"I made it, I did it! " Photo exhibition
Once more QCCers rose to the challenge and this exhibition showcases some of the talent and originality of our community.
Remember to click on the pictures to get the full size.
Esdragon
The two paintings, Let There Be Light, and There Was Light, stem from the Old Testament. I painted them as an exercise in spontaneity, meaning that I had no idea or plan in mind before I started, or even a thought of which colours I would use. This is much more difficult to achieve than I realised. Allowing the mind to stop thinking goes against everything we’ve ever done before. Although, I must admit I held in mind the quotes from the Bible.
As to The Lion; this was done sometime before the two above. Even so there is still an amount of spontaneity in that painting too. I started it maybe 6 months previously, after a dream I had, and which I wrote about in my book, Dreaming Worlds Awake. It appears as a black and white picture in the book, along with the story, which I read to the assembled audience. I’d been invited to take part in an exhibition of paintings and sculptures at the CornerStone building which houses the archives of the famous Bath Stone. This was used to build the major part of Bath, as well as some equally famous buildings in London; i.e. Portland Square, for one. Bath itself dates back to pre-Roman times. The stone was quarried from underground mines, some of them situated beneath the CornerStone building.
GRIEF, (added later,) is a charcoal and Pencil drawing. One of several drawings which I did over time, although most of them haven't been framed professionally, and therefore haven’t been exhibited. Grief, along with its partner drawing; Portrait With Charcoal Hair, are both professionally framed, but only recently been photographed.
Coming now to the piece of sculpture; The Swimmer. When I first came to live in Bath, (I previously studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art in London, after leaving the Sheffield College of Art in the late 50’s) There was an Art College in Bath also. I discovered that it had a department with a kiln which was used to cast bronzes. Although I had once used our college in Sheffield for casting metals, I’d never cast bronze before. So the tutor invited me to try my hand with bronze casing. This was a new experience. I was taken through the steps: first I made a clay sculpture, then this was made into a piece-mould, and the clay was removed. The hollow was then filled with wax, and wax runners and risers added. This was covered in a mixture of grog, (crushed earthenware and sand). When it was dry we took the next step, i.e. covering that with plaster which had first been made ready for the kiln. Finally it was placed into the red-hot kiln, where the tutor and I grasped a pair of heavy tongs, and lifted it into the ‘fiery furness’, where the wax melted leaving a hollow shape where the clay had been. (For simplicity’s sake one or two details have been left out.)
A crucible filled with pieces of bronze was then put into the kiln. When it was ready and melted enough, then, grasping the tongs on either side, we poured the molten metal into the hollow shape. But that wasn't the end of the process. After it was cold, the plaster mould was stripped away. Next the cast had to be ‘fettled” using special filing tools. A lengthy process, which maybe explains why bronze sculptures cost so much!
As to The Lion; this was done sometime before the two above. Even so there is still an amount of spontaneity in that painting too. I started it maybe 6 months previously, after a dream I had, and which I wrote about in my book, Dreaming Worlds Awake. It appears as a black and white picture in the book, along with the story, which I read to the assembled audience. I’d been invited to take part in an exhibition of paintings and sculptures at the CornerStone building which houses the archives of the famous Bath Stone. This was used to build the major part of Bath, as well as some equally famous buildings in London; i.e. Portland Square, for one. Bath itself dates back to pre-Roman times. The stone was quarried from underground mines, some of them situated beneath the CornerStone building.
GRIEF, (added later,) is a charcoal and Pencil drawing. One of several drawings which I did over time, although most of them haven't been framed professionally, and therefore haven’t been exhibited. Grief, along with its partner drawing; Portrait With Charcoal Hair, are both professionally framed, but only recently been photographed.
Coming now to the piece of sculpture; The Swimmer. When I first came to live in Bath, (I previously studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art in London, after leaving the Sheffield College of Art in the late 50’s) There was an Art College in Bath also. I discovered that it had a department with a kiln which was used to cast bronzes. Although I had once used our college in Sheffield for casting metals, I’d never cast bronze before. So the tutor invited me to try my hand with bronze casing. This was a new experience. I was taken through the steps: first I made a clay sculpture, then this was made into a piece-mould, and the clay was removed. The hollow was then filled with wax, and wax runners and risers added. This was covered in a mixture of grog, (crushed earthenware and sand). When it was dry we took the next step, i.e. covering that with plaster which had first been made ready for the kiln. Finally it was placed into the red-hot kiln, where the tutor and I grasped a pair of heavy tongs, and lifted it into the ‘fiery furness’, where the wax melted leaving a hollow shape where the clay had been. (For simplicity’s sake one or two details have been left out.)
A crucible filled with pieces of bronze was then put into the kiln. When it was ready and melted enough, then, grasping the tongs on either side, we poured the molten metal into the hollow shape. But that wasn't the end of the process. After it was cold, the plaster mould was stripped away. Next the cast had to be ‘fettled” using special filing tools. A lengthy process, which maybe explains why bronze sculptures cost so much!
Boveyphil
Well I didn’t really make it – I just arranged them.
Title is “Speed dating for fossils”.
Title is “Speed dating for fossils”.
Spungal
Coffee.
Ostrakon
This is maybe a little off the beaten track of arts and crafts, but I had a lot of fun creating it.
What is it? It's a replica of a transmitter/receiver as used by the French Resistance during WWII
This was shown to my good friend Stan and resulted in creating another one for him; he showed it to some friends and that's how I came to make the third and then the fourth.
I no longer show it to people LOL!
What is it? It's a replica of a transmitter/receiver as used by the French Resistance during WWII
This was shown to my good friend Stan and resulted in creating another one for him; he showed it to some friends and that's how I came to make the third and then the fourth.
I no longer show it to people LOL!
Backstagebear
And here you are - the reason I’m called Backstage Bear. I used to have a small business making miniature bears (until the dodgy thumb got the better of me), and idled away many a boring show stitching at the side of the stage. Two of my stage crew started dating during one pantomime, and married a few years later. They asked me to make the cake topper for them, and this was the result. Of course, my Jack Sparrow avatar is one of mine, too…..
sparclear
Here is the room I had in London.
Mahogany 'bateau' bed adorned by a blanket I'd made in Devon.
(At the foot end is a woven rug from Ireland.)
It used thick, variably tinted white/green/grey/black scraps of yarn, recycled from worn out jerseys (there's some Arran, and real alpaca wool supplies in there) and a large wooden handmade crochet hook. Every few rows I would insert a 3D kind of bobble stitch. The final result is amazingly heavy and warm. I also made it reversible.
On the mantelpiece, a treasured card from MissP. This is where we celebrated Christmas.
Mahogany 'bateau' bed adorned by a blanket I'd made in Devon.
(At the foot end is a woven rug from Ireland.)
It used thick, variably tinted white/green/grey/black scraps of yarn, recycled from worn out jerseys (there's some Arran, and real alpaca wool supplies in there) and a large wooden handmade crochet hook. Every few rows I would insert a 3D kind of bobble stitch. The final result is amazingly heavy and warm. I also made it reversible.
On the mantelpiece, a treasured card from MissP. This is where we celebrated Christmas.
FerenjiNan
Celebrating the small,
the slow accretion of tiny Xs
Patiently, over and over,
I lose myself in a meditative interior wilderness
Of repetition
x
x
x
xx
xxx
Connecting with Oriental weavers of the past,
Artisans of the Silk Route with their looms,
Unwieldy artifacts.
Oh the portability of my wooden hoop!
X-ing a vibrant connection
to the past,
The future,
with tangled coloured threads of Fate,
I cross-stitch my way to Freedom.
the slow accretion of tiny Xs
Patiently, over and over,
I lose myself in a meditative interior wilderness
Of repetition
x
x
x
xx
xxx
Connecting with Oriental weavers of the past,
Artisans of the Silk Route with their looms,
Unwieldy artifacts.
Oh the portability of my wooden hoop!
X-ing a vibrant connection
to the past,
The future,
with tangled coloured threads of Fate,
I cross-stitch my way to Freedom.
I made it (or rather, I wrote it).
There's a poster on a wall here in Dharamsala, supposedly advice from the Dalai Lama. He says that one should write a book. Well, I did, here it is, and HH appears in it himself, although incognito. See if you can spot him...
there's a lot of travel, music, magic and funny words in this book!
If you are interested, you can get the book HERE.
There's a poster on a wall here in Dharamsala, supposedly advice from the Dalai Lama. He says that one should write a book. Well, I did, here it is, and HH appears in it himself, although incognito. See if you can spot him...
there's a lot of travel, music, magic and funny words in this book!
If you are interested, you can get the book HERE.
LondonBBG
Damsons are a favourite of mine from childhood, and 20 years ago it was still possible to find them in season in London. Now it’s almost impossible but I managed to find some on eBay last September. I made some into chutney but it was hard to do justice to its flavour for a photo exhibition – until Crucigrama came to the rescue.
And this is what Crucigrama did:
Reading of LBBG's dilemma - how to photograph her delicious chutney - I selflessly rushed to her aid. Here she is with chutney and home-made butternut soup which also gets the Cruci seal of delish.
MrsMattise
As you know I'm not someone to slave about but I had to come up with something at Christmas. Fruity festive pavlova ....assembled after a glass or two of prosecco!
FriedFish
This is part of the build-up of stuff on my dining table during January. It looks a mess, but it is a snapshot of the start of 2016, and there are stories behind every item, some quite trivial, others significant; and I plan to write those stories down before the table is cleared. Meanwhile, I shall eat off one small corner...
My mess, and I made it!
And now after. 15th Feb, 2016. The stories have been told, and they are safe in the book on the new table-space that I have made.
SomeLikeItHot
Some twelve years ago I went through an obsessive phase of botanical illustration. I took up courses and classes and spent 5 years pouring over the peaks and troughs of leaf veins. It was all very time consuming (everything to scale ), disciplined and painstaking. Then, one day, I asked myself: do I really care about this? And the answer came: no! It turned out to be a passing fad.
Janken
Here are a few of the many things I have made over the last two years or so:
A collage on canvas made with pieces of newspaper, some white emulsion and a little red acrylic paint.
Newspaper collage 80 x 80 cm on canvas
Newspaper collage on canvas
Newspaper and white emulsion
Collage made with snippets of coloured paper cut out from magasines.
Closeup of black, white and red newspaper collage
Closeup of a patchwork wall hanging (my interpretation of a Kaffe Fasset design)
This is my lovely dog Gypsy warming up after a bath under a blanket I knitted (also made 3 similar ones for my family).
My attempt at a cheese souffle. It wasn't half bad.
A collage on canvas made with pieces of newspaper, some white emulsion and a little red acrylic paint.
Newspaper collage 80 x 80 cm on canvas
Newspaper collage on canvas
Newspaper and white emulsion
Collage made with snippets of coloured paper cut out from magasines.
Closeup of black, white and red newspaper collage
Closeup of a patchwork wall hanging (my interpretation of a Kaffe Fasset design)
This is my lovely dog Gypsy warming up after a bath under a blanket I knitted (also made 3 similar ones for my family).
My attempt at a cheese souffle. It wasn't half bad.
MathCath
I wasn’t always a nerdy academic scientist. I spent 2 years sciving off lessons at 2ndry school in the pottery and then went to art school doing ceramics for a year. Got very good at wheel pots. Much later, in the midst of a PhD in nanomechanics, I discovered the university pottery right next door to the Biology lab, and started sciving off cutting edge research to deboil my brain. The pottery was a haven of calm in a stormy sea of science, where I met a lady studying particle entanglement (Physics). We could mould and pummel, carve and glaze with no cares. She made massive jars in an Egyptian stylee. I made massive slab pots. Some of them are still there propping doors open in the summer, no doubt. Only the smaller ones have survived my travels. These two were glazed by chucking the glaze at them in a fairly organised manner, and are part of a series based on water waveforms.
Onorae
Upcycled silk scarves and blouse become unique cushion covers. I can never be accused of minimalism!
Flummixed
Greetings Caffers from Flummixed Towers
Attached is a pic from the Towers entitled 'Room with chair and rescued plants'.
I made the chair and I rescued the plants, all of which were destined to early graves due to a common disease known locally as 'Retailer Neglect'
Gan canny
Attached is a pic from the Towers entitled 'Room with chair and rescued plants'.
I made the chair and I rescued the plants, all of which were destined to early graves due to a common disease known locally as 'Retailer Neglect'
Gan canny
JohnnySolstice
Artworks by Johnny solstice
1 no blood for oil ….collage and photomontage
2 Endeavour ……….photomontage
3 Orcadian memory…photomontage
4 turn off TV………..photomontage having first embedded coping stone through TV
5 soul sister…………photo in total darkness 8minutes painted with light using torches of various sizes
6 voices .............freehand on tablet computer
7 echelon ...........photomontage (echelon is the spyware program at menwith hill bottom right ...all photos taken in yorkshire including tree which I photographed every month of the year...thus the roots are made from it's winter branches
8 dead space ......collage (how I feel about the inner city)
1 no blood for oil ….collage and photomontage
2 Endeavour ……….photomontage
3 Orcadian memory…photomontage
4 turn off TV………..photomontage having first embedded coping stone through TV
5 soul sister…………photo in total darkness 8minutes painted with light using torches of various sizes
6 voices .............freehand on tablet computer
7 echelon ...........photomontage (echelon is the spyware program at menwith hill bottom right ...all photos taken in yorkshire including tree which I photographed every month of the year...thus the roots are made from it's winter branches
8 dead space ......collage (how I feel about the inner city)
Cuttle
I took this pic on a beautiful day in Ormskirk, Lancs., on Monday 15th Feb, 2016. It is of Disraeli, just after he'd managed a complete solve of The Guardian Quick crossword (he holds the paper version in his left hand).
Spanishscot
I wasn't sure of what to choose for the exhibition, but in the end I went for food. I love cooking but I especially enjoy sharing the food I cook with other people. So here we are, a bunch of my favourite QCC people having some of my world famous Cullen Skink.
And something else I made. This website. I made it for all of us and I'm very proud of it.
Spanishfly
Sorry a couple of these are twisted. I also made the cushion cover that appears in a couple of the pics. The drawing is my version of what a hobbit would look like, based Tolkien's description and done when I was 18.