Near The Edge

The Humble Postcard

An attempt to contain the postcard pile!

According to this talk by Stephen Bayley the most popular postcard purchased at the National Gallery is The Ugly Duchess by Quentin Matsys. Don’t know about you but I find it almost impossible not to scoop up half a dozen postcards as I exit through the gift shop of an exhibition. Of course, I have an excuse. The postcard mobile, which twirls and dangles my latest art obsession, is in need of a constant supply of fresh material.

The other day out from The Children’s Book tumbled “Early spring wave at Slaughden.” Can it really have been nearly five years ago that I heard and saw Maggi Hambling at the Fitz?

Incredibly I don’t have any system for cataloguing and keeping these momentos in a systematic way. Instead they are randomly abandoned in books, pinned to the fridge for a moment in the limelight or positioned in the ever-growing piles of inspirational bits and pieces.

Then there are the ones which come into your life from others: the good wishes, birthday greetings and “just wanted to get in touch” images. I have just found a card from 2008, written in the final months of life, from someone who made a huge difference to my life. A tangible part of that person still with me today.

So as I rifle through lots of Rodin, some ha-ha Heath Robinson, the abstract images of Pawson, the sea of Wallis and the black and yellow vase of Aitchison…along with the obligatory Moore, a compelling Dumas and the very recent Malevich I’m remembering events, people and great art. I am also struck by the very real  give and take of interest and influence – a stark human face emerging altered yet familiar in my work now, the curve of form entered through the eye as a muscle memory today. Perhaps there is more value in those forgotten postcards than we care to acknowledge.

Sea View

The Colour Purple

Each morning I emerge from my purple bedroom

To my sun-drenched kitchen

Where two purple tulips wink at me, whilst I make my tea.

The purple jacket on the book in the bookcase reminds me

“Why Love Matters”

But there is not much time for reading.

On many days I clothe myself in purple

To give magic to my day

And a dab of magenta lipstick, encompassing smiles.

My favourite days are those

Where the sunrise outside

Echoes my purples inside.

Before I leave

I glance at my painterly-purple imaginary landscape…

And venture forth.

Sometimes There Are Tulips

Sheila Girling and Anthony Caro described their relationship as “the 64-year conversation about art.”

For Us To Enjoy

“…we have sometimes lost the mystery of a cloud, the beauty of a garden, the joy of a single step.” Kent Nerburn

Embryonic

“The possibility is that one can articulate a notion that is either incomplete or never conclusive, because it is tentative and propositional, which does not mean it is false.”

Shirley Kaneda Painting and Its Others: In the Realm of the Feminine

In An Artist’s Studio: Mark Acetelli

Inspired by Joan Eardley’s remote and picturesque studio, The Watch House at Catterline near Aberdeen, I’ve been seeking out artist studios and thinking about how these spaces reflect and affect our working practices.

Venture into the studio of Mark Acetelli, an exciting, contemporary American painter who produces beautifully rich and evocative abstract and semi-abstract works.  Stick with the rather shaky camera work at the beginning – it is a lovely, exploratory interview which rewards watching and I love the neat rows of oil paints!

“We must strip away theories and preconceived ideology and have a clear mind like a child does, to paint in a pure sense of expression and wonder.” Mark Acetelli

See more about Mark at his website http://www.acetellifineart.com.

Sea Change

Perseverance

Opportunity

Transformation

Demand

“Women don’t paint very well. It’s a fact.” Georg Baselitz (2013)

The Man Who Tasted Shapes

Joan Mitchell started her paintings by putting herself in a particular mental state, thinking about a positive experience – an experience of love.  She called this an emotional trigger.