Recent Pastel work and thinking about projects to focus on

I have been given the opportunity to do a  pastel portrait of Ozzy, a chocolate Labrador, as you can see from the photo images we had fun trying to get him to pose for us !! This has been a good exercise in keeping focus on drawing skills... The thing I found interesting today is when I get in the zone... (four hours doing the portrait of Ozzy) was a very fulfilling experience.
Reminded me of  Robert Henri's remark 'The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful place which makes art inevitable'

File:Miss Kaji Waki 1909 Robert Henri.jpg

The phase of work at present in its output is mixed and ideas are forming... I get a sense again that I respond to given situations that  inspire and resonate with me in someway... and as a person there's a sense that my work is a response to personal situations and the world around me, art is a means to communicate, articulate, and also at times is therapeutic. There is a place for balance.   
I have been considering a future project of portraits based on inspirational figures who have made a positive difference in the world. This would fit in well with a recent portraiture course.

Here now are the photos and portrait of works in progress.

                         


                                                                                                           

In need of Inspiration......

Finding a inspiration and encouragement is at times something we humans greatly benefit from.... I  find mine often in the form of quotations and in the stories of courage....

“One of the most important keys to Success is having the discipline to do what you know you should do, even when you don't feel like doing it.” – Unknown

I tend to agree with this self motivation is vital and a lot of the time it's focusing when one isn't 'In the mood'..... focusing is key to how many things get done.
However success comes in many forms, maybe the truest of success is surely that of caring, friendships, courage, hope, kindness, unconditional love and respect for ones fellow man.

“Happiness cannot be travelled to, owned, earned, or worn. It is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace & gratitude.” – Denis Waitley

I know this is probably contrived particularly when there are so many difficult situations going on in the world... so where one is able in the circumstances we find ourselves... be able to give...share
...help in someway where and when ever possible.



http://addicted2success.com/quotes/37-inspirational-quotes-that-will-change-your-life/

Recent work  completed acrylic wash on canvas.

 

Happy New year !! quotes to inspire...and Developing a blue tone landscape composition

And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Let our New Year's resolution be this: we will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word.

Goran Persson

 

New Year's Day. A fresh start. A new chapter in life waiting to be written. New questions to be asked, embraced, and loved. Answers to be discovered and then lived in this transformative year of delight and self-discovery. Today carve out a quiet interlude for yourself in which to dream, pen in hand. Only dreams give birth to change.

Sarah Ban Breathnach

A few images...a work in progression for a blue landscape, based on the brazil nut tree; attempting to capture a sense of atmosphere and calm within this image so as to create a reflective mood.
Started with a few sketches for the composition before building up the layers and tones with acrylic washes.
The original work part of a project with The World Land Trust, was in response to our Western ideologies and attitudes of dominance over nature instead of recognising as humans we are part of nature... the destructive impact of man seen for example on eco systems such as deforestation in Brazil... although the Brazil nut tree is conservation protected, it eventually dies as the ecosystem around it is destroyed afflicted by manmade  fires ... It also reveals our on going disconnection from nature, do we see nature as something in opposition to the human species? Something to control?
'We have 54 senses most are disconnected from nature...' We excessively suffer our disorders because we don't connect with our natural senses with natures grace,balance, and the restorative powers that help us to remedy our troubles..http//www.ecopsych.com/insight...
'Let the earth teach us the renewing powers of nature.' Richard Long.
We are suffering from a kind of collective hypnosis' a cultural trance that prevents us from seeing things the way they are.' William Irwin Thompson.
Nature is the solution not the problem yet 3 great challenges to environment are evident climate change, biodiversity collapse, and each generations disconnection from nature...paraphrased from Richard Louvs Children and Nature.
Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.' Albert Einstien
 One of my great  inspirations is 93 year old Artist Frans Krajcberg who derived his inspiration from the Rain forest in Brazil. His personal insight into the destructive nature of man is born of painful experience; losing his family in the Holocaust. He eventually moved to Brazil from Poland where he experienced nature's restoring effect upon him living for a number of years in the forest... however as deforestation commenced Krajcberg's art emerged in response to man's destructive nature ... he said my work's are my manifest, the fire is death, abyss. The fire will always be with me, the destruction has forms. I am searching for images to scream my revolt.' Krajcberg.
"The first time I wept after the war was in Acre, when I saw all that destruction. I could no longer tolerate man's barbarity once I found nature, and I took refuge in her."
Using trees that had fallen prey to deforestation as his raw material, in the 1970s he began to make engravings and sculptures that echoed like a shout of protest in the forest...www.questia.com › ... › Americas (English Edition) this profound sense of taking refuge in nature expressed by Frans Krajcberg  is an evokative reminder particularly as we see on going debates and issues over the effects of global warming  on our planet.
frans also comments, 'Artistic thinking confirms with sorrow that contemporary society is a commercial machine' frans krajcberg Brazils Eco Sculptor by leon kaplin www.artfocusonline 4/9/07...
Carr in 'The Shallows; What the Internet is doing to our Brains' (2010) comments that time in nature is important as it gives our brains time away from continual multi stimulus and allows it to relax and refresh enabling us to function more effectively cerebrally and intellectually.
Anne frank mentions nature in her diary...by summing up nature's benefit ' the best remedy for those afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere quiet alone with the heavens and nature.'
Image Frans Krajcberg work


Add caption





 http://www.pointdujour-international.com/catalogueFiche.php?idFiche=30464


 go to link on Frans work ....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UoMre6vJDU



 http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rainermari676230.html#KOs1hsroDh2XvyGg.99

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/goranperss178599.html#t0VuFWgbdMwfv4Ix.99
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_newyears.html#MUiEI3xMgHyhAjZ7.99


Started to read Naomi Klein's latest book 'This Changes Everything; Capitalism VS  The Climate'...
an apt quote she uses by Victor Hugo over a 180 years ago still reasonates today.... "How sad to think that nature speaks and mankind doesn't listen."

CHRISTMASTIME HAIKU

HAPPY CHRISTMAS HAIKU....


                                          EASTERN SUN RISING
                                        
                                        BIRD SONG WAKENS SLUMBERING EARTH

                                         RED BERRIES ON TWIGS
                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                  Yf.

Berry Morning;  Photo yvonne  2011

              

Abstract and Figurative images

An Artists Alternative Viewpoint

http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/feminist/Barbara-Kruger.html

Received link below; an interesting analysis about consumerism from 1955 which still applies today... probably even more so as societies and culture are ever increasingly entrenched or even entranced...dazzled by adverts from tv media, magazines, billboards, shops, etc... reminds me of Artist Barbara Kruger whose work attempts to disrupt this contemporary discourse, allowing the viewer to question the dominant one dimensional media push for a perpetual consumption orientated society which only leaves the individual with the malaise of wanting more of that which can never really or completely satisfy or fullfill our human needs.
Over balance of material consumption seems to numb and rob the individual of the dynamic potential as human beings; which is to be creative from within, to explore,express to communicate and interact with others in a deeper more dynamic fulfilling way.
Have we possibly lost the art of what being human is? are we dehumanised by the trance and effects of consumer materialism?
However as mentioned earlier Barbara Kruger's work enables us to consider an alternative; through challenging our viewpoint.  Images photomontage, I Shop therefore I Am and Remote Control by Barbara Kruger.




http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/feminist/Barbara-Kruger.html



https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=barbara+kruger&biw=1138&bih=517&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=9xZtVNjALIPSaN2lgIAJ&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#tbm=isch&q=barbara+kruger+remote+control&imgdii=_

http://themindunleashed.org/2014/07/consume-consume-consu
me-false-promise-happiness.htmlhttp://themindunleashed.org/2014/07/consume-consume-consume-false-promise-happiness.html



http://themindunleashed.org/2014/07/consume-consume-consume-false-promise-happiness.html

Continuation in exploring and developing pastel techniques in portraiture

Over the last few weeks I have continued to develop skills in drawing portraits with a model.
Our tutor is inspirational and encourages to push our skills; greatly focusing on detail.
We have a new model every three weeks I have been keeping a more in depth photo diary... the recent  model is particularly interesting...her vibrant dotty top added an extra challenge and is visually stimulating.
Liz is enabling me to develop an awareness toward deepening my observational skills concerning proportion, colour, light, and shadow... the images are a work in progress.