Hello world, here I am late with my blog post. I'm sorry to say that the continual messing about with the Covid regulations, by our idiot, half witted, prime minister, with his the repeated doubling back on, "His word" (HA!) has confused and depressed a LOT of people in England, including me. The public are confused as to what they are supposed to be doing. He's really good at saying, "This is what is going to happen next", only to announce a complete reversal of it, sometimes just a few hours later. The draconian laws he has put the country under, were supposed to be over, or significantly lessened, by mid April, (well, more or less). We are now informed that all this restriction of our isolation, misery, movements and freedom will carry on for yet another six months, when it will be reviewed, (every six months). I have a strong feeling that he would like to carry this on for a long, long time. Some of the new laws are turning England into a police surveillance state. He never even got elected in the first place, what a situation! However, I've struggled with bouts of reactive depression of the, "What is the point of doing anything? I can't be bothered" sort. I keep fighting it off . Later, it sneaks up on me from behind. That's why I didn't post sooner. Anyway. I am trying to distance myself from it all and doing very well at it so far.
So, my rant being over, I'll get on to the images in this post. This is going to be a mixed set of pictures. Having said I felt I couldn't be bothered doing anything, in my "clear" periods, I've been working out my frustrations in my art. I've created a great deal of it in the last three months, using digital techniques, photography and painting in oils and acrylics, (the latter are my all time favorite paint medium). Comments on individual pieces will be provided where needed.
I tend to feel that opening with a bold show of colour is alway good, especially in these strange times. The image below, "Moormires" is named after a place about half a mile from me (0.8 km). I often go for a walk down a place called Carr Hall Lane, then through Robber Dodge, which is a beech tree wood. Recently, I found a sign pointing the way to Moor Mires farm, I love the name. so I used it as it is on the signpost, not in the way the farm is named. This walk is so lovely, except in very wet conditions, when it is incredibly muddy. It always uplifts me, so I decided to create an image which describes how it makes me feel - bright, happy and peaceful. This is it.
Moormires
Desert Threads
Emerging
Luminous Lizard
Excalibur Rising
Lyrical Dance
For those people who do not know, Ra was the name of the Egyptian sun God. I was out on the moors one day, climbing a long, steep hill, in a remote place. I saw a track going off to the right. Following it, I discovered a small, stone building. The area I was in, is a water collecting ground, feeding reservoirs. The building was constructed in an Egyptian style, probably late Victorian. There were no windows, just a small door. (Seen on the right). The shape like a door or window on the left side, had been sealed up a long time ago, judging by the style of the stonework. It was obviously a water board building. I couldn't hear any sound of pumping engines, so it didn't seem to be a pumping station. I couldn't hear running water either. I've no idea what it is for, or why they went to the trouble and expense of building it in this manner. It would have been a lot more costly than using the standard, utilitarian form the Victorians used. I decided it needed some dignity and created the picture below.
The Temple of Ra
I'm going to change the mood now, for a short while. I wanted to work out my dark moods and also, the mood of so many people around the world at the moment. The three following images are my response to Covid. The first relates to the sadness, isolation and deep uncertainty that many are feeling. The two that follow it, are my artistic impression of the virus itself.
How Dark Is My Life
The Plague Years
The Plague Years (Mutation)
Now for a few Urbex, (Urban Exploration) images. These were made using either photo montage, or computer manipulation. I injected some humour into them with the titles.
After The Party
Ours Is A Nice House
The next one is a new technique for me, I've done two in this style. I'll show the second one in a later post. It was fiddly and time consuming to do and does not work with all photographs. Still, it was very rewarding for me.
Flyover
Urbex 1
The following three pictures are digital litho prints. By that, I mean pseudo lithography prints. I used some of my photos and manipulated them to get the look and feel of litho works. I used to do photochromic lithography in a studio and ultraviolet photolithography to make experimental silicon devices, as part of my job in Solid State physics. I've had a lot of experience with it, one way or another. I'm quite pleased with the result of these pseudo-litho images. "Ovenden Moor" (below) is my place of refuge. I go up there when the world becomes too big for me to cope with. I've said before in this blog, that there is a huge difference between loneliness and solitude. I love the solitude and peace I get from being up there on my own, even in rough, wet weather. I always come back home like a new man. The image below, is one of the peat bogs as it looked some weeks ago, when I was there. It was wet, with large areas of flooded ground. There was a strong, cold wind, blowing snow in my face. Wonderful rich, brown, deep, peat mud, sucked at my boots. It was as wild, bleak and somber as any good Yorkshireman could ask for. Oh, and I was the only person on the moor that day. It was Heaven!
Ovenden Moor
Blackley Hill, (below) can be seen down the valley, from the end of our street. I was pleased that this image did the hill justice, at least, as far as I'm concerned.
Blackley Hill
The piece titled, "River Bank" is from a photo of mine, of the River Calder, one mile (1.6km) down the valley from me.
River Bank
Now for some more experimental ones, on my part that is.
Candle in the Wind
Telescopic Tunnel
Over the last two months, I've been studying the art movement, "De Stijl". It was started in Holland by Theo Van Doesburg, Mondrian and several other artists. I've done a couple paintings in that style, which I call, "The Mondrian Style". I also produced quite a few computer generated ones in the style. In my next blog post, I shall show these. The image below is a photo manipulation of one of my "Mondrian" paintings and a photo I took on the Calder and Hebble canal, about a mile (1.6km) from me.
The Mondrian Stone
Recently, I bought a wonderful book of the painter Richard Mayhew's landscape paintings, titled "Transcendence". After looking through it twice, I was inspired to attempt a piece in his style. The image below is one of my results.
Autumn on the Canal
The last two pictures are the outcome of me using Richard Mayhew's work as a springboard for a new technique. I created the technique as I made the works. I've done it before, it's a sort of, "What would happen if I did such and such at this moment?" way of working. It's fun, but can result in some spectacular failures. I was lucky, I got some very nice results.
Under Alien Skies
Another picture using one of my photos of the Calder and Hebble canal. It's an endless source of photographs and joy for me.
Night on the Canal
Well, that's my first post on the blog this year completed. Tut, tut! I have most of the images for the next blog post ready. It shouldn't take too much work to get the stuff online. (Famous last words). *Smile*
Stay safe and look after each other.
Gordon.
