Must investigate. Shall report findings.
Rectangles of joy
Concrete grey found around the city.
Favourite grey
The grey paint they use to cover up graffiti and tags that turn up on walls around the city, is my favourite grey. The squares of it everywhere makes me very happy indeed.
Feeling festive
The book ‘Bird study in a garden’ A Book for Bird Watchers by Eric Ennion (1900 – 1981) inspired me to pick up a paintbrush again. His illustrations are beautiful and his observations about the unique characteristic of birds are wonderful. He also draws incredible diagrams of the profile of a garden and territory maps. I used acrylics and quickly remembered the importance of a good paintbrush!
I was also given the book ‘A colour guide to familiar Butterflies Caterpillars and Chrysalides.’ Next time I’m going to paint some butterflies I think. It would be good to have a collection of cut out painted butterflies in specimen display cases.
Samples of the ground
When I was in Edinburgh we visited the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. One piece of art in the collection really stood out to me; The Boyle Family – Addison Crescent Study (London Series).
It is a three-dimensional replica of a kerb from Addison Crescent in West London. They take a mould of the floor and then using fibreglass create the support and paint it (I think!). It looks like a piece of pavement has been suspended on the wall. It’s extremely realistic and detailed. I like the fact that it is hung on the wall alongside paintings but is very much 3d and sculptural.
Here is an interesting video of The Boyle Family:
11.11.11 11 Hours, 11 Minutes and 11 Seconds
Yesterday was a day with a moment that will not happen again in my life time. Regardless of that, I missed it as I was at the printer at work. Disappointed I text my Dad who consoled me with the genius idea that I could experience the American version of this moment. So at 4pm (11am New York time) I sat in front of my camera, which was set up facing my laptop to capture this second of history via an online clock.
I like the idea that if you miss a certain time in a day, you can just gatecrash another time zone.