New Artwork Post. Op Art, Pop Art and Abstract Art.

 

 

 

 Hello viewers from all over the world. This blog post is quite late. Blame it on the Pandemic.

Anyway, here we are. As usual, I will only comment on a peice of art if I feel it needs it.

The first piece is one of my all time favourites.

Olya

The next is one that my friend Roger likes a lot.

 Ice Storm on Neptune

Roughly between 1968 and 1972, the use of pink and black in magazine hippy-style art and posters was quite common. I've always liked that style and decided I'd make a wall hanging peice of my own, in the Op Art genre.

1968 style wall hanging

A bit of abstract art:

Networking

The following six images could be straight out of late 60's - early70's, undergound comics. They nicley fit the Op Art style as well.

 

 A note about Vibrating colours: For over 50 years, I've been in love with the effects possible by using vibrating colours. Put simply, I like images that play tricks with your vision and perception. These are colours which when placed next to each other and have the same spatial hue, seem to move or vibrate. People with colour blidness, may have problems in seeing the next few images as they are intened to look. I aplogise for that.

Boom

 

The Word, "Oz" in the title below, is a reference to the Oz magazine from the early 1970s. There was a great deal of artwork in the Oz magazine and underground comics, in this style back then. The word. "comix" was created to diferentiate between the standard comics and the ungerground ones.

 

Oz Spiral

Hippy Quarter

 

Pop Twists

 

Red & Blue Flower

 

 

Flower

Moving on to less visually agressive images, the next peice is another of my favourites. Artists often struggle with the difficult question, "When is a peice of work finished?" With the following peice, I didn't have that issue. As soon as I'd got the circle against the grey background, I knew it was finished. It was perfect in it's simplicity of form and colour. It's the first time I've felt like that with one of my works.

 

Saw Blade

 

Corona Discharge

 

Fetish

 

Winter Beach

 

I like Hundertwasser's paintings and architexture. For one thing, he hated straight lines. He said that you didn't get straight lines in nature.

 

Hundertwasser

 

Errosion

Crystal Room

A couple of years ago, I saw a small exhibition of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham's drawings and paintings, in Sheffield. I was particularly impressed with her drawings of rock and stone. I live in a hilly area, there is a great deal of bedrock here. I was born in the Pennine Mountain chain, rocks are part of my life. I love the cracks, shades, shadows, colours and the flora and fauna which live on them. They produce wonderful opportunities for photography. I wanted to try and emulate her ability to give life to them. Below is the result, it's my tribute to Wilhelmina Barns-Graham.

 

Rock Hollow Quarry

Now for some nore abstract art.

Splash

Detonation

 

Six Instars

Esther

 

The following, is a tribute to the painter Robert Delauney. I like the speckled, "dotted" look of some of his paintings. I wanted to try and get that nice, soft, result. The piece below is about texture, it does not particularly reflect the forms he used in his work.

Wooltown

It seemed a good idea to finish with a strong colours.

Sensual Curves

I hope these images were worth the wait. I said last time, that I would post about every 2 months. I didn't manage it. I will try to do so next time. I already know that the next post will be some of my photography, possibly with a few pieces of artwork thrown in for good measure.

Keep safe in these difficult times. 

Gordon.

Uplifting Tree Photos - Plus Some Abstract Artworks.

Hello world

I hope all my worldwide readers are staying safe and busy during these difficult times. The first half of this blog post is all photos of trees. Many of you may not have been able to go out for some time. I'm hoping these trees and tree-related photos, will remind you that they are still there, you WILL be able to walk among them, when this is all over.

Most of these photos don't need me to say anything about them. The odd one may. I'll just add that I NEVER arrange, or stage, any photos I take. I walk along and wait for something to present itself for me to photograph.

In the early and mid 1970s I had a good friend, an artist, visionary and poet, Gerard Moyles. He was my mentor and guru. Sadly, he died very suddenly, in his early 40s. He was loved and missed by a great number of people. He used to draw large scale pictures of trees. Gerard taught me that trees were mystical things and the greatest manifestation of life on Earth. You could see the mystical aspect of them in his art one he explained it. The lessons he taught me have stayed with me. The photos are just a very tiny sample of the photographs of trees I have taken over the years. Very belatedly, these are for him.

O.K. Off we go:

One of the strangest trees I've ever seen.

Wedded Tree.

Autumn Beech Trees.

The next one amazed me. Suddenly, it was at my feet, waiting for me.

An Offering.

Avenue of Beech trees.

I called the following tree, kalpavriksha. It is a wish-fulfilling, divine tree in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, identified with many trees. It is said to fulfill all desires and was mentioned in Sanskrit literature from the earliest sources onwards. It's also known as the Tree of Life. The one below, is a mature, very large Beech tree, about 30 minutes walk from where I live.

Kalpavriksha.

Bluebells at the foot

of an Oak tree.

Calder & Hebble Canal Elland.

Tree  Triptych.

The tree below is not broken. Many trees and plants, will grow either towards, or away from, an underground spring, (of water) Which direction they choose to grow, depends upon the type of tree.

Bow Shaped Birch Tree.

Dryad, (tree spirit).

Autumn Beech Leaves.

Winter Sunset.

Two Forrest Crowns, Winter and Spring.

That was the last of the tree images, I may put more on the blog at a later date.

Now for my graphic work. These started as an experiment. I'd been using a free Photoshop plugin for some years, called Sinedots. It's a wonderful plugin and a lot of fun to use. A couple of months ago, I downloaded Sinedots II. It's even more adjustable than the first version. I exchanged several emails about, it with the programmer, (Philipp Spoeth) who is a very nice person indeed. I created my first complex sine wave based pattern, with the new version. (It will be the first graphic following this introduction). I decided to see how far I could push that image, turning it into other valid, stand-alone images. I sent the resultant images to Philipp. Those images are below.  (Hi Philipp, I hope all is well?)

For those wishing to try it, Sinedots II can be downloaded from the site below. 

https://www.philipp-spoeth.de/

TIP:

Look under the heading, Photoshop, in the left hand menu. There are one or two other really nice, free plugins there as well.

Now for the sine wave based images.

Math Form 1.

Math Form II.

 Deconstruct 1.

  Deconstruct 2.

 Deconstruct 3.

 Deconstruct 4.

 Sixway Minus.

Dark One.

That's all for now. During lockdown, I've created over 80 images on the computer and several paintings. Expect to see some of them, in the next few posts.

Be safe, and be kind each other.

Gordon.

More digital monoprints and a selection of photos

Hello everyone.

NOTE: If you are looking at these images with a laptop, the colours MAY seem undersaturated, depending on the particular unit. A desktop computer, should show a better colour representation.

I managed to get this post out in good time, non of that ,"Wait 3 months" business.  I've got most of the images for the post after this, sorted out. Hopefully, I'l put those online in a few weeks.

This selection of images is equally divided into two distinct types, 12 of each. The first are my new digital monotypes. After seeing the last post, I had an email from one of my viewers. (Hi, you know who you are, thanks for the mental push).He told me that they almost looked like real paint. I was very pleased. As I thought about that, I decided to see if I could improve on the techniques I'd come up with already.  I wanted to make them look even more like real paint, if I could. I've spent a long time since the last post, working toward that aim. I hope I've succeeded, or at least got nearer to my intention.

The second set of images are all in the, "Art photography" style. I'll start with the digital monotypes. As always, I will not make comments about any images here, unless I feel they need it.

The first image does not fit into the digital monotypes heading. It's more in the abstract experimental group. I particularly like this one. It was going into the last
post, but never made it.

Blue Figure.

Now for the digital monotypes. 

Where an artist lives, tends to influence the work they make. This is not a hard and fast rule, by any means. However, you can't live in the mountains, on the moors, or by the sea etc,. for long, without being influenced by your surroundings. I love the sea, some of my work reflects that. More of my art and photography relates to the moors, woodlands and the rugged shape of stone and rocks, as will be seen below.

Earth Goddess.

Eve's Top Quarry Diptych.

The title for the piece below, comes from a small area just less that 3 miles higher up the hill than I live.

Far Barsey.

Great Scar Quarry is a disused quarry, about 6 miles from me, up on the high, wild, open moor. It's a place I've loved since I was 7 years old. I go there when I need solitude. These are 2 rock studies of it.

Great Scar Quarry #1.

Great Scar Quarry #2.

Ley Line Map.

Reaching Up.

Rock Spur.

Another rock study.

Suddenly.

The Kiss.

Under Growth.

Now the photography. Once I'd selected the shots for this post, I realised that 5 of them connected to the sea in various ways.

I've mentioned this before, but one always gets new readers, so here it is again. When I go out on a photo shoot, I hardly ever have a particular goal in mind. I wander about the place I've gone to for a while. This allows me to slow down to the rhythm of the woodland, or moorland. That way you are more receptive to the environment. I don't actively look for subjects to photograph. Something will present itself to me in it's own time. I NEVER arrange a photo. At the very most, I may remove a blade of grass, if it's in the way. I simply photograph what I find.

I came across the two images below in Old Hunstanton, Norfolk. They were behind the lifeboat station and only about 6 feet (1.8m) away from each other. They were far too good an opportunity to miss. I often wonder how many people walk past the most wonderful things, without ever seeing them. 

Beach Still Life Diptych.

The two images in diptych below were taken 15 - 17 years ago. They are also over 400 miles apart. Both were on the coast. Every now and then, I find something and think, "I took a shot like that years ago, I'll take this one as well." The metal button was just sat on top of a breakwater. Had I been there later, the tide would have taken it away. I was there at just the right time.

Old Wood with Button.

The top photo of the next image was on a stone gatepost. A farmer had been repairing the fence. He must have put the dead twigs there as well. It leap out to be photographed. Two years later, we had a moorland fire on the edge of a wood 10 minutes walk from me. It was started by kids. "Lets destroy something lads, it's lots of fun." SIGH.  When I saw the burnt twigs on a stone, I remembered the other photo. My mind made the connection between them immediately.

Zen Koan Cypher.

Patterns are repeated over and over, as the image below demonstrates. The photos were taken years apart and in very different locations. It's amazing.

Circles.

I was in the room of a friend of mine, when I saw the light from the window change, along with it's quality, as traffic passed by. I had to use my phone for these photos.

Moving Light Triptych.

Below is a detail from a burned out mill. The same mill was the subject of  the very colourful piece, "Light Up The Town" in my last blog post. How's that for continuity?

Narrative.

The next photo is the inside of a steam railway engine, in the York National Railway museum. It was an abstract sculpture pleading to be photographed.

Abstract Engine.

The next three images are all related to the sea.

Metamorphosis.

Beach Wreck.

Sea Groins Detail.

I showed a photo which I had distressed by hand, in my last blog post, (Climate Change). I decided to try and create a similar effect digitally. The result is below.

Mythic.

Now the last photo in the post. I was in Leeds City a while ago, photographing buildings. Yes, I certainly know how to have a good time. The photo is a small part of a huge British Telecom (BT) poster. I saw the colour, the curve, the word "be" and the lamp post, it was perfect. It seemed to be a message about being true to oneself.  Up with the camera, & Click!

Be.

I hope all that gave food for thought. for some of you. My next post will have some great photos of trees in. Plus other subjects I've not yet decided on.

Be kind to each other. Gordon.