Oil painting, one day drawing workshops.. and I know.. it's been a while but....

..... things have been quite hectic as usual. December and January were busy - and I can see the Spring Break from my Uni teaching coming up - so I can spend a bit more time with painting and drawing...  Over the last few weeks, I have been doing  a little work out of Colin Merrin's Studio. I have started to use oil paint - something that I tried to do when I was about 8 years old - my mum showed me how to make a start... So I have begun to work with (the lovely) Ed who has been sitting for me as usual. It was great to have the space to do some energetic drawing, and then working on a more formal portrait using oils.. (and not having to worry about the smell of the paint affecting the budgie at home... yes I have a cute little budgie called Todd)

 

 

So I started to work with oils - it was a very releasing experience. It was very exciting and I was able to really 'draw' with paint - and have the space to do it properly. the following series of pictures show the sequence of  learning how oil paints build up the structure of the image.... 

  

 

I know he looks a bit grumpy - but I wanted to see how to work up the image over time. I quite like the the early oil sketches - as they have an eerie quality to them - but they have no substance to them.  I found it quite difficult to get out of the habit of thinking that the paint would dry any minute - like acrylics - so I had to reconsider my painting technique and was able to slow down my approach to working which has been quite an eye-opener for me.  In the meantime, I have been looking at some of my old favourite painters. Luckily (the lovely) Ed has a degree in Art History - so he knows just which books to read...  I keep a selection of  the books open at different pictures on the floor by my bed - so they are the first things I see in the morning, and the last things I see before going to sleep. At the moment they are books of Manet, Kitaj, Maggi Hambling and Velasquez. This all makes a considerable contrast to all my other academic work involving different aspects of digital culture and cyberspace. 

With the Spring Break well on its way - I have booked some time off from university work and will be running three one day Saturday drawing workshops held in Southsea, Portsmouth UK. The dates and workshops are the following:

Saturday April 2nd: Figurative studies for portraiture. 10.00 – 16.00

Saturday April 9th: Art for the Individual. 10.00 -16.00
Saturday April 16th: Self Portraiture in the age of the ‘selfie’. 10.00 – 16.00

Bring your own favourite drawing materials and a packed lunch. On road parking. Easels and drawing boards supplied. Complimentary tea, coffee and biscuits!!

Please do contact me if you would like more information on location/prices and would like to attend one or more of the workshops. All skills from beginner to advanced welcome. These are small friendly sessions and spaces are limited - so please book early. 

I have also been working on some other paintings which I will write about next time...

Drawing and 2015 Virtual Futures Salon | F**king Machines

November has been crazy busy. The Robot Sex discussion at the Virtual Futures Salon is now accessible as an edited playlist on youtube, the first (the whole session) of which is above. Special Thanks to Luke Robert Mason for all his hard work!

This session has proved to be very interesting in that there are several points that I wish to develop as written papers - and will certainly aim to be involved in at least two future-tech oriented events in 2016.

In the meantime, I have discovered that two of my drawings have been pre-selected for the Mall Galleries - so will have to get the work up to London in January, and at the beginning of the month I went to Scotland for a beautiful wedding - managed to do a little drawing whilst I was there - oh and of course.. I'm always drawing Ed...

Lochinver landscape...

A small drawing of Ed sleeping on the sofa...

. Short blog this month - am planning lots of things for next year....

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Robot sex and all that....

One of the main interests I have (apart from figurative drawing and painting!) is exploring our understanding of and our representation in virtual and digital spaces. My initial degree in London encompassed notions of the body in terms of traditional figurative approaches in art, along with sexuality and new technologies (a later blog will cover this...) - Virtual Reality  (VR)in particular. I eventually did my PhD on it.

I was part of the early VR and' Digital Revolution' in the early 1990s, when VR was clunky and hyped - but the internet (1.0) was just entering our homes. I worked with a company called Virtual S as a work placement during my degree - and we worked on the the first sex themed immersive virtual world in 1991/92. It was pretty awful and clunky (it was gamified about using condoms...) - but it was fab at the time, and contested some of our understandings and ethics of reality and the body. I looked at the idea of body suits with Mark Bennett (who also took the black and white photos below of actress and TV presentet Margi Clarke ) that were connected to technology, and wrote for his publication 'Black Ice'.

The following images were taken from the original VR experience.

 It was a wild time, with the work being shown as part of the emerging underground sexual sub-cultures of the time that were developing in London.  I had lots of fun and met some incredible people at conferences and events where I gave talks and presentations about my work - a few are listed below (links to some Wikis and personal web sites...):

Leigh Bowery  Sandy Stone  Stelarc  William Gibson  Bruce Sterling Sadie Plant  Rosi Braidotti  Orlan Kevin Warwick

I was lucky enough to give a talk at one of the Virtual Futures sessions at the University of Warwick during the 1990s.

http://issuu.com/lukerobertmason/docs/vf95programme/1?e=0

 I am pleased to say that the nature of those conferences has been revived by Luke Robert Mason - and I gave a presentation at Virtual Futures 2.0 in 2011 - so it was great to see him again and some other familiar faces when I was recently invited on a panel to discuss 'Robot Sex' by Luke - for one of his Virtual Futures Salons in London.

I am currently still looking at the digital body, as well as doing my more traditional drawings and paintings using pencil, paint, canvas and paper. More on this later.... in the meantime.. here's another 'selfie'....

Created in Portsmouth Art Trail

Haven't been contributing to this blog for a  little while. Had to think over the loss of my brother, and my partners dad over the summer, and had to get back to some teaching - and also doing all sorts of other creative things (like going to a drumming workshop with Carl Palmer from the '70s prog rock band Emerson Lake and Palmer!) Our POISE events have really taken off - with some great poetry, music, installation and traditional arts, and has been ongoing every month.

Our facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/POISE-Events-1480785755547750/

Here's our big group painting for the POISE event BLANK CANVAS

But - I am writing this today because the Created in Portsmouth Art Trail is on and landscape painter Colin Merrin has kindly given me a corner of his studio to show some of my work. So please do come along to the Waverley Road Studios in Southsea over this weekend (17th 18th October 2015) Work is for sale - so do come and pick up something original for the coming holiday season if you are in the area.

I will be returning to writing this blog more frequently now - so watch this space!!