PANDEMONIUM & BOOK REVIEWS

I was going to show some "work" in progress but I am under strict instructions - my agent said what I was "working on" was "top secret". So instead of a view of my trusty easel groaning under the weight of a huge canvas, (quite a few trusted friends have seen it already) - here's a "peaceful" shot of my desk piled high with reference books - oh and the odd paint brush !
Oh by the way if you are into fine art I can recommend the book in the foreground, "light art" - it's a contemporary collection of painting, drawing, installation and smaller scale sculpture - all - yes you're there already- all inspired by or including light as an essential element of the work. As a gereatric hippy I love the work of American artist James Turrell, who amongst many others are featured in this tour de force of a book ! It was an expensive tome but one that was remaindered and hugely discounted ! Good on you "Pennies From Heaven". Well that's the plug over and done with - it's now time to get on with some work - toodle pip !

GROINS & GROYNES

Be careful where you place your groynes - someone might just turn up and give them a grid reference !

Lust, boatyard blues & cautionary tales

Some men go to the gym, others collect stamps, some make music, whilst others get slaughtered in the pub - me - I probably spend too much time lusting after other people's boats !

The last time I had the opportunity to look at my own sad little boat, there was a very hearty collection of brambles growing six feet away from it and after seeing this delightful boat avec winter fruits I am getting a little worried. I feel a trip to the boatyard coming on !

I might make the time to check that the cover is still in one piece and that the greenery is restricted to ground level and not emanating from inside the cabin ! Who knows, I might even undo the cats cradle of ropes holding said cover in place. I might peek inside and who knows, I might stay long enough to day-dream a little - of a time when the new mast and sails are straining, filling with a gentle breeze, with me at the helm plotting a course for some distant shore.

You may ask why am I lusting after another boat when I own two already - well I make no apologies - I am a collector of lost causes and that's that. Old wooden boats just sing out to me ! There are so many different types all made for different purposes and different conditions. It's a bit like cars - a Landrover and a two seater sports car are very different - each with its own unique personality.

Salvation may be at hand though, I may just be on the turn, I spent a couple of hours at a boatyard in Woodbridge the other day and although seriously tempted, I resisted the urge. I thought of my "Dolphin" with her spoon bow, long keel, full transom, bowsprit, huge gaff and even longer boom. I thought of lazy days tied up alongside a quay in Brittany or dodging mudbanks on the East Coast - I also thought of the admiring glances of others who hadn't quite finished their "little projects" and those, like me, who were impatient, who craved for a boat that worked ! I draw the line at boats that are in a worse condition than my own - however pretty they may be. But then again, something with a nice counter stern, that gets over on her ear and really slices through the waves. . . . oh dear there is no cure !!!!

Empire Building

Edward the Elephant, one of the directors of "George The Greenhouse Gallery" has been on a working holiday this week. He has been looking at a number of mystery locations with the intention of expanding his business interests. Here we see him in a buoyant mood having partaken of a light infusion of darjeeling tea and a gargantuan slice of exceptionally good carrot cake. more on teas later. . . .

bye for now !

lost & found

Hello from the comfy armchair of chris n wood.

I produced this little digital doodle whilst trying to remember how adobe illustrator works - its not really an illustration - more a flight of fancy inspired by the legendary Harry Beck who, in 1931, designed the London Underground Map. The photograph in the background is the shot of houseboats at Felixstowe Ferry although said houseboats are lost !

I still can't remember the moves but by importing the illustrator file into Photoshop I was able to restore my enthusiasm if not my memory !

Custers Last Stand !

Sorry for yet another picture of yours truly sans beard !

I just had to show off my cabbage - I was so proud of my cabbages - in fact I still like my greens.

Of late I have developed a liking for other colours too !

As you can see my dress sense was (and still is) a little questionable but clothes in the 1950's were built to last and to prove a point I still have my little red shoes - I don't know what happened to the cabbage. I guess the sword is back on display in the local museum.

Houseboats and complaints

We were at Felixstowe this weekend and in between manic bursts of activity, wielding paint rollers, etc we found the time to nip out, catch some rays and take a few snaps at the afore mentioned haven of tranquility!

Some of us caught more than we were bargaining for and brought back a particularly virulent bug. Urgh !! Enough said about that the better.

I've included this shot for all you mud lovers out there. As it was taken at the end of the afternoon, there wasn't a vast amount of light, resulting in an image that was devoid of colour - so to make the best of a bad job, I took all the colour away ! A bit like yours truly - totally and utterly drained - I really must stop rambling on about the aftermath of the weekend.

The actual weekend was, as usual, "fun" if not a little tiring - at least my beloved car didn't complain. We left early on Sunday to avoid the party people returning home from V Fest - having been caught out last year ! Instead due to a poorly worded road sign we went the wrong way around the lovely M25 and managed to find one one the largest snarl-ups in all history - I love road works and as it was probably one of the hottest days of the year I was not overjoyed ! Still at least for quite a long way we were shaded by a convoy of aging double decker buses.

Why can't people who write road signs say what they mean ? What's the point of road signs anyway ! More on the Highways Agency later ! I have to go now - my stomach is complaining too !

EXHIBIT A

EXHIBIT A

Welcome to our very first exhibition of George The Greenhouse Gallery. This is one of a series of installations that incorporate a not so redundant refrigerator.

I WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE THIS BLOG TO BECOME INTERACTIVE & INVITE CAPTIONS FOR THE EXHIBITS

George the Greenhouse . . . Gallery !

Yes folks that is a fridge ! George was looking a little pale the other day - so I cheered him up by installing said chilling device ! Sadly the box in the corner is no longer a fully functioning cooler but it makes a great cupboard for all those precious bits and pieces that would otherwise get a little damp - I might also keep the odd bottle in there too !

Whilst this is yet another rather odd photo - I rather liked the dappled light on the fridge - I won’t be expecting a call from the Royal Photographic Society though !

If anyone has any suggestions for other “special things” to keep my beers company please let me know.

An epiphany moment ! The “George The Greenhouse Gallery” has just been invented ! HURRAH !! All you aspiring artists, today is the start of the Virtual Gallery known as "George The Greenhouse".

learning the ropes

For the benefit of all you seafarers and those who are curious to see what I look like without a beard ! The cool geezer with the pipe and and tiller in his hand is my father.

This was one of the calmer days at Felixstowe Ferry - note we are not belting along, breaking speed limits, heeling over with large amounts of wet stuff flying through the air and generally creating mayhem . Also note the bad haircut a la pudding basin and the natty choice of safety harness and bib and braces !

Apologies to Mr Picasso

Oh dear I'm going all didactic again !

I began today's diversion because I wanted to illustrate a piece for my website on the subject of assemblage.

As it says in the title, apologies to Mr Picasso, who provided the inspiration! He was not only a creative power-house but a very good sculptor ! There are excellent examples of his 3D work the world over but if you go to Paris a visit to the Pablo Picasso Museum is well worth it. I really like this piece "baboon and young" and set about my paltry rendition with graphite, ink, rotring pen & brush, before scanning the result and tweaking it in Photoshop. The full size black and white original looks better than this tiny orange image though !

Assemblage is a 3D form of collage. Picasso often incorporated everyday objects into his sculptures and in this one he has used two toy Morris cars to form the muzzle of the baboon's face. The rest of the sculpture was made from plaster around a wooden armature. More on sculpture later !

Fine lines

Do I need another project ?

Classics create a wake at Felixstowe Ferry !

Bless me father for I have sinned - it has been two days since my last drawing . . . . I have thought about it - lots ! I've taken about 100 photos over the weekend and have plenty of ideas but despite being dragged around everywhere, the Suffolk sketchbook is still awaiting its inauguration !

I've drawn with my lawn mower - if that counts - at least there are now some splendid parallel lines in the back garden ! Sorry all you budding gardeners out there - as you can see we don't even have a photo of the now immaculate lawn - maybe next week !

Following last weeks manic attempts to tidy the jungle surrounding the "country seat" I decided to go on the weekly pilgrimage to what must be the largest Waste Recycling Centre in Suffolk ! A very picturesque but nonetheless truly scary place, with dozens of huge skips and massive "Heath Robinson"contraptions, whirling around, pounding the offerings to a pulp ! One such machine, resembling a JCB, has a huge spiked ball on the end of it's hydraulically operated arm and when the skips appear full the machine rumbles along and beats the contents of each skip, squashing everything to a tenth of it's former size.

I did my bit by adding 10 bags a garden waste to one of a collection of green skips, then I found the metal bin and dragged the last remnants of the chicken run up the steps and into the skip. It's always fascinating to see what other people have been putting into the skips and the contents of the green bins were no exception. They seemed to me like a list of what not to grow - Leyland Cyprus and Ivy prunings by the ton ! The contents of the metal bin were more exciting - fridges, washing machines, bent & distorted corrugated iron sheets , rusting unwanted tools, bits of broken engines, scaffold poles, all randomly piled together like some bizarre sculpture from the 1970's!

To recover from this burst of activity we went to the Felixstowe Ferry Cafe, arriving sadly too late to eat but we commiserated with a couple of takeaway cups of tea which certainly hit the spot ! We ambled across the road to the waters edge, slurped our tea whilst watching the ebbing tide rush out at its usual brake-neck speed and generally enjoyed the moment. Within seconds, just on cue, a classic Dutch barge hove into sight, with its traditional stumpy mast and varnished leeboards - and for me - what made the moment was the fact that on the horizon was a Thames Spritsail barge with all sail set with the bit between her teeth ! Sadly you'll have to imagine the last bit as the scale of the photo is so small that the Thames barge is the speck at the top, to the right of the marker post. (I'll scale this up for the forthcoming painting) !

Five o'clock shadow, Deben estuary & Bawdsey Manor.

More about Bawdsey later !

It was a long and slippery walk to the pub !

Slaughden Marsh, looking north towards Aldeburgh, East Suffolk.

This is perhaps one of my favorite stamping grounds ! Excellent pubs, probably the best fish and chip shop in the world, fantastic second hand book shop, wonderful architecture and best of all there's usually a bracing breeze on the seafront - hurrah ! Oh and did I mention lots of inspiration for the right side of the brain. More on this later - time & tide waits for no man and if I don't go soon I'll get wet feet !

The amazing Journey of George the Greenhouse

Welcome to my new blog - DRAWING THE LINE .

As an artist I think about drawing a lot ! Sometimes I actually make marks on a page, sometimes the marks are expressive, sometimes the marks are made using conventional materials and sometimes the result is recogniseable ! Sometimes I don't even commit pen to paper at all - the work being simply a concept, a germ of an idea, that may grow into something quite frightening !

This is a cautionary, perhaps, frightening, tale of George the Greenhouse and his travels !

One fine day, not that many years ago, George's owner germinated a small seed and planted it outside her greenhouse. The seed, not unlike those seen in the photo, yes those innocent seed pods dangling from the lush growth above the greenhouse are the very same. For those of a horticultural bent, the tiny plant grew into the tree that we can see here and that same tree grew bigger and bigger, eventually bearing upon the front of the afore mentioned greenhouse. As you can detect the structure is constructed of thin aluminum extrusions that upon contact with an immoveable force - bend, smashing the glass roof into a sea of deadly shards !

You may be wondering what all this has to do with drawing !

This is really the story of how to move and draw with a greenhouse. Over the last few months I had given the subject of the move a lot of thought and was going to use stone age technology in the form of rollers and levers but brute strength won in the end and all that was necessary was a garden spade, a pick-axe and an assortment of rubble.

A trench was dug all around the outside and then another trench all around the inside. Next by inserting the spade under each of the corners, one at a time and gingerly levering the structure up I managed to get the greenhouse to part company with the ground. Needless to say breaking the spade - (something I have lots of experience of) was never far from my thoughts ! Whilst I have been cursing the Mimosa tree - it proved very useful as the final part of the operation required an immoveable object (the roots of the tree and pick-axe to lever the greenhouse in the desired direction. As it turned out I moved the greenhouse about 18 inches away from the tree and about a foot nearer the end of the garden to facilitate getting in through the door of the greenhouse without doing a sideways limbo dance !

I should add that all this took a little over an hour and left me needing a very large cup of tea !

The resulting drawing consisted of a trail across the ground that the sculptor Andy Goldsworthy would have been proud of ! The moral of the story is mighty oaks grow from acorns, huge Mimosa trees grow from tiny seeds and neither should be planted near green- houses !

Well thats all folks the next post might be on a more conventional aspect of drawing - but then again !