Whatever It Is

Whatever It Is

Another New Studio

I’ve had a mixed January after time off over Christmas. Lots of time spent trying to get an app from Unity onto the app store, I must have spent twenty hours and it still won’t go on so I’ve resorted to putting the Doncaster Platonics app on the Artivive  App.

It works, which is great, but it costs money to use for anything other than minimal output and there would be further charges if the works were viewed more than a 1000 times in a month. That might seem to be a lot of views but the five Platonics drawings are each individual artworks so that’s 200 views each.

Whatever It Is

Christmas Tree – Oil on Board

While I was at home I painted a Christmas tree, because it was Christmas.

Bird Skeleton

I missed several days studio work after discovering water dripping down onto my stairs from the skylight. This proved to be a hole in the roof so that needed sorting, mostly involving waiting for tradesmen to turn up to quote and then sitting around while the one I chose did the job.

While I was in the roof cavity, off my cellar studio I found the skeleton a small bird, I think it’s a sparrow, and I took it into the studio at c-view to draw. This is 140 cm x 80 cm pencil and pastel on paper. This was started on the 12th of January.

Small Fox

I also painted a small fox while I was waiting around at home and did a lot of digging in the garden.

Whatever it is

Bird Skeleton with Red

On the 15th January I was able to get into the studio again and added some red to the bird skeleton and worked over the shadows and some marks on the paper with white paint. I managed to get help to deliver the lemniscate  to the NHS at Barnsley Hospital and also got some photographs taken of the work I’ve made at c-view for prints and a new website.

Bird Skeleton with red wash

I got back into the studio on the 19th January and painted the background of the bird skeleton with red ink.

Studio 23/01/2024

I also started a new half sized maquette for the three trees variations in cardboard. I finished this on the 23rd January and made a lidar Polycam scan.

Three Trees Maquette drawing

When I returned to c-view on the 24th I started a drawing of the three trees sculpture, I’ve also explored this in the sketchbook.

Three Trees Maquette drawing

And when I next got in on the 29th I finished it.

Whatever it is

Red Pigeon

I was in again on the 31st, after a lot of work on the app and the background story to the big Gardens Project and I worked the Red Pigeon drawing up to almost finished.

I’m thinking that the Garden is the protagonist of the story for the project, asserting itself by becoming in the presence of ‘you’ as the witness. As simple as it sounds the longer you are present in the garden the more you see and the more you interact the more you find out. The plot may be the reconciliation ‘of’ or ‘with’ a fatal flaw in the main character. There has to be some kind of achievement at the end of it.

I wrote a kind of manifesto for my protagonist. Which garden I am depends upon you. I am the garden growing the fridge freezer and the bin bags full of ignorance; I am the garden organised with gravel and abandoned to dandelions and curly wurly wrappers bleached and wilted; I am the garden clinical in its efficiency, with no room for invasions or unwanted natives, made new every season with garish borders; I am the garden abandoned to ideology, at the mercy of the wind and the moss and the tap roots, and the ‘wilding’; I am the garden that tells you what it wants and where it wants it; You are the garden I am.

I really should find the time to work consistently on this, whatever it is.

A small aside about photographing work, I took the photographs below in my kitchen with the iPad, the picture is 12inches square. I haven’t adjusted the colour in any of them, it is just a question of finding the right light. The one at the right is the closest to reality.

Fox, colour photographs

Drawing

I’ve continued to draw every day;

The January drawings can be seen here

and the December images here

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

The drawings are posted to Threads and Instagram each day.

Still in the Red

Still in the Red

Open Day

Another New Studio

Still in the Red

the studio in a convex mirror

Quick, said the bird, find them, find them,
Round the corner. Through the first gate,
Into our first world, shall we follow
The deception of the thrush?

TS Eliot ‘Burnt Norton’ 

Despite my best efforts the concerns I had when developing the geranium project  remain central to my practice and I feel as if I’m in a dialogue with the inherent nostalgia evoked, in particular, through the Four Quartets 

The work I started and discussed in my last post led to me making the space to build a large sculpture based on the three trees maquettes I’ve been making. The sculpture must have spaces inside its mass that are inaccessible to adults because that’s the truth of the actual location (I am working alongside on a VR project that will express this better). In order to clear apples from the garden I need to get on my knees and that act immediately changes my relationship with the earth. I am attached more strongly to the ground, limited in my ability to move and given a different view of things. It’s this feeling I carry in to making and essentially try to replicate in the process. The object is the manner of its making.

Still in the Red

The build process

In this case that starts with an external armature to which I can attach shapes based on those that have grown. Each of the stages is followed by a Polycam scan of the sculpture at that stage.

Still in the Red

with the armature removed

When I’ve got the basic form I remove the armature and make sure the structure can stand.

Still in the Red

with the armature removed

This, if you like, is the outline, and I can then build on this to fill out the form I envisage.

Still in the Red

adding form

I used cartridge paper to do this and I’d normally make this more rigid with resin but my current studio arrangements don’t allow for this. It’s always worth noting that the material determines the quality of the form.

Still in the Red

adding form

The form, once complete can be painted and in this case it will be red.

Still in the Red

First coat of Red

The piece is about seven feet tall and will intially be painted using two shades of red. I’ve managed to put the first one on so far.

First coat of Red

I’ve found time to work on some of the drawings and my sketchbook, this is the third red garden drawing

Red Garden Three

Still not finished.

Open Day

You’ll have noticed this at the top of the page, try to visit if you can, the other two are really good!

Covid19 (eventually)

Covid19 (eventually)

Another New Studio

After the last post I was a bit deflated and when I returned to the studio all I could do was tidy up and finish off the few bits I have on the go.

 

Covid19 (eventually)

Easel 250923

I did some work on the painting on each day I was in.

Covid19 (eventually)

easel 270923

I got as far as this state which needs more detail but is essentially blocked in. I continued with the doncaster platonics app, loading it up to the app store in test mode and contacted the council to tell them it was done. The app can be tested through this website, https://ian-latham.com/doncplatonic/ which has a link to the play store.

The app functions pretty well although the video remains problematic.

roses 280923

As well as the studio I worked on some images at home for greetings cards, and I made these roses which work quite well when cut down.

Then I had a visit to my Mothers in Preston and returned with Covid19. This is the first time I’ve had it at all and it is a pain in the arse. I’ve not been in the studio since the 2nd October when I worked some more on the painting…

easel 021023

The colour balance is improving but it’s still not there.

So that’s October as a write off for now, I’m still testing positive after ten days so we’ll see how long it takes to get back into the saddle.

Drawing

I’ve continued to post on Threads as well as instagram.

I’ve continued to draw every day;

The September drawings can be seen here

and the August images here

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

The drawings are posted to Threads and Instagram each day.