Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Ballet

We saw a wonderful production of this ballet yesterday at Bromley's Churchill Theatre. The production was by the Moscow City Ballet. It was a superbly choreographed version, extremely dramatic and beautifully danced by all the cast. The costumes were very good. The dancers were able to make full use of the Churchill's large stage. Talgat Kozhabaye was superb as Romeo and  Alevtina Lapshina, an excellent Juliet, made a wholly convincing transformation from naïve girl to young woman and shone in her solo set-pieces, particularly in the final act.

The accompanying orchestra though not superb were more than adequate. A delightful nearly three hours of entertainment.

Moscow City Ballet

Why not Gouache ?

Watercolour is the medium of choice for many artists and is invariably used by those starting to paint, but it is acknowledged that it is in fact the hardest medium to use properly. Gouache is also a waterbased medium, but to me has many advantages over pure watercolour, and I think is much easier to use. Gouache is opaque and therefore does not have the major drawback that watercolour has for me. That is one can correct mistakes by overpainting. For one who is more used to painting with oils, it also means that one does not have to work from light to dark, but can work either way. You can also use white to tone down colours, which to me is another advantage. The use of coloured grounds is also another advantage, which gives more possibilities of interesting compositions. It also seems to me that it is less fussy over the ground used, and one can paint easily on cartridge paper or even wallpaper backing paper.

"Alfriston" gouache on paper 22" x 16"

Gouache is used by most illustrators and designers and has been used by many classical painters through the ages, like Turner and Durer. It can be mixed with watercolour, and is often used to add highlights to a watercolour. One drawback used to be that it was not so colourfast as watercolour, but modern paints are fine. It also does dry slightly lighter than when wet, as do most acrylics. Unlike acrylic which once dry, cannot be activated, again, gouache acts like watercolour and so alterations can easily be made. It is also not as messy as acrylic, and so can more easily be cleaned off if you splash some on your clothes or other surfaces.

Sailing Boat 4" x 6" on card

So why not give gouache a go. I think that you will be easily impressed by its ease of use and flexibility.

Three Paintings in Gouache

This is a view across the fields to Alfriston. It is  21" x 16" on paper. Sources were some photos that I took some time ago.

Delphiniums

This was done in acrylic ink and gouache, based very roughly on some photos. It is 16" x  18" on paper.

Dulwich Woods

A very quick sketch and semi-abstract of the view from the location where we paint every Thursday morning. Again this was done in gouache and indian ink.

By the way for those who do not know, gouache is like watercolour but is opaque. You can paint with it more like painting in acrylic but with the feel of watercolour. It is used a lot by illustrators.

Two new mixed media paintings.

here are a couple of mixed media, gouache and ink, paintings that I did yesterday. They were based on  reference photos and my imagination.
Bernie Victor
Website:http://bvpainter.googlepages.com/homepage
Blogs http://berniespaintings.blogspot.com or http://bvpainter.posterous.com/

See the full gallery on Posterous

Two new mixed media paintings.

I guess these two paintings done yesterday qualify as mixed media, as they were painted with gouache and Indian ink.

Sunflowers (gouache and ink) 11" x 17"

Tulips (gouache and ink) 11" x 16"

They were both done quite quickly from reference photos and imagination, painted very loosely

A fairly new Still Life

I painted this one late last year, but missed posting it or even taking a photo of it till recently.
Bernie Victor
Website:http://bvpainter.googlepages.com/homepage
Blogs http://berniespaintings.blogspot.com or http://bvpainter.posterous.com/

The Pitman painters.

Yesterday we went to see the marvellous play The Pitmen Painters, I was going to write it up, but came across this really good review so have borrowed it for all to read.  It really is a wonderful play and well worth seeing.

JOYCE MCMILLAN on THE PITMEN PAINTERS at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, and PERICLES at the Botanic Gardens, Glasgow, for Scotsman Arts, 28.7.11
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The Pitmen Painters 4 stars ****
Pericles 4 stars ****

EVER SINCE he wrote the script for the global stage and film hit Billy Elliott, a dozen years ago, the Newcastle-born playwright Lee Hall has been recognised as one of the leading voices in 21st century English drama, and a passionate advocate for the often unheard voices of ordinary working people. He has experimented with hard-edged surrealism in plays like Cooking With Elvis, and recently hit the headlines in a fierce dispute with Northern Opera over a glancing reference to homosexuality in an opera for performance by schoolchildren.

If you want a glimpse of the straightforward, passionate heartland of Hall’s work as a writer, though, then you can do no bretter than to head for the Theatre Royal in Glasgow, which plays host this week to the only Scottish dates in the current tour of his 2007 play The Pitmen Painters, co-produced by the National Theatre in London, and Live Theatre of Newcastle. Inspired by a book by art critic William Feaver, The Pitmen Painters tells the astonishing story of the Ashington Group, a collective of more than 30 miners from Ashington in Northumberland who in the 1930’s attended a Workers’ Educational Association art appreciation class in their village hall, and soon began to paint themselves, creating a remarkable body of work that, for a while, became the toast of the British arts establishment.

For the purposes of his drama, Hall reduces the number of miners involved to five, and spins a powerful episodic drama – in short, Brecht-style scenes introduced by projected slides giving date and location – around the story of their interaction with the art world, first in the shape of their tutor, Robert Lyon, and later of the wealthy art patron Helen Sutherland. From the start, the weekly art class at Ashington becomes a fierce and often sharply comic arena for debate about the purpose and nature of art, about the relationship between the figurative and the abstract (“That’s nowt but a blob, that is…”) and about the economic circumstances that support, shape or destroy creative lives. Hall’s point is that the pitmen, despite their fierce Northumberland accents and lack of formal education, are far from stupid; and more than capable – once the outlines of debate are made to clear to them – of joining in, on their own terms.

The dramatic crux of the drama, though, lies in the tension between the most talented of the painters, Oliver Kilbourn, and the patron Helen Sutherland, who wants him to give up coal-mining and live on her patronage, in order to develop his painting. At the core of this debate, there lie some aching questions about the tension between the individual and the collective, in the development of a creative life; and about the economic base for visual art in particular, in a market always shaped by the preferences of the rich.

In the end, Hall’s play begins to look like something of a tragedy, as the strong collective experience that gave the men’s work its mighty energy also places limits on their creative development; and as they express their high hopes for the nationalisation of the mines in 1946, mocked by the later history of strife, closure and economic decline which we all know. Hall himself says that the very existence of a story like Billy Elliott – which shows a former mining community still alienated from the idea of a career in the arts, fifty years on – demonstrates the failure of those hopes.

Throughout Max Roberts’s powerful production, though, every member of the play’s eight-strong cast – led by Trevor Fox as Oliver Kilbourn – acts as if the future of the nation still depended on their argument, with an intensity mirrored in Martin Hodgson’s fierce sound design, and in the paintings themselves, projected behind the action. And in the end, we’re left with an unforgettable sense of how old industrial communities were able to create a collective life, and reaffirm the humanity and potential even of the most battered coalface worker; as we try to navigate our way through a world so much richer in material goods and in its sense of individual freedom, and yet so relatively poor in the quality of its shared cultural experience, and in its confidence that the best in life can and should be available to us all.

MAKING A MARK: Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven - Review

MAKING A MARK: Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven - Review

Happy New Year

Here's wishing my followers a Happy New Year !

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This is a painting that I am still working on, but I think it is a reasonable choice for this page.

Some Linux ramblings.

I have been using Linux as my operating system for years, having got tired of all Windows faults. Have tried various distros, but have been using Mint for some time. However as  my installation was playing up I decided to try some other distros. First was Xubuntu, which I found pretty good and easy to use, but having to download various items to get the same depth as Mint was a pain. Then I thought I'd try a KDE based distro, and after looking at various different ones and reading many reviews I tried Pardus. Easy to set-up, great looks, but such a small repository it was impossible to add programs like Picasa. So I tried PCLinuxOS.. Not as easy to set-up as Pardus, but a really good if slow repository. Tried various desktops and thought I'd got around how the Plasma screen worked, and then it just started locking -up for no apparent reason. I tried 4 reboots and each time it locked up after a few seconds, so good-bye PCLinuxOS, and here we are back in Mint 11.04.

Yet another flower painting

This one is again from my imagination. I've called it "Daffs", which is basically what it is. This one is on canvas.

Pansies

Here is a small 10" x 8" oil on board that I did from my imagination a few weeks ago.

Thelonious Monk Quartet - Monk In Denmark

Listen to some fantastic Jazz !

30 MINUTES of Jimmy Smith LIVE in '65!

SWLA Exhibition

As we were meeting some friends in town today, we thought that we would meet at the Mall Gallery and view the Society of Wild Life Artists annual exhibition.

We have not been to one of their exhibitions before and we found it a real eye opener. Though it is themed as an exhibition of wild life paintings and sculpture, the variety of styles was amazing. There was everything from the near photographic type of painting

to the very near abstract, but everything kept the wild life theme, even though this was not immediately apparent.

We were lucky enough to have been able to go on the President of the society's tour of the show, in which not only did she explain the methods and thinking behind some of the works, but also introduced us to a few of the artists featured, who were able to give very deep insights into their work.

We found it a most interesting exhibition and well up to the high standards set at the Mall Gallery. Very well worth a visit.

Vases

This one is a still life oil on canvas 18" x 16". I used a selection of vases that we have positioned in what I thought was a reasonable pose. Initially I was going to have them in front of a window, but then I tried a background influenced to some extant by Mondrian, a painter whose work I admire. I'm not sure if it works that well, bur I think it makes quite an interesting painting.

Dancing with Degas

Today we visited the new exhibition at the Royal Academy called "Degas at the Ballet" which is dedicated to Degas's paintings, sculptures and drawings of ballet dancers, as well as a look into the development of the photography of the moving figure.

We felt that far to much space was dedicated to the latter subject, and that it was added to the exhibition to flesh out what would actually have been a fairly small show.

The show was roughly in chronological order which we think is a good idea. The first room was of his earlier drawings and paintings, which included some of his best known works.

All through the exhibition it was very interesting to compare the working drawings with the finished paintings. This was particularly true of the room which concentrated on the drawings which he did as a basis for his well known statue of the young ballet dancer.

A few rooms then were more about the development of photography of the moving figure. These were very interesting, but we felt that there was to much of them and that they only had a peripheral connection with Degas painting. A whole room was dedicated to Degas own photographic efforts, which again were interesting, but we felt were only put in to flesh out the exhibition.

Finally we came to two rooms dedicated to his later paintings. The colour in these two rooms was much more powerful than that of his earlier paintings, and the pastels really stood out. It was very interesting to see his paintings of Russian dancers painted quite late in his life.

We enjoyed the exhibition very much, but felt that as I have said before to much space was given to photography. It would also have been interesting to see a few of his non-ballet paintings, and possibly even some of his contemporaries, particularly Those whom he influenced such as Mary Cassat.

Three Shapes

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Another semi-abstract painting based on some glasses and vases. It is in acrylic on a 16" x18" canvas. It is a bit of an experiment. I painted the background using a squeegee and paint straight from the tube. I then added the shapes again using paint directly from the tubes and moving it around with a selection of painting knives.

I am quite pleased with the results, and would be pleased to read your comments. It was done partly to use up my stock of acrylic paints and to use a damaged canvas which I had patched, so in fact the left hand shape is a sort of collage.

Visit my blog at http://bvpainter.googlepages.com/homepage for up to date news on what I am doing and thinking.

Jazz Royalty

Bernie Victor
Website:http://bvpainter.googlepages.com/homepage
Blogs http://berniespaintings.blogspot.com or http://bvpainter.posterous.com/

Jazz Royalty

Experiment in Blue

Last Thursday at our art group Rebecca set up a series of still lifes, with the emphasis on white subjects. The idea was to take the paintings of the Nicholson's as a basis for our compositions. Most people did conventional still lifes after the style of the older Nicholson, but I decided to try a more abstract approach, and work in a selection of blues. After doing a fairly conventional but loose composition I distressed it and used a palette knife to spread the paint around, resulting in this painting. It is 11" x 9" acrylic on canvas.

Bernie Victor
Website:http://bvpainter.googlepages.com/homepage
Blogs http://berniespaintings.blogspot.com or http://bvpainter.posterous.com/

Experiment in Blue

Last Thursday at our art group Rebecca set up a series of still lifes, with the emphasis on white subjects. The idea was to take the paintings of the Nicholson's as a basis for our compositions. Most people did conventional still lifes after the style of the older Nicholson, but I decided to try a more abstract approach, and work in a selection of blues. After doing a fairly conventional but loose composition I distressed it and used a palette knife to spread the paint around, resulting in this painting. It is 11" x 9" acrylic on canvas.

Croatia 2011

Here are some small watercolours that I did whilst on holiday recently in Croatia. We stayed at the excellent Hotel Albatros, just outside the beautiful village of Cavtat, 18km from Dubrovnik.

We had an excellent holiday that was only marred by me tripping over on our first Saturday there and badly straining my ankle, which severely limited my getting around. However it did enable me to produce these small watercolours whilst sitting by the swimming pool.

Fort Lovrijenac , Dubrovnik.

The view from our balcony.

The ruined house next door to the hotel. the ground floor was used as a bar.

The Chapel of St.George at Mikulici in the Konavle Valley. The mound behind the chapel is an Ilyrian Stone Pile.

A view of Cavtat from the road leading to the village.

St.Nicholas Parish Church, Cavtat.

View across Luka bay at Cavtat.

Dubrovnik, the wall from the harbour.

The Landing Stage at the Hotel Albatros, where you could get a boat to Dubrovnik.

The Landing Stage Uvala Tiha. This was a sketch in my notebook with some watercolour added.

All the other sketches are on Khadi paper.

There was a small gallery on the way into Cavtat, where we spoke to the artist, who painted some very nice local views, far better than the normal tourist tat which was obviously mass produced and sold in Dubrovnik and Cavtat . We also visited a gallery in Dubrovnik which had some very nice loose paintings of Dubrovnik by an arist who's name I cannot recall.

Three Still Lifes

Here are three recently painted still life oils.

Carnations, Vases and Bottle (13" x 21" oil on board)

 Vases, Candles and Oranges  (16" x 12" x 2" Canvas)

Jugs, Vase and Tangerines (30" x 20" Canvas)

The Dulwich Art Group.

The Dulwich Art Group organises life drawing and painting sessions which are open to people of all abilities. With no tutor, artists are free to pursue their own approach to painting or drawing. A pose is usually set for a period of three weeks, each weekly session runs for three hours and there is a break in the middle for tea, coffee and biscuits.  Each session is paid for on the day allowing flexibility, you don’t have to commit to a whole term for example. In fact we run throughout the year and stay open through the holidays too.  Please note however that we are closed from the last Saturday session on the 13th August until Saturday 3rd September when we restart with a new model. Wednesday groups start again on the 7th September.  The club is run by artists for artists and at £10 it is very good value compared to council run courses. The open structure is also a point of difference that many people find appealing.  The timing of the group allows those with school age children to attend, some members slip away a few minutes early if they have to pick up at 3.30pm. Wednesdays 12.30-3.30pm – The Old Scout Hut – Greendale – Dulwich

Art into Life

Today eight of us attended an Art into Life workshop at the Tate Modern museum. The purpose of these sessions is to introduce people to modern art, with sessions including discussion and practical work.

The session that we did was titled 'Ideas as Art' and concentrated on the works of the Cubists.

We first looked at a sculpture by the Italian Futurist Boccioni. This has a very long title but we were asked to come up with a one word title which would encompass our reactions to the sculpture.

We were then asked to do a pencil sketch of the sculpture, but not to try and copy it from one angle but to move round it catching our impressions. the results were very interesting, with different people capturing it in completely different ways.

We then moved onto the next room, and spent some time looking and discussing Braque and Picasso's Cubist paintings . Examining the way that they were painted, and the ways in which these two artists developed cubism. We were also asked to put shading into the drawing that we had just done, to see how this worked out.

We then looked at a group of sculptures by Jaques Lipchitz.

Again we were asked for our reactions and shown how Lipchitz tried to use cubist principles in making these sculptures. We followed this by again doing multi-angled drawings. We were then given sheets of cardboard and with some instruction tried to construct a 3-dimensional sculpture in the style . When we had finished these sculptures as far as we could we then flattened them out, covered them in tissue paper and went over them with crayons, *frottage, resulting in some very interesting works.

This was the conclusion of the workshop. The time went so quickly and we were all very engrossed in what we were doing, causing some amusement to other visitors to the museum. We all learnt quite a lot about the theory and practicalities of Cubist art. It was a very enjoyable and productive morning's work.

I have included my efforts for which I apologize.

* In art, frottage (from French frotter, "to rub") is a surrealist and "automatic" method of creative production developed by Max Ernst.

In frottage the artist takes a pencil or other drawing tool and makes a "rubbing" over a textured surface. The drawing can be left as is or used as the basis for further refinement. While superficially similar to brass rubbing and other forms of rubbing intended to reproduce an existing subject, and in fact sometimes being used as an alternate term for it, frottage differs in being aleatoric and random in nature.

It was developed by Ernst in 1925. Ernst was inspired by an ancient wooden floor where the grain of the planks had been accentuated by many years of scrubbing. The patterns of the graining suggested strange images to him. He captured these by laying sheets of paper on the floor and then rubbing over them with a soft pencil.

Bernie Victor
Website:http://bvpainter.googlepages.com/homepage
Blogs http://berniespaintings.blogspot.com or http://bvpainter.posterous.com/

Art into Life at Tate Modern

Today eight of us attended an Art into Life workshop at the Tate Modern museum. The purpose of these sessions is to introduce people to modern art, with sessions including discussion and practical work.

The session that we did was titled 'Ideas as Art' and concentrated on the works of the Cubists.

We first looked at a sculpture by the Italian Futurist Boccioni.  This has a very long title but we were asked to come up with a one word title which would encompass our reactions to the sculpture.

 

We were then asked to do a pencil sketch of the sculpture, but not to try and copy it from one angle but to move round it catching our impressions. the results were very interesting, with different people capturing it in completely different ways.

We then moved onto the next room, and spent some time looking and discussing Braque and Picasso's Cubist paintings . Examining the way that they were painted, and the ways in which these two artists developed cubism. We  were also asked to put shading into the drawing that we had just done, to see how this worked out.

We then looked at a group of sculptures by Jaques Lipchitz. 

Again we were asked for our reactions and shown how Lipchitz tried to use cubist principles in making these sculptures. We followed this by again doing multi-angled drawings.  We were then given sheets of cardboard and with some instruction tried to construct a 3-dimensional sculpture in the style . When we had finished these sculptures as far as we could we then flattened them out, covered them in tissue paper and went over them with crayons, *frottage, resulting in some very interesting works.

 

This was the conclusion of the workshop. The time went so quickly and we were all very engrossed in what we were doing, causing some amusement to other visitors to the museum. We all learnt quite a lot about the theory and practicalities  of Cubist art.  It was a very enjoyable and productive morning's work.

I have included my efforts for which  I apologize.

* In art, frottage (from French frotter, "to rub") is a surrealist and "automatic" method of creative production developed by Max Ernst.

In frottage the artist takes a pencil or other drawing tool and makes a "rubbing" over a textured surface. The drawing can be left as is or used as the basis for further refinement. While superficially similar to brass rubbing and other forms of rubbing intended to reproduce an existing subject, and in fact sometimes being used as an alternate term for it, frottage differs in being aleatoric and random in nature.

It was developed by Ernst in 1925. Ernst was inspired by an ancient wooden floor where the grain of the planks had been accentuated by many years of scrubbing. The patterns of the graining suggested strange images to him. He captured these by laying sheets of paper on the floor and then rubbing over them with a soft pencil.