Waihi Arts - Life Drawing Classes

We're lucky to have life drawing classes once again up and running, commencing March 12, with John Mulvay. The class ran for two terms last year with community education funding. Classes are held in Waihi and the local college can provide details to anyone interested in joining.

Anyone who reads this blog will know I appreciate the opportunity of being able to draw from life (see quote on my page here). There's something about having a class to attend each week that keeps me up with my drawing. Keeping notebooks and visual journals all over the place helps as well - in the car, in my bag, in the sitting room, by the computer... but those drawings are usually fairly quick compared to a couple of hours concentrated drawing with a model every week.

Drawing the human form teaches so much about proportion, volume and structure in an expressive subject that has been an enduring theme throughout the history of art.

By the end of a couple of terms I was starting to really use my drawings as a resource in paintings and beginning to work up some of the drawings I brought home from class. I'd like to continue to do that, creating more finished works from the drawings. The gesture drawings would have to be my favourite though, those very short (one minute) poses that can really capture so much.

I have several of my drawings on my flickr page that links from the slideshow at the top right corner of this blog. The photos above are drawings as they were from the class and later after working on them further. The drawing of two models was done originally in red compressed charcoal and later worked on with indian ink, white charcoal and compressed charcoal. The other drawing was originally in black and white compressed charcoal, and I worked further with both media and some red charcoal. Both are on brown paper.

Waihi Arts - Life Drawing Classes

We're lucky to have life drawing classes once again up and running, commencing March 5, with John Mulvay. The class ran for two terms last year with community education funding but for some reason was not funded in the last term.

Anyone who reads this blog will know I appreciate the opportunity of being able to draw from life (see quote on my page here). There's something about having a class to attend each week that keeps me up with my drawing. Keeping notebooks and visual journals all over the place helps as well - in the car, in my bag, in the sitting room, by the computer... but those drawings are usually fairly quick compared to a couple of hours concentrated drawing with a model every week.

Drawing the human form teachers so much about proportion, volume and structure in an expressive subject that has been an enduring theme throughout the history of art.

By the end of a couple of terms I was starting to really use my drawings as a resource in paintings and beginning to work up some of the drawings I brought home from class. I'd like to continue to do that, creating more finished works from the drawings. The gesture drawings would have to be my favourite though, those very short (one minute) poses that can really capture so much.

I have several of my drawings on my flickr page that links from the slideshow at the top right corner of this blog. I've posted above some drawings from class as they were originally and later after working on them.

Blue guitarist lacks progress

I'm just getting to grips with this site - you can post once a week during the month, after Tuesday, a photo for the theme - and it must be linked back to Self Portrait Challenge. This time I'll report on the progress - or lack of - on the blue guitarist oil painting I started recently You might be able to see my stress in the photo! It's still basically an underpainting - decided I wasn't happy with the way I had changed the stance of the model from my original photograph (elsewhere on this site and on my flickr page) so I've been working on that. And I'll have to sort out where I want the left hand to be on the frets and finalise the actual guitar before I start the top layers. But that'll have to wait until I get my ICE collages completed.

If you haven't clicked one of the links yet, you can see more blue self portraits here.

spc

This is an interesting site where people post self portraits monthly that link to a theme of some kind. This is my first SPC post.

For more 'blue' click here.

Marchwood Farm Music Festival

Yesterday, 9 February, we went to the Marchwood Farm Music Festival in Omokoroa which featured blues and jazz musicians Wizard and Oz , Dutch Tilders, Phil Manning, and George Washingmachine (yes, that's his name, check out the website). It was a really enjoyable afternoon, went from about 2 to 7 pm, finishing with a jam with all the musicians on stage together. The musicians all know each other and most have played together individually but have never played on the same stage together - this was a world first.

Andrew Farrell, pianist with Wizard and Oz, is a great pianist and singer, and David McMillan, the other half of the pair, has an incredible voice - check out their website for some samples of their music. And I'm told there will be details of the Tauranga gigs on their site soon.

Dutch Tilders is a real blues singer, and I loved his lyrics, and his style. Here's a couple of samples: "Smoking Woman" and "I'm a Blues Man"

George Washingmachine was pretty much the MC, great sense of humour.

Photos above show the 'stage', Wiz and Oz with George Washingmachine (plays jazz violin and sings), Wizard and Oz, Phil Manning and Dutch Tilders, local percussionist/drummer Ken Collis who brought along his washboard and got the opportunity to join in for a couple of numbers, and Peter Archer with David McMillan.

The site was sloping which made it comfortable for sitting on the ground, most people brought along a picnic but there was food and drinks for sale, and the musicians performed on the deck of a truck. Fantastic views all around. This was the first Marchwood music festival and they're planning on another one next year.

Some or all of these musicians will be playing at the Tauranga Jazz Festival at Easter.

I found this event on eventfinder - this is a really useful website for finding out what events are on in any area).

What is art?

This is a discussion that has been ongoing since a local art competition over the summer holidays. Seems some people don't approve of the judge's choice. Well, that's often the case. I've had the most interesting discussions about art since and I think that's just great.
So, what is art? There was a letter to the editor in our local newspaper that said it was about beautiful and poignant paintings that made people feel good about their environment. What do you think? The question was asked "what a heritage we would have if all the great masters just chucked their framed dirty washing on the wall"...
For lovers of art history, negative responses to new or 'different' art are not a surprise. I think "dirty washing on the wall" is kind of what art is about - the artist's personal response to something whether it be a beautiful forest, a happy child, a shocking war scene, a political speech... Sometimes it'll be pretty, sometimes it won't. It might shock, upset, threaten, or soothe, entertain or make people laugh...
I found an essay written by Leo Tolstoy in 1896 "What is art?" He wrote "in order correctly to fine art, it is necessary, first of all, to cease to consider it as a means to pleasure and to consider it as one of the conditions of human life". Makes sense to me.

Political correctness and art? Do they have anything to do with each other?

Playing around with some collage

and it doesn't take a psychologist to see what was on my mind. Currently I'm working on collages for the 10th International Collage Exchange. These may not end up in the 13 that I send but it was a thoughful and enjoyable process putting these together. 'Reduction Method' contains one of my own photographs - it's taken in the main street of Waihi. My poor son had to stand in the road holding a piece of fence netting so I could take the shot through it - we have lots of fences around mining property and I think you will get the message of my photograph. "Warning - Worry People" also contains pieces of two of my photographs. The third one I think I'll call "For more information please call". I'll probably work further on these with other media, ink, paint....