Autumn Garden

After a wet summer, the gardens in autumn are glowing emerald. And the violas are fed up... 

Garden Beasts: Today's visitor wore a flying helmet...

Upwardly Mobile...

Trend-setting Mice are leaving the sports  ground and assorted garden sheds as the new developments become fashionable.  Your upwardly mobile professional mouse takes his journey in 2 stages: 

1.  By "Jaws Train", a sleek vehicle which arrives sometimes with little warning, its two bright  headlamps glowing in the darkness

2.  After a short stop-over in the booklined station, or beside the tiled fireplace, by hovering space-ship.  This second mode of transport is far the more comforting and comfortable, and you have an excellent view all round.  But, it does fly rather high...

Stage three: arrival, makes the whole thing worthwhile.  Fresh green grass and leaves, the earth beneath, plenty of cover, the wide sky above, and best of all, a colony of like-minded individuals who have shared that harrowing journey to the Land of the Free: Canalside!

 

Garden Beasts 2: Up Close & Personal

Garden Beasts 1

teaser

Threadneedle Prize results

Have just read about the winning pieces.  Just a few thoughts...

No jealousy - after all, I'm pretty amateur and I didn't qualify to be one of the potential 71 from whom the prizewinner would be picked.  

But I have questions.

This was a "figurative prize" yet the winner was the nearest possible to an abstract...Nie study of light, but really, not a lot going on there.  Could be a derelict corner of anywhere!

What does it say about our society at this time that the other prize was for one of the military-based pieces?  Was that glorifying or condemning war - or just saying "we are at war"?

If it represented today's world, then "Golden Girl, Jenny" fits equally - but she is beautiful, young, full of potential.  Also almost palpably vulnerable.  

Will the soldier in the tank protect the girl?  Ensure her a happy life?

No.

Jenny demonstrates the sadness of life today: with all the beauty, material goods, the education, the technology, human beings will always remain vulnerable, life is precious, innocence can be damaged...

So far the war we're in has claimed many many lives - including those killed in terrorist incidents in this country, and civilians in Iraq/Afghanistan.

I want to know what the artist had in mind, and what the award-givers saw in the piece.

The Way we Were (two): Sisters

My Grandmother and her sister: c. mid 1930s (?)

How much was hidden from us in childhood, and how much more we understand when it is revealed!    Do photos show us the character behind the eyes?   

Threadneedle Prize, Art Teacher's Art, & More

Back in July, I submitted (along with approx 2700 other figurative artist hopefuls) 2 paintings for the Threadneedle Prize show at the Mall Galleries.       

Mine, Mobile Nation (above) and Golden Girl: a Portrait

(below) weren't among the 71 

chosen for the exhibition.  

Today, I've  had a look at the 7 works to be voted on for the Prize.

At least 5 are by men!  One by a woman and the other - I'm not sure as the name is unfamilier to me - maybe Eloiza Mills is a second woman?  Whatever, 5 out of 7 are men... What does this reflect, if anything?

The art is good.  It is thoughtful.  It is in the case of the men's art also very male (!): military dictators, a burning tank, a male self-portrait, a visual reflection on society's loss of compassion which somehow said to me "a woman would've probably done this differently".  Am I right or am I  stereotyping?

The portrait of a woman is appealing, beguilingly simple.  I like it best.  It is by the person who may or not be another woman.  But that is not why I like it best.... Maybe I like it because it's the least urban, the least aggressive, the most celebratory of nature, of  non-technology, and of life.  It's simply itself.  It appears to have no agenda.

Also today, dropped in on an exhibition of art by school art teachers.  Lovely stuff: beautifully done.  Optimistic exploration, felt most of these teachers would inspire the kids.  Apparently this was a course of continuing professional development, a chance for art teachers to do art.

The art teacher, like the music teacher & the RE teacher, has a "cinderella subject"  ... which can be depressingly isolating in the world of school league tables and targets.

But Cinderella was the one who was chosen by the prince...

Art, music and spiritual awareness, the necessary balance to science & technology...??