Lockdown Eight (Too busy to think)

Another lazy post, been too busy gardening and prevaricating since the last one.

small painting gif ‘fox jaw’

I made this small painting, and I entered the last one into an online competition…

It’s there on the right, you can click this link to vote for it https://www.doncasterartfair.com/?pgid=kb84pw6k-c20b0fd7-b161-42b3-ac0a-0086832b9f2e but I don’t really stand a chance, the final 30 are picked through the online vote and half an hour in some of these had 500+ votes. I don’t know enough people online. It was free to enter though.

I’ve been continuing to work on the ‘gardens’ project, tentatively titled “et in arcadia ego” the viewer moves through a series of gardens, all the gardens I’ve spent time in. I think its about the pursuit of quiet spaces, the expanding and contracting nature of safety – mental and physical – and the chimeric nature of confidence (for a start).

This is the first space, the back yard at Glover Street in Birches Head, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. The spaces will eventually lead to the garden I used for geranium and I’m working on a post explaining the concept fully for a new funding bid (small funds but tech support).

I’m building sculpture this week, I’ll post it next week or on the internet as I go.

Lockdown Seven (another lazy post)

Update on the #draweverydayinmay2020

I kept going until I had 31 days worth, and I’ve drawn on the two days since, the link takes you to the completed gallery.

So this is a quick picture post as I went protesting on Sunday when I would normally have written a post.

Tuesday I started a painting and worked on the first garden in the VR world that has a working title of ‘et in arcadia ego’

underdrawing

starting tthe painting

Glover Street Yard

On Wednesday I ran and then worked in the garden. I spent the afternoon getting frustrated with the VR – it’s always about adjusting the scale to make the world realistic. (as an aside I bought a copy of MakeVR to try to build quicker but discovered that my kit isn’t upto it, it works so slowly it defeats the object of using it.)

Thursday I carried on painting and modelling.

Under painting

I carried on painting on Friday

Friday painting

On Saturday I worked on the model, changing textures (sourced from old family photographs)

Glover Street Model

The I finished the painting and entered it into a competition locally – online so maybe not just local – I had to submit a photoof me in the studio alongside it.

The artist in his studio [old codger]

The finished(!) painting looks like this…

withered rose

More Lockdown (less success)

I’ve got the WebGL down below seven minutes consistently, with data caching, it’s still too long though. www.ian-latham.com/geranium/build_newmirror

Began thinking about meadow forms for sculptures.

07/05/20 tried loading the WebGL again, took 20 minutes to do nothing, 12 minutes to load, then twice seven minutes to load each time with no sound! Next step is to upgrade the Unity programme which means a complete rebuild. Love this game!

08/05/20 Too nice a day to mess about with Unity so I did some sketching in the garden and started to work a maquette for the meadow forms.

buttercup sketch

buttercup sketch

I’ve started to draw on the iPad in the mornings as well, posting them on instagram. [@latham_1959] The maquette is air drying clay and will be varnished and cast in plaster.

common orchid maquette

common orchid maquette

I’m thinking of different finishes, certainly mounted on a stem.

meadow forms sketch

meadow forms sketch

Since these, a couple of days ago, I’ve had to update Unity to try to resolve the load issues.