LOVE, BOTH SIMPLE AND COMPLEX.

We recently had the kitchen decorated and when replacing the objects and pictures my wife Patricia walked around the room holding a heart shape made from twigs, or willow(not sure which but some form of dried organic material). The heart was my wife’s Mother’s Day present from my daughter Kathryn.  We found a suitable place and a fixed a hook to the wall and hung it. There it stayed for a couple of weeks and I passed it several times a day but it never really came into my field of vision.  I am now recovering from a knee operation and my normal Billy Wiz speed of moving around has been somewhat retarded.  Yesterday I stopped and looked at the heart shape and started thinking about the meaning of it.  

The heart shape is the universal symbol for love. A very simple shape.  I then reflected that love can be simply defined but there are so many differing types of love that we all encounter sometimes in lives. There is the Love we have for our Mother, the Love we have for our Father, the Love we have for our for our wives or husbands or partners, the Love we have for our sons and daughters, the Love we have for our Friends, the Love we have for our Neighbours, the Love we have for our Pets and Animals, the Love we have for our God, the Love we have for Life and not forgetting the Love we have for the Arts.

The strange thing is that whenever is see a Tee shirt which uses the heart shape as part if its slogan I always read the slogan as -

I heart London or I heart New York.

I then have to replace heart with love; I have to do it every time.

I need a tee shirt with the slogan –

I heart (love) the person stood next to me holding my hand (but I do not always show it, sorry)

The way this heart wall hanging is made also reminded that Love is often complex, often complex beyond our rational understanding yet we all accept that Love is a basic life element, a passion beyond the earth, the wind and the fire. Sometimes with us but not know or understood by us, sometimes sadly missing. The way the hanging is made reminds that Love has its twists and turns, we cannot see where it starts or where it ends, where it is taking us to, it is interlaced, intertwining going this way and that way.  

To me this simple wall hanging represent Love in both its simple and complex forms.

Love is free, we do not pay any taxes on, let’s keep it circulating.

Love is exciting, if we let it be.

Long Live Love!

YSP

It was my daughter’s birthday two days ago and she wanted her family and friends to visit the Yorkshire Sculpture Park with her to celebrate her birthday. I always enjoy my visits to the YSP. Monday felt like I was the one getting the treat.  It was nice to be together as a family and the work on display was fascinating. The sculptures of Jaume Plensa are extraordinary and the knitted work of Donna Wilson is fascinating. Well worth a visit.

All in all a wonderful day out.  Thank you Kathryn

Jaume Plensa's Sculptures

Donna Wilson's work

Work of the Young Ones

I like the work of young children; it is so creative and unrestricted by the ‘norms’ that are expected of someone older. Their work is often almost abstract in its execution. This is another aspect that I like.

On Christmas day my five year old granddaughter presented my wife and myself with a picture that she had produced for us. It is our house and garden. My wife keeps our garden well stocked with flowers; my granddaughter has observed this and has added flowers to the garden. She has also added the greenhouse and the shed.  

I think this picture is wonderful, not just because my granddaughter has produced it but because, well I just like it.

My First Tartan

Where has the sun gone? I finished my latest painting a few days ago and have wanted to photograph it for my blog. I like to take photographs of my pictures outside for the best light. This time I had to photograph my picture on the floor of the dining room in front of the patio doors.

I have always been fascinated by tartan patterns. I try to work out which of the interlacing colour layers are above and which are below. I came across some corrugated cardboard when unpacking something new that we had bought. The card was there waiting to be used for something. Then it came to me, it reminded me of the weave in tartan. So there we are. So (sorry about another so in such a short space) I intended to produce a tartan with some of this card in it.  I like the earthy colours of rust and was going to produce a “McRusty” tartan. The finished result turned out to be lighter and redder than I originally intended so this one is called the “McRedder” tartan. It was a bit of an experiment but it seems to have worked in part.



"McRedder" Tartan 16" x 12"



A closeup of my tartan



A closeup of the card used in my tartan




a real tartan for inspiration



another real inspirational tartan

Rudbeckia

My darling wife works hard in the garden and the results of this hard work are wonderful displays of flowers. This year my wife grew some Rudbeckia plants. These plants have been a fantastic display of sunny yellow flowers for what seems to be months.  They look like little suns.  Like the suns that children draw.

Inspired by these plants and finding a canvass in the back of my workroom (calling it a studio seem pretentious). One sunny day a few weeks ago I went into the garden and laid myself flat out in front of one of the Rudbeckia plants with the canvass and a pencil. A few moments later my wife came rushing out asking me if I was ok. She had seen me flat in the garden but did not see the canvass. She thought that I had collapsed.

Armed with a mastic gun I outlined the flowers and produced the following picture. I like the naïve effect that the mastic gun only allows.

Size 16" x 20"

The flowers on the picture are still blooming whilst the plant is now fading.

Why did I think that I could copy nature.

God gave us nature to be inspired by, not to copy it. We mortals are incapable of copying nature and still retaining the impeccable beauty of all things untarnished by man.

I had not done much arty stuff over the summer and I though I would paint a copy of a photograph I had taken earlier in the year. Half way through I realised my mistake (copying nature). I then thought  I would experiment a bit and try to make the foreground flowers more prominent and the background flowers recede. I gave the background a thin wash of white which achieved what I intended. I made the foreground flowers more prominent by outlining them using a mastic gun. I liked the result of this. In the end I have not achieved a picture but I am in the process of trying again using the mastic gun. I live and learn (until I make the same mistake again).



18" x 14"



Roland (as I remember him)

I remember this man from my childhood. He would walk around the town dressed as probably best described as a Dandy, along with a silver tipped walking stick. I remember he once got on a bus that I was on. He stood and talked to the conductor and got off a few stops later without paying. I was possibly nine or ten at the time and I thought that he must be some one special not to have to pay. The thing that I kept in my mind was his red spotted neck scarf. His suit and hat were black making his scarf more prominent.  A while ago I came across a black and white photograph of Roland in book. It did not look right without his red scarf. Hence my ink, pen and red watercolour copy. I know it is not great art to copy something but it is good to keep my draughting skills in tune (weak excuse I know).

Do not try this at home. Some inks when watered down turn to a greeny blue colour. If you must, try Rotring ink. 



4" x 5"



PS sorry about the reflection in the photograph, I did not want to remove him from his frame.