More Guns

This is a simple little ink painting I did after the firing range of some of the characters I encountered there.This target was my best one, not as good as the old guys who were expert shots though. The guy more to the left with the hat, well he called me a "millerite" and treated me with suspicion as I may want to take his guns away.

The big guy on the right was, as the drawing states, a Zeus of a man- a great mane of hair and massive form in a dirty khaki shirt stuffed inside of some pants. He was talking about running for the mayor's office I kid you not!

We always hear about how people who shoot guns are just like you but every time I have met one, I am convinced they are crazy. Perhaps we are all just crazy, but these guys have firearms- that is the kicker.

I have a gub!!!

Well it was a strange invitation that I could not say no to- "do you want to shoot some guns with me?"

SO we went to this rather non descript office building in the west end, where, sure enough, guns can be fired.

In looking at this little clip, I noticed more my hair thinning than anything else.

Loop Gallery

Just a small plug here for Loop gallery, an artist collective on Queen west. I have recently been accepted to become a member so expect to see the flag of the International Art monkey fly over the gallery n the next 18 months or so, very excited over here.

Go to the Gallery's site, find out more- they are moving soon, check it out for those who care to know more about Loop Gallery click here

For those who care to know more about Lupins click here

sketches from London-Rubens to Paula Rego

When I was in London a few months ago, I had to go a few times to the National gallery in Trafalgar Square to see one of my favorite paintings, this lion hunt by Rubens. It is unfinished but I would like to think that he saw it as finished as it is- really bold and anticipates the romantics like Gericault and Delacroix by about 100 years.

It is a really fun piece to look at- the energy in this painting.

Below is a little sketch i did in my notebook, normally I just look at this painting for a long time.





In the nice restaurant at the gallery, there is this fantastic almost graffiti like piece that Paula Rego painted, based on the collection in the National Gallery. Her work incorporated the few images of females in the paintings. It is a long beautiful piece but you cannot get a postcard or anything, these are just a few sketches. It rifts off of Spanish/Portuguese painted tiles and always makes me think of that imaginary Synagogue that Salman Rushdie describes in The Moor's Last Sigh where the main character's mother is interpreting the tiles and telling the future.

Anyways, she is a fascinating artist (to me at least) and her paintings deal with childhood taboos, story telling she does a bit of it all.

click this link to see a minute or two of Paula talking about here studio and how she works

Then tambourine man slides all over the place

Note, images that were on the wall were Stacey Brandford's Roller girls.

Practice continues

things start to get sloppy

Guitar wielding man

Edge of his seat

Last minute studies during band practice

Vintage Polynesian Bride.

Yup, the band that was. Here they are in a practice gig at Jet fuel one night with Mike Bell on drums at the extreme right and Tim in the back.

June 07, 2009

Sketches in Maroc

Here are a few sketches from my small travel sketchbook. Most of these drawings were done in Essaouira, where I spent a few days relaxing and gorging on bbq'd fish in this coastal village.



This is a watercolour sketch which, as often is the case with my trip to Morocco, is indebted to Delacroix. Note in the margins, I have notes written in pencil. Due to his social milieu and Romantic leanings, all of Delacroix's comments are tinged with the nobility of the people and all that jazz. Maybe because I am effectively from there, and a little more cynical- all my comments on the margins of my images are about how that guy wanted more money from me, this guy was a schister and it was interesting to see people in traditional garb with black latex gloves on.




I was looking for the typical music of the region, Gnouia which is fantastic, the hotel guy sent me here....Tauros, a upscale bar where there were people doing fire poi It was as crappy as this guy in the video, I was in hell. So I had to draw from another angle to avoid this misery.



Just a view of someone walking in the street.

People in what was Mogador now Essaouira

I was sitting in this cafe in the main square which was the only time I had not an insanely sweet and overly steeped tea, when I noticed this French woman. She was about 70 something ( or the sun was mean to her) that dame in Pink was like some amped up version of Phyllis Diller if that is possible. In my notes I wrote a cross between Diller and Carol Burnett.

On the other side of the page, a terribly deformed local and a kid.

sad sights

I spent the day in marrakech doing nothing but walking around. In the evening I was eating in the place djelma el-fna, the intense main square and I noticed a Berber woman I gave some money to yesterday, I gave her money for her boy who looked like the spittingvimage of my friends son. This time I was taken a back as she had blood streaming down her mouth. There were other women there all engaged in a huge arguement, not like maybe they were excited and in another language, it was an arguement with pushing. I was mystifyed but knew there was nothing I could do, even if I tried, it ain't like I live here. Dejected, I walked away then as I came around the square I saw a white truck, loaded with all ethnic berbers. It was terrible, and to see women and children holding onto wire grates on the inside of this van made me sick- it was dehumanizing for them and revolting to see it.

The excuses the people gave were just ignorant and these poor kids were crying.

"they were bothering people" if you come here you will know how funny that is, everyone is annoying and after a few days you want to punch the guy who wants to sell you coucous, shoes, cigarettes, sunglasses, etc. It was just over vendor territory but good grief was it hideous.

Rooftop in Pen

Rooftop in Marrakech

April 18th, 2009

Chris and I were waiting to see Barry Lyndon in the theatre and I drew this guy with the great Schoz.

I remember nothing about this

Moving on to Morocco

Well, a week has gone by and it is time to say goodbye to Cambridge and head back to London and catch my plane to Marraech. I think it is going to be hard to do updates from there, no computer so I guess this blog will be on hiatus till I get back to the UK.

Journey to the North Pole, in Cambridge.

Went to the Scott Polar Institute here in Cambridge. You can see records of these amazing voyages and read terrible stiff upper lip last letters from the crew and Scott himself as they froze to death in the bleak snow. oh, and Shakelton too.
Egad.



The place was full of old weird stuff, all quite aged and fascinating.




These things above, they had a huge case of them, were called scrimshaws and they had a beautiful folk quality- but scrim shaws? Who knows.



I always say that boots have a real narrative quality, much more than shoes. I felt fairly convinced of this by these babies.



And well this is just here as proof that you can find Inukshuks anywhere, even in Cambridge. These were made in Canada, 4 inches tall and cost $160.

London

Went down to London to check out my favorite gallery, The National Gallery where you can see the very modern looking painting by Manet. I absolutely love this image, even if it is depicting something fairly tragic.


After the museums had closed, its just time to walk to the streets to catch construction workers just doing nothing but checking out people and then over to Covent Garden to watch insane street performers.

Movie Nights

This past week has been an awesome opportunity for me to chill out with my buddy Chris and catch some fantastic films.

Such as the first film by Ridley Scott, the Duellists I thought the film was a fantastic glimpse into the Romantic period which made paintings like these by Gericault, the French artist and inspiration to the movement, come alive.




Tonight, as luck would have it, the Kubrick film, Barry Lyndon is playing so we get to see it on the big screen.

We also saw a few really hard to watch but fascinating films, Max and Conspiracy- both about behind the scene events in Nazi Germany.

Cambridge

Well I arrived in London after a week in France, determined to eat no more heavy foods, not an easy task here in the land of chips but I have done alright I guess. My friend Chris and I have been biking all over the Cambridge countryside, using these Roman Roads that are great fun as they become really steep at some point and then it is just the highway to the danger zone, if you get what I am saying.



We ended up at this old mansion filled with all kinds of surplus sculptures and architectural elements. This guy was giving me the stink eye.

Christopher Goodwin

This is not a study of a burn out Londoner, no it's Christopher Goodwin the artist, sleeping off a days trip to London.

No relation to the Christopher Goodwin, the artist on WIKI FUR- the wiki of the Furry community.....I did not know they had a community wiki either but that is not surprising.

FUR

Augustine Cloister

Creepy images of Toulouse

When you put this all together, they look like reference images for some outtake in a Stanley Kubrick film: creepy mannequin looking through a window, sculpture watching the viewer, a picasso image/minotaur/harlequin and the circus is coming to town.

I'm gonna thump you one!

Ok, really, I got nothing here, he just reminded me of a wrestler!

Images of Martyred Saints

I really love the weird nature of images like this. When I was in Italy I was obsessed with them, every time I entered a church I looked everywhere for them. Saints with Arabian swords still embedded in their heads, holding the instruments of their own torture and demise. So modern looking really. We all know about Saint Sebastien with his arrows, or St. Lawrence holding the rack he was burnt on, St. Bartholomew holding his flayed skin (but never depicted with no skin on, how does this work? I want to see a muscle only St. Bart!) but buddy with the rock stuck in his head? There are so many good ones!


By the way, St. John Martyr is the one with the rock in the head.
St. Peter Martyr is the one with either the schimtar in the head or just his head split open and bleeding, not too profusely.

Eating portions in France

What you are looking at is a typical trout, for one. My aunt put this on my plate as the starter to my lunch that was to be followed by chicken and artichokes, salad, olives and cornichons.
And then the cheese.
I had to laugh at the size of the thing for lunch, for one, amazingly everyone has a nap in the afternoon.

Random French Guy

Faire les Courses

Buying fresh produce, what they have and the level of knowledge of the variety available is amazing. Cheeses, duck sausages, smoked and dried Margret de Canard. Man it is insane.