Meme: on the subject of art

[pensnest]

kira_j asked for: art! what is art? are you artistic? examples of art pieces you like?



When it comes to 'proper Art', I'm not very cultured. I do enjoy occasionally going round a gallery, and there will always be something that really catches my attention, whether I'm at the National Gallery or the Tate Modern. I remember the Rodin Museum in Paris with a lot of pleasure—Rodin's sculptures are beautiful.

rikes and I went round the Tate Modern a couple of years ago, and it is an excellent place, like being inside a massive installation piece. I can't name the pieces, though, that I stood in front of for ages, any more than I can name my favourites from the National Gallery. It's usually the right combination of colours and shapes that gets me, but I don't know how to define that.

I have a preference for abstract that isn't random. Or large squares of colour, because frankly, if someone has a large canvas of one or two colours in an art gallery and is trying to say something with it, what I think they're trying to say is, Gotcha! I'm not very up on the theories of art.

I have a couple of canvases of browns with metallics, hanging at the top of the stairs. They just please me, for the way the colours and brushstrokes work. I also have two Kerry Darlington pictures which I love very much. One of them is not unlike this one, but with more trees and no horses. She's gone more into the realms of twee recently, but her colours are fantastic. I think she does clever things with resin and layers of paint. The other picture is purely abstract round shapes in shades of brown and gold.

There are times when I'm unable to stop myself going into a 'paintings shop' in St Albans—the pictures are not as expensive as in the gallery where I bought my KDs, and I keep falling in love with things in reds and golds with interesting textures and the kind of shapes that allow me to keep looking. For me, something purely representational is likely to pall after a while, because it's always what it is, whereas something not so specifically formed has more scope for me to imagine into it.

Among the other pictures in my house, one was created by me, and two by my mother. My one is not that exciting: it's a quite large 'tapestry' picture done from a kit called 'La Barque'. Well, there was a boat smack in the middle of the picture on the canvas. There isn't a boat in my picture, because I didn't like it. I call it 'La Barque a disparu' (hmm, should there be an 'e' on the end of that? I can't remember). Also, I did not do it in half cross stitch. I used long stitch, sideways, for the water, and added some silk to the wool yarn to make it shimmer. I used gobelin stitch for the castle, and freestyle for the trees, reeds and other greenery. Makes it much more workable!

The pictures my mother created are much more interesting. She took art classes, and one of the pictures is a charcoal portrait of an oldish man who may have been the teacher. It's not something I would have chosen if it was in a shop, but my mother did it, and it is pretty good. The other we call the Gorgon's Head. It's more abstract than that, though, and it fits my preferences to a T. It's sorta like a flower, with a central domed circle in orange velvet, with a surrounding ring (slightly less stuffed, so less proud) in a reddish velvet. On top of these are embroidered streaks in gold threads. It's gorgeous.

My mother also created an embroidered rug, which lives in my computer room, and the intricately embroidered top of a piano stool in the dining room. The wooden frame of the stool was made by her eldest brother, who was a cabinet maker by trade. The second brother was a sign writer. Third brother set up and ran his own pottery business. My mother was a librarian instead of a craftswoman, and my aunt didn't, as far as I know, have an artistic career either—but she's the sort of woman who can take two different wedding dress patterns and create from them a new dress made to fit her new daughter in law. And has made a bunch of interesting stuff… Their mother never bought a card in her life, because she painted all her Christmas and birthday cards, all birds. Oh, and of the next generation, two of the potter's children took over that business and one of the others took over the cabinet making. And my aunt's daughter is a carpet designer.

So it's an artistic heritage, and I like to think that I carry it on. Not that I have the patience to create the kind of things my mother made, but I have always created *something*. At school, I remember making a little book for my best friend's birthday—I'd learned calligraphy, so I wrote out some favourite quotes and decorated each page individually. When the kids were at primary school I showed up to help with The Craft Stall for the PTA's Christmas Market, and found myself creating baskets, candleholders and sundry stuff out of salt dough. I wouldn't have given them house room, as I seemed only to be able to create things I thought were twee, but they did sell well.

I made a Star Trek:TNG zine in the late 1990s, and did the illustrations myself—a few actual pictures, and pretty page markers for the first page of every story. I've never really been taught to draw, which is a pity; I did go to an art group for a few months, and really enjoyed it. The teacher provided a helpful eye for my illustrations, but I'm definitely not in Marty Siegriest's or Jean Kluge's league, alas. After that, I had a Photoshop phase, particularly when I discovered LJ and the weekly pop boys challenges, which gave me the chance to learn a lot about Photoshop. Much fun!

As some of you know, I make cards, something I've been doing for a long time. Mostly, these involve glass paints, which suit me very well. I sometimes have a go at other ideas, depending on what takes my fancy. I rediscovered a selection of very pretty inks, so I might have to go into calligraphy of fabulous quotations, if I can find my quote books. But I think the glass paints are *my* medium.

I have some acrylics, and have the nebulous intention of attempting something on canvas, but haven't got round to it yet. If I do, it'll probably involve textures—crinkled paper, woven material, beads and what not—and it'll almost inevitably be in reds and browns and golds…

I'd also classify my knitting as evidence of my creative streak. It's a medium for playing with colour and texture. In some ways, I'm not playing with colour nearly so much these days as when I started out working in the Kaffe Fassett style, but I'd like to think I'm good at combining colours. I have fun with it, anyway.

Comments

[watervole]

I'm really enjoying reading these posts.

(saying that as I don't always comment, to let you know they're intresting)

Love the painting you linked to - I could loook at that for ages.

[pensnest]

Thank you! It's a lot of fun, doing this thing where other people decide what I'll post about. There've been several things it would not have occurred to me to talk about.

I'm not so keen on Kerry Darlington's Alice In Wonderland paintings, or the trees with baubles—they're fun, and beautifully done, but I don't *want* them. But the fabulous reds with tree-ishness are gorgeous. I'm certainly not tired of my picture.

[rikes]

It was great fun doing the Tate Modern with you.

And thank you for the card, it just arrived today! ♥

[pensnest]

Excellent.

[kira-j.livejournal.com]

I feel like I have to churn it out if ever attempt anything creative, I think people who react to art/get inspired to do their own - do their best work instinctively, it feels purer.

A girl at school would draw pictures inside bday/xmas cards and I've kept them ever since. The only other artistic thing I own is a blanket my mother embroidered which is just the most beautiful thing I love it to pieces.

I remember seeing the mugs you painted for CS people and when I see your username I remember you as The Painter so that's why I asked ^_^

[pensnest]

It's good to have an instinct for art, and I don't honestly think it's possible to achieve something *wonderful* without that natural element, but having the right techniques available almost certainly makes it better. I mean, I think you need imagination and some storytelling ability to be able to write fanfic, but knowing how to touch-type makes it a lot easier! And that's before we even get into a facility with grammar and vocabulary, and after that, there are all sorts of things we can learn to make our writing better. I'd like to know how to use acrylics (not watercolours, which I've tried—definitely not my medium!), and how to translate what I see (or imagine) into line drawing that works, which I'm not very good at.

[frausorge]

Thank you so much for your pretty card which arrived today! Quite a propos. I've got a Pen original! I really like how the different blues and the different kinds of shine complement each other.

[pensnest]

Very timely! Heh.

[solariana.livejournal.com]

Your family heritage seems wonderfully artsy! I'm always happy to hear the kids taking over the family business. It's awesome to keep the tradition of something they grew up with.

[pensnest]

I'm quite envious of those who managed to make a career with their artistic abilities. I think if I'd known myself a *lot* better than I did when I was seventeen (and perhaps, if my mother had been alive) I might have gone to art school instead of university, and learned how to do some of this stuff properly.

[turps33.livejournal.com]

Now you've got me sitting trying to visualise some of those things in your house.

You do beautiful cards. Just saying.

[pensnest]

I don't think you've been here since I got the Kerry Darlington pictures, but you might be able to remember the others.

Thank you.