Same Old Same Old

Same Old Same Old

Same Old Same Old

torus maquette 1

During January I continued work on the lemniscate/finitude/tori path, moving the tori drawings into sculpture through a series of five maquettes. These are conceived as large scale works, eventually around five feet tall so the standard view is across the apex of the lens that tops, in fact ‘is’, the form.

Same Old Same Old

torus 1 detail

The photographs above give an indication of the presentation.

The idea behind these is discussed in Stepping Aside Occasionally, a blog post from August last year where I talk, briefly about the notion of the absolute presented by the form. It’s not original but is a way into making things again.

I started to work with styrofoam (expanded polystyrene) from packaging and eventually bought some blue foam to build the structures solid parts. What I want is for the sculptures to be spatial translations of the tori drawings.

Same Old Same Old

torus 2 maquette

torus maquette 2 detail

torus maquette 3

torus maquette 3 detail

torus 4 maquette

The fourth maquette was actually the first to be put together but fell out of sequence with repairs and repainting – I’m considering the addition of graphite elements.

torus 5 maquette

The fifth maquette is the one that uses the blue foam on its own to layer the lens that you look across.

torus 5 maquette detail

As well as carrying on with these sculptures I’ve been painting, just to keep my hand in by stretching myself with technique.

Glassware – Oil on Board 10″ square (wip)

The glassware and the table are from photographs I found so I’ve started to use views of the house instead.

Table – oil on board 12″ square (wip)

Like this view of the kitchen table.

kitchen table – oil on board – 12″ square (wip)

All of these, as you can see, are works in progress.

I put together a round of 2022 as a mini website https://www.ian-latham.com/2022/ linked from the front page of the main site.

Drawing

I’ve continued to draw every day, including reaching 1000 consecutive drawings on 30th January, and you can see the January images  here

and the December images here

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

The drawings are posted to Twitter and Instagram each day.

Gardens Project 12: First Post in 3 Months

Gardens Project 12: First Post in 3 Months

At Christmas, as I was awaiting new year with bated breath, ready to make myself new resolutions and approach 2022 with a renewed vigour I got offered a job. Quite out of the blue an agency I had signed up with when I retired emailed me to see if I wanted to take up an interim position at a college not too far away and within a couple of days I’d spoken to the college and decided to go.

The good thing about this is that it shifted me out of my rut and meant I had, for at least some of my days, a defined purpose that wasn’t just about me. The bad thing is that even though it was initially only four days a week focus on anything else goes right out of the window.

I have been doing some things though…

I’ve joined a website for Yorkshire Artists, https://yorkshire.art/directory/artist/ian-latham/

had a meeting about the lemniscate project,

Three Lemniscate maquettes

Three Lemniscate maquettes

I’ve carried on drawing every day and you can see the February images here

The drawings are posted to Twitter and Instagram each day.

and produced a couple of bigger studio drawings.

Gardens Project 12

Drawing of a fox in the garden at Balby – Charcoal 100x90cm In Progress

Gardens Project 12

The attic studio from above – pencil 90x90cm

I’ve also had to revisit the gardens project in VR as I made a series of mistakes that meant I had to rebuild the environment. My lack of knowledge leads to my constant stepping back to check and repeatedly changing my mind about where I’m going with this project. I do think (?) that I know what the installation will look like now, the piece will be entered through interactions with a set of platonic solids and will explore their associations with the classical elements. The faces of the dodecahedron being used as entry points to the different experiences.

I’ve started to adapt the narrative into a twine so that I can explore the different routes through it. This in effect doubles the number of chapters, or at least chapter headings? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t.

The Gardens project posts start here 

I also finished my painting of a rose

First Post in 3 Months

Balby Rose Oil on Board 50x50cm

One Handed Working

All of this is typed with one finger on my left hand as I’ve got tennis elbow! As best as I can figure I’ve developed an RSI from drawing on the iPad. It may also have something to do with digging.

52 left handed pastels

52 left handed pastels

So I’ve had to draw with my left hand, I haven’t tried painting yet – I feel as if requires more control – and made these 52 5”x 7” pastel drawings of the garden. I’ve also been drawing daily on the iPad, with my left hand since the 2nd September.

Drawing with your wrong hand is a strange activity in that it involves stilling the involuntary spasms that your usual hand makes due to muscle memory and conciously switching the natural action to its mirror image. It feels as if you are thinking differently at first, but after a while it seems as if there is a bar to your usual thinking so that the process is foggier.

Since my last post on August 18th I’ve begun a couple of paintings

Balby Garden Robin

Balby Garden Robin

This robin is 10” x 10”, as is the Edlington Woods painting below.

Edlington Woods Branch

Edlington Woods Branch

I also entered a local online competition with this small painting of birds…

Birds Do It

Birds Do It

which is 12” x 9”, they are all oils on board.

dogs on beach

dogs on beach

old mine works

old mine works

lathkill dale

lathkill dale

I also started three more, same sort of sizes, that I haven’t been able to finish yet.

All of these are a way to teach myself to paint with oils again.

I also finished the August Gallery