Spring has arrived with a vengeance

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brimstone butterfly, Buzzard, Celendine, Cuckoo, east sussex, invasive weed, iPhoneography, landscape, nature, outdoors, Pheasant, photography, picture, Primrose, Spring, sussex countryside, Wood Anemone, wood anemones

Art has had to be temporarily suspended in my life recently. You see I’ve spent the last couple of weeks building a cupboard in my studio area and even thinking about art has been difficult. I don’t know about you, but I find it almost impossible to get my mind focused on two tasks at once. If I’m in building mode, I can’t paint. If I’m in painting mode, then the prospect of having to switch to building mode makes me groan inwardly.

Building mode me has now virtually completed the cupboards and even managed a mantelpiece/fire-surround too. It’s been a sort of build a cupboard and get a free fireplace deal. Well I figured in for a penny, in for a pound and this way I don’t have to switch to builder mode again any time soon in order to build the mantelpiece, because it’s built!

However, now I have to get my mind focused on being creative again. Honestly it feels like the mental equivalent of turning a huge ship before it hits the rocks, or pulling up an old aircraft from a steep dive. It’s only been a couple of weeks, but getting back in the proverbial “zone” seems… tricky.

Today though was a sunny day and I was working outdoors in the countryside and few places in the world are more beautiful than the Sussex countryside in Springtime. Buzzards were circling the fields looking for mice and voles, male pheasants were arguing over who gets the girl and a cuckoo was calling in the distance while a yellow Brimstone butterfly floated lazily past me. So as the Primroses were out too, I snapped a couple of shots on my phone.

Wood Anemones and Celendine

Primroses

Celendine. Hard to dislike this one even though it’s a really invasive weed. On a sunny day like today I could forgive its megalomaniac tendencies.

The only blot on today’s idyllic events is the major sunburn I’m now nursing on the back of my neck! Too much of a good thing obviously.

Wild and woody.

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art, Classic vibe, close up, D3100, DSLR, east sussex, electric guitar, f hole, Fender, fender squire, guitar, mahogany, Nikon, photography, picture, Squire, telecaster, thinline

My youngest son has just bought his first new electric guitar and it’s a doozy, a Fender Squire classic vibe telecaster thinline… to be precise. Anyway it is a thing of beauty and seems to love having its photo’ taken.

A crisis of confidence.

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art, artist, arts, brush strokes, bubble gum, canvas, Christian artist, east sussex, Edgar Degas, girl, Mademoiselle Hélène Rouart, oil paint, oil painting, paint, painter, picture, pink, portrait

I know you shouldn’t compare yourself to someone else, down that road lies disappointment and inferiority, but, if you’re asking yourself if you’re any good, then comparison is inevitable. Happily in my case that comparison is evoking more of a challenge to exceed my current abilities, but comparison could just as easily lead to what used to be called melancholia… the blues.

“A boy who practices painting too much may be overcome by melancholy. He should learn to play string instruments and thus be distracted to cheer his blood” – Albrecht Dürer

I mean, look at young Edgar Degas. If you look at some of the detail in his paintings – detail that I’d sweat buckets over – it’s terrible! Hands that on close inspection are nothing but a few raw, loose brush strokes that at a distance look depressingly sublime. That sort of skill could easily lead you to what Dürer calls melancholia indeed.

Just look at this: (Mademoiselle Hélène Rouart)

I couldn’t sleep at night if I left a hand looking like that, but Degas could. He could see the image as a whole without sweating the tiny details. In fact if he had sweated the tiny details his images would have lost much of their vibrancy. That said, he did get looser in technique as he matured and was much tighter stylistically in his youth. Old age obviously agreed with him.

One of the problems I have is that I’m somewhat isolated from my peers, not part of an artistic community. My family see my work, but they see it at every stage of development, so by the time I’ve finished a piece they’ve seen it for days/weeks and I’m lucky if I get a “uh huh, nice”. I often feel similarly.

My wife Michelle has suggested I cover it up, so that when it’s finished I can unveil the painting with a “ta dah!” Accompanied no doubt by rapturous applause, the popping of champagne corks and gasps of wonder from my assembled family, perhaps even a shed tear and an exclamation of “my goodness, such beauty!”.

However this isn’t the present reality and I have to wrestle with my doubts myself. What seems a little disturbing, is that the more I paint the greater the self doubt and it would seem I’m not alone. Many of my art heroes seem to have suffered the same affliction and it makes me wonder if there is a link to creativity and depression. I mean, if I’m gonna end up like poor Vincent I might need a less strenuous career like professional cage fighter or primary school teacher, and people say art is relaxing.

For now I’m taking all this as a challenge, a provocation to step things up a gear, to continue to go where no me has ever gone before. After all, with each project I undertake I learn something new. The current project is no exception, it’s taught me a lot and considering I’ve probably only done less than perhaps ten oil paintings in total ever, I shouldn’t be too hard on myself. Unless Degas’ first ten paintings were masterpieces of course…

If Robert Hughes (Australian born art critic) was correct then we’ve all got reason to hope. For he said:

“The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.”

Anyway, here she is – Lily. This one is painted mostly from reference photographs, but I’m thinking that to get more depth I’m going to perhaps start working from live models.

Photo’s from the shed.

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50mm, art, chisel, Christian artist, curls, DSLR, east sussex, English, home, Nikon, outdoors, photography, picture, shed, watering can, winter, wood

Winter seems to have come back for a visit today. It’s cold and damp and unwelcome, but it did give me a reason to hide in the shed from the cold and take a few shots. I’m still trying to understand the new camera, it has a lot more functions than my phone! But we’re slowly becoming friends and I think it may have even forgiven me for dropping it by now.

My eldest son Joe has been building a folding guitar for a school exam project and whilst helping him the other day I thought the shed might make a good place to play with the Nikon. Anyway here are a few shots of that quintessentially English of buildings, the garden shed.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Landscapes? Yeah, I’m not so sure.

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art, artist, canvas, Christian artist, church, Constable, east sussex, field, Hellingly, landscape, Norman, oil on canvas, oil painting, Sussex, Turner

This is the second landscape I’ve attempted. The first was a field of flax in France, this time it was near to home, a Sussex field in winter with the old Norman church in the distance and even after a second attempt at trying to paint landscapes… I just can’t love them… yet. Perhaps if I loosen up in my approach we might one day fall in love, but for now I think we’ll agree to take a break.

Every new subject is like a sort of puzzle to be solved and once solved you can bend the rules, but try as a may, I just can’t bend the rules. Asserting my own style upon landscapes is proving illusive. Maybe that means I just don’t “get” them yet, maybe I’m just going about it the wrong way. Maybe I’m just looking at the subject all wrong. Whatever the problem is I’m probably going to steer clear of them for a while and in truth I’ve never really been a big fan of traditional English landscapes. Constable never really rang my bell, Turner on the other hand is awesome, but try as I may I just ended up Constable-ising this one, just not as well.

Anyway, here it is nearly complete (there’s a little more sky on the canvas), if not a little badly lit for the photograph.

Danger

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blackthorn, east sussex, iPhoneography, photography, pilon, power

This was “growing” out of the midst of Blackthorn hedge that I was lowering last week.

Dead poppy lanterns.

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art, east sussex, gardener, iPhoneography, nature, opium poppy, papaver, papaver somniferum, plants, Poppy, somniferum, sun, winter, winter sun

Shot these dead poppy heads this morning on my phone. If had been a more conscientious gardener I would have removed them weeks ago, but I’m glad I didn’t get round to it. They looked great with the winter sun pouring through them, as if they were lit!

Papaver somniferum (Opium poppy) lit by the morning winter sun.

iPhoneography – en Hiver

Tags

carbon antlers, east sussex, Fungi, fungus, iPhoneography, photography, Salix, Wildlife, Willow, winter, Xylaria hypoxylon

Just finished a commission, but as I can’t publish it due to being sworn to secrecy (it’s a surprise birthday present), thought I’d publish a couple of shots taken today.

Willow – the saturation is enhanced… a little.

Fungi – Apparently (after a quick image search on Google) this is the Carbon Antlers (Xylaria hypoxylon) fungus. Anyway, I thought it worthy of a photo’. They look like little Tim Burton style antlers.

Autumn and Winter

Tags

autumn, Dalek, east sussex, frost, frozen, ice, iPhoneography, leaves, photinia, pond, snow dalek, winter

Thought I’d post a few of the last shots taken this year, before a new start with a new year.

Happy New Year!

Leaves frozen in a pond

Hoar Frost

Bullrushes in a frozen pond. The lines in the ice are bubbles of trapped air.

These two are of a leaf that had fallen in a tub of water and frozen in situ.

This last couple were taken in 2010, but I don’t think I’ve published them before and they fit the theme. Besides, I really liked the snow dalek. He was fun!

Photinia (Red Robin) trap in thawing snow that had refrozen.

A quantum Christmas carol.

Tags

animator, art, artist, Christian artist, Christmas, christmas theme, dinosaur, east sussex, morse, night before Christmas, picture, poem, T-Rex, Tyrannosaur, wormhole

Okay, continuing on a Christmas theme, here’s a collaboration between myself and the talented animator Lauren Morse. Lauren provided the awesome T-Rex illustration while I exchanged brush for pen this time and provide the verse.

Hope you like it:

http://www.iangoldsmith-artist.com

http://www.laurenmorse.co.uk