Category: Uncategorised

Posted on by

Butterfly Bridge

“Butterfly and Bridge”: Joseph Campbell, Myth, Acrylics and Old Tea package Cards

“Butterfly Bridge”, Acrylic on canvas, 24 in x 18 in, Dec. 2016

I’ve been working on this painting for a couple of weeks and this is the final version.  I wanted to try out acrylic paint because of the quick dry quality.

I started with a flat red ground.

I haven’t got an image of the first drawn out stage, where I laid out the basic structure and composition in felt pen onto the canvas. It just gave me something to paint over in a free flowing and organic fashion. No straight lines.

I quickly realised that acrylic was working for me very well. The ability to paint over layer upon layer on top of more or less dry paint.

About this time I started reading a book by the world famous professor of mythology Joseph Campbell. “The power of Myth”

I knew of him previously but was absolutely bowled over by the profound overview and scope of his writing when I read him again.  The tricky part is making the leap from understanding the theory and ideas underpinning Campbells writing and acting effectively in terms of one own work.

Joseph Campbell; 1984

By reading this book I kickstarted (at some level) a whole load of ideas and inspiration about dualism and and the creation mythology around the fall from grace.  I don’t just want to illustrate these ideas and so I continue to borrow from whatever rears its head in my mind. Hence the tea package cards with their rather arbitrary collector type feel. They must be 50 or 60 years old but at the same time introduce something very personal to the picture that I want to use in the present to anchor the painting. They are from a suitcase in my cellar retreived from my Dads house after he died a few years ago. It is a quirky reference to the technology versus nature dynamic with the butterfly and the racing car trapped in their respective frames. The car is old fashioned however and nothing like a modern Formula One car. The butterfly is pinned in place on the tea package card whilst flourishing on the right hand side of the picture and able to fly away free on the rest of the painted surface.  The car is a little more ambiguous for its antique nature and conjours up ideas about the transition of technology as well as the need for something dynamic and “outside the frame”.

I wanted the picture to be beautiful in the first instance whilst always knowing that meaning would demand to be heard.

I hope that a kind of dualism does emerge here and state something reassuring about the past and the present. The idea is I suppose that the World is made of opposites that grow and mature over time out of the chaos and beauty. Whilst at the same time our focus of interest can be eccentric and unpredictable. Demanding its own status and the right to be quirky if it wishes.  I want to hint at something a bit archeological here, that gets the viewer thinking. Are those perfect butterflies that we revere only one side of a coin that is flipped in this imperfect world of opposing forces that we live in? Is the technological flip side something we are willing to harbour and if so how do we deal with its precocious need to change so dramatically?

“Butterfly Bridge”, Acrylic on canvas, 24 in x 18 in, Dec. 2016

Bob Claytor Dec. 2026

Posted on by

Cornwall drawing

Cornwall 04

“Until the cows come home”

300mm x 400mm, pencil drawing

This one of several detailed pencil drawings that I did in and around St Just, Cornwall during the early 1980’s. It seems a very long time ago now. I’ve had the drawing on my wall for years and the glass recently cracked. I took the opportunity to scan and tweet it before reframing.

 

Posted on by

Georgia O’Keeffe at Tate Modern

Off to London to see the Georgia O’Keeffe at the Tate.

image

Just to set the visual scene….. I took a couple of photos yesterday that have spurred me to choose the particular O’Keeffe image above. This most monochrome version of the three “Black Place” landscapes on show in London sprang out at me from Google thismorning when preparing to set off for the show. I saved it. Then I saw it on my iphone photos, alongside this photo taken yesterday :-

image

I think that it is unkanny how the brain makes associations and it’s great fun to unpick them. It’s not the whole story of making, but probably a more important one than I tend to give it credit for. The composition on this very industrial scene in Sheffield’s Don Valley taken yesterday clearly influenced my decision to pick that particular O’Keeffe painting above thismorning. I just didn’t realise until I saw them both together.

Here is another O’Keeffe image. I wonder if I can make it work back the other way?

image

It’s a bit of a challenge this, and obviously not operating at the same unconscious level as the previous choice. Anyway I’ll give it a go…..

A bit contrived and the figures don’t add anything but it’s not unsuccessful:-

image

What can a Prisma filter do? …..

image

Hmnn, very much not an O’Keeffe, but maybe its got something going for it…..

In the meantime, this old painting of mine popped into my head:-

image

I think that it has some of the organic elements of O’Keeffe’s works and also the large areas of colour. The whole thing is not really in the same class though, with the more textured flat areas and the slightly confused complexity in parts. Some of the tonal work has merit though and I need to think of that when moving on to painting (rather than blog rambling:)).

Having been around the exhibition now, I am struck by several things:-

She was a really good black and white artist whose drawings and subsequent painting drew heavily on photography and the influence of her partner at the time. Then later on her friend the photographer Ansel Adams. (Apart from her own photos of course).

Also she did a whole load of work based on buildings in New York:-

image

So is my London architecture playfulness/experimentation perhaps so far off the mark?  Certainly the factory silhouette at the start of this blog could fit in quite neatly with some aspects of O’Keeffe’s vision. How about this photo from earlier today also?

image

I really was struck by her responses to New York, but when it comes to it my response to London architecture (wonderful as it is in all sorts of ways)  is not to get excited about the idea of painting it. She lived in New York  I do not live in London.  I do live near the Don Valley factories though and I think that is the difference. The factories and silhouettes against the Don Valley light, move and inspire me and make me want to paint. London (fantastic as the late Summer light and architecture are) does not. So Georgia O’Keefe leads me confidently back to a place that matters.

She clearly had a much broader vision than the popular “sexuality metaphor” reputation that was promoted by her husband initially and then vociferously denied by her for decades afterwards.

I particularly liked the “Bones” paintings and think it is all well and good that they represent the beginnings of a partial iconography for 20th century America:-

image

Much more than the narrow surrealist interpretation offered by some critics at the time. This is not Dali.

The importance of place is the thing though as I have hinted at earlier. It comes through with power and dignity in her work. Clearly this is what she is about to a huge extent. I was amused by her quote, “God promised me that if I painted the mountain enough times, then he would give it to me”. (Words to that effect).

So what does one take from this?

……in a few words, the importance of place, a confidence around abstraction, a boldness of colour, a sparing but necessary use of black, the power of painting in series and an unerring projection of personal emotions.

image

 

Posted on by

Bridges, River, Church and Mosque

 

More painting ideas

image

Fig 1  “Church and Mosque: Don Valley”, Photograph, Canon 1d mkiii with 28-300mm telephoto

Some further thoughts, painting ideas and developments after wandering around the Don Valley and taking some more photos.

image

Fig 2 “Long Shadows”; Photograph, Canon 1d mkiii with 28-300mm telephoto

Using the Canon 1d mkiii with the 28 to 300mm telephoto gave me a bit more scope than the iphone 6.

I originally intended to follow up the bridge idea previously mentioned and in a sense I am doing. However, not quite as expected.

I drive past the view of the Church and the Mosque often (fig 1) but this is the first time recently that the light has been favourable. The bridge picture is thirty yards further along than the railway bridge in the previous post.

So I got some pictures of the Church and Mosque and then went wandering to discover that the bridge over the river that I’d just been standing on to take the “long shadow” image (fig2) had this written across it:-

image

Fig 3 “Imagine Waking”; Photograph, Canon 1d mkiii with 28-300mm telephoto

So I suddenly felt that I had a whole load of ideas competing for attention with my “time travel” memories from the previous post.

At this point I went off, downloaded all the pictures and started Tweeting some of them in one form or another. The unintended consequence of this  was that I found a photo filtering app called “Prism” and came up with the following set of images:-

image

Fig 4 “Bridge and St Johns” Prisma filter

image

Fig 5 “24 grid filters for St Johns”

It is a really neat filter effect app for mobile phone that produced some striking outcomes. The grid effects like the one above and this one below where also very pleasing:-

image

Fig 6 “Church and Mosque”; prisma filter

image

Fig 7  “24 grid filters for Church and Mosque”

image

Fig 8 “Church and Mosque”; Photoshop from 30 imported Prisma filter layers  

At this point I have still got half an eye on the background oil painting canvas (fig 9) that I showed in the previous post:-

image

Fig 9  “Underpainting”; oil on canvas, ready to kick start one of the ideas

My intention had been to paint my first bridge ideas over it, but this idea  kind of moved on over the last few days.

Eventually I decided that it seemed to fit better with the Church and Mosque above. I’m pretty sure I have two or three paintings taking shape now anyway and I just need to start working them through.

Finally though, the last Church and Mosque picture above was made by importing all 30 filtered versions of the image into one Photoshop file over 30 layers (fig 8). The process was then to work on the top layer and remove everything that I didn’t want (which could mean almost everything) and then move it to the back of all the other layers. Then repeat the process with all the other layers in turn. The final outcome is of course much more subtle, whilst each subsequent new layer offers me the option of its own character and energy in whatever wuantity I like.

These are a couple of other photos of mine that I gave filter treatment to along the way. You can see the importance of lighting on the circuit board one in particular:-

image

Fig 10  “Signpost” Screenshot of initial Prisma app experiments  

 

image

Fig 11  “Circuit Board”; Just for fun Prisma filter from iphone photo

So I’m ready to move on to a new stage in this precess and now intend to start drawing and painting to produce a small body of work around this whole theme.

 

Posted on by

Painting a Bridge

I really like bridges. The big ones like over the Humber and even small ones like the one at Bakewell.

But what I really like are the cast iron industrial railway bridges like this one in the Don Valley in Sheffield:-

image

Ask me why but I’m not sure I can really answer. Something about the triumph of function over form at one level, but it is something more than that. I hesitate to say that it is an aesthetic in its own right, but it really does stamp something on my psyche.

I was walking down the road to pick up my car from it’s service and found myself wandering through this semi-indusrial area of the Sheffield Don Valley. Every now and again a train would thunder across the bridge and I would miss the photo opportunity.

I don’t suppose they are all that “northern” as the railway network covers all areas, but they remind me of being 11 yrs old in 1971 nevertheless. Trainspotting and associated record keeping and worship. All of which was undoubtedly the same for my peers in Kent at the same time….

BUT,

image

I can’t help being transported back to that northern childhood and feeling in touching distance of any number of other experiences.

It is a kind of “Life on Mars” thing, infused with timetravel mystery. And from a painting and making art point of view it can provide a backdrop for a narrative as yet undiscovered.

image

This is the underpainting I will work with and then paint the further layers of context and narrative over and around it. The above photos will inform what I do and tease out some sort of story I hope.

Posted on by

Visit to the Zoo

Visit the Zoo on the last day of your holiday……

image

Taking photos In the lion enclosure 

The photo above shows some visitors to the Berlin Zoo looking at and taking photos of a female lion. She doesn’t look very happy and in fact in the photo is “roaring”.

Let’s face it Zoos are a bit dodgy  aren’t they?  The poor animals thousands of miles from their natural habitat. Forced to behave themselves and (to some extent at least) perform for the Zoo audience.

However, the above picture is actually only one of two experiences that really bothered me. The vast majority of the Zoo is absolutely wonderful.

image

Posted on by

Barry Flanigan

A walk in the garden

image

“The Drummer”: Barry Flanagan

Chatsworth gardens

Went on a pleasant walk around Chatsworth today and saw this sculpture. The photo gives a good sense of the scale of the piece. It towers over the public as they walk towards it on the path. It has got to be an almost perfect matching up of artwork and location, with the deeply pagan presence that it creates within the glorious woodland.

Chatsworth contains a lot of semi permanant contemporary sculpture, but this is my favourite. I remember seeing the original exhibition of the first smaller “hare figures” at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1983. Their lyricism and wit were memorable at the time and I remember everyone talking about them. This large scale version uses all that original creative power and makes something more. Something fascinating and broodingly iconic.