Massive Doubt

Posted on June 3, 2025 by iansblog

Massive Doubt

Another New Studio

‘You don’t know how paralyzing it is, that stare from a blank canvas that says to the painter you can’t do anything. The canvas has an idiotic stare, and mesmerizes some painters so that they turn into idiots themselves.’

Vincent Van Gogh, letter to Theo from October 2, 1884.

‘Learn to say “Fuck You” to the world once in a while. You have every right to. Just stop thinking, worrying, […] Stop it and just

DO’

Sol leWitt, letter to Eva Hesse, April 14, 1965

The vissicitudes of April 2025 continue to exert an influence on my ability to recognise what I’m doing as having any value whatsoever. With my massive doubt I’ve spent part of the weekend reading around artists’ responses to the black dog that hangs over us all from time to time and the quotes above come from this reading courtesy of the Marginalian [https://www.themarginalian.org/]. On Friday I chanced across a friend who has a studio in the same complex as me and she expressed her post exhibition ennui and I sympathised suggesting that I had made the error of revisiting past work and found myself limited by being unable to remember, if I ever knew, why I was making this set of work. She noted that we are surely all making the same thing over and over again and that the reasons will emerge in time.

Maquette for Circus Horse (after Seurat) 2nd may 2025

I’m not sure I’m entirely convinced but it reminded me that reasons are only important when you’re trying to sell the concepts rather than exercise them.

White Horse (larger model after Uffington) 12th May 2025

The work illustrated shows the progress I’m not making and points up the amount of judgement I’m applying as I move.

Circus Horse (larger model after Seurat) 14th May 2025

So the large horse is progressing and the figure for the acrobat is made.

Circus Horse Maquette (after Seurat) 14th May 2025

Circus Horse larger model with Acrobat 16th May 2025

Circus Horse Maquette (after Seurat) with maquettes in progress 16th May 2025

Studio 19th May 2025

While I’m suffering this massive doubt and trying to find out why I’m doing this I came across this nice little presentation by David Thomas about the “circus as metaphor”

Larger Circus Horse with Acrobat 21st May 2025

The reference images have been created over several years, the original circus drawings were made in 2003/4and the A1 drawings and newer versions were made in 2021. The drawings can be seen together in this gallery.

Circus Ring Drawing 21st May 2025

I started a new cirucs ring drawing and it pointed up the limitations of the metaphor. There is no chaos in the circus but there is movement and distraction and a seeming riotous randomness that is in fact carefully choreographed. As with anything that is characterised by movement a still image can appear to suggest a lack of action.

Circus Ring Drawing 23rd May 2025

The drawing, to date, is trying to suggest a continuous movement whilst simultaneously reflecting the intended appearance of the piece as a sculpture. Scale is everything.

Large Tumbler in progress 28th May 2025

At the end of the month, while I’ve still got massive doubt, I’ve started to get the tumbler built at life size with the intention of building the complete piece – which will mean a life size horse – from styrofoam. The drawback to this is the amount of sanding required and the dust that gets everywhere while you’re sanding. I cut the basic shape with a hot wire but there is always a good deal of smoothing to be done.

Large Tumbler in Progress 30th May 2025

Drawing

I’ve continued to draw every day;

The May drawings can be seen here

Draw Every Day – May 25

Draw Every Day - May 25 Continuing to draw every day in Fabriano artist's Journal with ...
See photo »

…and the April images here

Draw Every Day – April 25

Draw Every Day - April 25 Continuing to draw every day in Fabriano artist's Journal with ...
See photo »

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

Or you can go the Galleries page on the top menu

The drawings are posted to Instagram each day.

Too Much Space

Posted on February 6, 2025 by iansblog

Too Much Space

Another New Studio

I’m currently torn between the idea of having a strong narrative that is followed through a particular space and the idea of a truly non-narrative space that awaits the visitor to build a story. In a sense like Homo Sapiens Nikolaus Geyrhalter‘s film from 2016 where the earth is seen to be slowly reclaimed by nature. The construction of a story, or do I mean ‘meaning’?, from an experience is something I’d imagine most of us do all the time. I have found that visitors to my virtual environments find it extremely difficult, as if the media itself leaves them demanding to be led.

‘Solitary’ 03/01

At the beginning of the month I’d started this drawing while struggling with Unity, so I carried on. First washing then the background over in a filthy grey,

‘Solitary’ 06/01

then building the front tree back out and adding extra branches and twigs.

‘Solitary’ 08/01

‘Solitary’ 13/01

Adding some lighter hues to the background between the trees and working to create a slight corona effect.

‘Solitary’ 31/01/25

In the end the tree, ‘Solitary’, looks like this and it might be finished.

Flower Painting 2 06/01

I worked over the second flower painting, darkening some of the background and adding depth.

Flowerbed 15/01

As I was still waiting for downloads at various parts of the month I started a new drawing from the flower bed.

Flowerbed 17/01

Flowerbed 20/01

The work is reaching for the multi layered and complex feeling of the overgrown bed while retaining sufficient separation between the plants. Also, hopefully, respecting the qualities of drawing with pastels.

Flowerbed 31/01

Still a lot of work required.

Abandoned Flower painting

Abandoned Flower Painting

Abandoned Flower Painting

I worked on a third square painting from the flower beds but it wouldn’t behave itself, three stages above and below the one I painted out, it’s white now.

Abandoned Flower Painting

Once I got to grips with the HDRP rendering in Unity I started to work through the scenes I wanted to place in ‘Woolgathering’

The first attempt at a meadow.

The second, attempting to get closer to the text of John Clare’s ‘Helpstone Green’

A walk up and down the hill in the second version.

And a very quick run through of the piece as it is at present. I’ve added the red gardens pieces into the mix as well at the back of the original garden. Ultimately there will be more development of that world as I move the sculptures and new ones I building now into the various scenes.

Drawing

I’ve continued to draw every day;

The January drawings can be seen here

Draw Every Day – January 25

Draw Every Day - January 25 Continuing to draw every day in Fabriano artist's Journal with ...
See photo »

…and the December images here

Draw Every Day - December 24 Continuing to draw every day, i completed book 20 on the 7th December using brush pens and a mixture of black, grey, sepia and sanguine ink, as well as the occasional graphite drawing. i then moved into a Fabriano artist's Journal with coloured pages. On the 25th December I received a set of coloured brush pens from my wife and have used them since. 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 November's drawings here -

Draw Every Day – November 24

Draw Every Day - November 24 Continuing to draw every day in book 20 (a larger sketchbook) ...
See photo »

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

The drawings are posted to Instagram each day.

Less Space in the Studio

Posted on January 5, 2025 by iansblog

Less Space in the Studio

Another New Studio

In the book ‘The Garden Against Time’ Olivia Laing writes about the restoration of a garden, delving into its history and the forces around it that shape that history. She writes

“ …I was exhausted by the perpetual, agonised now of the news. I didn’t just want to journey backwards through the centuries. I wanted to move into a different understanding of time: the kind of time that moves in spirals or cycles, pulsing between rot and fertility, light and darkness. I had an inkling even then that the gardener is initiated into a different understanding of time, which might also have a bearing on how to preclude the apocalypse we seem bent on careering into. I wanted to dig down, and see what I could find. A garden contains secrets, we all know that, buried elements that might put on strange growth or germinate in unexpected places. The garden that I chose had walls, but like every garden it was interconnected, wide open to the world.”

It is a fascinating book drawing on notions of the garden from Milton’s Paradise through John Clare and the ravages of enclosure and even to Iris Origo’s war diary from la Foce, ‘War in Val d’Orcia’ with all the diversions you would imagine and never shirking the moral ambiguity at the heart of all interactions with the land.

That idea of connecting to everything through a seemingly solitary activity is exactly what I’m trying to achieve with ‘woolgathering’

tree one 16 12 24

So in December I made one more big drawing of the flower beds and worked on the VR world, firstly refining the ground so that the lawn is flat and then working on the jumps between the life size and micro views that will lead into the other worlds before finally putting in the background from Google Maps to place the garden in a bigger environment.

This is the environment before i adjusted the lawn.

This one has the new lawn

and this one has the surrounding environment.

Obviously alongside this I needed something to put my energy into when the VR becomes too frustrating so I started some drawings of trees after seeing a photograph by a friend.

As well as the one above the videos I made two other small ones.

tree two 16 12 24

tree three 16 12 24

Before these the big ‘woolgathering flowerbed’ drawing was done over two days in the studio and is around 130 x 110 cm, pastel on cartridge paper.

Woolgathering Flowerbed

I made a process gif over the two days the drawing took.

woolgathering flowerbed process

Meaning I have even less space in the studio

Even less space in the studio

I started a big drawing of the trees on the 3^rd January and also a couple of paintings based on the flower drawings while I was downloading an environment maker for Blender so that I can add a meadow to ‘woolgathering’ after John Clare’s ‘Helpstone Green’

tree four 03 01 2025 in progress

Flowers Painting 03012025

Flowers Painting 03012025

Both these are c. 50 x 50 cm

Drawing

I’ve continued to draw every day;

The December drawings can be seen here

Draw Every Day – December 24

Draw Every Day - December 24 Continuing to draw every day, i completed book 20 on the 7th ...
See photo »

…and the November images here

Draw Every Day - November 24 Continuing to draw every day in book 20 (a larger sketchbook) with brush pens and a mixture of black, grey, sepia and sanguine ink, as well as the occasional graphite drawing. 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 October's drawings here -

Draw Every Day – October 24

Draw Every Day - October 24 Continuing to draw every day, began book 20 (a larger ...
See photo »

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

The drawings are posted to Instagram each day.

ian-latham.com

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

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Massive Doubt

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Too Much Space

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