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Automatic drawing and painting - to be published in 2012
20 December 2011
The sketchbook gives 66 examples of my automatic drawings and paintings, created from my journeys through the USA.
The following is text from page 1 of the book:
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I did because I could.
We should because we can.
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Each piece within this book is a meditation.
We must take our time.
Each blank page will transform into a slice of a visual spirit; this it will do when we 'pick up the pen or brush - and let go', allowing that spirit to create its mark.
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Automatic visual...Read More
Spirit Island, but not spirited away
05 April 2009
"I'd like a painting like that one," says a friend, pointing to a black ink and water-colour piece above and behind the armchair. I think I understand why he would, but my heart sinks yet another increment. The painting came to life (if life is the right word) through my hand, in 1998, but my heart was...Read More
After Géricault’s “Young Artist at his Easel”
18 February 2009
King Edward's School, Birmingham. The picture attached to this article shows the progressive stages of completion of a painting produced from June to September 1988. In essence, the painting began its life in 1981, as a quiet "shell" nervously found room 146 at the opposite end of the long top corridor, and...Read More
Creative expression in physical movement - the lessons of basketball
20 December 2008
Why basketball? I think that was chance. It could have been any number of sports or physical activities. But it was basketball that Stuart Birch brought to K.E.S. in the 1970s. By the '80s we were captured, teenagers bonded by a mission to play and win; but also to have fun along the way. The creative spark...Read More
From New Orleans, LA to Chicago, IL on AMTRAK’S “CITY OF NEW ORLEANS”
20 December 2008
Train travel is the most glorious way we've found to experience the expanse of the beauty of the U.S.A. The countryside, the towns, the states roll by. The body relaxes and the mind loses tension and stress. I'm sure my wife and I have developed an Amtrak smile. It's a smile of travelling satisfaction,...Read More
“How to kéep - is there ány any…”
20 December 2008
Does everyone have a single mentor they can attribute their life-interest to? David Stoker, you were the most complete teacher. In '86 you took a keen student on the first steps of a lifelong path to creative fulfilment. For two years you guided me with visits to galleries and museums, provided studies of...Read More
One of The New York Times’s ten best books of the year.
20 December 2008
"de Kooning : an American master / Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan"I didn't have a choice. This was an absolute must-read. Journeying across the U.S. in the summer of '08, I ploughed through the 700 or so pages of artistic revelation. Each page brought me closer to understanding the artist, Willem de...