24 November 2008

If you want to start painting...

...you could do worse than follow the advice of Hilaire Hiler:
A few days ago a friend of mine who is a journalist, and who has for some months been amusing himself by drawing and working in gouache and water-colour, came to me and asked what he should do to begin working in oils. He was without schooling of any artistic sort and professed his entire ignorance of even the fundamentals. He did not know what sort of brushes he would need and had an idea that quite a complicated equipment would be necessary. It was not easy to advise him, as I had no idea what sort or style of painting he wished to do. Neither had he. The advice given then, was the same I should give to anyone in a similar position. That is, start with an absolute minimum of equipment: three or four brushes of the sort to which he felt naturally attracted; a small bottle of bleached linseed oil; a little rectified turpentine, or some pure gasoline; a piece of metal, wood or glass to use as a palette, and five tubes of paint – Black, White, Middle Madder or Deep Cadmium Red, Lemon Cadmium and Cobalt Blue.

He might continue to work the rest of his life with no more outfit, or he may develop a style of working which will necessitate a much more elaborate equipment in every way, but by starting with the minimum and buying only what he feels absolutely necessary, he will be more likely to gain an appreciation and knowledge of each element than if he left his selection to the colourman, who might suggest a catalogue which would make any beginner dizzy with discouragement.

I started with a slight variation on this arrangement, and have added a couple more colours and some spray varnish since then. There is a lot to be said for trying to make do with what you have, and buying what you really need only as a last resort.

Incidentally, a few pages later in the chapter on glazing, Hiler talks about another friend:
The modern painter who uses glazes to the extreme possibility is my friend, Francis Picabia. I have seen some late paintings of his where as many as three or four glazes were superimposed in certain parts. Sometimes where forms of six different colours meet at a common point, a glaze was applied covering portions of all of them and thus giving rise to a very interesting if somewhat complicated gamme of combinations.

To explain: suppose that in a wheel with five spokes giving rise to as many divisions, each division was filled with a different colour. Let's say – red, green, yellow, blue and white. The surface adjoining the hub is glazed with rose madder to a distance about halfway to the circumference. This transparent coating of red at once gives rise to five new colours: over the red, to a dark red; over the yellow, to an orange; over the blue, to a violet; over the green, to a dark warm green, over the white, to a pink, etc. The possibilities of glazing may be, therefore, recognised at once as endless.

21 November 2008

The beginning of Doctor Who



These are a couple of pages of concepts for a new show the BBC was developing in 1963. They're online at the BBC Archive.

18 November 2008

More electronic communications

So John Hurrell wrote a review of a Peter Madden show. Madden left some comments, and I couldn't resist adding my own (relatively innocuous) one. No biggie.

However, I was a little surprised to get, rather than a response on John's blog, this in my inbox less than an hour later:
now you are being pathetic ..as well as abusive .
.now theirs a surprise...read through the comments and check context..and you might be able to ..
get your head out from up your ass
yours Peter madden

I sent a response of course, but never got a reply.

11 November 2008

Nice

Bill Ayers has written about the US election campaign.

Laziness

I am very lazy. When I was 18, my mother did an industrial psychology course. She gave me a test to measure, among other things, my ‘ambition’. I scored 0 out of 10.

My favourite part of the day is when I wake up and doze, put off getting up for as long as possible. In the afternoons, I sit in the studio, smoke cigarettes, watch the clouds, plants, and animals, look at pictures, and think about things.

Lazy thoughts are the best. You start anywhere, with anything, and then drift, see where it takes you. All the best ideas are arrived at idly. This is like that, you think, and, oh yeah, the other thing fits in here too. Then you mix it all together, and get rid of the extraneous stuff (cos you can’t be bothered), and you’re left with this thing.

Laziness means you don’t sit in front of a blank canvas and worry about fucking it up. You do whatever, your present whim. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, so what?

I am too lazy to want to be a ‘successful’ artist. Having to worry about keeping dealers and collectors and curators happy. Having to worry about what is written about you, or, worse yet, what is not written about you. Having to worry about whether such-and-such arsehole is getting more shows and residencies and prizes than you. And so on and so on. It’s all just too much effort.

Laziness is freedom.

06 November 2008

Yes no (Francis Picabia, 1939)

YES

NO

YES

NO

YES

NO

Painting music literature
hothouse flowers
yes no

*

One must distrust
picturesque beings
one must distrust
antique-dealer painters
one must distrust
distrusting
even painting
painted without distrust

*

Serious people
have a faint odour
of carrion

*

Skepticism
cynicism
the infinite
what a fashionable spectacle
but nature
has a little declaration
to make to you my dear sir
it doesn't borrow fire
from the conflagration

*

Perhaps I made
painting sick
but what a pastime
to be doctor

tomorrow I am counting on painting
to be my doctor

*

Right from the start of my life
the public cast
its sentence on me

he's making fun of us

what has always amused me
is this public
who knows me
but doesn't know itself

*

I'm only working against my interests
I don't know any other way
of dealing with myself

*

The profound mediocrity
of painters
depresses me

*

Old mediocrities
are in fashion
new ones too

knowing my strength
I am tolerant of myself
and nothing more is forbidden

*

I experienced painting
as an object of passion
my paintings are acts of love
that's my way of working

*

My painting is a contradiction
between life and sleep

*

Success is a liar
the liar loves success

*

People want others to talk about them
because they're only interested in the people
whom others talk about
others hide behind
a mask
which they think they've chosen
seducer
seducer like...

*

Gestures are silent
they rely on noise
and noise relies on gestures

*

Those who like the sun
have no need of noise
all these poor idiots who think
that noise
can make them shine

*

People always talk
about little things
they cannot talk about great ones
their hearts being too small

*

For many people
happiness
lies in imitating

*

To understand everything
makes life monotonous
to love everything
without understanding
lots of people
understand that

*

Is the sky beneath
or above us
one has to guess
if you could see me
my smile would tell you

*

I love the sea
the mountains hide the stars
if only the sun could make
the mountains melt
like snow

*

I hate clouds
their ridiculous forms
they don't even have
the beauty of tigers
on their prey
these idiotic clouds
which live only on the sun
and spend their time
hiding it

*

Cats that look at birds
have eyes that meditate
birds that look at cats
have eyes that doubt
my own close
to think of miracles

*

In the near future fables
and lovely fairy tales
will come back into fashion

*

Only the contemplators
of constellations
can still
move us

*

Now if you like
let's talk about my painting
for I am perhaps
my own disciple

*

05 November 2008

Stupid and boring, and the US election

So the Establishment has been handing out prizes to its pets again. The Stupidest Exhibition Award (otherwise known as the Walters) went to Peter Robinson for his polystyrene nonsense. What was notable about this award this time around was how the selecting panel outdid themselves in sheer idiocy, rendering the contest even more of a joke than usual.

The Most Boring Painter Award (otherwise known as the Laureate) went to Shane Cotton for his consistent mediocrity. I suppose it takes a certain knack to produce paintings that are so utterly devoid of interest. Of course, the idea of having a painter laureate is itself fairly stupid.

But enough of this inconsequential bollocks. The first results of the US election are coming in. I’ve been watching a lot of Fox News recently (it’s fascinating in a grotesque way), but for this arvo I recommend Oliver Burkeman's blog on the Guardian site.

04 November 2008

Vote NOBODY!


Nobody will represent your interests!

Nobody will keep their promises!

Nobody will rescue the economy!

Vote for NOBODY in this election.

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