Manchester Art Gallery

What to say about the Manchester Art Gallery?   Well it is Manchester and yes it is an art gallery.   All very obvious I know but they need to be said.  Now for the art, well the restaurant is very good - especially if you have eat gluten free food - the walnut brownie, I am told, is to die for.  The other food is not bad either.

But wait what about the art?  What was the art like?  Any good?   Good now there is something that you could spend an eternity debating , good in what sense?  Good better than bad is that what you mean and so on.  This, of course, is total drivel and my ham fisted way of coming round to the fact that I didn't think much to the paintings on display.  Don't get me wrong there were one or two wonderful pieces but overall it was a disappointment.

The gallery is dominated by Victorian art, and especially the Pre-Raphaelites.  To me they are are hugely ambitious works of unbelievable skill and technique but at the final analysis leave me feeling rather sick.   There are some of the greatest Pre-Raphaelites on display but I sat and looked at them and felt I need to clean my teeth afterwards.   Perhaps it was the drive for absolute details that makes me stand back in horror.  However, I suspect it is just me as most other people around me thought the work fascinating.  Or at least that was what I think they were think but it might just have been that they were suffering from a diabetic coma from all the sugar on display.  God that is bitch and I need a real good slap.  There that is better.

The one painting that really struck home was The Glass Blower.   This is a painting created in the second world war and transforms the worker into some ballet dancer.  I could wax on about this painting for ages but I won't.  I loved it and I think that is all to be said.

One final thing.   I have been enjoying the channel 4  series about British art.   Much of episode 3 called Flesh was shot at Manchester.  To précis the programme, the Victorian's liked to see plenty of bare flesh, as opposed to their prudish reputation.    There is a wonderful painting in the gallery by William Etty called The Sirens and Ulysses.  It is a wonderful piece of art which, to be quite honest, is just an excuse to show nude women and men.  Of course this is art so nothing as smutty as titillation should be taken from the painting.  I really don't think so. 

A worthwhile day out was had by all.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

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Measuring Progress

So how do you measure progress with art?   This is a question that Ph.D. theses can be written, in fact I can imagine some prospective don beavering away into the small hours high in a dreaming spire some where doing just this.   This digression doesn't help but it amused me.  Anyway back to the question.  I suppose the first thing to say is progress assumes that the  previous work was worse than the later or vice versa.  In short some measurable, quantifiable change.  But is this enough?

Well for me at the moment it is.  I suppose I started this whole 'art' project with one goal in mind - to improve my drawing skills to such an extent that I can produce a reasonable likeness.   I have no illusions about becoming a professional artist but rather some potterer happy to make pictures that please me.  I have no great message for the world, no deep down feelings I want to express through my art.  I just what to be able to draw to a standard I won't feel embarrassed about.  Against this limited objective I am clearly measuring progress showing progress - I think.

The three drawings demonstrate this.  The first is a digital painting I created using Photoshop.  It was created in August and is rather lifeless.  The last two were produced over this weekend and to my eye are starting to develop a style and character that gives me pleasure.  I feel I am making progress and this is what is driving me forward.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Blog: http://simonmarchini.posterous.com/

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Oh hum - so much for making a realistic likeness

I wont go into all the boring details as to why this drawing is not a likeness.  However, I really like this, as much as I do any drawing the day of production.  I gave up half way through the process trying to make it a likeness and decided to concentrate on developing my Chiaroscuro skills.   This is what I really love about drawing - making it stand out from the page.  Now this is just an illusion but, for me, it is a really important skill.

This whole episode has made me ask what is important in any picture, drawn, painted or photographed?  I haven't come to any firm conclusions, firm conclusions with an art object what a hoot! However, I have started to debate with myself  and I think this is start as it should mean that I challenge my current views and hopefully expand my understanding.  What more could you wish to get out of life?
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

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Drawing is so frustrating

I feel like screaming - I really do.   I am taking one step forward and the same back.   I am now producing interesting drawings with only one problem - I have lost the ability to make them a good likeness.  At the moment I hate this.   I know how to overcome this, it is mechanical and I think it is cheating but I know I can do it.  all I need to do is pop a grid over the picture I am trying to sketch and then it becomes painting by numbers and I just do not want to do this.  The skills I want to master are those that allow me to produce a really interesting drawing whilst at the same time being a good likeness of the subject.

I know I will get there in the end it is just so frustrating at the moment.   Of course this does open up the question of why?  Why do I want to do this?   Well last week the tutor at the drawing class I am taking asked what we want to get out of the class?  It was a throw away question - he seems to do this a lot - but it did get me thinking about what I want to do.   Well at the moment I just want to create a really interesting likeness of a person.   I am not looking for more complicated communication of feelings or the like just make the likeness.  The reason for this is that I see this as being the first step to becoming a good artist.  You cannot really communicate unless you have a clear mastery of what you want to say.  In art this can only be done when you have mastered your medium - otherwise the messages gets lost.   This takes time.  The fortunate thing is that I have the time to do this.

One final thing.  I hate what I produce on the day that I produce it.  However, when I go back in a couple of days or so then things are not so bad.  I don't know whether this is good or bad it just means my initial judgement should be ignored.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

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Bad foot and Cate Blanchett

Well as one door opens another closes.  Over the past few weeks I have been slightly under the weather which has been diagnosed as 'a virus'.  This, I think, is Doctor speak for slightly worse than 'a bug' but will sort itself out over time - which it has.  However, now my foot hurts.   I had been looking forward to getting out more and walking, something that has been somewhat curtailed over the past few weeks.   Well this is on hold as I have decided to rest my foot in the hope that this too will get better over time.  Oh the joys of being over 50!

This does provide me with an opportunity to catch up with all those tasks I have put off over the last few weeks.  They require a certain amount of concentration which I haven't felt motivate to allocate to them.   It also allows me improve my artistic, if that is what they are, skills.   Enter Cate Blanchett.

Some time ago I bought a book of actor portraits taken back stage.  This has been a constant source of inspiration and frustration but slowly I have started to master the portraits.   I am now going to take this to the next level.    The next level, in this case, is pastel.   I have sketched out Cate's portrait and now am going to take a huge leap of faith and try and use pastels.  It would be easier to us charcoal as the original photograph is black and white but I feel there is something about the portrait that could be captured in pastel.   I suspect this is all going to end in tears but this is the only way to progress.  Anyway wish me luck this evening!
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Blog: http://simonmarchini.posterous.com/

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Elephant

I have started to move out of the pencil drawing to more expressive colour - in this case oil pastels and Promarker.  These are bold first steps - whether they are in the right direction only time will tell. 
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

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MA x

I had an enjoyable time yesterday meeting up with old colleagues from the MA course.   I attended their end of course exhibition called MA X.  It was fascinating to see the different approaches and photographs.  I wish them all well with their future endeavours.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Blog: http://simonmarchini.posterous.com/

Fotos:http://www.flickr.com/photos/Guthlac

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

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Castles of Tomasatia

Oh how innocent I can be.  Up until a few moments ago I had no idea that Tomasatia was some form of disease that effects women.  I was going to write about a Ruritanian idol with abandoned and decaying castles dotted through out the hills and vales.  I was then going admit that this was not where Tomasatia actually was but rather workman like South Derbyshire (pathetic, I know but it amused me).  However, know I feel rather silly about this when compared to the problems some women have during pregnancy.

Anyway, the point of all this is that I starting a series of little sketches that have been inspired by historical research into the roads of west Leicestershire and south Derbyshire.  All seems rather dull now.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

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Another penicillin moment

Fleming was supposed to have discovered penicillin by accident and I discovered this by accident as well. This is the reverse of the Gaga experiment and I have to say it really is interesting. I have reworked it slightly using Photoshop on my iPad but apart from that it is as I captured it with my iPhone.

Sent from my iPad

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Trying out new ideas

I bought myself some pro marker pens yesterday just to see they are like to work with. It is far far too early to say, this is a combination of a lack of time and technique, but the early indications are that they do give a picture an interesting effect. By the way, or should that be BTW? This is yet another working of the Lady Gaga photo I was trying to reproduce the other week.

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A lot of Fry and a bit of Laurie

Well I have just finished listening to the latest instalment of Stephen Fry's autobiography.  What a bastard!  This is no reflection on the audio book - more of this in a moment.  No the reason for the profanity is because he ends the book on a cliff hanger.  You just do not end autobiographies like that - it is so frustrating and of course so naughty as well.  He knows that he has his hooks into you and that you can't wait for the next instalment - post 1987.

So what was the book like.  Well first of all I think the audiobook will be much better than reading it because Fry himself reads it to you.  This turns the book into an intimate confessional, as though Fry is opening his heart to you, and you alone.   It is also rather like listening to Harry Potter beyond Hogwarts as Fry deals with his life at Cambridge and show business up to 1987.  

There is one thing that does come through more than anything else - Cambridge made Stephen Fry.  He is an hugely talented person but without Cambridge he probably would be some anonymous senior tutor at a public school or red brick university.  He got all his breaks from who he got to know at Cambridge.  In may ways this book is a description of how England really works.  It is not the old boys network but rather knowing people in the right place.  It still means that you have work hard once you get the break or introduction it just means that you get the introduction in the first place.   So if Fry had gone to Hull it is much less likely to have been as successful so quickly.  It also helps that because Cambridge only takes the most talented students they tend to have a double advantage over none Oxbridge graduates.  Being really talented and knowing people is a really powerful combination for advancement.
 

 Overall it is a wonderful audiobook.  It makes you scream with joy and anger at the same time in many places and I for one can't wait for the next instalment.

Now for the illustration.   I had intended to draw the two portraits together but for reasons that are too pitiful to mention I didn't.  Then I though I would just merge the two in Photoshop - this didn't work out either.  So I gace up on the whole idea and plonked the two together.  I quite like these as I believe they show that I am making real progress.  Let us hope that this continues.

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Blog: http://simonmarchini.posterous.com/

Fotos:http://www.flickr.com/photos/Guthlac

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My photography is changing - different subjects and approach

Ever since I decide to try and learn to draw my photography has taken a back seat.  All that expensively gathered equipment is starting to gather dust.  Is this a good thing?  Well at the moment I just don't have the inclination to get out there and make some 'proper' photographs.   This doesn't mean I won't it just means that I am not at the moment.

The interesting thing is that this coincided with my ARPS rejection.  I am not sure whether there is a connection but I suspect there is - I was feeling pretty bored with the whole process for sometime and the preparation of the portfolio crystallised this feeling.

This doesn't mean that I have stopped making photographs - far from it.  It is just that I no longer cart huge amounts of gear around with me but instead use my iPhone.  This is so liberating - long it be so.
 

Simon Marchini 

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Blog: http://simonmarchini.posterous.com/

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Better Proportions

More blood sweet and just a few tears.  Ok so this was over the top but I did go back and try again to get the proportions right and thankfully the next drawing was whole lot better.  Far from perfect but much better.  All in all not a bad days work.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Blog: http://simonmarchini.posterous.com/

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Long noses and proportions - always bloody proportions

I am getting things out of all proportion.   This nothing new for me - well yes it is actually.  Instead of crashing into a pit of melancholia brought on by the afore mentioned proportionality I am, in,fact, talking about my drawing.

Over the past few days I have been trying to capture this poor soldier's likeness and each time I have been failing.  This is not to say I am dissatisfied with the result, far from it, it is just that the face in not in proportion.   I have tried all manner of techniques yet nothing seems to work.  Clearly I need to work at this even harder.  The part of the portrait that is throwing everything off is the nose.  I don't know why but I seem to be only capable of drawing someone with an elongated nose and face.   It really is frustrating - GRGGHGRH!
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Blog: http://simonmarchini.posterous.com/

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Proportions

Well I had my first art class on Friday. It was an interesting session, getting to know one another, starting to work through the exercise and so on. The first session was about proportions and we had draw a large metal jug. The session must have been interesting as the two hours just flew by. Next week is dealing with the use of light and shade and so I thought I would try and combine the two with my drawings this week. I have been inspired just recently by a photo of a traumatised soldier so this was the subject I chose. Well the use of light and shade has worked out really well but unfortunately I still have not quite the proportion right. So it is back to the drawing board, quite literally! This is how you learn but I am getting better which is the most encouraging thing. 90 percent perspiration 10 inspiration.

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