... I know what I like

Grayson Perry's new regular column on the arts in the Times has made for some good reading in the last few weeks. In this week's article he talks about the pressure to conform to artistic "good form" when deciding what's in, and what's not.

Am I alone in thinking that there is too much “good taste” around these days? People seem to make fewer eccentric “mistakes” in dress and decor. Are things blanding out? Does everyone need to be told what’s beautiful? Can’t we tell for ourselves any more?

Article over at D*I*Y Planner

OK, the cat's out of the bag. One of the reasons this blog has been a bit quieter in the last few weeks is that I've been turning my attention a little bit more to the written word.
Dr. Moleskine, or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love My Journal is the result of this and, I think, is the first article I've written for the internet that hasn't been self-published. I'd love it if you hopped over there to have a read, and while you're at it, have a browse around the rest of DIYPlanner.com, which is fast becoming a home to a vast array of useful and entertaining material.

D*I*Y Planner: Surfing the Alpha Waves

Surfing the Alpha Waves is an excellent post over at DIYPlanner.com by site-host Douglas Johnston on harnessing your creativity. I heartily recommend it to anyone who needs to turn on that spark of creativity in whatever they do. Rather than waiting for the muse to strike you, here are some ideas on how you can go and look for it yourself.

OK, never one to shy away from posting stuff I'm not so keen on, here's the one I was going to post. One thing that I'm really not very good at is sketching people (or animals) from real life. I don't know whether it's something I should persevere with, or whether I should just stick to taking photos and sketching them, but this picture of my youngest daughter on Charmouth beach in Dorset is typical. She was examining the rocks around her, looking for fossils (unsuccessfully). To me, she looks like she's sitting sulking. It doesn't even look like her. Ah well, I'll post it anyway.

Trainer

Here's an oldish one I came across yesterday from my trusty Moleskine notebook. I was sitting down in the living room one evening, having just got back from work, and I felt like doodling something. My trainer was in the middle of the living room floor, my Moleskine was sitting next to me, and there's just something nice about drawing shoes, don't you think? This picture is better than the one I was going to post, anyway.

Slowing down the artistic process

I can't admit to being a great fan of his work, but this article by Grayson Perry in yesterday's Times is interesting reading, and a lot of what he says makes sense. His basic premise is that, because of the appetite for art by the public, the artistic process has speeded up, and that artists should think about slowing down a little, at least sometimes.

Art-world acceleration I put down to various forces. First, we are just as prone to being sucked into the idea that fast is somehow central to modernity. To be relevant is to be broadband-quick and dressed for next season. Apparently artists also need to become museum-supply companies with a high turnover of works if they want to succeed internationally.

It's an interesting article. Go and have a read.

Link

Here's another sketch drawn on the beach while on holiday. The village of Charmouth has a wonderful, fossil-filled beach, and a great view of Lyme Regis, just along the coast. Lyme Regis is probably most famous as being home to the pier in John Fowles' "French Lieutenant's Woman", and you can see that pier here. From this distance, practically every building in Lyme Regis seemed to be surrounded by trees, and I tried to mirror this in the sketch. The sky had just the lightest haze, with the vapour trails being the most dominant feature.

It's been a while since I had the chance to post anything to the blog, what with one thing and another, but I've finally got round to scanning in the sketches I did while in Dorset. The Dorset coast, famous for its fossils, consists of wildly varying coastlines that I found very difficult to recreate, but here goes anyway. Here's a picture of Lulworth Cove taken on a fairly overcast day. The cove is almost completely circular, and makes for a quiet haven for wildlife and man alike. Dozens of boats (there were far more than I sketched) spend their lives moored there, bobbing quietly up and down. A very relaxing place.