Evening Sky, Irish Sea

Here's the latest off the easel.

Evening Sky, Irish Sea (24 x 26, Oil on linen)

It's part of my next consignment of work to London for next year, which I'm working hard at!

Damien Hirst's 'Verity'

It's 66 foot tall.

It weighs 25 tons.

It's made of bronze.

It's a naked pregnant woman waving a sword with half her skin stripped away.

Yes, there's nothing that says 'Welcome to Ilfracombe' better than a 66 foot tall partially-flayed sword-waving pregnant woman with her baby hanging out of her.

Getty Images/Toby Melville

Getty Images

Meet Verity, Damien Hirst's present to the sleepy seaside town of Ilfracombe in Devon, where she'll wave her sword on the harbour-front for the next 20 years.

The art history term for this sort of thing is an 'ecorche' - a flayed body showing the muscles underneath.  It's nothing new - here's one life sized, carved in marble in the 16th century....

Écorché, by Ligier Richier (1500 - 1567)

Hirst's is based on the pose of Degas' bronze 'Little Dancer Aged Fourteen Years' (1881), which was also life size.  Not 66 foot tall.

Hirst lives in Combe Martin nearby and owns properties and a restaurant in Ilfracombe, so Verity is a big thank you to the good people of the town.  

And let's face it, what could be more appropriate?  I'm sure this will be on a jolly seaside postcard very soon, just as soon as a seagull lands on her head.

Matt Cardy/Getty Images

And guess what overlooks the harbour with the best view of the statue that's been loaned to Ilfracombe for 20 years, creating lots of publicity and bringing in lots of tourists? 

It's The Quay Restaurant (mixed reviews on Tripadvisor).  Which is owned by Damien Hirst.  And is full of Hirst art.  And now has sneakily extended its exhibition/promotion space to take in the harbour as well.  

See what he did there?

Ah, Damien.  I salute you.

Christmas Shows Already...

I've just consigned the first work for Christmas shows this week.  

Christmas arrangements come early in the art world, with all the logistics of getting the paintings to the galleries, and the photography for the invites and catalogues which can take up to six weeks.

Here's a couple of tasters....

This is going to be at the Lime Tree Gallery in Bristol.

Farm and Fields, Fife (Oil, 10 x 10)

This is going to be at the Lime Tree Gallery at their Long Melford, Suffolk gallery.

Campfire on the Beach, Morar (Oil, 10 x 10)

And this one is off as part of the Christmas consignment going to Thompson's Gallery in Aldeburgh, also in Suffolk.

Distant Yachts and Montbretia, Causeway Coast (Oil on linen, 20 x 20)

Art Studio Webcams

Apparently you can get a live webcam of Damien Hirst's studio, where you can see all the exciting multi-million pound creativity as it happens.   Gripping!

Have a look here....

DAMIEN HIRST'S STUDIO WEBCAM

Hmm...not much happening, is there?  In fact, you won't see Hirst himself doing anything arty - he's got assistants for that.

So I had a look for some others.  Here's Antonino Cammarata, painting away at landscape in Sicily...

ANTONINO CAMMARATA'S LIVE STUDIO CAM

Antonino - where are you?

Here's David Oleski in Boston.

DAVID OLESKI LIVE WEBCAM

Er, he's not here either...

Now, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei also set up a webcam.  He did the sunflowers seeds at the Tate as part of the Unilever series - you may even have the odd sunflower seed yourself.  In fact, they're currently selling on Ebay at £28 each.

Ai Weiwei with his Sunflower Seeds at Tate Modern . Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA

Weiwei launched several webcams broadcasting from his studio back in April on a website called “Weiwei Cam”. The webcams allowed you to see Ai working, giving you a view of his office, desk, courtyard, and even his bedroom.

This was meant to highlight the issue of surveillance in China. Ai is currently under constant surveillance by the Chinese government due to his open criticism of them.  

Unfortunately, the authorities stepped in and shut down the webcams.  So you can't see him either...

Painting a Painting

I thought you might like to see a little of the nitty-gritty of actually painting a painting, so I have taken a series of photos of the painting that I did yesterday.

Here's the original photograph that I was working from, of the Causeway Coast in Northern Ireland.

Here's the canvas.  It's primed Belgian linen, 32" x 48", and has had a yellow ground put on it.  I've drawn in the rough shapes of the composition in thin brown paint.

Putting in the sky, using a large metal palette knife and small watercolour brush....

Using the palette knife to apply the large marks of paint for the sea.

 

Using turps and a small watercolour brush to put detail in between the large gestural marks.

 

 

Marking in the dark areas of the foreground.

 

Using the end of an old paintbrush as a scribe to draw into the paint surface, revealing the coloured underpaint.

 

Putting in the flowers.  This is the tricky bit, and involves industrial quantities of paint and quick movements to keep the colours clean.

 

Inscribing into the paint.

Finished painting!

Favourite Paintings - Massimo Stanzione's 'Judith with the Head of Holofernes'

Whenever I'm lucky enough to be in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, I'm always struck by this painting.

 

Massimo Stanzione, Judith with the Head of Holofernes (Oil on canvas, 1640)

It's a big painting that you have to look up at, and it's set against the dark red background of the museum wall.

It's by Neopolitan painter Massimo Stanzione - not exactly a household name - and the subject is the story from the Apocrypha of Jewish heroine Judith beheading Holofernes.  As it explains in the card beside the painting

I suppose I have a thing about paintings of my namesake.  It's a subject explored by a number of painters throughout art history, from the another-day-in-the-office version by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1530

to Gustav Klimt's opulent Secessionist sensuality in 1901

Stanzione was a 17th century  Italian painter,  often called a 'Caravaggisti' (painting in the dramatic chiaroscuro (literally meaning 'light dark') style of Caravaggio).  

In fact. Caravaggio painted his own version of Judith half a century earlier.

Caravaggio, Judith Beheading Holofernes (Oil, 1598)

Whilst Stanzione's painting obviously is influenced by the dramatic lighting effects of Caravaggio, Caravaggio's style was somewhat more visceral and earthy.  In his depiction, the deed is actually taking place, and we are spared none of the detail of the blood, the pain, the effort and the pragmatic stoicism.  

Stanzione is more classical and lyrical.  His version of Judith shows the calm after the storm.  Judith steps forward in Apollo Belvedere pose (the classical statue often referenced by artists).

The head of Holofernes lies with an expression almost of sleep.  A divine light catches Judith's face, confirming the righteousness of her deed.

I suppose what I like about this picture, and what's so eye-catching, are the colours and the big, beautiful  rhythms of the composition.  It jumps off the wall at you and captivates you.

Judith's dress is composed of big triangles of red, blue and yellow ochre, and the directions and movement of this drapery sweeps your eye around the painting.  The line of her right leg is on the golden section, and this line is carried up to the top of the painting through the red line of her bodice, and then is carried further up by the feather in her headdress, before it just twitches round to the right, and carries the eye down to the curve of the line of the edge of cloth in which the head is being held.  

It's a lovely cartwheel composition with a really dynamic sense of movement.  Caravaggio did the same thing in his composition of the Martyrdom of St Peter.

 Crucifixion of St. Peter (1600-01) by Caravaggio in the Cerasi Chapel, S Maria del Popolo, Rome

Now, Stanzione, whilst not a particularly well-known artist, was a very interesting one.  Born in Naples in 1586, Massimo decided to become an artist at 18.  He studied in Rome, influenced by Caravaggio, and then moved back to Naples in 1630 with feminist pin-up girl Artemisia Gentileschi.  Here she is.

Artemisia Gentileschi, Self Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (Oil, 1630)

She is the artist that Germaine Greer called 'the magnificent exception' - the woman who made it as a respected artist in a world and a profession that was totally the domain of men.  

Her father was the Caravaggisti artist Orazio Gentileschi, and he hired a painter called Agostino Tassi to tutor his daughter in 1611.  Tassi raped Artemisia, and a trial followed when her father pressed charges, during which Artemisia was tortured using thumbscrews.  Tassi was given a year in prison but never served the sentence.  

No wonder, then, that over 90% of Artemisia's art contains impassioned depictions of heroines and strong female protagonists, including Judith, and no wonder that the head of Holofernes is being hacked off with such blood-splattering vigour.

Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Beheading Holofernes (Oil, 1614)

However, Stanzione must have greatly respected Artemisia's reputation as an artist, for apparently their relationship when they moved to Naples in 1630 was that of an informal apprenticeship, with each artist influencing the other.  Stanzione's work was enriched with greater light effects, and Artemisia's became more classical, less angry.  They even collaborated together on The Birth of St John the Baptist.

Both Artemisia Gentileschi and Massimo Stanzione died of plague in 1656, which swept through Naples in that year and virtually wiped out an entire generation of Neapolitan artists. 

Paintings on my easel... Distant Yacht, Yellow Flowers, Causeway Coast

Last one...

Distant Yacht, Yellow Flowers, Causeway Coast (Oil, 10 x 10)

Again, this is just a little one, with one of the yachts that were sailing past the headland at Rinagree on the Causeway Coast near Portrush.  

Hope you liked seeing some of the work in the studio.