Stage Rehearsal, 1878-1879, by Edgar Degas
One must do the same subject over again ten times, a hundred times.
Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.
Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.
Phew…
Amanda
I had grand ideas of getting to this week’s Art Safari - it being the first time in ages ‘cos I’ve been chained to the easel for months - but it’s not looking good. Guess who forgot it’s Targa West time again. I knew it was coming up but didn’t check the date on one of the many signs around the streets here because I didn’t think it would affect me since I was chained to the easel. Then I had this perverse urge to go somewhere. Life’s like that. Must be a subconscious thing. Or maybe I really do need to get out for some convivial company or go mad.
Best laid plans… our street is on the rally circuit which is fabulous for a couple of young ‘uns out there with cameras and tripods getting really, really good at panning moving cars (and, yes, they really are moving - the sheep are none too impressed). It’s raining too - now that’s keen. Inventive too with their brollies gaffa-taped to a gate posts - country boys - they get it from their dad - ain’t much that can’t be fixed with gaffa tape and/or fencing wire - I kid you not. Downside: they won’t be opening the roads until after one and the Safari starts at two and over an hours drive away. Hmmm… Or, think positive I could go join the kids with a camera…
Anyway, I’ve told the Safari I’m going to get there. Just got an email back suggesting that if I drive fast enough I may be mistaken for one of the rally cars. Can you imagine trying to be inconspicuous in a bright red Beetle with the numberplate “Ladybug”. I don’t think I’d get away with.
Have fun,
Amanda
PS That yellow notice can be clicked to take a read. Now, I’m doing my best to be positive about it all but the wording of that and the signs around here really make my blood boil . It’s an inflammatory situation - try being a shift worker needing to get home to get some sleep this morning. I think they desperately need a PR person to do some serious rewording to at least make it less offensive. Grrr… The words “officious toads” comes to mind - and that from a supporter. Gotta wonder what the less than happy folks are saying…
In my last post I asked if anyone knew the maker of the statue I have used as a model in several paintings. Thanks to Major… I can now henceforth and forever credit Tom Frantzen as the artist who sculpted the dog I’ve come to call Blue…
Het Zinneke (1999, Bruxelles, Rue des Chartreux)
This “dog thrown into the Senne river” is named “Zinneke” after a Flemish word meaning “mongrel”. Because he is a dog of mixed breed, he symbolises the multicultural nature of Brussels. He is a proper “street sculpture”, as he really is built-in; his legs are sealed into the pavement and the post he is peeing on had been there long before him. The post became part of the sculpture.
This sculpture, commissioned by the Chartreux district committee to attract tourists, was created in the spirit of the “zwanze”. With this dog, Frantzen offers a visual example of this form of humour to all passers-by, especially those looking for an opportunity to share something and have fun together.
The series of paintings involves Blue doing things other than “watering” bollards and the other models came from stock photos, drawings of my own dog Jack and photos of a friend’s dog also (just to cause confusion) called Jack… Het Zinneke however was the first.
The internet is fun
Amanda
The WA showing of Dr Perdita Phillips In Vetland exhibition opens on the 28th August to show the results of her 2009 Art Meets Vet Science Artist in Residency program at Murdoch University’s School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences. Her X-ray sculptures, photographs and drawings will be situated in both the clinical and research areas. For full details as to times and events see the In Vetland blog.
In addition to her own work, in order to do something a little different, Perdita combined her interest in collage and maps by calling for images from other artists to create a large wall piece. The aim was to show a ‘world’ of ways that animals are represented by connecting many images together. My contribution came about when a friend forwarded on the invitation suggesting that “Blue might get a guernsey”.
So who’s Blue? He’s an important character in the body of work I’ll be showing in October as part of the Underpass Motel exhibition. He appears in animation and in a series of paintings. This one, which is showing as a digital image at In Vetland, is an oil on panel study for a larger work which, as yet, remains untitled. Blue is a good and sturdy cattle dog with a gritty sense of humour yet he encompassess more layers of meaning than a fine torta - few of them much fun. None of which are going to be explained… ever. Blue also doesn’t exist.
The model for this incarnation was a Belgian statue called Tennike Pis which is located on the corner of Kartuizersstraat and the Rue de Vieux Marche aux Grains in Brussels. Unfortunately that is all I know of him - enquiries as to his maker have drawn a blank. Does anyone know?
Have fun
Amanda
After lots of late nights and even longer days the Printmakers Association of Western Australia (PAWA) finally has it’s new website. I’d say it was over a year in the making, except it wasn’t, it just took me that long… Why? Because it was felt the site should have a webpage for each member, with some sort of index to to look them all up, as well as all the usual things one would expect with a site like this. All completely searchable. And, of course, easily kept up todate. And, in fact, so easy to keep up todate, that it could done as often as the newsletter (which is also on my things to do list each week). All completely reasonable.
All of that however is a bit of a tall order for the usual HTML website. The answer, of course, is to base it on a blog. Not a problem, I thought, having already built this site with a Wordpress engine hosted on my own server (which was an ask at the time given my then status as a css neophyte. HTML, no worries. CSS? Eek! Let’s just say I learned a bit during that adventure. Enough, in fact, to confidently tackle another in the same vein).
The problem was PAWA’s service provider is IINET. Why a problem? Because IINET don’t provide a database such as MYSQL unless one pays more money. In fact, a lot more money. Which meant that no blog software that I could find would work. Not happy. So it sat. And sat, And sat, festering on my things-to-do list, not wanting to give into the IINET rort or have PAWA suffer the hassle of switching providers and the change of email addresses etc.
Then, ah hah! (A bit thick I am.) Why not have a wordpress.com blog (ie hosted by Wordpress themselves) with just a splash page and menu at IINET. Easy. Well, it was, except for a lot of bending to get the site to function the way I wanted - which would have been so much easier on a self-hosted Wordpress engine. Ho hum. It’s done.
If you were thinking about joining PAWA this might be just the lure you needed because you’ll get a page of your own - with photos and text and links to anywhere relevant - as well as all the benefits of being a bonfide member of an old and respected professional body. And a great newsletter every single week!
Have fun,
a
I “wasted” yesterday relaxing in Fremantle eating fish and chips by the ocean, sipping tea at Dome and cruising the secondhand bookshops. I should have been painting.
Brought home two books: one on Velazquez (which only almost satisfies the itch over the one in my Amazon
What do Wyeth and Garcia have in common (along with my other idols Alex Colville and Edward Hopper)? They are all sometimes classed amongst the “magical realists”. The what? If you want to know know more there’s a pretty good article at Ten Dreams.
And Antonio Lopez Garcia? Try this:
Have fun,
a
*Too late too wait for comments on the Wyeth books they’re on their way… The others will have to stay there for quite a bit longer so opinion on their merit would be much appreciated.
The Technique of Modelling in Clay by Eric Griffiths (1987) is essentially a book about just that but Eric also has opinions on art in general and isn’t afraid to say so. In his own words “this book is full of my opinions …remember it is only another artists approach” and the “only duty you have is to accept or reject this book’s contents as it suits your need and fancy”.
In the introduction he talks about the role of the teacher, expressing a preference for being considered an expert. He sees a teacher as someone with access to specialized knowledge which may be taught, examined and rewarded with meaningful qualifications. He believes this approach has little to do with the practice of art because it’s a course of study without an end, for which the exams are the models made and for which the most important skill is the “ability to rely on your own self judgement”.
Craft skill is a commodity that one person can hand on to another whereas art is a much more indistinct thing – more difficult to define – and is not something that can be passed from hand to hand. It is a mysterious quality that is either part of your personality or not. Art is a combination of ego or individuality with a quality of creative imagination. Whether you have art within you can only be resolved by you.
Eric Griffiths’ first lesson is that we must travel our own road accepting responsibility for our art and then learn to make our own evaluations of what is right .
Copies of The Technique of Modelling in Clay are available secondhand from Advanced Book Exchange. I found the one I’m reading at my local library. I’ll continue this next time with his thoughts on craft…
Have fun
a
Probably not much… However the sharp eye’d amongst you might have noticed the name change in the logo above from amanda to a.a.williams. Why? Simply because that’s the way I sign my work. Less confusion long term. The url will remain for the same for now. OK until I can figure out a smooth transition to the new domain name…
At the end of the day the idea is for it to be easy for anyone trying to find me. Both of you.
Have fun,
a
This week’s Artist Safari is looking out for a city. Or rather it going to the city to look out. Or the city is looking out for the safari. No, no, no the good Safarians are off to the lookout in King’s Park to look at the city.
Jeff suggests a change of pace - bring your paints as well as your chair, hat, sun cream, drinking water, easel and the usual materials.
Meeting time and point: 2:30pm Sunday 16th August, in the carpark at the end of Fraser Avenue.
If you get lost or are running late try phoning: 0402563841
More information: Artist Safari website.
View Artists’ Safari in a larger map
Have fun,
Amanda
While I’m partial to printmaking I spent most of last year animating for an upcoming film Underpass Motel which be released on DVD in October. This year has disappeared under tubes of paint and assorted sculptures without a puppet or print in sight. Doesn’t mean I’m not interested…
Here we have a couple of very different animations - both involving printmaking.
This first one from the Internet Archive is a video:
made by a sort of video silkscreenlike printmaking process. Images printed (using VisualJockey SP1) over the underlying video…
While this one from You Tube is a “linomation” (hand carved animation using lino prints) by Mark Andrew Webber with music by Adam Dedma. It was done using 296 10cm square individual linocuts. It was took Andrew around 500 hours to produce. The work is titled Dehisce - a word which means:
(biology) release of material by splitting open of an organ or tissue; the natural bursting open at maturity of a fruit or other reproductive body to release seeds or spores or the bursting open of a surgically closed wound
Looks like fun,
Amanda
