A New Leaf

A lot less politics now! The election is on, the world is humming with heat and a lot less light so time to shift down a gear and think about things that last longer than a soundbite.

Photography is beginning to interest me more - it has started as a necessary evil for portraiture and now is becoming a pleasure in itself. I am slowly building a 'texture library' interesting barks, mosses, stones etc. Not easy to see how I might apply that to my sculpture but it is worth a thought.

Medievalism is also stalking my thoughts - a visit to Tintern Abbey in Monmouthshire has been quite inspirational. Wonderful place. Peaceful despite the busy road and deep in the Wye Valley which is sublime - Wordsworth clearly though so...

Work in Progress

What with the UK getting more snow than the Canadians and a hectic work schedule, plus yes, the intrusion of a beautiful lady into my otherwise humdrum existence, I have been a bit slow with new work recently. I would like to think that this is a new style maturing and getting ready to wow the wider world...

In the meantime a small development - a looser style to my big feet people and more overt political caricature. This is still work in progress and needs another pair of figures to complete the group. Title still to be decided - but Brown's Britain is a working start.

The lead figure is a modest likeness of the waste of oxygen and bombast that is Gordon Brown. Following on his coat tails, chasing the handouts that he surreptitiously offers behind his back is that symbol of our times, the hoody. I am particularly pleased with this figure. The body language I hope conveys that slouch shouldered mixture of despair and anger that is the result of no hope and no future which is all GB has to offer the underclass that he has so actively fostered.

The remaining pair is to be the 'lifestyle' single teenage mother - and the unloved and unlovely offspring of this situation, kicking screaming and swearing at the back of this procession.

Overall I think quite a depressing piece, but one that I need to complete. Hope is the greatest human refuge and this appalling governement and its mindless acolytes have destroyed hope for millions, most of all the millions they purport to represent. They have removed any vestige of self respect from a generation of young men and made the young women prostitutes to the State. The handout culture has become a way of life that is surely killing all involved, those depending on it, and those paying for it. That is what I am trying to portray and that is what I want to destroy.

Trials & Tribulations

Well so much for my News Years resolution to post more often... gone already. Simply too much going on in the real world to be pottering about in the cyber world.

What a week - working way too hard - but prevented from burning both ends by the studio being frozen off again. This will mean more heads falling off incomplete pieces!

The wider world also appears to be heading steadily more mad. The level of hypocrisy being reached by the political classes, not just in the UK but Europe more widely is staggering. Greece has only one choice - cuts. Not pretty, but they voted for promises that could never be kept and why should the rest of us bail out the Greek politicians? We have enough bailing out of our own corrupt politicians to be going on with. The news that the anti-corruption watchdog at the House of Commons will cost six times as much to run as it will save is risible. Surely a couple of junior (cheap) civil servants requiring that MPs do as the rest of us and submit receipts for all items claimed is all that is required? Certainly not a 3 day a week one hundred grand a year supremo to make sure that MPs dont misbehave!

The is a wider disinclination to believe that the Nevernever Land of the last decade is finally dead - house prices only ever go up, Gordon will make money appear for his acolytes... well, the falsity of the former is going to make the latter politically impossible. The Tories have yet to realise that we, the plebs, are much less forgiving of sponging and dishonesty now that the house price madness has had a dose of reality poured over it....

Regarding that madness - surely cheap houses are a good thing. People can afford them, they dont get repossessed and people can afford to spend money on things the wider economy offers. Those people who felt wealthy because their houses had gone up in notional value need to remember three things. Firstly,relative to other owners their position has not changed, in fact if they needed a bigger house the differential just got bigger. Secondly that a house is somewhere to live, it costs money to maintain and its not a get rich quick scheme. Finally that it is a horribly illiquid asset - you cant pay for a holiday by selling off half a bedroom...unlike shares which can be readily sold at any time.

Medieval Influences

Apparently things medieval are becoming fashionable. This is quite annoying to me because I have been interested in medieval history, politics and art for a some time now. It strikes me that while the differences are huge between the present time and say 13th century England, some of the parallels are also interesting:
- replace the catholic church with the EU as the supranational power broker and
forum for international deal making, making perennial raids on national
sovereignty
- intellectual elites living a vastly different life from that of the majority
- confrontation with Islam

The art of the period is of course dominated by religious subjects and for a sculptor the largest sources of extant work are the stone carvings on religious buildings. English sculpture of this type presents a problem in that many fine pieces were destroyed in the Tudor period and the Civil War but quantities survive and I am trying to collect some images to use as a starting point for my own work.

The ones in this post I took on a walk around Castle Combe in Wiltshire - reckoned to be one of the prettiest villages in England, which takes some claiming, but might well be true!

Back To Work

Christmas is past, weight has been gained, the big freeze and too much of the day job has put my studio out of action for most of the last two months and I have been busy online doing other things so no posts...

This will change - the resolution is made, this is the year that I manage to post a new article at least once a week... there its in print!

So much has happened, both politically, economically and socially that this year should also be an artistically significant one - will my contribution be any good? Who knows!

The big feet people are changing - economic necessity and the need for a change of style means that these figures are going to free up, less emphasis on the caricature element and more on the overall feel of the piece. Also more groups and more political / social themes.

Today has been one of change in The Wold Gallery, Moreton-In-Marsh, where I show my work. Lots of positive comment and interest in the work, that might return as commissions later, but disappointing sales...so new material. Prunella the gardener and a couple of cricketers are going to try their luck. These pieces are already looser in the glazing, more like a watercolour finish to them. Hopefully this and a modest price reduction will help sales.

Success!

Success - the sale has translated and my shooter piece will be off to a new home in darkest Gloucestershire. Another piece might be following the same direction so all is rosy.

I have been up to my eyes with making new pieces so watch this space for more of the fun pieces and also more political satire.

The trouble with satirising events in the UK at the moment is that they are already so absurd that there is really very little point! We have a government who have systematically borrowed too much and taxed too much and spent too much... presided over an asset bubble and deliberatley mis-regulated the banks, introducing a law to ensure government will be sensible about spending! There is no objective measure of what sensible is and even one so small as me might argue that being responsible with our money is what government should do in any event. Passing a law does not make this happen when the government has been incapable of controlling its own stupidity.

Possibly worse than the sheer lunacy of such actions is the insulting assumption that we, the 'ordinary' people are too stupid to realise that they are lying to us and that the architect of this bankrupting of our country resides here - Gordon Brown. Coincidentally this shower of criminals and incompetents abolished the law of treason. It should be reinstated immediately and Brown (for ruining the country as both Chancellor and Prime Minister) and Blair (for lying through his teeth to the nation and taking us into two wars which we did not properly prepare for and which we had no business to be fighting - see Sunday Telegraph today) should be the first cases brought. A short trial and a trip to the Tower would be justice.

Another small step

It would appear, dear reader, that there is a Coutts cheque standing deposit on my 'shooter' big feet person - so very reasonably priced and excellent value!

Hopefully this translates to a full sale in the very near future and that will allow me to fund getting a new telephoto lens for the camera - better portraits to follow, one hopes.

I have been a wee bit slow with the blog for the last few weeks - long drawn out bout of man flu and busy actually making sculptures. My studio is not heated though so it is taking ages to get them dry for firing. Two cricketers and a headmaster at speech day are waiting the flames as soon as may be arranged. These will be glazed - and may be the last to be so.