mist opportunities

There have been some strange, ethereal mists this week in the valley - and quite a lot of flooding in low-lying areas. I took these photographs with my mobile phone. Thinking about it, these photos are somehow more truthful than when I have used a DSLR camera.Here, there's no manual focusing, no setting of exposure or white balance, no post-fixing in photoshop, no sharpening, no filters applied, no cropping - just as it was - in all their grainy, washed-out and mundane glory...suffolk winter mist river[river and marshes]suffolk mist winter day lake photograph[mist at edge of lake, suffolk]suffolk lake - winter mist - photograph[mist over lake, early morning, suffolk]norfolk mist winter meadow[flooded misty meadow, norfolk]norfolk misty winter ploughed field[misty ploughed field with remains of snow, norfolk]These are like the landscapes of my childhood memories: of cold, bleak school days, recalling breakfasts of ready-brek and red jam, clinging to the old cast-iron radiators on school 'rainy day' break-times, the school canteen reeking of boiled cabbage and liver gravy casserole, and the unbreakable chocolate-flavoured dessert with pink-coloured custard, of hockey fields and cross-country running, of chattering teeth, wet plimsolls, muddy knees and pallid skin, of stale rich tea biscuits and orange squash, drawing on the steamed-up foggy windows of a rattling mini-bus, and then later home watching grange hill and shepherd's pie for tea.I wonder if there is group devoted to mundane mobile phone photography on flickr…?

painting by numbers [part two]

Or... what goes around, comes around.As I was looking for something in my filing cabinet, I came across an old paint chart, produced by none other than the Tate corporation (in conjunction with B&Q in 2003),  which features four series of interior paint colours inspired by the four Tates: Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. Some interesting colours include Skylon (a mossy yellow-green), Fruit (a burgundy-brown), Crustacean and Shamrock. (read my previous posts on painting by numbers and colour values).[Tate - paint colour chart]The canvas rolls and stretchers which I acquired a while back have an interesting and connected back story. The canvas rolls and stretchers were from a friend of a friend who had, strangely enough, previously supplied the Tate Modern with none other than a paint by numbers canvas art - but were called 'self-assembly painting kits' (perhaps paint by numbers is trademarked).The venture sadly folded, thus a great quantity of canvas, stretchers and acrylic paint were going free to needy artists. I was very glad of the canvas and stretchers, but with one problem, the acrylic colours were not good... including a lurid turquoise (which Pantone is championing as the colour for 2010), fuschia pink and an acidic skittles orange - so I promptly donated all the 10 litre paint tubs to the art department.[Tate - DIY canvas]Some, but not all, of the rolls of primed canvas had been pre-printed with two linear designs, Bouquet (seen right), which has more than a passing resemblance to Andy Warhol's flowers, and Wave (left),  owing something in style to the work of Bridget Riley - two artists, who, quite differently, took a very systematic approach to painting.Andy Warhol, flowers 1970In flowers, Warhol continued to embrace the art of the mundane in the repeated image, with deliberate mis-registrations of silkscreened colour - the image is made more saccharine and artificial (in its subject) and yet it is visually tantalising in the infinite number of variables - no two paintings are the same from this art factory. Apparently, Warhol was sued for using this appropriated photograph in his work.Bridget Riley, Intake 1964(deliberately muted here, for easier visual analysis)Riley approached her paintings with a mathematical accuracy, many planned on graph paper beforehand - watch this film clip on youtube of a young Bridget Riley talking about her work.I love and loathe Riley. I love the craft, the process, the precision, the perfection of colour (or tonal monochrome); I loathe the unsettling optics, pulsating rhythms that seductively draw you in only to mess with your mind - there can be no love with a Riley, it's a battle of minds - the painting always wins....So, to round off painting by numbers - I can still recall the slightly exotic, oily aroma of tiny paint vials (was it enamel or real oil paint) and the cheap plastic brushes (the original kits, if unused and unopened, are highly collectable by the way)...And a quick browse of any Tate gift shop quickly tells you that Tate as a brand is all consuming and all consumed - even I have a Tate t-shirt (the miniature one), a Tate sketchbook, a Tate pencil and a Tate sharpener. In fact, Tate now have an art on demand service - select an image from their digital archive and have it printed in a range of  sizes on paper or canvas... now, a framed Monet (prounounced Mon-nay) is just perfect for the bedroom... but first you will need to re paint the walls...