WORK IN PROGRESS [ cont'd from 23rd January ]

As-Yet-Untitled, Acrylic On Canvas, 60cm x 60cm.

...THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY

A Facebook blast from the past - 

It's great when I get requests from students in the UK and around the world, who want to interview me regarding my POLYGRAPH NUDES drawings. Some of them have even done really cool versions of their own in this style. At some point, I'll compile them into a blog article.

There are other people in the internet - seemingly professional artists - who are also intent on heavily imitating this style... to varying degrees of success.

This style has taken on a life of its own since I originally drew them in 2011 / 2012. A portfolio of the nudes made its wider internet debut in 2013 in Robert Kothe's great but short-lived art magazine The Corner, and then in a gallery debut in the West Midlands Open in 2014. The following year, they appeared in NORA Apartments, Orlando, and continue to generate interest wherever they go.

I'll be embarking on a new chapter in this style, later in 2018, and you'll see them here on this blog.

HIDDEN MESSAGES

Experimental Digital Composition, 01 / 02 / 2018

NEW WORK IN PROGRESS

PROGRESSIONS

Untitled, acrylic on canvas, 60cm x 60cm.

Below: Extreme Close-Up,taken today [ 23rd Jan 2018 ].

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Below: Close Up, angle shot Dec 29 2017

Below: Jan 3rd 2018

Below: Jan 4th 2018

Below: Jan 23rd 2018

2017 ANNUAL REPORT / 4th QUARTER / FINAL REVIEW

October 2017: Visited New York for a working holiday. Meetings and inspirations!

New York City, as seen from Jersey City:

At Stonehill Taylor Architects ( Oct 24th ):

At Gensler NYC ( Oct 26th ):

The incandescent fall colours of the Adirondack Mountains, upstate New York:

Empire State Building, shrouded in low cloud ( a certain Gershwin song springs to mind ):

People watching:

2017 ANNUAL REPORT / 3rd QUARTER REVIEW

[ For best viewing on your phones, click 'VIEW WEB VERSION' at the bottom of this page. ]

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JULY 2017: ELASTICITY, BOOK COVER ART [ based on a my 'Brazil Mood Flag' painting ] and the signing at the launch in London.

Full article here.

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AUG 2017: Beginning new series of PEN DRAWINGS in consultation with Kim Edwards, art director at Stonehouse Taylor, New York, for future 'designer hotel' project.

2017 ANNUAL REPORT / 2nd QUARTER REVIEW

APRIL 2017: SPLITTING INFINITIES [ THE ABSTRACTION OF MODERN TRAVEL ]

- Continuing my Abstract Life series of articles and pictorials -

Click here for the full article.

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MAY - JUNE 2017

CARBON BLACK: Acrylic on Canvas, 50cm x 50cm

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U.S. AIN'T: Further experiments with Digital / Vector Art

2017 ANNUAL REPORT / 1st QUARTER REVIEW

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JANUARY 2017: ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL REMIXES OF ABSTRACT PAINTINGS

Above: Stealth, as a Digital Vector Image ( with texture )

One of the obvious down-sides of creating a painted composition, is that once it's sold, the design is no longer in your hands. In the case of my work, it takes months to finely balance a piece ( it's a form of automatic composition, in that apart from a starting grid, everything is ad-libbed until the picture 'feels' finished ). On that journey, many interesting forms and motifs may evolve. In late 2016 / early 2017, I decided to painstakingly go about re-creating some of my recent paintings in digital 'vector' form. This allows me to do two things: 1 ) Significantly enlarge the composition without loss of quality or pixellation; 2 ) Deconstruct my artwork so that it can be remixed, recoloured and recomposed.

Below: The original Stealth and Encryption, Acrylic on Canvas, 40cm x 60cm

Below: Stealth, as Digital Vector Image ( with texture )

( For more examples of vector experiments, see the link to January 2017, here )

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FEBRUARY 2017: BLISS IN CONCRETE, Acrylic On Canvas, 60cm x 60cm

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MARCH 2017: Up-and-coming American folk singer SYDNEY ROBINSON uses 'WOMAN DISROBING' for her debut digital single artwork.

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UNTITLED COMPOSITION 22 / 12 / 2017

Abstract / 2D Vector Drawing / + Texture

TWISTING REALITIES

Real-life: London, St. James's Park, Feb 2017

Digital: Birmingham, Smallbrook Queensway, Oct 2014

UNTITLED COMPOSITION 14 / 12 / 2017

Abstract / 2D Vector Drawing / + Texture

LAWN ORDER

'HATE HAS NO HOME HERE'

While holidaying in New Jersey in October, we went strolling from South Orange, to Maplewood. Amongst all the usual fun Halloween garden displays, I was struck by these other types of messages on people's lawns ( see below ). They are from a side of American life that we, in Europe, rarely get to see: The Normal. Thanks to the media, all we hear about is mass shootings, sordid denouncements, foreign policy 'mistakes', vested interests and corporate cynicism. Algorithmically, what you see below does not get noticed in all that noise. But hopefully, in the real world, these affirmations have an impact. At the very least, it puts you in a better mood when you see them.