Out of Africa

Yesterday I went to the National Gallery to study the paintings. I was taken by these three men from a Velazquez painting. And there they were outside, by the South African Embassy, another time and place but maybe the same men. These ones weren't silent. Their protest centred on the killings of 61 miners from a London listed mining company by South African police.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/aug/21/south-africa-warns-lonmin-strike

Barbican

Scorching yesterday.

New altarpieces

We have at last moved out of Kingston and into London. The last picture is a painting of a glass dump. It's a big green hunk of glass, bulbous and full of flowers. My grandparents have them on the floor. 

Democracy

 

 Drawings of Michael Frayn's Democracy at the Old Vic.

Before

 

Here are a couple of drawings from the foyer of the Old Vic Theatre. We went to see Democracy by Michael Frayn there, absolutely fantastic. £12 front row tickets for under 26s! I have been working on getting more sense of depth in my drawings.

It has been a busy time since the grad show. I've been doing some teaching with Elly introducing sixth formers to visual communication. And I've been back at Hand and Eye letterpress, for a change not observing, but making some work playing with words on the proofing press. I have also been working in a dream team of friends and fellow Kingston grads, pitching for a most exciting project! A thousand plans and not enough days.

City of London

The tower is a man in pinstripe suit and bowler hat. An Irish man in hi-vis says that this view will be gone soon, and I feel guilty about the cupola I smudged, short changing the window panes, cutting corners and cornices. 

A building wrapped in a white shroud clinging to its ribs then billowing out, bristling with scaffold poles and fabric folds. 

Come round the corner and look straight into the belly of the beast. The child that will eclipse its stony mother stands stocky and still, steaming in its yellow cradle. 

Down by the dandelions I take the floor.

Little light giver

Today I went to the Science Museum. One boy said it was a good drawing but then another said 'No it's not, it's a lightbulb.' Opposite of Magritte.