On Friday April 16 I saw a film called Exit through the Gift Shop directed by the street artist Banksy. It's a fascinating film about street art and the artist who, illegally, put up their work. Also a ridicules side of the art market.
Not that I have great fondness for the mess that a lot of graffiti artist make on pubic and private walls spaces I enjoy the humour that they occasionally show in their work. Banksy, Shepard Farley and Blek le Rat being a few of my favorites. Therefore, as I was still working on drawing using only shape, I let the idea of street art inspire me for a drawing.
Using a photo taken of me in New York some time ago I reduced the full colour spectrum to two colours.
This is the end result: A 20" x 20" charcoal and pastel drawing.

I then reduced the size and made a stencil to try and spray paint the image on paper not with any intention of going out late at night defacing walls. The stencil was quite successfull but the spray painting was not. I ended up with more black spray paint on my fingers than on the paper.




Using the now black spray painted stencil, for fun, I put it on the exterior back cover of the exhibition catalogue for Picasso's Mosqueteros.Which you might note I am using for my profile on Facebook.

These drawings were done whilst listening mainly to CDs by Maurice Steger, Mr Corelli in London and Sammartini: Sonatas for Recorder and Continuo.
I haven't decided how much the music I listen to while drawing influences my drawing. Which is the reason I mention the music occasionally.

This is the finished drawing of the rough layout from my last blog. As with all drawings of a rather abstract nature it can be read in many ways. My neighbour, without knowing the subject, only saw the face of a woman's agony as she drowned. Her vision was arrived at through only seeing the woman's face and the immense sea of blue. She did not see the mans face until I pointed it out and did not know what the inspiration for the subject was.

The subject is from a photo I took a few years ago at the Loggia dei lanzi, in Florence, of The Rape of the Sabine Women by Jean de Boulogne's, better known as Giambologna , 1583 (Thank you Wikipedia).

All day spent beginning the layout for a drawing using only shape and colour to convey a subject. Inspiration comes from the work of Rupert Garcia. I decide to do a series based on photographs I've taken of classical statues. Using Photoshop to crop, roughly chose colours and shapes then transposing 8x10 image on to 18x22 watercolour paper before finally drawing in pastel. I started the drawing by doing a colour wash, to make sure the white of the paper would not show through in the areas of pure colour. Having not picked the final colours for the finished drawing I used colours in the range of the probable finished work.









Having been listening to a lot of Sibelius most of the week I wanted to draw to music with more substance and therefore chose to draw to Mahlers 5th. I find the music I work to so important as it definitely gets my head into a different space. Motown and classical sculpture didn't seem the right mix this time.

Back in the saddle.

I find it hard to believe I haven't been able to post for so long. Though it does feel longer than in reality it has been. How to pick up where I was? Where to restart?
I thought all the drawings I did through this time were merde and not worth the paper they had been drawn on, that the dark circles of Dante's pergetory, I was in, had halted any developement with my art work. One should never trust one's own judgement but work through the dark times and review the work again when the darkness has passed. And listen to the comments of your peers.
Enough to say I back and ready to work. My brain spins with ideas for new work now all I have to do is get some paper on the easel and work the ideas through.

These few drawing were done in the last month.


This is a class project representing a dream.
As a child a recuring dream was of me being thrown down a well with no means of escape.







Another classroom project: random colour pastel of a black and white photograph.










Lastly yet another class work. The project was to represent a close up of a piece of fruit. No it's not fruit. I found this months old piece of bread in the fridge.