Yaay. I got my paws on the pooter box again! My trained monkeys are lolling around complaining that they’re feeling rough. They look rough. All the time. They’re not at all sleek and pretty like a cat. They came back very late last night. They went out to something called a gig, where lots of hairless apes jumped around shouting at a small group of other apes they said are called The Hayseed Dixies. How stupid. They should have been here with me. I am neglected!
So the hairless apes are out gallivanting tonight, going to see a band. That’s a bunch of bald monkeys who bang stuff and make a lit of noise. And the other furless simians bounce around for hours. Then they come home. How ridiculous. I shall stay on my cushion on the cushion on the cushion on the bed in the quiet. Like the sensible sentient being I am.
Deadline: September 30th 2018 – The Evening Standard Art Prize. No entry fee. UK residents. Digital entry.
Competitions for creatives can be controversial. Some have extortionate entry fees, some have the odds stacked against those who are not members of a particular arts organisation. But I’m happy to give the heads up to competitions that have a decent prize and don’t charge artists to enter.
The Evening Standard (it’s a British newspaper for my chums outside the UK) has teamed up with Hiscox on this and there’s a prize of £10,000 in cash, a lifetime National Arts Pass and one year’s Hiscox Fine Art Insurance for original artwork – click here to see the terms and conditions.
Greetings Hairless Apes. Sparta Puss here. My trained monkeys have left the pooter box unattended so I thought I’d give you the benefit of my wisdom. Even though I know it won’t be of much use, you’re just a bunch of simians, after all.
The idiot she-monkey, the one who does the scribbling, has been doing drawings of other monkeys, but at an odd position, up their noses. That’s how I see you lot most of the time, so it’s not odd to me. So she just did this one of me. I must say, I look much better from this angle than you bald monkeys. Here are the other ones she’s done so far, the ginger one’s making a decent attempt at growing fur….
Drawn with a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 using a free Markers app.
Yesterday I posted about the upcoming immersive art event in Swansea in September – Nawr yr Arwr / Now the Hero. I will be exhibiting some of the work I have been doing over the past decade with a young , now not so young, soldier who is also a life model. I’ve been looking through it all and it’s a big body of work. The starting point is life drawings, which I do most weeks at Swansea Print Workshop.
From the hundreds of drawings I have in sketchbooks and portfolios, I select some for development, usually into original prints. This one started as a pastel sketch on a canvas sheet and I developed it into a full-colour monotype (see my Techie section for how to do it). Very early on, I started to investigate the idea of The Warrior and this is reflected in the work I’ve done. This was done near the start of our working relationship and it’s called ,”The Warrior Turns To Face The Darkness“.
My monotype based on an original life drawing of my model, a young Welsh soldier
Swansea, September 21st to 29th 2018.
I’ve been involved in the expansive art project Nawr Yr Arwr / Now The Hero for some time and it’s all coming to a head in Swansea at the end of September. It’s part of a whole load of specially commissioned art projects from “14-18 NOW WW1 Centenary Art Commissions“, a nationwide programme of innovative and thought-provoking art events that commemorate – not celebrate- World War One.
Some of the highlights for me have been Cummins and Piper’s amazing gigantic installation of “Weeping Poppies” -I saw it at the Tower of London- and Jeremy Deller’s “We’re Here Because We’re Here“, commemorating those who died in the Battle of the Somme. I stopped in my tracks in the centre of Swansea as a group of VERY young men in WW1 uniform walked silently by. I cried. My grandfather was just 14 years old when he enlisted. He lied about his age.
Image credit: ‘we’re here because we’re here’ conceived and created by Jeremy Deller in collaboration with Rufus Norris, photo by Eoin Carey
I have been working with a life model, a young soldier, for 10 years and our working relationship – and the work I have produced – are a part of Nawr Yr Arwr / Now The Hero. You can see a short film of us below. As well as the film, many of the drawings and original prints I have made over the last decade will be exhibited at Swansea Print Workshop and Volcano – I’ll write a bit more about this over the next couple of weeks.
“Nawr Yr Awr \ Now The Hero is an immersive theatrical experience that will take the audience on an extraordinary journey through three intertwining narratives of war; from Celtic history, the First World War, and today’s conflicts. Drawing on an epic poem, some rejected paintings, and an intimate portrait of a Swansea soldier serving today, Marc Rees’ bold production brings the stories of war to life, but counterpoints the tragic telling with hope.”
Our facial expressions are generally made up of continuous movements and a photograph captures just one fleeting moment amongst many. So when you base a drawing on a photograph, the image might look a bit odd, or not like the person normally looks. I’m pushing this by taking photos of people with their heads thrown back, up their noses, but this one has a great big laugh to draw as well.
I d took the digital photo on my phone and then I drew from it, using a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 using a free Markers app. I laid down a beige ground and worked on top. I mislaid the stylus half way through and had to continue with my fingers, which made it quite spotty.
Thirty one years ago I was working on a local environmental programme, The Rosehill Quarry Project, a community-led scheme to clear and renovate an old quarry near the city centre and turn it into a nature reserve and leisure area for local people. One of the things we did was to work with Welsh prehistorian, Dewi Bowen, to cut a Cretan labyrinth into the turf and line it with cockle shells, a local resource from the Gower Peninsula cockle industry. Over the years, people have gathered to maintain the labyrinth and there was a work group just a week or so ago.
The labyrinth after last week’s renovation. Photograph by Martin Slucutt.
I did the drawing above onto newspaper with pastels, charcoal and chalk, from the first viewing point on the path up to Pantycelyn Road.
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