The Geranium Project (R&D) 03

Posted on June 30, 2019 by iansblog

Studio View

Studio view 24^th June 2019 – tidied for meetings.

This weeks starting question – Is the urge to tidy up when faced with a blank mind a symptom of age? Is having a blank mind a symptom of age? Probably worth acknowledging at this juncture that my idea of tidy may not have a very wide currency.

I visited the new studio today but it’s a building site. I was told that they were stripping out inessential fittings, like the intranet wiring and some shelving, and I should be able to move in. I’d need a hard hat and breathing apparatus to be able to move in as it stands so now I’m fingers crossed for the place to be clear by Friday so I can move next week – otherwise I’ll need to do some quick thinking. I contacted my usual van driver about the move but he no longer has a van so I’m already at the mercy of strangers which increases the effort involved.

This week I’ve got three meetings that will largely determine the timetable for the project over the next nine months, hopefully starting with an informal launch at Doncaster’s Culture Crawl on 23^rd July.

1819 pair_four_blog

I organised some of the drawings in the gallery to pair the originals, made last summer, with the new ones made in the last month or two. Each original drawing, which has a collage element, – https://www.ian-latham.com/blog/gallery/paired-drawings-2018-2019/ – is copied to a small sketch and then taken to the upstairs studio and reinterpreted as a pure drawing. It’s interesting to put them together to see how closely they match or quite how far apart they’ve grown.

Wednesday had a meeting with Wayne Sables https://www.waynesablesproject.co.uk/ who is going to give feedback on aspects of production and presentation as well as, with my other collaborators, engaging in discussions about the installation as it progresses. This is what the ACE funding covers, paying for the time of experienced collaborators who can challenge the work as it progresses.

Studio Corner

I also stuck up some of the newer drawings to keep the place from seeming empty, even though I expect to be moving, and began a big version of one of them.

Drawings June 26th

Large Drawing in Progress

Friday ended up being a day of meetings and a visit to the new studio – which now won’t be the new studio. The building is being turned into apartments and all but two rooms are inaccessible.

I met with Mike Stubbs, https://www.mikestubbsart.com/ who is a collaborator/mentor for the installation and Iain Nicholls, https://iain-nicholls.com/ who is specifically helping out with the VR portion of the project.

The week leaves me with a lot of possibilities for the installation going forward – we discussed form, location, looking behind you, the way you are guided through space, the outward appearance of the space and much more. One of my major headaches is going to be holding a firm grip of what I want to achieve during the discussions I have.

NEW STUDIO Week Sixteen

Posted on June 7, 2019 by iansblog

This will be the last general post under the new studio banner. It’s not that I’m stopping anything, it’s because I was awarded a grant by Arts Council England to develop the Geranium project. So from next week I’ll be posting Geranium Project 01 and should run up to GP40 by the end of the funding period.

fourdrawingscolour_blog

On Monday 3^rd June I worked on four drawings that I began last week, working them together towards a larger drawing that I’d stretched paper for. The drawing process is still build up, break down, build back up. I enjoy the prospect of working to correct as the drawing retains some of the character of the erroneous marks when it’s corrected.

fourdrawingstranslation_blog

This is the translation to a unified whole, which is far too twee – I think that’s the word – and required some dissolution and retrieval. I dripped very thin black paint over it, took it off with more paper, dripped white paint over it that I allowed to dry and then worked over that with white conté.

ourdrawingstranslation_further_blog

This is where it was at when I had to stop for the day. The reds have had more pastel applied and the central block has been worked over with more charcoal.

Wednesday 5^th June I went in to the studio to find there was leak, I traced it up through three floors to the roof, it damaged a sketchbook.