remember neda

remember neda, originally uploaded by sigh clone.

Remember Neda ...even with an offoicial ban on "public" mourning ...and even if the truth gets "officially" shredded!

Neda ...a needless murder

neda ...a needless murder, originally uploaded by sigh clone.

The murder of a young teenage girls, out watching the crowd with her father (apparently not joining in the protest) is a horrible and callous act. The anguish of a doctor trying desperately to help her. The fact that it was caught on video and posted on YouTube does means now the whole world knows. But will the world remember? Have we forgotten east timor already?

I would like other artist to capture their feeling of this event, and like picasso did for guernica leave some powerful images, and other works so the world can not forget.

We need peace not more bloodshed.

about counting votes

counting my vote, originally uploaded by sigh clone.

My view is that the depth and size of the responses to the elections in Iran, have caught politician on all side out ... well off guard ... with not the slightest idea of how to respond .. which is good. it may mean they listen to the people ... BUT I am worried that peace and truth will be the next casualties.

The movement may not last past friday prays, I worry that we will see east timor all over a gain ...my fear is the Basij & maybe security forces loyal to Ahmadinejad may run amok .. The slogan will change from "Where is my vote?" to "Who can we trust?"

From afar we need to keep public the message that people have a right to see their votes counted, we should not meddle in who the vote is for.

Support Iran Protests! #Iranelection

Support Iran Protests! #Iranelection
Originally uploaded by harrystaab

There are now about 900 entries on flickr, but many duplicates, related to protest and demonstration in support of free elections in Iran

Congratulations to the many, mainly young folk, who are posting so the world can see.

Truth is the first casuality

Things may be already getting very nasty in Iran, these are just kids, and it is worth noting that a lot of mis-information may be already circulating, even on twitter and blogs.



Those still with net access will be working hard to get the truth out.

SO 2) don't dilute the conversations
2) those tweeting could be putting themselves in grave danger
2a) don't post ISP address or twitter names etc
2b) Become an honorary Iranian, this will overwhelm any clandestine attempt to locate tweeters by the Iranian "security" force (& the feared Basij malitia)
3) follow the hasthags like #iranelections or search for "where is my vote"
4) try to source your news from reliable source (eg SBS Australia's assessment of the situation)

return to the two minute torso

I have returned to this simple painting exercise to try and get my washes flowing more freely (... i eneed up letting them get way too wet) and my tonal balance back (I want rich glowing skin tones again) ... it just practice but practice makes perfect doesn't it?

"Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.” -- Picasso.

its all in there

I have long admired Helmut Newton's delicious black and white photos of sensual and erotic women, what i didn't realize was he was living and moving in the same haunts of Melbourne, he as a refuge, as I have the privilege to inhabit now. better still i have just discovered he was also a follower of the new objectivity, a movement that developed in Germany before world war II out of and in opposition to expressionism. Here was Helmut working away as a fashion photographer developing his skill and style at the same time the angry penguins where ramming expressionism justaposed with surrealism down the establishments through. Who said art was boring?

The point of my photography has always been to challenge myself, to go a little further than my Germanic discipline and Teutonic nature would traditionally permit me to.

Public art is not immune

Seems it not just in cyberland that art is a little misunderstood, covered in grafiti spray, stolen and melted down (This allegedly happened to a Henry Moore sculpture) focus of public scorn or removed on health and safety grounds

The Art Fund, in London, recently hosted a debate entitled "Can The Public Be Trusted to Choose Public Art?"

Will true art become another causality of the cliches of fear an uncertainty that some call the global financial crisis? I hope not. I hope that artist make art despite what others tell them to do. But more importantly I hope that they can sell their art and not have it stolen, defaced, or degraded my indiscriminate exploitation.

L'art pour l'art

"L'art pour l'art" translates roughly into art for art sake (same name as the 10cc song) is the true bohemian anthem, art is valuable and worthwhile because it is art, political correctness, moral correctness, functional and value for money are just sentimental concepts that can obscure the truth in art. Why then are the interwebz so filled with crosslinkings, embeddings, mash-ups and RT (retweets) ...is this copycatting just straight theft disguised as homage ... do people have so little to occupy their minds that they have run out of originality after just 400ish characters (approximately three tweets)... surely with our ability to share over the net we should see creativity blossoming ... but has originality and beauty been stuck back with things hand drawn ... I for one hope not ....i just don't know how to tackle the great blandness and formalized sameness (me-too-ism) spreading through the social media sites ... worse is the blatant copying, or plagiarism ... or as I am coming to believe just simple theft!

garden is a metaphor

I have been told that the garden is a metaphor for life ... many times ... I never understsood what was the point ... but this humble leaf stopped me in my tracks ... made me rethink ... reminded me I could so easily whither (and die) ... damn that is a metaphor I don't want to know about ... roll on spring and the new growth ... the rejuvination

macabre message?

I'm still under the weather and struggling to get the art stuff happening today was a lovely day ...i wanted to draw beautiful and exotic fruit and flowers ... ok I tried but the looked like crap ... then the fullness of the apples turned into sculls .. the macabre stuff looked way more beautiful ...i trust I am no turning into an Edgar Alan Poe

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

ear ear

The theory that Gaugain was the one that actually cutoff Van Gogh's Ear is quite believable. Gaugain was skilled at fencing and the pair were quarreling a lot and had basically fallen out at the time of the incident. However there does seem a lot of sensationalism, for example, the speculation that they were fighting over a prostitute, would they really make a secret pact to keep the incident quiet, how secret can you keep it when you give your ear away? And wrapped up like a gift? How many destitute artists carried swords at night in 1888? the other medical issues poor Vincent suffered. All a bit too conspiracy theory-ish for me in the end.

"Near the brothel, about 300 metres from the Yellow House, there was a final encounter between them: Vincent might have attacked him, Gauguin wanted to defend himself and to get rid of this 'madman'. He drew his weapon, made some movement in the direction of Vincent and by that cut off his left ear." Kaufmann said it was not clear if it was an accident or an aimed hit.

Painting @ElliGirl

Watercolour on paper

Prevention is better than cure

palomita 7, originally uploaded by eduardo.delabarra.

back in the light

sorry if i have disappointed any regular readers with my extended absence I have been in a dark and unpleasant place, full of sick people, a place you are supposed to mend but it is souless and impersonal, and with the health scares related to H1N1 (notice I didn't use the pig word) many people may also regret being taken to such a place ... so my advice don't panic, eat and sleep well, and stay in the light.


Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint. ~Mark Twain

gestures sketches

gestures sketches, originally uploaded by sigh clone.

having been "out of action" for a what seems likes mopnths but may have jut been a week, I find myself muddling around and just pushing paint ... so I wanted to get some spontaneity back ... so i've changed to a new sable dagger brush and a simple wash or two ... but i am focusing on gesture ... gesture of my brush strokes

life following art

knowing a little bit about anatomy, doesn't help you stay healthy, but some knowledge always helps ... just a little understanding can ease pain, visualize things and give you a longer term view ... to be able to fix something you need to know how it works ... by these mechanics are soulless, often cruel and painful ... the soul need beauty and light

“Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.” George Bernard Shaw

stop by and have a coffee

As well helping out as a real barista, i've been playing with a new web 2.0 toy thingo .. called digsby, not sure how to describe it but is sits on my computer and monitors my social network stuff (ok not flickr) but it has a neat little widget (its down on the right a bit) that gives me a little chat window ...so i've made it into a virtual cafe, where you can order coffee, or anything really, and have a chat (it know when i'm online and when I'm not) ... so stop by and say hello

some pencil work

soft pencil on paper

How sweet it is

I have been thinking about using honey as a paint medium ... yes it does make a really sticky transparenty mess by itself ... but then i read this, and tried adding some bricklayers oxide (used to colour mortar and cement) ... the honey takes up the oxide beautifully and it dilutes done to some a wonderfully natural colour ... the washes take a while to dry but that only makes it better to work with ...i think i am onto something wonderful here, but like so many of my discoveries the old master where onto to all this ages ago.

new palette

pastel over watercolour wash on paper
I've decided I needed to change my watercolour pallette, both the palette itself (the new one is a lot bigger) an the colours, with a cool and warm version of each of the primary colours. my aim is to get better washes under skin tones. whilst this sketch is finished with pastel the underpainting is watercolour washes in my primaries 9see the bar/test strip at the top of the sketch. indian, red, crimson and ultra marine all very dilute ... then some cad yellow in with the indian red as a slightly heavbier glaze

the radiant rose

pastel over watercolour wash on paper

loving the feel of pastels

i showed a couple of artist mates the open shirt ... and we quickly got in a deep technical discussion about using pure pigments over a wash ground ...and the importance of the pastel pigments, and their bindings ...ok i wont bore you ...what i discovered is already well known ... pure pigment pastels, and being australian, i use naturally art spectrum range, over a coloured ground is essentially mixing the colour on the art work itself .. it adds to the vibrancy ...mixing the same colours in paint on a palette first tends to muddy the colour, the more contributing colours in the mix, the more media used the duller the resulting colour. Using thin washes and glazes of one colour over another is another way to achieve this but no where near as rich as the pure pigment results



ok i'm not claiming to be einstien or anything ... its just nice to be able to understand why and how the colour works ... so here are a couple of videos I found on You Tube to verify that what I stumble onto is legit art, and already know by the real artists ...maybe its a my right of passage, or something similar, into secret artist business ... as Gauguin once said with the research comes the ecstacy and satisfaction of art

the open shirt

exploring the power of colour as tone, ...colour as passion and arousal ...the open shirt with its glimpse of the desirable must become art for arts sake

adoring the colours

Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I see before me, I make more arbitary use of colour to express myself more forcefully ... To express the love of two lovers by the marriage of two complementary colours ... To express the thought of a brow by the radiance of a light tone against a dark background. To express hope by some star. Someone's passion by the radiance of the setting sun.

thus explainded Vincent Van Gogh

...could not have expressed it better myself ... but maybe what i enjoyed most was getting my hands dirty again

refinding the lines

things are still somewhat blurry and strong back lighting is both a painful to look at and so beautiful to see.

blogging again

after what seemed an eternity in the darkness I am back on the road to recovery, just impatient to actually do stuff and live my life ... eat drink (sketch) and be merry .. that kind of stuff ...dark glasses, darkened rooms and just pens and scrap paper aren't really living ...buggar it time for a decent coffee ...and buy some art materials

from sketch to paint

same model & pose as my previous 3 minute torso

red rose

watercolour on paper

the painting class

bedroom eyes

watercolour on paper

(3 minute) Torso

I'm back out in the open air and wanting to paint ... so i thought I'd start off with a two minute torso exercise... well it took more like three ... but such is life

Fauv'ing it up

my first foray in paint .. well paints and crayons, was turning very boring ... then cincy's webcam went kind of solarized and changed to aqua-bluish tones ... it gave me an idea to paint her as two side ... one hot ...one cool ...ok ...and then the colour got away from me ...a fauve moment!

bodyscape

retracing a few steps

my vision is returning in jumps and start ... maybe fogs and mists dispersing is a better description, but my right eye is still very prone to infection and clags up frequently ...this is an excellent excuse not to go shopping (yet again) ... so yesterday .... or was it the day before? ...I found myself trying my arm at sketching from the web once more ... was fun, even though the sketch was hazy ... I felt I was back on the way to being creative again

my big day out

i have finally done it ... gone out by myself ...even used public transport and no one seemed to notice my bleariness ... it was such a big thing ... means i am on the mend

I don't mean to be ungrateful, i have been looked after very well ... i;m just yearning for bloke stuff ... not shopping malls and endless conversations about relationships ... just a beer and a yarn about sailing or sport ...and meals with meat!

well i made it got to my destimation and home again :) life can be a series of small steps.

watching art grow

if you are into trhe performance of painting ... there are a few good "time lapse" videos of works in progress ... and Paul Cumes does a few good ones (like this). Just not sure why he needs the glove?

Second sight

No doubt you have noticed I haven't been uploading a lot and I'm very quiet on flickr ... you see the problems is I have gone,at least officially, blind... and yes it is totally horrible ... i hate it ...but i can see ... dark and light in a very blurry and disconcerting way ...if i look long enough and squint I can sometimes make out people versus objects ... so I'm not really blind I just can not see what I'm expected too ...my world is confusing to say the least ...AND now I hate the bright lights of the medical specialist and the "how many fingers am I holding up?" question ...I just see a blur with fingers appearing and disappearing at will, sometimes it doesn't even resemble a hand in front of my face ... I don't know how many so just stop asking thank you ... just fix what ever you can!! please and do it soon!!

Well it s only 70 days since the real problems started and what a 70days. I last paid $1.69 per litre for petrol (before I had to stop driving). Whilst fanny and freddy had essentially collapsed and been picked up, the banks were still sitting mum and no one I knew was traking about a global financial crisis, heck interest rates where still high. Ok so a lot has changes but why does everyoine have such a gloomy, sullen disposition. It is nearly christmas, the coffe is still good and the shops are open and people are buying christmass presents. Just remember, it is now the time for some

"Peace on earth and good will towards men"

why is the blindman sketching?

Today I noticed a little girl watching me ... well I felt it first ... but she was watching me intently ... and eventually she asked her grandmum "why is the blindman sketching?"



The answer is because i can ... and secondly i'm still a long way from being trely blind ... my vision impairment might make me "blind" from driving a car perspective but I can discern a few things in the blurred out glare I take for site now ... what more I don't think seeing and drawing are all that closely related ... maybe more on that later when I learn to type better in this mist and/or can understand when the narrator is stumbling on pronounciation or its really a typo! c'est la vie

(scanning and loading this sketch has taken forever ... still it was a tiny victory for independance)

Yummy Mummies its time to stand up

With the rapid loss of vision I have been confined to being a pedestrian and there is a limited place I'm allowed out on my own (very long story there that will remain untold)... anyway I am allowed to meander around the shops and coffee houses of maling road ... it an upmarket shopping strip beside canterbury stations ... deep in the inner east of melbourne ... not the haunt of old blokes, or even bohemians though.... is an expensive shopfest for yummy mummies ...these poor stressed out folk have the expensive clothes the silver four wheel drive and lots more tpo boot but they are terrorized by their screaming off spring ...its a conspiracy ...all the coffee shops have deep glass counters with the sweetest pinkest, sugar coated glittery, creamy with hundreds and tousnads-ist delight just at toddler level ... as soon as the spoilt brats eye lock on the content its tanturm time, scream, stamping of feet and a genuine looking set of tears for effect ..a flusteredf mum then grabs for her purse and orders the sweatly coloured goo "oh! and a baby'chino with that".... its all a bit distressing ...but I have some sound advice...

Yummy mummies learn to say NO!

getting there ...one ping at a time

this ease of access stuff in vista is starting to make sense ... but i'm almost ready to turn the narrator off, especially microsoft anne she just rambles on and on ...some highlights though are trying to listen with the LH michelle syntehic voice trying to read twitter ... it side splittingly funny

the pity is most other parts of the web are just lots of stuttering and noise ... ok google itself and google mail are clean enough ...trouble is i am rapidly loosing the motivation to blog, tweet and post my art ...you see the real world is still full of delights, food, strong liquor, music, dancing and perfume ...and i don't have to listen to a scatter brain voice to be able to join in ...life is for living

:) haha anne speaks emote