Friday, June 20, 2008

driftwood from the magic beach



i lived in brighton for a while and i would cycle to the beach at dawn ... to swim if the weather permitted ... and to collect small pieces of driftwood that had some texture and/or animation

walking alone beside the waves in all weathers, and having some trivial purpose, was extremely therapeutic ... the sea has many rhythms and the mind slows down imperceptibly whilst you are near to it

i gave each piece of dry wood two or three coats of acrylic paint with a good sable brush ... watered-down liquitex is nice because it has a fine texture and when brushed on gently will flow and creep into most of the cracks and crevices ... i found i could mix and keep a colour for a long time in an airtight 35mm film canister

you have to be patient and must allow each coat to harden and set

when the colours seemed right, i would give them an extra coat of liquitex translucent gold ... the microscopic flakes of mica migrate and congregate while the paint is liquid

all you need is time and patience and good eyesight

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

the artesian well on wandsworth road


maurice lambert, sculptor of the barbaric edifice at 33 grosvenor place

born in france, lived in england, son of george, a rarther distinguished painter from australia, see first two paintings of maurice

... the question is, how did Maurice get from A to Z ?

to me, his work makes him seem like a character out of hitchcock
















































































































http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=basildon&w=13385968%40N00




















































Monday, June 16, 2008

reading challenge ... a little primer for the larger picture

a new series of reasonably accessible lectures to whet our appetites for attempting to read marx's capital


http://davidharvey.org/



... and an interesting update on commodities from today's paper, from which the AP/Monty Davis photo is borrowed



http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/16/food.biofuels