Art school sketches

It has taken me a while to get my web management software working again after the laptop got fixed but finally I have put some new work up on artsmitten: sketches done at art school.

The Paprika

Homework: paint a paprika white ... and draw it.... then again....

Learn English (German) with Otto

Laurie Anderson lights the opera house.

I saw the wonderful Laurie Anderson's light show at the opera house last night. People sat the steps of the opera house forecourt watching.


The images were slow and meditative and watching them soar into the heavens was special. The show is on for several days and in case you are reading this before 20 June, check out this live link:
http://vividlive.sydneyoperahouse.com/LightingTheSails.aspx

Terracotta with blue

This plate was a surprise. It was painted with slip with large music notes, but the slip was too thin and disappeared during firing. (The large music notes are just visible.)
The turquoise smaller notes though were rather accidental - and after firing it is they that are really inspiring. Sometimes accidents deliver nice results.

In the close-up of the blue notes below, the turquoise is a bit less blue than in reality.


This plate was fired at 1080C.

Art, music, love

Terracotta bowl with slip edge. It was fired at 1120C and the terracotta colour is not quite as rich as the clay bowl with music which was fired at 1080C.

Music plate with crackled edge

This plate (about 30cm diameter, from the same mould as the plate below) had two firings. The first firing was at 1080C with an alkaline glaze. Then I added the slip edge and some turquoise glaze before re-firing at the same temperature.

Guitar plate

This plate, terracotta clay with a white slip, was made on a self made mold. The guitar pattern was made by scratching a pattern through the slip. The trick is to put enough slip on the plate. If you paint the slip on you need at least three coats. Of all the plates I made in the 'Plate Project', the terracotta plates with white slip interested me most. Perhaps that is because they provide a good canvas for drawing.

Learning about Matisse

Our art theory class is held in an old sandstone building, part of the convict prison. They have installed heaters now so it is not uncomfortable, but it must have beeen once.

Kiln products

A terracotta bowl with black music (Tristan and Isolde!)
This flat plate is made of white stoneware clay. The face is made of slip, which is the sloppy mess you have when you mix clay with water.

Zipper plate

This zipper plate was made by making a mould with a zipper pressed into it. The name on the zipper, Luigi, is intelligible through the glaze.

NAS

The National Art School is housed on an old prison, a very old prison right in the center of Sydney. It is peaceful despite the location as the thick walls are great insulation.
The ceramics workshop is a congenial place to work.

The lawnmower

Art and Music

This is a painting by Rupprecht Geiger called 402/64. Geiger was one of Germany's foremost abstract artists and painted mainly in red. (His obituary in 1996 was titled 'A life for the colour red.')

I am writing an essay about 'meaningful and compelling' relationships between art and music. The painting I have chosen is 402/64. The music is Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and my essay is turning out to be much more interesting than expected .... as essays should be of course.

Bathing: then and now

There are 60 years between these photos. One baby is the grandmother of the other baby ...

The colour version...

Patonga Inlet

Patonga Inlet had an autumnal feel early this morning as the sun rose over a flat calm sea.

Miriam

This was painted in 2006 ... and remains one of my favorite images. I have it on my camera and it always seems to survive my purges of old images.

What's allowed and what's not

Graphite sketch on A1 paper, transposed from the sketch done at the AGNSW ... with added bronze figure. It relates to an essay I am writing comparing the fuss caused by a French painting in 1850 with that caused by an Oz photo in 2008. One fuss was about politics and the other about nudity ... which says something about France and Oz respectively I suppose.

Immovable figures

The model for life drawing didn't turn up this week so off we went to the AGNSW to draw the sculptures. Sculptures can hold the pose soooo long ....

Music in Hamilton

Hamilton (NZ) appears rather flat and featureless to those passing by in a bus. Then this unique music store pops into view. It is right oppostite the Hamilton bus station.