Today's Drawing - Ayla

I completed this drawing of Ayla yesterday, using 4b and 9b pencils on smooth cartridge paper. I will post more drawings soon including ones by other Artists.

I will post another recipe shortly, filo pastry with a sweet filling.

Next week I will be working on my recipe book, writing and developing ideas for the chapter headings, paintings of fruits and vegetables, including the landscape, flora and fauna of Cyprus.

Have a great weekend

Hani

JUDITH SEELIG - WOMEN ON FIRE EVENT - ROYAL ALBERT HALL

This is an event being oraganised by Changemaker and Shaman Judith Seelig and Environmental Lawyer Polly Higgins to coincide with International Women's Day 2011.


A couple of years ago Judith led a retreat at St George's in Windsor Castle for women in senior decision-making roles. The subject was Fire and the Feminine Principle. Her theme included the reminder that some seeds require fire to germinate.

'Economic and environmental crises have been burning brightly since that spring. The seeds sprouting in my department have matured at their own pace. Now I have much to transplant.

ROYAL ALBERT HALL 13 MARCH 2011 WOMEN ON FIRE

I'm teaming up with the environmental lawyer Polly Higgins to create a Women on Fire day at the Albert Hall next March.
We are planning simultaneous events in Jerusalem and New York.
The idea is to connect women around the globe through the earth, literally using the planet as a transmitter.

We have a broad spectrum agenda. Polly set up a trust on behalf of the earth. I've been looking at bridging the gap between man-made law and natural law, as in the cycles of nature.. Both of us see fundamental change coming through women.

Would you like to contribute to/participate in this event?

Here are a few pointers. I have given up trying to modify the language that I use. What I'm proposing is unusual, radical. Some might think it ridiculous. So be it. We need to be thinking miles outside the box to save ourselves from ourselves.

1 the female pelvis is specifically designed to grow the new.
Let's use it creatively, to the power of a unified female field

2 balancing out masculine and feminine principles, male and female, isn't going to happen men to women, continuing patriarchy makes too strong an imprint. I'm proposing to facilitate women connecting to women via the earth, that connection rising as fire into each pelvis, employing the existing route of fire in the human body, as in risen kundalini **

3. inviting Gaia* to guide and inform women across the globe we cannot live without the earth and its cycles, so to offer the intelligence of our bodies to the intelligence of what sustains and maintains us is intelligent

4. decisions about the earth and its resources are still made predominantly by men yet worldwide it’s women’s hands and feet that do most of the cultivating, gathering and gleaning.

5. the aim is to underwrite clear thinking, strong voices, wise and loving hearts with fire in our bellies

6 to invite the fire at the centre of the earth to ignite and power creativity in women for the mending of our human part in the web of life

7. to make the fire in the female pelvis our common, impersonal thread that funds, interconnects and sustains spectacular diversity

8. to connect up our individual brilliance, intelligence, creativity and female power via the earth

9. to use the earth as a transmitter

10. to offer the fire to named projects, causes, peoples

* the earth as a sentient being

**kundalini is its Sanskrit name. The goddess lies coiled at the base of the spine like a sleeping serpent. When awakened she travels up the spine as fire. (risen kundalini substantially alters one's life, as it did mine, and is possibly the root of this inspiration: birthing itself or herself)'

http://www.judithseelig.com/

If you would like to get involved, particularly if you work in the art, dance, music or fashion areas, a meeting is being held at:

Dragon Hall in Covent Garden
17 Stukeley Street, London, WC2B 5LT
11th April 2010 - 3.00 - 5.00 pm.
Tickets on the door: £5 with invite to pay more

SAATCHI GALLERY DEBATE - ART FAIRS ARE ABOUT MONEY NOT ART

DEBATE AT THE SAATCHI GALLERY ON 29 MARCH 2010

Art fairs, scoff the critics, have become shopping malls for the super-rich. They are giant marketplaces for the wealthy to buy, invest and speculate on the commodity of art. Galleries pressure artists to churn out 'safe', sellable works, which are not so much looked at as bought in bulk. As the critic Jerry Saltz put it, 'art fairs are perfect storms of money, marketability, and instant gratification'. Is this criticism justified? Or are art fairs in fact the perfect format for visitors to see art from all over the world which they wouldn't otherwise see? And by allowing artists to show their work to potential buyers en masse are these shows a crucial lifeline for artists today?

This debate is part of a new initiative presented by the A Foundation called The Economy of the Gift, a boutique-scaled art fair which will take place in Liverpool, 9 April - 22 May 2010. It will present eight artists and eight galleries, and will explore the idea of value in a time of market crisis. The Economy of the Gift has been designed to build on the cultural legacy of Liverpool's role as European Capital of Culture in 2008 and will be an annual affair.

The debate will take place at: The Saatchi Gallery.

Doors open at 7:15 pm. The debate starts at 7:30 pm and finishes at 9:00 pm.

Tickets: £15 each

To book tickets visit:

http://events.intelligencesquared.com/current-events.php?event=EVT0223

Speakers for the motion:

Louisa Buck Writer and broadcaster on contemporary art, contemporary art columnist for The Art Newspaper, and a regular reviewer on BBC radio and TV. Her books include "Moving Targets 2: A User's Guide to British Art Now", "Market Matters: The Dynamics of the Contemporary Art Market" and "Owning Art: The Contemporary Art Collector's Handbook (co-authored with Judith Greer). She was a judge for the 2005 Turner Prize.

Matthew Collings Artist and writer. He was one of the panellists in the TV series "School of Saatchi" aired on BBC 2 in Nov-Dec 2009. He is currently working on a major series about the Renaissance, also for BBC2. In February 2010 his collaborative paintings - made with Emma Biggs - were shown at the Fine Art Society, Bond Street, London.

Speakers against the motion:

Sir Norman Rosenthal Freelance curator and writer. He became Exhibitions Secretary of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1977, where he stayed for 30 years, overseeing loan exhibitions and working with distinguished curators. He has been awarded the highest Honours and Decorations from the Italian Republic, Federal Republic of Germany, French Republic and the Federal Republic of Mexico.

Matthew Slotover Co-founder of Frieze magazine in 1991 and the Frieze Art Fair in 2003, an international contemporary art fair that takes place every October in London's Regent's Park. The fair, which Slotover oversees with co-founder Amanda Sharp, showcases new and established artists to visitors from around the world.

Richard Wentworth One of Britain's leading sculptors. Previously Master of the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University, he is now Head of the Royal College of Art's Sculpture Department. From his involvement with the YBAs in the late 1980s, through to his work with the Architectural Association in the 1990s, and latterly through his recent work at the Ruskin, he has played a hugely influential role in contemporary British art.

Remaining speaker to be announced.

Chair:

Simon de Pury Chairman and Chief Auctioneer of Phillips de Pury & Company. He is one of the art world's leading figures, renowned for his legendary performance on the auction podium and for his deep and longstanding knowledge of the global marketplace.

To book tickets visit:

http://events.intelligencesquared.com/current-events.php?event=EVT0223


SAATCHI GALLERY
Duke of York's HQ, King's Road
Chelsea, London, SW3 4SQ, U.K.

Vincent Van Gogh - Peasant of the Camarque

Vincent Van Gogh - Peasant of the Camarque (Patience Escalier)
August 1888 Reed pen and brown ink on white paper.


I fell in love with Vincent Van Gogh's work when I was fifteen years old. For me, he has always been one of the greatest of Artists. Whenever I look at an original drawing or painting of his, it takes my breath away. His work blazes with life and passion, showing us new ways to look at our world.

Vincent's wonderful portrait of Patience Escalier, is so much more than a preliminary drawing for the final paintings he did. It is a fully realized and complete piece of work in it's own right, radiating empathy and compassion for this man and his life. The absence of colour is more than compensated for by the rich variety of expressive, energetic marks, that describe the shapes and forms within this picture.

You can almost feel the texture of the sunburnt skin, and the underlying bone structure, particularly the prominent cheek bones. The deepset eyes have a compelling, penetrating gaze, that provide the main focal point for the viewer. You can't help but look at them.

Sitting on top of his head is a simply drawn straw hat bathed in bright sun light. For the background, Vincent has created a complex pattern of dots and lines that seem to dance in the air like particles of shimmering light. You can feel the intense heat.

The strong, angular, almost carved out outline, adds contrast and definition to the densely textured areas, emptier spaces and brilliant draughtsmanship. All of which creates a memorable and moving drawing.

The following excerpt is taken from a letter by Theo Van Gogh to his wife Jo, describing his brother Vincent.

'That head of his has been occupied with contemporary society's insoluble problems for so long, and he is still battling on with his good-heartedness and boundless
energy.His efforts have not been in vain, but he will probably not live to see them come to fruition, for by the time people understand what he is saying in his paintings it will be too late.He is one of the most advanced painters and it is difficult to understand him, even for me who knows him so intimately. His ideas cover so much ground, examining what is humane and how one should look at the world, that one must first free oneself from anything remotely linked to convention to
understand what he was trying to say, but I am sure he will be understood later on. It is just hard to say when'.

If you would like to know more about Vincent Van gogh,you can visit this excellent website dedicated to him at http://www.vggallery.com/ The website is the work of Author David Brooks and is a real labour of love.
*Many thanks to David for sending me the above high resolution image. Just click on the image to see more detail.

The Royal Academy in London have superb exhibition of Van Goghs paintings, drawings and letters on at the moment until 18th april 2010.

Today's Drawing - James

My belief, for what it is worth, is that Drawing is the foundation for EVERYTHING in Art, no matter how simplified or abstract your work is. It is only by studying and regularly drawing from life, particularly LIFE DRAWING, that the skills to create with authenticity and confidence are acquired. That process of studying a form and expressing your response to it, really helps to develop your own personal visual language. I know that I need to draw much more regularly, so as much as anything, this is a reminder to myself.

I would like to post drawings by other Artists as well as my own. Perhaps get a discussion going on the importance of drawing and the many styles and techniques that can be used and which drawings from artists past and present we admire. I will start off with a drawing by Vincent Van Gogh next week.

The above drawing of James, was drawn on winsor and Newton cartridge paper with a 4b Derwent sketching pencil.