Who am I?
I have always
practiced art in some form since I can remember. My mother was keen, and
throughout her life provided me with art material. This came as gifts of watercolour
paper, paints, inks, and books on the subject. Whilst in the last few decades
of my working life I attended a variety of art teachers’ studios once a week in
an evening after work. Over years of such practice I built up a collection of
artworks that in my view developed in quality. At the end of 2019 I was retired
from work because of my age – 66 years old! Out to pasture! Well except for my
numerous other interests, geology and palaeontology, aviation history and the
construction of plastic model aircraft, photography, and of course art!
Why a Blog?
An interesting
question, that reaches deep into ones motivation and internal drivers. It’s the
thing to do perhaps! It offers fame perhaps! Or maybe more realistically it’s a
marketing tool on the internet to promote my work.
I already publish material
as it reaches completion on my personal ‘Facebook’ page for friends to comment
on, and I hope to enjoy and be entertained. I also publish completed works on
my account at Deviant Art, a web site for artists. See https://www.deviantart.com/ianrevealed/gallery
I also post ideas and
stages of work on an interactive forum in Wet Canvas. There I receive technical
advice on aviation and art, as well as that important encouragement from other
like minded artists.
What sort of art do I do?
My art is
representational. I have read or skimmed a considerable number of books on art
history and genres of art. Out of that has come a realization that I like to
represent the physical world in a plainly understandable way. My style is a
loose form of realism or impressionism, at least with my oil paintings. I also
like to draw and work in watercolour.
Some examples of recent work
Below are an example
of a recent oil painting, a recent watercolour, and a recent pencil drawing.
Each comes with its own explanation and discussion.
Pencil drawing of a museum aircraft
The drawing below is
on A4 paper, rendered using ‘Staedtler Mars Lumograph’ pencils. It is one of a
series of exercises where I translate an image from a photographic print onto
paper, reducing it from full colour to monochrome.
The drawing was an interesting
exercise; its primary aim was to learn to translate images from one scale to
anther using a grid, and also to translate a colour image into a pure tone
image. With this particular subject I also found that one has to pay particular
attention to the negative shapes in the form and also understand the 3D shapes
of the form being represented. It was quite demanding from the point of view of
concentration.
The drawing is one of
a series intended to create a habit of doing a ‘bit of art’ each day. I have
found with retirement, life is easy to let pass by whilst one muses and dabbles
in various interesting things. The problem is at the end of a year one is left
with a feeling of agitation at not achieving anything!
Watercolour of an MG TD at Cape Town
Castle
This was produced as
part of my learning to do art each day activity. I had a photograph of the MG
from a time when my wife was a member of the relevant club and went on outings
to drive these cars. I am not sure who this one belongs to. The best bit of the
painting process for me, was towards the end when I painted the bright-work,
front lights and grille.
The format is 21 X 30
centimetre 200gsm mixed media ‘Amedeo’ paper by Pro-Art. The paints were
W&N Cotman colours.
Oil painting of an Anhinga ‘Darter’ (Anhinga rufa)
Living in Africa
provides opportunities to approach wildlife with relative ease. Several years
ago whilst paddling a canoe down a river in the South of the Continent we came
upon an Anhinga drying its wings. It was on a branch at water level and we
approached to about four feet without any apparent alarm to the bird. The close
quarters photographs were used to create this painting.
Anhinga drying its wings - Oil on canvas board
The painting took
several months starting with drawings, a paper model, and then a rough painting
prior to the final work presented here. The painting is on W&N 20 X 16 inch
artists canvas board. The paint is W&N Artisan water mixable oils.
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