More Woolgathering

Posted on October 5, 2024 by iansblog

Another New Studio

Further research around woolgathering led me to looking again at Ivon Hitchens and in particular an exhibition held at the Garden Museum in 2019.

and its companion exhibition ‘Ivon Hitchens: Space through Colour‘ at the Pallant House Gallery in the same year.

The idea that Hitchens had was that space was colour and vice versa and that the paintings he made were essentially reconstructions of the particular space and time in a lyrical fashion. He talked about the visual music he wanted to compose.

There is also the notion that Hitchens, and other English painters at the time were examing Paul Nash‘s questioning as to whether it was possible to be an ‘English’ Modernist. Apparently the answer is no because Modernism is Internationalist.

This resonates for me because Hitchens was very much attached to the woodland he owned and built a house in and worked consistently from throughout his life. The feeling I have is that this landscape source is specific for the individual even if it becomes universal as it reaches out.

This begins to explain the developments I’m making in this current project.

woolgathering maquette 02/09/2024

After working on the flower drawings and building the maquette I applied some colour to it to see what I’d got. The thing is that the wire is too thin for what I want for the pieces I have in my mind so I ordered some 6mm steel rod.

Woolgathering Maquette

I built four bases from some of the reclaimed MDF and put together a version of the maquette as a small sculpture.

Woolgathering 06/09/2024

More Woolgathering

I then worked up a drawing of the small sculpture ‘Woolgathering [Flowers 2]’ on one of the big sheets intending to use it as the work in progress piece for my PG2 presentation.

In the end I used the ‘red gardens’ VR environment as a more complete and coherent response.

Flowers 8 09/09/2024

I worked the other drawing up to a finished [?] state and collected some more foam from the vast store of it at the studios.

Woolgathering Maquette 09/09/2024

Studio 09/09/2024

The presence of the materials ought to make the building much easier.

Woolgathering [Flowers 2] 16/09/2024

I added some pieces into the flowers 2 sculpture and built the ‘tree piece’ over the next couple of weeks.

Woolgathering [Flowers 1] 16/09/2024

Then started the ‘Woolgathering [Flowers 1]’ sculpture, built around a partial cube.

I also stretched some big pieces of paper thus declaring the other two drawings finished.

Woolgathering [Flowers 1] 20/09/2024

The next week I painted the sculpture and added the red flowers.

Woolgathering [Flowers 1] 20/09/2024

More Woolgathering

Woolgathering [Flowers 1,2,3,4] 25/09/2024

At the end of September I broke the lethargy and managed to build the ‘Woolgathering [Flowers 3]’ and ‘Woolgathering [Flowers 4]’ sculptures and positioned as I originally intended while I consider painting the new pieces.

I’ve scanned these into Polycam and have worked up blender models ready for 3d and VR.

Drawing

I’ve continued to draw every day;

The September drawings can be seen here

Draw Every Day – September 24

Draw Every Day - September 24 Continuing to draw every day, began book 19 on 25th August and ...
See photo »

…and the August images here

Draw Every Day - August 24 Continuing to draw every day, finished book 18 on 24th August and continued in new book using brush pens and a mixture of black, grey, sepia and sanguine ink. The drawings are made any time from 9:00 am at the breakfast table and occasionally later in the day if I'm away from home. The drawings have been posted since the beginning, 6th May 2020, on instagram https://www.instagram.com/latham_1959 You can see previous months through the galleries page https://www.ian-latham.com/blog/galleries or you can go straight toJuly's drawings here -

Draw Every Day – July 24

Draw Every Day - July 24 Continuing to draw every day, finished book 17 on 10th July and ...
See photo »

There is a link to the previous month’s Gallery on each page.

The drawings are posted to Threads and Instagram each day.

Wool Gathering

Posted on September 1, 2024 by iansblog

Wool Gathering

Another New Studio

Studio 05/08/2024

After disassembling the sculptures and creating an empty studio I embarked upon a period of rumination. Is the next step to develop a better VR for the ‘Red Gardens’ or to stop for the moment and find a new direction? I spent a week or so working on the bigger ‘Gardens Project’ adapting it for a later version of Unity and working out how to direct the audience through it. The problem remains that people are not used to any agency in works of this nature and would, it seems, rather be led. My study of this is with a very small sampling of visitors to the studio but giving a user anything other than the ability to move, stop and start again, introduces far too much of a learning curve for the controls.

Flower Bed Cards 12/08/2024

Flower Bed Cards 14/08/2024

As a side note this blog’s illustrations are presented in chronological order through August and are discussed later on.

The many things I need to resolve are both frustrating and make me feel guilty because I’m sitting in a big empty space and working at a computer and as result of this I am engaged in ‘Wool Gathering’ I link to the OUP blog rather than the dictionary because of the discussion. Wool Gathering is generally regarded to be a fruitless pursuit but after examining the etymology of the idiom Liberman suggests that this must not have originally been the case as the activity is goal oriented and required concentration. That’s why I think it fits with the things I’ve been doing this month.

I have an absolute love for and a profound difficulty with flowers. I love to see them grow, to watch them in the garden year to year, to see which return and which retreat, contemplating their intricacies. Every so often I draw them and fail miserably in making that record. The drawings I’ve done this month reflect this difficulty varying between the abstraction that records the garden most accurately and the representation that becomes miserably like a flowery thing. The more like flowers they look the less like flowers they are.

I made the twenty small images above as a set to arrive at a card to send to a friend. They are derived from photographs of the flower bed from above. The bed has perennials planted amongst pelargoniums and various self seeded flowers like Nigella and Red Shank.

Flowers (1) 16/08/2024

After I’d finished the cards I spent some time making some larger drawings over the sheets I’d used to protect the floor when I was painted the red sculptures. I’m just concerned to pick elements that give the impression of the flower bed.

Flowers (2) 16/08/2024

The first two worked quite well I think because the flower forms are not obvious.

Flowers (3) 19/08/2024

The next two are less successful because the big flowers are too flowery.

Flowers (4) 19/06/2024

I struggled particularly with this one because of the Gazania that dominates. I got frustrated enough to build myself a table.

Studio 23/08/2024

Alongside these there are three paintings made in my attic at home, this one oil on board, the others on paper.

Flowers (5) 26/08/2024

Flowers (6) 26/08/2024

Flowers (7) 26/08/2024

I’m still in two minds about these.

Studio 28/08/2024

Exploring the method further I’ve stretched paper for more drawing and I’d begun a larger drawing before realising that the lack of variation on the surface before starting was limiting the possibilities for the drawing.

Flower (8) 28/08/2024

This is the drawing after I applied loose red and white emulsion over the drawing I’d already started that was failing.

Flowers (8) 29/08/2024

This is the drawing the next day after I’d started to bring it back towards a finish.

Flowers (2) Maquette 29/08/2024

Flowers (2) Maquette 29/08/2024

The real purpose of the drawings is to work towards sculpture and then take this into the virtual space. After some works in the sketchbook I built this maquette form the second flower drawing. This is where wool gathering gets you, towards something even if I’m not quite sure what it is yet.

Drawing

I’ve continued to draw every day;

The August drawings can be seen here

Draw Every Day – August 24

Draw Every Day - August 24 Continuing to draw every day, finished book 18 on 24th August and ...
See photo »

…and the July images here

Draw Every Day - July 24 Continuing to draw every day, finished book 17 on 10th July and continued in new book using brush pens and a mixture of black, grey, sepia and sanguine ink. I was 65 on the 8th July. The drawings are made any time from 9:00 am at the breakfast table and occasionally later in the day if I'm away from home. The drawings have been posted since the beginning, 6th May 2020, on instagram https://www.instagram.com/latham_1959 You can see previous months through the galleries page https://www.ian-latham.com/blog/galleries or you can go straight to JUne's drawings here -

Draw Every Day – June 24

Draw Every Day - June 24 Continuing to draw every day, in book 17 using brush pens and a ...
See photo »

There is a link to the previous month’s Gallery on each page.

The drawings are posted to Threads and Instagram each day.

Moore’s Law

Posted on August 3, 2024 by iansblog

Moore’s Law

Another New Studio

studio 03/07/24 headset no artist

Apparently “Moore’s Law” is dead, and has been since 2016. The result is that programming has to improve in terms of performance if advancements are going to come at all. Programmers need to make processes more efficient so that less power is needed and the machines can do more without getting significantly faster. Not that anyone will notice this as this as software has for a long time been continually updating so that it outstrips machines every few years and becomes, like streamed music or e-books, something you don’t own you only rent.

This is essentially an aside, as I’ve been looking at ways to update some of my projects so that I can finish them without resorting to acts of destruction as the frustrations mount. Every update makes things harder to resolve and seemingly ignores any idea of intuitive iteration instead opting to completely redesign the wheel with every turn.

studio 03/07/24 artist no headset

studio 03/07/24 artist and headset

studio 03/07/24 artists view

At the start of the month I organised the studio to reflect the intended organisation of the objects in a space accompanying the VR environment.

Since when I’ve been researching galleries and other potential display spaces for the work.

studio drawing 17/07/24

So when I am in the studio I work on the gardens project VR world or draw. Drawing refocuses me when I get frustrated with the rebuild I’m doing of the gardens project as there are frequent failures and new learning to be done with the software updates.

I found using the paper I protected the floor with when I painted the sculptures gives a good background to draw on.

maquette drawing 19/07/24

By the end of the month, I’m no further forward with display options, my portable hard drive failed meaning I lost about a weeks work and I’ve dismantled all the sculptures to make more room for new things.

Studio drawing 26/07/24

Studio from door 31/07/24

studio towards door 31/07/24

Drawing

I’ve continued to draw every day;

The July drawings can be seen here

Draw Every Day – July 24

Draw Every Day - July 24 Continuing to draw every day, finished book 17 on 10th July and ...
See photo »

…and the June images here

Draw Every Day – June 24

Draw Every Day - June 24 Continuing to draw every day, in book 17 using brush pens and a ...
See photo »

There is a link to the previous month’s Gallery on each page.

The drawings are posted to Threads and Instagram each day.

ian-latham.com

Paintings and Sculpture – Drawing – 3d modelling and virtual environments

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