The Irish Machine

Wow, I love this machine and now I have been inducted I can't wait to get back into uni and spend some time on it. Tomorrow I will try and add an image of my very first piece, but just needed to blog today as so excited about the prospects of some creative pieces to follow, I hope!!

Recently I have been to several galleries in just 2 weeks. In Liverpool, the Walker Gallery, Tate Liverpool and The Blue Coat and then to London for The National Gallery, Tate Britain and The Portrait Gallery but it wasn't until I visited Gloucester Cathedral yesterday, that I really felt inspired to start creating. Ptolemmy Mann and Anna Glasbrook's exhibition 'The Architecture of Cloth, Colour and Space' was truly stunning and it was the latter artist that really struck a chord! Glasbrook works with textiles to create bespoke installations for achitecture using brightly coloured threads and materials to make three dimensional drawings in space. Glasbrook (www.annaglasbrrok.com/blog)  says that she is obsessed with transparency and collects plastic packaging destined for the recycling bin, stitching into them whenever she gets the chance. She is inspired by photographs that she takes of architecture and the urban and rural landscape.

Some of my favourite were:

Floating series 2: Aura mixed media, steel and acrylic frame.

Side view of Aura

Structures Series ~ 6 Grey and Pink, mixed media

Structure Series ~ 5 blue, mixed media

Calm, mixed media, anodised aluminium frame

I now look forward to making some samples inspired by this work. I would like to try using some of my painted fabrics and include some embroidered text.

The Grotesque Factor, exhibition at Picasso Museum, Malaga

This is not proving easy. Trying to add a link to interesting exhibition seen in Malaga but difficult to work out how to do this but the link keeps disappearing when I then try to continue typing!!

http://www2.museopicassomalaga.org/i_03_1frameset.htm

Ahhh, have worked it out. Blue link not always shown unless you click on the http address. Lets now try an image...

Ok, can't find the Otto Dix(German Expressionist)  image that I saw yesterday at the exhibition, but this is similar and called Madame. I really like the range of mark making and use of colour. The latter is subtle but makes big impact on the image. Some red over her bust and orange fiery hair suggesting a woman not to be messed with.

It is quite difficult to find the artists on line that I viewed at the above exhibition. I also really liked a set of prints by Jose Delgado. They looked like pen and ink drawings but in fact I think they were lithographs. Here is an example of a similar piece of work. There was a lot of movement and simple variations in the marks made, fantastic!

Also, there were some etchings of the Seven Deadly Sins by Pieter Bruegal et Viejo. Again, I was fascinated by the various simple marks made that produced such intricate images. They are etchings made in 16th century.

Another fascinating image was Christoph Jamnitzer 'Old Man with Candle and Monsters', 1610. Fantastic patterns which looked like ammonites, formed the basis for the image.

Think the final artist that I will mention is Paul Klee, but will start this as a new entry as plenty to comment on.