this... it's a very small papier mache bowl, the first one of a few that i have have been making. this paper bowl has a green-blue-grey stone-like patina with a tarnished gold interior...
this paper bowl has been inspired by my interest in primitive & prehistoric art, raku ceramics & the Japanese aesthetic of Wabi Sabi - the beauty inherent in things that are unostentatious, simple, irregular, used or worn in appearance. finding birds' nests in the garden probably had some influence in the process. birds will make their nests out of whatever is to hand - often the harmful plastics and manmade fibres littering the environment - a sign of the times. making homemade bread and soup had some relevance too. there is something so very comforting and nurturing about a simple cup shape...
here, you can see the detail of the eroded edge of the vessel. this bowl is one of a very limited series of papier mache vessels that I have been making in the studio - it is signed and dated on the base. the distinctive patina on this bowl has been created using thin washes or glazes of water-based acrylic paint, which have been lightly 'distressed' to create a naturally, time-worn, aged surface - with the appearance of an ancient relic or artefact.i suppose if one wanted to be ethically 'green' i would source and make my own pigments, but here i have used very small amounts of acrylic and it has the added benefit of being water resistant when dry... sometimes the wild harvesting of nature's resources is more damaging to the environment than controlled, sustainable production (as seen in herbal medicine)... i am happy that i am reusing what i already have, rather than buying even more art materials...
this paper bowl is about the size of a small teacup and it fits snugly in the hand - the actual height is 4cm or 1.5” approx, diameter 9cm or 3.5” approx. i previously made some plaster casts of some of my most favourite things such an art deco teacup which became the primary mould for this particular bowl. during the drying stage the bowls warp ever so slightly, becoming more tactile and organic in character... i would like to give these an identity such as the amity bowl or verity vessel (meaning friendship and truth respectively)... the most interesting part of the process is because i have already created the 'object' the painting stage becomes quite intuitive...
papier-mâché is uniquely lightweight and yet surprisingly resilient as a material, made to my own special recipe of handmade paper pulp - mostly offcuts or trimmings of linen or cotton, both rag and paper, combined with recycled scraps of cellulose-based paper such as tissue, cartridge or copier paper. i also add a small amount of powdered chalk, marble or eggshells for additional strength & durability. the small amount of handmade paper that i can make mean that these very vessels are limited in their number. you can see an example of some of my handmade deckled paper here...
i have been working on making them in a range of sizes along with the possibility of creating other 3d forms, which is all mildly exciting stuff for a regular painter - watch this space over the coming weeks and months...you can see a selection of my papier mache bowls here...alongside the paper-making & moulding i have also created a new series of collagraph plates also using recycled materials, but i won't be printing those for a while yet......all photography © 2011 jazz green - please do not use, reuse or otherwise publish images of my artwork without my consent or permission, thank you......not quite what you were looking for in the paper art department? why not try wikipedia instead......
small change
a small change on my art for sale page... the studio gallery or little picture shop, a humble means of generating some creative commerce in the digital age, some intended artfulness, a place for the curious to browse or buy, the small shop for art that i quietly oversee and very occasionally promote.if you can spare some change you might be interested to know that these small paintings are now listed in british £££ - although you can opt to pay in whatever currency you choose; worldwide Paypal will do the currency conversion automatically (which is nice)...
LXXIX 2009, abstract stripes painting on paper [click to view more small paintings]a big part of the online shopping experience is waiting for the special parcel to duly arrive, wrapped up in all the anticipation & excitement of receiving a gift that you really wanted...
fjord 2010 [click to view details]to celebrate the small change in my shop, there is free p&p to anywhere in the UK mainland…
[bookmarks, for books, naturally enough]my online art shop is really an extension of my art studio, a selection of small abstracts on paper and even smaller works on canvas - of which, if you are one that has visited this blog before, might know a little about when and how they came about. these are all small, experimental works which are more process-oriented but they relate to (and perhaps even influence) my other paintings...
xciv, 2009 [click to view in my gallery shop]view some of the original chromatids, a series of 100 small paintings on paper that were completed between november 2008 and march 2009. these small works are probably the most collectively colourful series of work i have ever created and yet i never outwardly planned to paint them at all - but i do have an ongoing thing about numbers, patterns and squares. i like squares for their impartiality and objectivity...i usually work with a more subtle or reduced palette of colours on my larger canvases and panels, so this series has been a good exercise to explore colour and texture on this small scale for its own playful & expressive means, and in turn the one hundred paintings later inspired the creation of these distinctive bookmarks - a simple change in format opened up some new ideas to pursue...
[a set of five art bookmarks - in subtle browns, blues and greens, liminal and coastal in palette]
trinidad 2010 [click to view more]ok, art for sale promotion over - i always feel a little uneasy doing this, i don't want to seem too pushy - these are just a few of the things that i have done, things that in their own way make a path to the other art i want to make and do...for now, i have some new exhibitions to focus on (which i hinted at previously) in the year ahead - but there are no pictures-in-progress because... well, it's complicated - stuff happened, i thought a lot about it, what to do next... let's just call this a deliberate episode of photography withdrawal, a creative interlude, a pause in the digital proceedings... purging the senses, a space to think, to write notes or sketch, to doodle and draw, to just make art - just how it used to be... i am always taking a philosophical stance on things......My field of perception is constantly filled with a play of colours, noises and fleeting tactile sensations which I cannot relate precisely to the context of my clearly perceived world, yet which I nevertheless immediately ‘place’ in the world, without ever confusing them with my daydreams.Maurice Merleau-Ponty in The Phenomenology of Perception...Thank you for your continued support of my art.
snowbound in a sketchbook, once again
it was the early morning shock of seeing a thin film of ice on the inside of the windows that prompted a couple of snowy walkabouts this week... for some exercise, some fresh air, to warm up, an excuse perhaps to think more about and reconnect with this rural landscape...
a hill and some snow, acrylic on paper, 8" x 12"i carried with me a sketchbook (or three!) but, for a change, i took some small tubes of acrylic and a few offcuts of card. why on earth go out sketching in this inclement weather? well, the intention was to go for a bracing walk and the opportunity to do some outdoor sketching seemed like a good idea at the time... i just needed some white, brown, blue, a little yellow ochre... (you can view last week's before the snow winter field sketches here)...these three small sketches are about 5" x 16"
[click to view larger]i discovered a new footpath which i had not seen signposted before, perhaps because all the surrounding vegetation that would have concealed it had died back. some farmers, it seems, don't like to draw attention to the public rights of way that circumnavigate their fields. this particular footpath began at the roadside - it was a quick scramble up a steepish, stepped incline through a small thicket of elder, hawthorn, briar, bramble and the like, which soon thinned out onto a small footbridge across a ditch, which opened into the corner of a large field - regimental stalks of harvested maize pricking through the blanket of snow..
winter field with stubble, 8' x 22"i walked a narrow path between the hedgerow and the broken lines of sown crops, minding the occasional black hole which indicated a rabbit burrow. in the snow i could see the pitter-patter pattern of animal footprints, probably a dog i thought but i could see no human companion footprints - were they the trail of a hare, a fox or muntjacs perhaps? the hedgerow seemed to have shaken off most of the recent snowfall and so it exhibited an interesting patchwork of textures and colours when viewed against the snow - from the sepia hues of damp, dead wood to the musty grey-black of dead nettles, small patches of fading green to grey, the auburn brown of tall docks, shades of bronze and tarnished copper on the edges of leaves, the prickly hawthorn branches dotted with red berries...
field and hedgerow, acrylic on paper, 8" x 12"the line of the hedgerow led slowly uphill, then turned an abrupt corner at an oak tree - and hereabouts, sheltered from the chilled midday air with a scattered carpet of acorn husks underfoot, it afforded a clear view of valley ahead. smooth white fields, lightly traced out by their boundary hedgerows, sloped gently to the south and east, a distant cluster of trees merged into a mist of many layered greys. to the north the field's straight crop lines seemed to converge at a point near the flat horizon, with only the faintest delineation of trees to suggest where the land ended and the sky began...
winter field, acrylic on paper, 8" x 12"some people assume that suffolk is, in the main, quite a flat county, but this is because the most travelled routes follow more even ground. walk a little off the beaten track and the vistas become much more undulating and expansive - made even more appealing to the senses when there is snow on the ground. all seems for a short while quite serene, quite still. snow softens the sounds and disguises the blemishes, it sculpts, smoothes and redefines, drawing out the best features of a seemingly natural geography...perhaps on reflection it was not such a good idea to use acrylics as they did not dry properly in the ice cold air. to stop the sketchbook pages from sticking together i sandwiched them with maize leaves, powdery bark and even clumps of snowy soil, all of which had added some interesting textural effects by the time i had headed back. something of real substance to work with, so i applied more white acrylic here and there, the remains of soil and the blurry smears of paint became the tangible traces of walking. i rather like that they turned out this way, incomplete and unrefined, within each rough gesture or mark is a brief thought or memory that relates to the experience - exhibiting the very spirit of a brisk walk in the wintry, white landscape...these two sketches are 8' x 22", on black card - it is (or was) a photograph album...
[click to view larger]so, these small studies have really become remembered landscapes, they no longer exist, the snow has now vanished, but we have been warned that the snow will return...i often remind myself that i have become something of a cave painter - i see things (discarded, redundant or dead things, mostly!) and then i retreat to the studio cave to make art out of the experience. sketching in the landscape seems to be a means to re-engage but also to step back a little, to take in the wider view......