The honeymoon is over

[devi]

I've done a painting I don't like. I think it didn't work because I was trying to paint something I could see very clearly in my head, rather than just starting to paint and seeing what happened. Oh well:






I do like this one, though:





And now, in Good Art news, who wants to see this Antony Gormley exhibition with me? It's in London, so it'd have to be a weekend for me, but it's on from 17th May till 19th August.

Comments

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

Ooh - yeah. I like the second one. It's quite Tolkienesque.

[anam-uk.livejournal.com]

I desperatly want to see the Gormley exhibition, I must now go & fettle my calendar to see how it would be best to do it

[libellum.livejournal.com]

The second one is gorgeous! I have friended you, even though I'm astonished that you want to continue the acquaintance given quite how epically trashed I was during our conversation on Saturday ;)

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Our conversation was like an island of coherence in the midst of all the trashedness! Well, your half of it was anyway.

Friending you back. And congratulations on the exhibition news. V exciting.

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

What, you two hadn't met?

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

I know, it's strange, isn't it?

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Perhaps more like an archipelago? I remember that I kept returning to my body and being surprised to discover that I was making MOUTH WORDS. Apparently my autopilot is reasonably good at faking coherence, but we really should have a conversation some time where I'm actually present for all of it ;)

Thankyou! Any chance of you making it to mine as well as the Gormley? Unfortunately they don't overlap...

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

I'd very much like to see yours! What night of the week is your opening night? (Not that it'll be so much of an issue in the summer mostly-holidays, mind.)

Heh, yeah, "mouth words".

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Wednesday the 22nd :)

(In which Libellum Blatantly Re-uses Chiller and Yiskah's In-Jokes Out of Context. They work out of context, though.)

[kyte.livejournal.com]

Indeed - first one nice, second one 'oooooh' :>

I can't help feeling that you've painted Lantern Waste...

Definitely interested in the Gormley exhibition, but dunno whether I'll get my act together enough to go...

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Well, it would be lovely to see you! I'll put up a poll with dates or something soon.

And I have a bunch of comics to send you. Thanks for networking on my behalf!

[kyte.livejournal.com]

Huzzah on both counts :-)

[shermarama]

I really like the second one. I could say, particularly because there's enough mass of pale foreground branching stuff to change the emphasis and make it look like it could be a picture of a great variety of things, of which trees is one of the less likely. Some weird angle through a tangle of nerves on the inside of an eyeball, perhaps.

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Cooool. Really glad that comes across - I wanted the pale shapes to be organic but ambiguous, though the ones through the gaps are more clearly trees.

I *love* the nerves interpretation.

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

The first one looks like meat cooking in a pan. Think of it that way and it begins to look quite tasty!

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Slices of spiral-creature meat. Yes, I can see that :/

[shewho.livejournal.com]

london eh? make it a Rock Steady weekend, and i promise to be more with it this time :)

[boxcat.livejournal.com]

Count me in for Gormley.

He is my all-time 2nd favourite sculptor (after Ms Hepworth).

Actually, hmmm, why don't I have 'Barbara Hepworth' as an interest? I should fiXX0r

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I don't know her. What sort of stuff does she do?

[boxcat.livejournal.com]

She was part of the St Ives school, specialising in form. Google her for more details. She was t3h ace.

[a-llusive.livejournal.com]

Interested - and trying to go to London weekend of June 2nd for a party anyway...

[fraxl.livejournal.com]

i love the green one! that is exactly the sort of piece i would love to have hanging on my wall.

[al-fruitbat.livejournal.com]

I have no idea if this is pretentious, or any use to you whatsoever. However, I remember when I was starting to paint and my parents (both officially artists) gave me lots of advice. Two bits in particular I still find useful and very simple, so I'm going to type them at you.

1) Turn the canvas upside down to check the proportions of things. Sometimes it's worth filling whole bits of the picture in 'upside down' - our brains are peculiarly fickle when it comes to size and perspective.
2) Step back, and really squint through slitted eyelids. This will allow you to perceive contrast properly. (This is also very useful when painting from real life, and trying to capture shadows)

I wouldn't dream of criticising your work - for one thing, I can't have an opinion until I see it fullsize. I would urge you to keep painting though - I wish I had the discipline and time to buy a new set of watercolours, instead of copping out in potatoshop whenever I get the creative urge!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_kent/]

I actually really like the first one. :)

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Contrarian as ever!

How're you doing?

[ksta.livejournal.com]

fwiw I like both, but I love trees so particularly the bottom one. Do you paint a lot?
I ;iked the stuff you posted last time too.

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much. I used to paint years and years ago when I was doing art classes, but these ones and the last four are the first in a long while.

[wyvernfriend.livejournal.com]

liking the trees.

[sumbitch.livejournal.com]

i love the glowing tree-things! they look like a grey alien's about to be silhouetted.

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Now I can see that too! Thank you.

[several-bees.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I want to see the Gormley.

[several-bees.livejournal.com]

There's also quite a lot of interesting-looking stuff at the Tate on the 26-29 May, if you're trying to pick a weekend with maximum interesting art stuff potential.

[several-bees.livejournal.com]

Er, not there, here; the other one was last year's, and I'm an obsessive error-corrector I'm afraid.

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

That does indeed look cool. Not sure I'll be able to sort it out that soon, but hmmmm...

[darklily.livejournal.com]

Getting in here more than a tad late, but if there's still a Gormley exhibition trip in the offing, I'd be potentially interested in tagging along...