Oilbar Monoprints.

Hello World.

As usual, my latest post to this blog is a lot later than I hoped. Life sometimes throws things at you, stopping you having fun. Ah well, here is my first set of experiments in Oilbar monoprints. I shall be doing a lot more of them, now all the building work in our house has finished.

Over 50 years ago,  when I was at art school, they started me with oil paints. After a few weeks, I became dissatisfied with the long drying times involved with oils. It was suggested that I tried using acrylic paints. They dry a lot faster, almost immediately in fact. I loved them and used them for a long time, until other things such as playing music and holding down a, "proper job" got in the way. I gave up painting many years ago.

Last year, on YouTube, I discovered a growing number of art tutorials by the wonderful UK artist and sculptor, Dan Tirels. His videos inspired me to start painting again, using oil paint in a stick form. Actually, although it is painting, the technique is called Monoprinting. I started to work with Oilbars at the beginning of this year. There are eighteen monoprints of mine below.

On Dan's web page, he invites people who have been inspired by his tutorials to send examples of their work to him and he will put them in his web page gallery. I was very flattered that he took six of my pieces for display there.

Please take a look at Dan's videos on YouTube and visit his web page. Have a good look round and tell your friends about him. Click the URL link below to be taken to his page. There is also a link on the right-hand side of this blog.

www.dantirels.co.uk

I'm thinking of making 40 prints to bind in a book. They'll be varnished with matt varnish to protect them. Once I've designed the cover for it, I can begin assembling the project. Each image will have a sheet of tracing paper between it and the next one.

I'm not going to make any comments on the works below, they should be able to speak for themselves.

Curtains, lights, on with the show!

Anarchy #2

Aztec

 Balloons

 Bonfire Night

 Fire Dance

Fuge #1

 Lyrical

 Man With Scarfe

 Orchestra Conductor

Jungle Dawn

Ouroboros

 Remix

 Rock Study #1

 Tree Spirit

Spring

Sphinx

Sea Storm

Tunnels

Until next time, look after each other.

Abstract Art, Abstract Expressionism, Modern Art, Photomontage, Photography.

Hello and welcome to everyone around the world. At last, the new post. Between continuing health issues and major work being done inside our house, I have  been kept away from blogging for a while. This post is a mixture of my latest work. As always, if  I think a piece needs any comments, I will add them immediately above that piece of art. So, in no special order, on with the show.

I'm starting with one I was particularly pleased with. As some of the regular readers will know, I have done a fair bit of Fine Art printing. I'm hoping to start again, once the work on the house is finished. The artwork below is in a fine art print style and came out far better than my expectations.

Still Life #7

Next, two more which I like a lot, both in a fine art print style.

Growth

Caves

Recently, we had some heavy snowfalls here in the village, followed by freezing conditions. The image below is a photograph of ice which had somehow created a bubble like surface. The ice was about 1 inch thick, (25.4cm).

 Ice Bubbles

The next image continues with the idea of something being frozen, then painted.

In Ice

I think it's time for something suggesting warm weather. I think the title says all I want to say about it.

Summer of  '67 #2

The next five pieces are part of  a series. They were created using a technique I was inventing, (making up) as I worked on the images. It was very experimental, I had no clear idea what the results would be like. It was quite exciting for me and gave me a pleasant surprise. 

Daleside

The following work, (The Last Mill Chimney) is a lament for the loss of England's great textile industry.

The Last Mill Chimney

Vases

Standing Figures

Three Harbour Views

The one below is a photomontage. It's part of a series entitled, "Lost Mills". It is another lament for our textile industry. Textiles are a huge part of Yorkshire's heritage, and were the main factor in it's wealth for a long time. For those visitors to this blog from overseas, I will explain that the area of Yorkshire I live is very hilly, being in the Pennine Mountain chain. It is a wonderful water catchment area, with plenty of streams and rivers, and is suitable for sheep. The water is "soft" i.e. it runs through Millstone Grit, (sandstone) and not Limestone. The calcium and magnesium carbonates in Limestone, result in "hard" water. Soft water is perfect for washing the oils and lanolin from the wool of sheep. (Soap lathers far better in soft water). Naturally, a textile industry formed here.  That was a very potted history of our textile industry, missing a lot out, such as the Industrial Revolution and the Luddites. Sorry Yorkshire! I'm (slowly) adding images to the "Lost Mill" series. 

Lost Mill #4

Quite a few of the next images fall loosely under the heading of  Abstract Expressionism, but by no means all of them. Two or three are abstract photomontage works. The rest are, well, take a look and decide for yourselves.

Devolving

Rays of Glory

Druid's Temple

Countryside Study

Island Splash

Seabed

Sunken Atlantis

Lambda

1950s Cocktail Bar

Lime

Green Rain

Robot 7XB

Robot 7XB was the last image in this post. I hope you liked what you have seen, or at least liked some of it. I've not decided what the subject of the next post will be yet. I do know that it is unlikely I shall be able to do another post within the next six weeks or so. I have to wait until the work being carried out at home is finished and I have access to my studio again. Plus we shall be taking a holiday on The Isle of Arran, in Scotland soon. We were there two years ago and I fell in love with it. I came home with a lot of photos, many of which are in this blog. Look at the post on Seaweeds for a start. I hope to be getting a lot more photos of parts of Arran that we didn't see last time.  I love malt whisky, so we shall be visiting the Arran Whisky distillery for certain. I'm getting excited already.

Please don't forget to leave a comment, thank you.

In the meantime, be nice to each other.

Gordon.

New blog post coming in the following week.

Hi

I'm sorry for the 3 month or so gap in postings. So many things have been going on that I've not been able to post. However, most of the images, (loosely called Modern Art) have been prepared. I want to add one or two more and some text, then it will be posted.

Below are two images to be going on with.

 Moonlit Estuary

Breakout 2

See you soon.

Gordon.

Latest Abstract Art..

Hello world

Here is a selection of my latest abstract art. Regular readers of this blog will remember that  amongst a lot of other styles and artists, I am very much influenced by Victor Vasarely and Pop art. This little group of images reflects that. Over the last few months, my health has been up and down. I've used the time to teach myself a range of new techniques, the results are below. As is often the case with my work, I will not comment on them, unless I feel something could be usefully said.

I think the first piece is possibly my most sophisticated work to date.

Box Sculpture.

Escher Stairs.

Folding Box.

Chevron 3.

Mountain Landscape.

Theatre.

Zigzag.

Glass Tower.

1 over 4.

The "Gamma" series of images come from a collection of  twenty or so. I was exploring what was possible with the particular technique I had just learned. I wanted to see how far I could push it.

.

Gamma 3.

Gamma 13.

Gamma 12

Gamma 17.

The next two images are my favourites in the Gamma Series. I have put both of them on black Tee shirts, they look stunning.

Gamma 7.

Gamma 19.

Plutonium World.

Freak Out.

I used one of the Pop Artist Lichtenstein's colour palates to create the next work.

Lichtenstein Decoded.

Here again, the pop art influence can be seen in the next two pieces.

Lyrical.

The Mill.

Below are three mid to late 1960s style images.

Quantum Event Triptych.

The 60's Dream.

Acid Windmill.

As always, I hope these were worth the wait. Don't forget to pass my Blog URL on to any friends who may like this kind of art. Gordon.