Sunday, March 30, 2025
Out of the blue
Saturday, March 22, 2025
The subtleties of the nude
Continuing my experiments in allowing the photograph, the painting and the sculpture to blend as one. Today's image is from my video of sculptures in my series Daughters of the Caribbean Sun. It could equally represent a screen shot of my brain as I struggle to capture the subtleties of the nude.
Sunday, March 16, 2025
Now you see it, now you don't...
As I mentioned in my last post, to promote and find funding for a forthcoming documentary on the creative relationship between artist and model, I am faced with the curse of social media censors. However, by combining the painted image with the photographed image, both of which are to be seen in motion, I may be able to avoid the degrading compromise of pixilation. This still image from my most recent video is an experiment in that direction.
Friday, March 14, 2025
Perverting the virtuous
Saturday, March 8, 2025
My foray into video short territory
In the time it has taken me to get my first YouTube Short video up and running I could have captured and painted a dozen models. Soundtrack copyright and working in a vertical format were the delaying factors. My usual classic jazz recordings violated copyright and my models prefer reclining to standing.
My foray into video short territory was somewhat hesitant, but nothing ventured nothing win.
Saturday, March 1, 2025
The bare essentials
The Man Who Shot Beautiful Women is a remarkable documentary about the life and work of the revolutionary fashion photographer Erwin Blumenfeld (1897-1969). His work is an object lesson on how to break every rule in the book with aplomb.
On occasions my own work has sort similar effects. As with the face of my model in this painting.
Thursday, February 27, 2025
A new look and new content
From 3,000 miles away my son Tristan has been burning the midnight oil designing and building a new version of my website: studiopublications.org
This time around, in addition to books, the site includes my paintings, sculptures and videos. And there's more sections to follow. This makes the contents of my studio all the more accessible to the wider world.
Thanks to ''Discord'' we've been able to work together online. I can give him access to my computer, sit back, and watch the mouse run around like magic while he accesses files and makes adjustments.
Tristan's come along way in the twenty-two years since I made this sculpture of him at age eight months.
Monday, February 24, 2025
Daughters of the Caribbean Sun
The opening image is taken from my recently released video of sculptures in the series Daughters of the Caribbean Sun.
In the video I have interlaced images of my models and preliminary sketches as a means of enabling the viewer to enter the creative process.
Thursday, February 13, 2025
Stretching my model to the limit.
This small sculpture took a large effort on the part of artist and model. Holding the pose, even for a few seconds, stretched my model to the limit, and depicting it as a sculpture stretched me to the limit. But it is the speed of execution that gives it life. There is no time for playing about with detail.
Saturday, February 8, 2025
Access to forbidden territory (Updated)
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Reflecting on reflections
Reflections is the theme and title of my seated figure that was one of two sculptures commissioned by the Macmillan Cancer Appeal for the Royal Calderdale Hospital. The concept of a figure gazing down into a fathomless pool was my model's idea. The second sculpture was of a nude figure emerging from a vortex of autumn leaves and titled, ''You Must Believe In Spring''. From the shadow of death and despair my figures sang to high heaven in praise of the beauty of life. But depicting the beauty of the human form can be controversial. My book ''Notes on the Nude'' tells of the uproar my innocent figures caused with the National Health Board of Trustees.
''Reflections'' is also the title of Sheila Hydnman's collected poems, a facsimile of which is contained in my book ''Sheila Hyndman Remembered''. But alas, my remembrance of Sheila has fared no better than my nude figures. As one of the Caribbean foremost poets Sheila is given scant recognition in the islands of her birth.
Friday, January 24, 2025
Experiments in patination and a dram of Scotch whisky
I've been experimenting with patinating the master plaster cast of my life-size figure of Annabelle. The sculpture is modelled in high relief and I have patinated the figure in dark bronze. But the surround of the figure has taxed my ingenuity. Setting the figure against the white of the plaster cast results in too much contrast of one against the other, whereas extending the same bronze patination to the surround, deprives the sculpture of life.
The answer to the dilemma lies in the fact that bronze can be patinated in all the tints of autumn. To achieve this effect, I have used pastels to colour the white plaster ground. And this is where a dram of Scotch whisky comes into the picture. The traditional formula for fixing pastels is casein (a protein derived from milk) mixed with grain alcohol. My regular tipple of rum is made from cane, not grain, and will not do.
The photograph makes the pastel patina appear lighter than it actually is. In reality the colours are richer and darker.
Regular followers will remember my many posts of the work in progress from clay to plaster.
Friday, January 17, 2025
Avert your gaze
Saturday, January 11, 2025
Capturing the Caribbean
The above watercolour is one of hundreds that I made over a twenty year period while sailing the Caribbean. It is featured in my latest video Capturing the Caribbean.
My paintings were sold there and then, and only occasionally was I able to photograph a painting before a buyer whipped it away. All I have left are faded photographs and colour transparencies that have deteriorated in the heat and humidity of the tropics. Restoring the images has been a major task, as can be gauged from the "before" detail shown below. The millions of mysterious dots may have been caused by a chemical reaction within the emulsion. Perhaps related to a fault in processing. I welcome feedback on the issue.
Thursday, January 9, 2025
What's in a name?