Art is everywhere.

[bendylouise]

 

 

This was fun to do.

[northpaul]

2 hours ago, bendylouise said:

This was fun to do.

......and it is enjoyable to look at......

[bendylouise]

Hee hee thanks @northpaul i'm glad you like it!

[howard]

On 30/04/2024 at 20:57, bendylouise said:

I've really had enough of knives today, what with the news in yesterday and today. Those poor people and the old man on the scooter. It seems relentless and is everywhere. I felt quite traumatised today with one thing and another.. I remember being at a disco 45 years ago and somebody had a knife. I was terrified.

That sculptures good though.

I like this woodcut by Andre Derain, Bouquet of flowers in a vase, 1948, it's just so appealing and simple. 

I was thinking along the lines of Kamashita's portrait being made of text, and the scultpure made of amnesty blades is touring the country to highlight the knife problem. So an example of art being used to challenge a current problem.

Some one with an interesting style and use of colour in his psychologically reflective art is Edvard Munch>

 

[bendylouise]

That's a nice Munch. The violet seems to mirror the mood. Do you know what it's called and when it was painted?

I've just come home and am trying to recover from the Hayward Gallery where I spent some time in the "When forms come alive" exhibition. They were all pretty large scale sculptures and  one room was full of what looked like pink entwined intestines and you walked around the 4 edges of the room around the sculpture. It really made you want to get in amongst it all!

There were some low frequency kind of gurgling noises accompanying. Kinda surreal and seemed to be well digested by the viewers (see what i did there) and made me rush up to the cafe for a piece of cake! (and a perch). It was called Pumping and was made by Eva Fabrigas 2019. Here's some of it. It was like sort of insides out! should be rotated clockwise 90 degrees.

Edited May 3 by bendylouise

[howard]

I'm sure it's called Melancholy. I like the idea of the interplay between external and internal.

I just had a look at When Forms...... Interesting ideas. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k0wcQYp5ZY&ab_channel=SouthbankCentre

 

[bendylouise]

12 hours ago, howard said:

I'm sure it's called Melancholy. I like the idea of the interplay between external and internal.

 

That's what I meant by mirroring – the colour  ( violet sea and beautiful teal trees against the sunset sky) simplicity strongly evokes the mood and the unpretentious style further represents the dominance of the emotion in the piece. Masterpiece!

That film link you posted was really good – it has been popping up constantly in my adverts! It was such a lovely tactile – looking exhibition (you couldn't touch anything though!) And actually quite joyous.

There were loads of school children (7/8 year olds) there drawing pictures, asking questions and getting excited. Some of the staff were really great with them, showing interest in the questions and pictures and they looked like they were having a great time. A good age to experience it, I think.

In the following work, one of the tentacles was constantly quivering. It felt like it was itching to reactivate and leap off the table.  Some people missed the quivering – you could see it more if you looked at the shadow. Someone suggested it looked like it was getting ready to get us. Brilliant! 

[bendylouise]

Jean-Luc Moulene "Ressort Flou" 2022

[howard]

I was thinking that the sculptures just needed to be experienced and they maybe communicate on the feeling level.

Same with the Munch.

(I started to do some painting, well dripping, was apprehensive, it went wrong but slowly got the hang of it. Excited now!)

My favourite at present is this Shylight one>

 

[bendylouise]

Yes, I don't know if you've had a look at the Drift website - https://studiodrift.com/work/shylight/.         they've got some more views/vid of it there - quite nice.

Olaf Brzeski - Dream - spontaneous combustion 2008 i really like this and another of his (below) which looks like a piece of iron lounging on a chair. I think they're brilliant, sort of opposites in that the soot cloud is made solid and the iron sort of languid. Cast iron and chair are from the "little orphans" series 2014. fyi. Hope you enjoy the accompanying info (it was easier just to post it).

 

 

Edited May 4 by bendylouise

[bendylouise]

I tried to paint a wildflower Meadow a few days ago. It didn't quite turn out as desired but never mind.  Its funny because I had it under some books for two days to flatten it. It came out from the books fairly flat but since then has become even more warped than it was when I first painted it! 

Edited May 4 by bendylouise

[Hal]

All sorted @bendylouise It might not be flat but it’s still very good. I like its vibrancy and the way you’ve carefully composed the colour combinations. Really lovely.

I’ve recently discovered what I think is an amazing botanical painter, an Alexander Marshal (1620-82). He seems to have come from a wealthy family which enabled him to trade rare seeds from plants that were being discovered in the US and East Indies. As a hobby I guess, he also documented the plants he and his mates grew in their gardens. Some rare, some not so rare, including a few charming depictions of animals and birds. He refused to sell them, as did his widow, but they eventually found their way into the Royal Collection at Windsor. I won’t post more, there are over a 100, but they can be found online through their database. As it’s almost time for the Bearded Iris to make an appearance I picked this one to give an idea of his style. David Attenborough called them ‘close to perfection.’

 

[bendylouise]

On 05/05/2024 at 12:25, Hal said:

All sorted @bendylouise It might not be flat but it’s still very good. I like its vibrancy and the way you’ve carefully composed the colour combinations. Really lovely.

I’ve recently discovered what I think is an amazing botanical painter, an Alexander Marshal (1620-82). He seems to have come from a wealthy family which enabled him to trade rare seeds from plants that were being discovered in the US and East Indies. As a hobby I guess, he also documented the plants he and his mates grew in their gardens. Some rare, some not so rare, including a few charming depictions of animals and birds. He refused to sell them, as did his widow, but they eventually found their way into the Royal Collection at Windsor. I won’t post more, there are over a 100, but they can be found online through their database. As it’s almost time for the Bearded Iris to make an appearance I picked this one to give an idea of his style. David Attenborough called them ‘close to perfection.’

 

Thanks Hal, and for the compliment about my picture. however, I must confess it wasn't really my own arrangement because it was done from a tutorial by Harriet De Winton. She does what she calls "new botanical art" mainly, which is watercolour and very close  anatomically to the flower but is a quicker process. It's really great learning about flowers and plants by painting them with Harriet.

Sorry, but would you mind deleting my other post from the music thread please – it got missed. Thank you.

Those Alexander Marshall flowers are absolutely amazing. they really are an exquisite treasure. Thank you for posting them. I'm definitely going to check him out. I remember seeing lots of botanical art on display at Kew Gardens. He was likely one of the artists. they must've taken an incredible amount of time to paint. You could only do them and refuse to sell if you were very rich, apart from having the will and the talent and opportunity.

 

Edited May 6 by bendylouise

[howard]

@Hal Yes there were some amazing botanical and zoological painters. Often they seemed to have learnt in the process just to be able to record what they saw. Darwin was one.

I imagine they could all be found in books in collections, so great that they are now digitising and posting online.

@bendylouise I like your wildlife meadow painting, so alive and with the hint of trees in the distance.

I like it that you are allowing paint to flow beyond lines like with the dragonfly, and how you've left the splashes with the vase of flowers above.

Some even take those random aspects and use it as part of the process.

[howard]

Culture can be a place where humans express their fears and if you think about how many climate change based; books, films and games there are, then the fears are explicit.

Also a number of artists are drawing attention to climate change, warming seas and it's effects.

Here's a sculpture made from hand sculpted ceramics to highlight the bleaching of coral reefs, Malum Geminos>

 

[Hal]

On 06/05/2024 at 12:44, bendylouise said:

 You could only do them and refuse to sell if you were very rich, apart from having the will and the talent and opportunity.

 

It’s a shame so little is known about him, he seems to be one of those people who was quite well known within a particular (gardening) circle, but slipped through the posterity crack. There isn’t even a portrait of him, he did do a self portrait but that’s either long gone or out there somewhere unattributed. Maybe it will turn up one day and someone will twig who it is!

On 06/05/2024 at 14:45, howard said:

@Hal Yes there were some amazing botanical and zoological painters. Often they seemed to have learnt in the process just to be able to record what they saw. Darwin was one.

I imagine they could all be found in books in collections, so great that they are now digitising and posting online.

@bendylouise

That’s a very good point, he said of himself to someone he corresponded with he felt he was gradually improving. The earliest he completed are in the British Museum, they’re a world away from the later examples to have survived. I think they have a certain something about them, a charm I guess.

I’m going off on a complete tangent, but I came across this Roman fresco from Herculaneum that I thought was really beautiful, in an understated way.

I don’t know if it was originally intended to be left that way, or was a preparatory sketch. But I wonder, given the detail if it was always meant to be monochromatic.  Very sophisticated if it was, no bells and whistles, just the skill of the artist.

[daja]

On 01/05/2024 at 19:15, bendylouise said:

 

 

This was fun to do.

 

Wow that’s really cool

[bendylouise]

Hey thanks @daja

 

[bendylouise]

On 06/05/2024 at 14:45, howard said:I imagine they could all be found in books in collections, so great that they are now digitising and posting online.

 

@bendylouise I like your wildlife meadow painting, so alive and with the hint of trees in the distance.

I like it that you are allowing paint to flow beyond lines like with the dragonfly, and how you've left the splashes with the vase of flowers above.

Some even take those random aspects and use it as part of the process.

Yes, It's great about the botanical flower paintings being available. Thanks for the comments ab my pics.

That's a clever and creative pic of the toad. 

Here's another Alexander Marshall watercolour - tulips,  from 1650. I don't suppose watercolour paintings can be restored like oil paintings can.  . This one it seems, was treated in 1979  by placing it on different types of Japanese papers to line it before mounting it on thick board as the original backing paper was "unstable". But I don't know if the watercolour itself can be restored. It's amazing that any watercolour pigment is left after all this time.

[bendylouise]

On 09/05/2024 at 19:35, Hal said:

It’s a shame so little is known about him, he seems to be one of those people who was quite well known within a particular (gardening) circle, but slipped through the posterity crack. There isn’t even a portrait of him, he did do a self portrait but that’s either long gone or out there somewhere unattributed. Maybe it will turn up one day and someone will twig who it is!

On 06/05/2024 at 14:45, howard said:

Ha ha "twig" - see what you did there! 

Another fun watercolour!

Edited May 13 by bendylouise

[bendylouise]

On 09/05/2024 at 15:07, howard said:

Culture can be a place where humans express their fears and if you think about how many climate change based; books, films and games there are, then the fears are explicit.

Also a number of artists are drawing attention to climate change, warming seas and it's effects.

Here's a sculpture made from hand sculpted ceramics to highlight the bleaching of coral reefs, Malum Geminos>

 

This does really highlight the fragility of the coral Reef. It's like it's been sucked of its life and vitality by human action. It reminds me of osteoporosis. We are making the sea world suffer from osteoporosis and it will collapse and die. It's great way to highlight what's going on.

[howard]

On 14/05/2024 at 12:30, bendylouise said:

This does really highlight the fragility of the coral Reef. It's like it's been sucked of its life and vitality by human action. It reminds me of osteoporosis. We are making the sea world suffer from osteoporosis and it will collapse and die. It's great way to highlight what's going on.

I do enjoy nature documentaries. I can enjoy the nature locally but to be able to see the wide variety of habitats and wildlife from around the world (without going there and adding to the problems) is a bonus.

I'd say that being in nature or even watching a documentary is therapeutic(My Octopus Teacher was a good example).

I think part of the problem with climate change is that the changes happen gradually and we don't see the long term effects. The amount of coral already bleached and dead is a good indicator.

Art installation in Lochmaddy uses LED lights to show predicted tide rises>Lines (57° 59 ́N, 7° 16 ́W)  by Finnish artists Pekka Niittyvirta and Timo Aho>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulum4KcffwE&ab_channel=VICENews

 

[bendylouise]

On 15/05/2024 at 16:33, howard said:

I do enjoy nature documentaries. I can enjoy the nature locally but to be able to see the wide variety of habitats and wildlife from around the world (without going there and adding to the problems) is a bonus.

I'd say that being in nature or even watching a documentary is therapeutic(My Octopus Teacher was a good example).

I think part of the problem with climate change is that the changes happen gradually and we don't see the long term effects. The amount of coral already bleached and dead is a good indicator.

Art installation in Lochmaddy uses LED lights to show predicted tide rises>Lines (57° 59 ́N, 7° 16 ́W)  by Finnish artists Pekka Niittyvirta and Timo Aho>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulum4KcffwE&ab_channel=VICENews

 

The artwork looks really powerful and shocking in that environment. It's hard to know and must get people talking. Should we have lines like that everywhere in towns all over? Would be much harder to ignore than just words. such a simple idea.

[howard]

On 17/05/2024 at 12:40, bendylouise said:

The artwork looks really powerful and shocking in that environment. It's hard to know and must get people talking. Should we have lines like that everywhere in towns all over? Would be much harder to ignore than just words. such a simple idea.

That's one thing I like about conceptual art, it's often based on a simple idea, although I imagine it took some setting up.

London's already got a line, it must be somewhere in the tech sensors that monitor rising tides and shuts the Thames Barrier to stop water levels rising by 5M in the city.

I think the predictions must be based on global temperatures rising by 3 degrees by end of century. I don't imagine short term thinking governments will stop it so it will be all about humans adapting to a new environment. Hopefully scientists, enviromentalists, artists, etc can come togther and create modern sustainable cities.

Here's a light installation by the Dutch artist Daan Rossegaarde Waterlicht about the power and poetry of water.

 

 

 

[bendylouise]

8 hours ago, howard said:

That's one thing I like about conceptual art, it's often based on a simple idea, although I imagine it took some setting up.

London's already got a line, it must be somewhere in the tech sensors that monitor rising tides and shuts the Thames Barrier to stop water levels rising by 5M in the city.

I think the predictions must be based on global temperatures rising by 3 degrees by end of century. I don't imagine short term thinking governments will stop it so it will be all about humans adapting to a new environment. Hopefully scientists, enviromentalists, artists, etc can come togther and create modern sustainable cities.

Here's a light installation by the Dutch artist Daan Rossegaarde Waterlicht about the power and poetry of water.

 

 

 

That's an amazing piece too. Looks scary, another simple idea.

It's an awful thought that governments won't stop temperature rise but as the health of the planet is an emergency and as it's not constantly and consistently treated as one by them, I guess you're right. 

Back to painting – I saw this great watercolour (at the Courtauld Gallery)  by Helen Allingham, the first woman to be accepted as a full member into the Royal Watercolour Society. Its absolutely beautiful.

Sandhills, Witley (Master Hardy's) ab 1881-88