Contemporary Abstract Drawings and a painting....

Above is a drawing I did last evening on a very large plate, it took a while I can tell you.

I did a small art drop in town today, just a few. I might do a lot more over this festive period if I get the time to get out and about...... I have loads ready to go and also plenty of sea pottery for the next batch.

After doing a lot of running around today we ended up at our friend Lynne's flat and what a festive St Ives view she has through her window.

Above and below are two pages out of a handmade book I did earlier in the year it gives you and idea of my 'bleeding narrative' work.

Above is one of the drawings that gets nearer to my minimal ideas, however I often taken with a minimal idea but due to the way I do my works one minimal idea might get complicated in vision.

Below by the way is the 'bleeding narrative' version, slightly more minimal.

Above and below is another tangent of my drawings after drawing on small bits of sea pottery it got the idea of scaling them up a bit and enjoy the challenge of drawing on them and making something as pure as a large pebble more interesting or beautiful.

Before I started what I now think of as contemporary abstract drawing I used the same processes, rules and thought patterns to paint. The painting above is a work from 2005/2006 that was first exhibited at The Crown in Stony Stratford and then later at Cafe Art St Ives and finally it sold at a charity auction at Porthmeor Studios two or three years ago. The process for this work, which was called 'This is the week that was', was daubing some paint on newspaper and printing it on the primed canvas and then using tester pot paints and the paint left on the lids to make the pattern, I suppose there is even a slight nod to Jackson Pollock although that was only a spin off of the process and not intentional from the initial process or rules but once it started I just had to go through with it.

Above is probably the last pebble drawing I will have done this year. At this present time we have this at home and it still catches my eye when I walk past it but I seldom look at in as much detail since I drew it than I have whilst writing this bit of blog below it.
Blimey it has really caught my eye and I have had a good stare and I love it.

Well I am off to relax get ready for tomorrow mornings early start and to do some drawing too.

Cheers!

Art Tour, new drawings and RIP Brian Stanley

Above is a reverse drawing I finished last night, not the best pic of it forgot to take a shot before the light faded tonight.

Today has been a mixed day, for me it started with doing and art tour for one. So went on a slightly different route because the footpath past our workshop has now been closed and will be for 5 months due to the works on The Tate St Ives extension (more about that later). So after going up to see Alfred Wallis's grave we then went out and about to tour the towns art haunts and significant places, We ended up doing some sketch work from the end of Smeatons Pier.

Below is the little sketch I did from the end of the pier looking over to Porthminster Beach and The Pedn Olva Hotel, quite happy with it.

 

 This afternoon, we went to the dump at St Erth to get rid of a few things and then onto Penzance to get some PVA for The Lantern Parade and to get some floor paint, did a quick shop and headed back home. Chilly but sunny and as we traveled back the sky had a wonderful pink glow with hardly a cloud, quite beautiful.

On returning home I logged onto social media to find out that a great town character and major mover in The St Ives Jazz Club Brian Stanley has died, he had been ill for a while but I don't think many of us thought it would be this soon. Our thoughts go out to his wife, family and close friends. Brian was a lovely chap with a very droll wit attached. He will be sadly missed by so many.

I will be off to draw and let this news filter in. I do feel sad.

Until tomorrow cheers !

Sunday and a day off.

Above are some of the things I drew on last night.

Above is the small amount of progress on my current large scale drawing. I am having to just dip into this drawing every now and again but bit by bit it will have to be while I am busy with September Festival Workshops at Barnoon.

Today has been a non art day with our friends that are staying with us and we were then joined for lunch by friends from Exeter. Eventually after eating and coffee and a walk we then ended up at the Torsten Lauschmann instillation at Porthmeor studio 5. It must be my 4th time at least but it is good to taken new people to this playful show.

Above and below are two of my early wood crate drawings, when I was first starting to work in colour, they go along way on the journey that I am now working on.

Above and below are two more that I did in this initial exploration of drawing on wood.

Cheers......

New drawing, Taken, Pebble, Torsten Lauschman, Saw this thought of you.....

Above is a drawing I finished last night, I am really liking it's faded, muted quality.

Above is a drawing I did a while ago on some rusted metal, I then hung it in public and it seems to have gone missing, I hope someone took it.

Above is some pebble art I did a few months ago, must do some more soon.

Above is an addition my Son and I did at the Torsten Lauschmann installation, always fun to be had at Porthmeor Studios.

Above is a photo that was sent to me in a 'saw this thought of you manner' apparently it is my friends dog's favourite ball (was)........ Thanks Strawb and Trotsky.

Also today I went to the cinema with my son to see 'Suicide Squad'. It actually was pretty well entertaining especially considering how many comic characters they shoe horned in, but not in a bad way.

Off to drawing and prepare myself for a long drive to Bristol and back, part of the process of getting my son back home 'up country'. At least on the way home he will be able to visit his mother in the hospital, it was pretty worrying last week but she seems to have made a good recovery and is now taking visitors.

See you all tomorrow or whenever you read this....

Saturday

Above and below are two drawings I did in my official sketchbook last night.

Above is a very small art drop I did in Moomaids today. It has been a very strange day for family Wotnot so the focus has not been on art, however we did have a couple of small art moments today. The art drop above has been one and the other was revisiting Torsten Lauschmann's fab installation at Porthmeor Studios.

To cheer ourselves up we are going to have a backyard BBQ.

See you tomorrow...

Exhibition Time.... 'Art Lovers' by Zoe Eaton & Bobby Wotnot and Torsten Lauschmann etc

Above is a small drawing I did yesterday......

Today was a more relaxed day than yesterday, no hospital visits etc...... I went out with my son to get a few things to help hang our exhibition. We bought some screw in eyes and some bulldog clips. Then went for a wander around town.

Here is a shot just a few seconds before three lots of balanced rocks fell on Lambeth Beach aqnd the St Ives rock balancer stood up to ponder and then go again.....

After that we picked up a Moomaid Ice Cream each and then went off to experience the Torsten Lauschmann installation 'After Images' at Porthmeor Studio 5. It is great fun and you get a UV torch so you can play see the next few photos below.

After a game of 'left handed' bowls, due to evening the playing field because of my son's broken hand I returned home to pick up lots of the art work for our/mine and Zoe Eaton's exhibition at CafeArt.

Above are some of my 'Graham's Conifer Series' all framed up ready to hang.

Ego time... here is me with my work on the wall and a lovely Zoe Eaton on the right.

Above is a close up of one of my pieces in the exhibition....

Above are two of my wife's paintings in our joint exhibition 'Art Lovers' and I love them dearly. I am so looking forward to the public seeing our work all through August. Theses last two photos were taken by Jordan Jackson.

I will put up more of our work over the next few days just to keep everything up to date...

Cheers

Plastic Fusion, Meeting and making.

Above a drawing I finished last night as promised. I found it difficult to draw whilst the football was on and on that note, well done Iceland.

Above another drawing I completed last night, I am not sure whether it is a lines and dot drawing or that because it is just the wedge nib mark it counts as a dot and even stretching that a bit further is it a printing work.

Above is a cover of a book I made today out of plastic fusion, card and cartridge paper and I am already thinking do I make a whole work out of this roughly constructed book. I am not having fully formed thoughts at the moment but I am sure something will come to me, as you may know if you read these blogs regularly or sometimes you will know I am not short of having ideas it is just having time to do all them.

Also today has been full of painting blackboards, lunch and a meeting at Naomi Frear's studio, hoping to set up an arts festival. Some very good ideas went into/cam out of this evenings meeting. Naomi's studio has a lovely vibe and also that great view of the ocean.

I am now quite tired and rather than ramble on I have some drawing to do and some relaxation.

Cheers

New drawings again.... art drops, Ann Kelly's private view and more.

Above a couple of experiments on coloured cardboard, I had a little thought as I often do that I could do a little series of these 'carboardios' and frame each odd pair....

File under : continuos art ideas....

Above is another drawing from last night that I think might be finished.

Above are three small art drops I did this afternoon, looks like I have a nice ant shadow on the bottom right one just above.
Really pleased with the look of all of these.

After finishing these art drops, we then wandered off towards Porthmeor studios to go and see Ann Kelley's opening in the Borlase Smart room. We bumped into Mark from the Tate, 'which was nice'. I had previously seen half the pictures before at the exhibition at Scarlet Wines, Lelant. With the addition of more work, pictures of some of the great artists that have worked in and around this town the concept was changed and realised. Pictures that struck a chord with me most were a portrait of Sir Terry Frost with his son Anthony and Anthony looking like the man I used to bump into at gigs at Damelza's/Winter Gardens in Penzance all those years ago.

We had agreed to meet up with our friends Tree and Ally from the Emerald Dawn, Tree also does trapeze workshops at The Island Centre so we had a wander around and this is what the bay looked like then, a lovely evening. We then tottered of for a couple of pints with them in The Castle.
Nice day, nice night.

More dots to be done before sleep.

Cheers