STOP

is part of becoming a painter..

and that point changes as you live longer..

and work..

sometimes looking at a painting..

is like an..

archaeological dig..

you have to dig deep..

and brush away the..

dust..

sometimes..

sitting in the studio..

you just want to talk..

and share..

some of the thoughts..

and ideas..

that linger..

in this lagoon..

figuresinasouk.com

KNOWING WHEN TO STOP

 yo!.. just when you think it's done.. innit!

so there I was..

thinking that this was a painting..

that was finished..

and ready to go out into the world..

SLEEP ON IT

then the next day..

or the one after..

I look again..

while eating my toast..

and it bugs me..

I hate the pale brown colour..

I hate the diagonal figure..

I hate the red square..

I hate the big pink figure..

but most of all..

I hate the yellow spot..

SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION

out come the paints..

and on goes a new coat..

that gets rid of the brown..

and the big pink figure..

and the ugly red..

and it's centre..

I REST MY CASE

still don't like it..

I have kept the shadow figures..

and feel the need for a big statement figure..

you know..

like a riding to the rescue thing..

but nothing happens..

I sit and think..

and look..

and think..

then..

I get up and approach the easel..

with a rag..

and I rub out the yellow head..

on the diagonal figure..

and sit back down..

now I am happy..

not at first maybe..

but after a time..

it becomes obvious..

this sucker is done..

or is it..

what have I done.?

figuresinasouk.com

FIGURES IN A TOMB

 yo!.. knowin when ta stop.. innit!

I was watching this tv documentary..

about ancient Egypt..

and the professor was inside a pyramid..

a big-un I bet..

anyway..

there she was sitting the floor..

in front of the sarcophagus..

and I was struck..

at how much this was like..

she was sitting in the Tate..

in the Rothko room..

all those Rothko chapels..

are just like the inside of the great pyramids..

SOME TIME DURING ETERNITY

some guy shows up..

and starts telling all the gang..

that he is a god..

same old story..

all love and glory..

it's a pantomime..

MEANWHILE

back in the pyramid..

demon hurst..

aka citizen Kane..

says that..

the biggest idea in art..

is death..

FIGURES IN A SOUK

is an ongoing series of paintings..

even though painting has been dead since 1968..

in which I conjure figures..

from oil paint and canvas..

and having created this stuff..

after viewing..

rothko, turner and rembrandt..

I realise that it's..

richard parkes bonnington..

and his painting..

quentin durward at liege..

that informs the work best..

but the view from the tomb..

 keeps peeping out..

SCOTT-FITZGERALD

so we beat on..

boats against the currant..

borne back ceaselessly..

in to the tomb..

figuresinasouk.com

Quentin Durward at Liège

Quentin Durward at Liège

TRIANGLES IN A SOUK

yo!.. heads up.. innit!

 latest paintings from the grand bazaar..

I have been busy this last while..

and thought these works worth sharing with you..

although the title of this project is..

figures in a souk..

other things happen when you paint..

here above we can see triangles..

several different triangles..

these are also figures no?

this time it's a square..

this one is hot..

in more ways than one..

school's out for this one..

although last completed this week..

the canvas was originally bought for me by my mother..

when I was just 18..

that would be 1970..

I painted a copy of a roland hilder village scene..

'ainsford kent'..

my mother and father were delighted with it and it hung on their wall for the rest of their lives..

it probably helped me get to art school..

since then I have painted over it..

the canvas is old but high quality..

this last version has developed into..

maybe what looks like like a school visit..

to the souk..

but really..

 they're all just figures in a souk..

THE ARTIST IN HIS GARDEN

yo! .. how do yo gardin grow..innit! 

 

 

IN THE GARDEN WITH MONET

 

 here I am..

 

sitting in the garden

 

just like monet..

 

no lily pond though..

 

but then no sound of rolling artillery fire..

 

only 20 miles away..

 

 

us artists..

 

we like our gardens..

 

we don't have to paint them..

 

we can just sit in the shade..

 

cut the grass..

 

admire the planting..

 

 

 

 

IN THE GARDEN WITH MARK 

If you paint a rectangle..

with a feathered edge..

 

and especially if you paint two..

 

one above the other..

 

within a portrait aspect canvas..

 

pretty soon you will be talking with mark..

 

so mark is here with me in my garden..

 

and it is all the better for that.. 

 

 

 

 IN THE GARDEN WITH JACKSON

 

yeah..

 

I know what you're thinking..

 

but I like pollock..

 

and I like poppies..

 

and yellow..

 

and it's my garden..

so..

monet, france, poppies..

pretty soon we'll be back at the front..

 

LETS NOT GO THERE

 

let there be light..

and life and flowers..

this is springtime..

after all..

The Artist In His Studio

sitting here in my studio.. 

19th may 2012.. 

you can't see me because I am.. 

taking this picture.. 

 shooting this shot..

 

LIKE MONET

 

 sitting in his garden.. 

 in giverney.. while 20 miles away.. 

 the guns are smashing the.. 

trenches to mud.. 

he can't feel a thing.. 

 here in palookaville.. 

 the war in ukrain is further away.. 

and we can still sit here in peace.. 

for now anyway.. 

 

 THE GLASS IS FALLING HOUR BY HOUR 

the glass will fall forever.. 

but if you break the bloody glass.. 

you won't hold up the weather.. 

 

 

 

so here is this blog..

 

being written..

 

the large canvas is from..

 

1994

 

you can live a long time in hollywood..

 

and never see the part they put in movies..

WE ARE ALONE ALL TOGETHER

all together..

we are alone..

DOMESTIC ARRANGEMENTS

 

 

there is a painting..

 

in nottingham castle..

 

by george moreland..

 

it used to have the title..

 

'the artist in his studio, his man gibbs frying up'.. 

they have shortened it now..

it was always a favourite of mine..

 

 

 

IN COMMON BUT ALONE

 

 

Chingachgook became once more the object of the common attention. 

He had not yet spoken, and something consolatory and instructive was expected from so renowned a chief on an occasion of such interest...

"Why do my brothers mourn?" he said, regarding the dark race of dejected warriors by whom he was environed; "why do my daughters weep? that a young man has gone to the happy hunting-grounds; that a chief has filled his time with honor? 

He was good; he was dutiful; he was brave. 

Who can deny it? 

The Manitou had need of such a warrior, and He has called him away. 

As for me, the son and the father of Uncas, 

I am a blazed pine, in a clearing of the pale faces. 

My race has gone from the shores of the salt lake and the hills of the Delawares. 

But who can say that the serpent of his tribe has forgotten his wisdom? I am alone--"

"No, no," cried Hawkeye, who had been gazing with a yearning look at the rigid features of his friend, with something like his own self-command, but whose philosophy could endure no longer; "no, Sagamore, not alone. 

The gifts of our colors may be different, but God has so placed us as to journey in the same path. I have no kin, and I may also say, like you, no people. He was your son, and a red-skin by nature; and it may be that your blood was nearer--but, if ever I forget the lad who has so often fou't at my side in war, and slept at my side in peace, may He who made us all, whatever may be our color or our gifts, forget me!

 The boy has left us for a time; but, Sagamore, you are not alone."

Chingachgook grasped the hand that, in the warmth of feeling, the scout had stretched across the fresh earth, and in an attitude of friendship these two sturdy and intrepid woodsmen bowed their heads together, while scalding tears fell to their feet, watering the grave of Uncas like drops of falling rain.

In the midst of the awful stillness with which such a burst of feeling, coming as it did, from the two most renowned warriors of that region, was received, Tamenund lifted his voice to disperse the multitude.

"It is enough," he said.

 "Go, children of the Lenape, 

the anger of the Manitou is not done. 

Why should Tamenund stay? 

The pale faces are masters of the earth, 

and the time of the red men has not yet come again. 

My day has been too long. 

In the morning I saw the sons of Unamis happy and strong; 

and yet, 

before the night has come, 

have I lived to see the last warrior of the wise race of the Mohicans."

 

https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-Native-american-Figure/31203/1246684/view

 

IN VINCENT'S CHAIR

so we beat on..

boats against the current..

borne back ceaselessly..

into the past.. 

figuresinasouk.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WALKING IN THE SOUK

 yo!.. time a thief.. innit!

figures glimpsed..

passing by..

hanging out..

coming together..

in a dance..

some kind of jive..

 some sort of beat..

can you imagine..

the morning light..

the heat of the night..

figuresinasouk.com

A MAGIC CARPET

 yo!.. Persian Rug.. innit!

I was in art class..

one day in 1970..

and I had this really great black brush stroke..

on this otherwise poor..

painting that I was doing..

the lecturer commented upon how this mark was very strong..

and I was hooked..

over the years..

I developed a style that consisted of a mixture of..

soft focus and bold gesture..

and nowhere is this more evident than in the..

FIGURES IN A SOUK

now it should be realised that not all figures..

are people..

squares and circles etc..

are figures too..

so an abstract figuration can be realised..

These blue stripes above..

are what lead to the more human figures..

and for a while they were, together with the square..

all that was there..

some time later..

I started to develop the figures..

and they became more 'real'

it's interesting to me..

that I am no happier with the new figures than the old..

one is not 'better' than the other..

it just happens when I paint..

I see them emerge..

and try not to cramp their style..

ON MY PERSIAN RUG

is a song

hope you like it..

because this is all one souk..

knowledge is finite..

imagination is infinite..

and all of life is in the souk..

it's a magic carpet ride..

figuresinasouk.com