still life and landscape. Pastel on paper.20"x15"

Stylistically and subject matter wise, a follow on from ' still life'. however, this picture differs slightly in content with the addition of other objects ( included this time are a lump of cheese and fish) and also a hint of landscape.

The composition pivots around the central orange/green object in the centre, diagonally, vertically and horizontally.Equal weights of colour evenly distributed throughout the picture succeed in creating a colour and compositional harmony .

The same artistic influences are obvious in this work, although this time less Nicholsonesque. Some might consider this futile as the high water mark of cubism happened a century ago, with many artists being influenced by, and attempting to, progress the genre further. I want to try

and progress it further still and see what, if any, fresh work or style materialises.

The initial works displayed are merely a touchstone or starting point in this blog and the beginning of this artistic journey, which hark back to analytical cubism 100 years ago. whether the experiment will reach any positive conclusion is a speculative point.

still life

Still life. Pastel on paper. 10"x8"...Does exactly what it says on

the tin!!!! Inspired by the cubist works of messrs Picasso and braque with a hint of the great brit Ben Nicholson thrown into

the mix for good measure. Although some of Nicholson's work

was considered abstract, there is definite symbolic form to it,

i.e. a relative hint at form,even if that hint is merely a colour associated with an element or object. This work here is more

strongly identified with definite form or objects. The two shapes

in the middle of the composition look strongly like bottles..that's because they are!! The object in front of the right hand bottle can either be a vague hint of a wine glass or a piece of fruit..you decide, i know what i want it to be!!..actually it's intended to be a hint of fruit by association of its colour.

This piece has inspired me to 'work up' this drawing into a bigger scale, using the same medium. When this is completed

i will post it.

vaguely familiar faces

These five pieces of work

are to be part of a joint exhibition that will be entitled: 'Recations, balancing the recent with the now'. My friend and colleague, Ben Clowes and myself have picked two pieces of work from the Saatchi Sensations catalogue to explore, develop and interpret afresh. Ben is developing an idea inspired by a piece origionally executed Martin Maloney. I will keep you updated on its

progress.

These pieces by myself

were inspired by the working method of Marcus Harvey when he

produced his infamous image entitled ' Myra'.

The subject matter may not be to everyones taste, It's not particularly to mine, but as an image it's quite overpowering. The correlation between the subject matter and the technique that achieved it, i.e. pixels in the shape of hand prints, is what appealed to me.

Using this as a point of

departure, i chose a contemporary issue that that galled the vast majority of the

British people, i.e. the expenses scandal at Westminster. Reflecting the popular opinion that most politicians are

pr---s, I chose as my pixel, a custom made rubber stamp of

a phallus and testes about 1 cm in legnth!! ( this was not because of any inside information or speculative rumour)!!,

but because of the fact that the pixel to canvas ratio had to be right. The boards onto which the images were painted or stamped with acrylic paint being 3'x2.'

The project ( so far) has taken about 4 months with the help of an assistant.