Around the web in 10 clicks

 Some interesting articles, exhibitions and thoughts on all things art and design this week:

An exhibition that I would love to be able to see, at the MoMA museum, is simply titled Cézanne Drawing, as in Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), a very neutral title for the show featuring an exploration of his drawings, using paint to build up studies and still life drawings, exploring drawing portraits of loved ones and so on. The drawings have a sense of lightness of touch, of freedom and time spent just exploring the process, shapes and lines. 
This wonderful essay/article from Two Coats of Paint features lovely nuggets of information on Cézanne's life and how his work came to be without being too pretentious and filled with jargon. The essay is writen by  Laurie Fendrich, also a painter who brings some clear insight of his work into the text. Well written, lovely painters, nibbles of information and some lovely images of his drawings, what more could you ask for? 

Well I would love to be able to see the exhibition, but Covid, newborn baby, life...the internet will have to be my lens for looking at art for now. 

Some beautiful paintings/drawings that are full of flurries of colour, pastels and paint strokes, speak of vast windy days in the country or on rivers and lakes, fitting not so neatly into landscapes, but also crossing borders into abstraction and expression. The painter Ashley Garretts really brings out the wild weather in her landscape drawings and paintings. Really love her work too. 

Sculpture, plus colour, fluidity and of course that beautiful and strange substance and material called resin, all feature in the work of Ben Godward. Again I found his work from a Two Coats of Paint article/post. Jonathan Stevenson's comparison of Godward's sculptures to ice pops and giant sweets is just awesome! 
Yet again such an energetic feel to the work, and a sense of whimsy and childish delight and fun with a brand new pack of felt tips of crayons. I love the way he fixes translucent layers of colour with each other, building up layers in a way that makes me think of gesture painters, abstract expressionism, mark making and colour explored, action painting especially seems to have maybe inspired this sculpture artist, his works are very physical, and many full of motion too. Again, another artist whose work really needs to be explored and discovered up close. His work from the exhibition at the Slag Gallery, reminds me of the beautiful crystals you would find in a computer game, crystals that make up a digital landscape, or indeed need to be collected by a spunky and amusing Bandicoot with a fruit bazooka.  

Lastly Antoine’s Organ by Rashid Johnson, highlighted by a post on Two Coats yet again (they always have the good stuff), is one that begs to be seen up close, to be wandered around, to go up close and photograph from angles, to look from a distance, from high above in a birds eye view way too. Reminds me of the botanical gardens in Edinburgh and brilliant greenhouses stuffed full and filled with green plants, light and life. 

[Archive] John Lewis Summer 2014 Edition

Brilliant geometrics - imagine geometrics made out of basketry weaving....

 pink and gold wth this fish like scales repeat

love the skirt and trousers with the florals drawn like on white fabric.

Vibrant colours and beautiful florals.

John Lewis (2014) Edition. Summer 2014. 

The Old Reader, RSS feeds and links

The Old Reader is closing its doors, turning to become private and for people who are more likely to pay for it. I wouldn't mind at all except having already had to move from Google Reader to The Old Reader only a good few months ago and then getting used to (that didn't take long actually) the look, layout and workings of The Old Reader (I've grown to really like it).

At the moment I think I'll stay away from RSS feed applications and maybe experiment with other ones (both website built ins/extensions/stand-alone software) in the far future.

In the meanwhile some really interesting posts concerning patterns and surfaces found on the various blogs I have bookmarked:

Patternobserver.com
Michelle FifisStreet Patterns: Embroidery Details
This post is particularly interesting for me at the moment as I have been practising with hand stitched embroidery on various scraps of fabric, generally trying to work with different tensions to create textures as well as forming embroidered patterns or motifs.

Street Patterns Mexican Embroidery
Links in with the above post but whilst the above post was looking at contemporary or very geometric shapes, this one looks to the past, traditional floral motifs and vines and shapes used on ethnic embroidery of the past. I'm really liking the use of colour, very bold and striking, whilst the shapes themselves are large and blocky/like simple flower drawings.

iseepattern.com
Whitney Catarella
Buffalo Exchange Spring 203 Trends Part 1 
The first image/print is beautiful! The tulips look magnificent against the dark star lit sky, and the lines on their petals look particularly fascinating (these lines originally come form a virus or some kind of bacteria/illness the plant has - at first bred because they looked distinguished and pretty - later found to be a weakness in the plant). The subsequent images are just as interesting, but the tulips really stand out for me.

beelah.com
Beelah'Crazy prints:) long modest pakistani dress'
This blogger/fashion blogger often highlights beautiful fabrics and textures, particularly modest dress which is an important thing within Islamic society and culture. Known for the spectacular colours, prints and embroidery, this blogger presents a brilliant collection of the fashion of Asia and the Middle East - well any where that modest beautiful fashion exists :D 

Trend Tablet
Lidewig EdelkoortBloom  
Press Ctrl F (use the text search bar) and then look up the following:
'Tools for peace'
The photos are beautiful and sweet, as is the idea of using flowers as tools to create emotional stability, peace and a kind of prosperity.
Also have a look down the page, lots of photographs - sharp and crisp with excellent visuals and colours.

Pink grids and Orange weave

Again the whole rows, verticals and horizontals

has got me here. The grid form

with such brilliant precise weave is just fantastic.

It uses a pink coloured grid structure for threads to weave in and out of, leaving enough of it showing so that you can tell straight away the colour.

The button is quote a traditional looking one,

with that brown and cream blending thing going on

that matches with some of the weaved threads. 

The colours include orange as well,
that comes off very light ginger like amongst
the other colours of browns, pinks and the tones.

Autumn and falling

Those boxy trees at university seem to be stubbornly refusing to believe its autumn,
or at least the last few at the back of the ones that are bare.

 

I realise its probably because of the way the back tree 

 gets more shade and maybe 

seems to not learn till late 

that its time to let its leaves fall. 

It reminds me just how uncontrollable nature can be, 

despite those boxes that seem to trap the structure of the trees. 

 

The colours seem to bring to a colour spectrum of greens and yellows, 

a pretty thing frozen in its moment, before they are all bare.

 

To think all the leaves on the ground get biodegraded down, 

and turn, 

eventually, 

back into living things like leaves etc. 

Talk about the Lion King's favourite cycle of life.

New Diary from Paperchase

It would be a dream to sell work to Paperchase for them to
give money in return and then in turn,
turn that work into something adorning something as handy as a diary.

Admittedly I have a few months empty, from July to most of September,

but I can use that for extra notes space.

Not a bad price, and made in the UK,
felt pretty good about that last point.

Since my A levels I have grown a good attachment to spiral bound books.
Sketchbooks that are spiral bound are especially handy. 

The plastic cover is translucent, great fun with colour and shapes.

The beautiful swirls are reminiscent of Art Decor and the Arts and Crafts movement

Great times.

Red cardi put behind the back cover.

A slight tremor of my arm,

purposefull tremor of course.

Putting the small Paperchase bag under the cover is
quite an interesting blend of line and shape, more vertical darker shapes.