In the time it takes

For my followers that yearn - as I do - for my return to painting the nude, here is a sketch of one of my models tying back her hair after a painting session. For the most part it comprises of a single wash that runs from her arms and gathers intensity at her thighs. Only watercolour offers the means of capturing such a fleeting moment. In the time it took my model to tie up her hair my sixty years experience was thrown down with a number 12 brush in a matter seconds. 

Beyond my control

I spend my days in longing to get back to painting. But circumstances beyond my control - first a major hurricane and then this Corona Pandemic - have deprived me of my models, and without models my work cannot exist. 

Looking back through past work is all I can do. In doing so I find some pleasant surprises in work that I had cast aside. Today's painting is one of them. For the records I had simply titled it "Collean 4". It records the transition when a model moves from reserved to relaxed. The "4" refers to the forth modelling session and that is usually the time it takes for the model and artist to throw off restraints and begin working with one accord.  

It's a pity you've travelled Collean because I could use you right now as the model for my latest Bare Minimum dress design.

When I Goggle "Caribbean Fashion" I am told that the mix of cultures in the region and the tropical climate influence the identifying features of bright colours and natural fabrics. It also adds: The Caribbean Attitude. 

These trends may be a feature of the catwalk but they are certainly not present on the ground. For bright colours insert tartan madras and for natural fabrics beyond tartan madras, forget about it. And other than the sexual connotations of the catwalk, the decorous Caribbean attitude to dress is the more restrictive and heat retaining layers the better.

This is where my fashion label Bare Minimum comes into the picture.

Side tracked

Since my last post I've spent most of my time crawling under my fifty year old Land Rover in an attempt to replace a leaking oil seal. I stress the word "attempt" because after spending the best part of a day getting to the offending seal I found that they'd sent the wrong part from the UK. I then had to spend the best part of another day putting it back to a leaking square one. 

After that it was a pleasure to continue the work in progress on my tattered harlequin design. Below are pictures of the end result. It is a dress that will look its best when wafted by a gentle tropical breeze.

Now to continue developing my designs on the theme of poetry and calligraphy.

The human body was not designed for clothes

The Beauty of the Female Form. 

Nude study by Danish photographer Benny Rytter

No matter how I contrive to adhere to the Bare Minimum concept of my fashion label, the fact remains that the human body was not designed for clothes. Apart from keeping warm in a cold climate and protecting against insect bights in the tropics, the two other principal reasons for wearing clothes are contrary to each other: modesty and sexual attraction.

Designs are governed by what you can hook on to to prevent everything falling down. On the female figure the key anchor points are over shoulders, above the breasts, and around the waist. 

A woman's breasts are the most beautiful of God's creations and it always puzzles me why we have to truss them up and deform them into a shapeless lump. I understand that the first bikini top was fashioned from a couple of handkerchiefs tied together. A strip of cotton voile thrown down on my sewing table seemed anxious to take up the form of its own accord.

 As a watercolourist I have learnt to allow the medium to be my guide and I am finding that the same holds true for fabrics.

It was a collection of dyed off cuts that tempted me to use my last strips of my cotton voile (I've now used up all there is on the island) to create a multicoloured version of my earlier "tatters" design.

Below is a picture of the work in progress. Piecing it together is as challenging as a complicated jigsaw puzzle. As with my first "tatters" design I've placed the seams to the outside to create texture.

Confronting the real thing

The Polish born artist Felix Topolski (1907-1989) had a passion for confronting the real thing. His mania for drawing from life resulted in thousands of sketches that collectively resulted in a remarkable record of life as it was lived in the mid 20th century. But by their shear numbers, his drawings were denied a proper stage. In his own words:

...books and exhibitions were too precious and selective for their numerosity-impact; the contemporary periodicals jealous of their spaces. Hence the natural conclusion: a paper/broadsheet of my own...I meant it to propose itself over the heads of tastefulness and in the manner of old broadsheets...

From initially selling copies at street corners - a sales technique from which hurried commuters turned away in embarrassment - he retreated to the stolidity of subscribers' support. His prolific Chronicles appeared fortnightly from 1953 to 1979. They were self published, without advertisements or subsidies.

Perhaps the prolific internet and blogs such as my own, have taken over where Felix Topolski left off. The essence of which is confronting the real thing.

Nigeria's Leaders from Topolski's Chronicle

The sensuous similarities of petals

Petals

 

A dictionary definition:

Petals are modifies leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often brightly coloured and shaped to attract pollinators.

While a flower's petals are accepted as beautiful to reveal the human equivalent is considered shameful. 

These thoughts came to mind as I was working on the latest design for my fashion label Bare Minimum. 

Petals