Bayesian Anita (another update)

Bayesian Anita, Acrylic on Canvas, 40"x60"

OK, I changed the name again. I'm nothing if not flexible :).

Anyway, I had procrastinated over the statement for the work, but finally (after a lot of grief), here it is:

114. (Tractatus Logico-Philisophicus, 4.5): “The general form of propositions is: this is how things are.” – That is the kind of proposition that one repeats to oneself countless times. One thinks that one is tracing the outline of the thing’s nature over and over again, and one is merely tracing round the frame through which we look at it. (Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations)

[Bayesian inference is a formalization of how we draw from subjective, uncertain, fragmented experience towards a more objective but never completed whole.]

Art is a proposition, both about and to the world; the rest of the Wittgenstein quote is pretty much in tune with what happens when one draws so much from another.

The painting is currently at the Dart Gallery , though not yet on display. But you should pay them a visit anyway, they are just finishing up a great show of street art, and will be hanging a new one soon on dance.

Anita of Bayes (was Anitium)

Anita of Bayes: 

Acrylic on Canvas, 40"x60"

Because it was the biggest canvas I could fit in my car.

1,2,3,...

This painting is now available at my favourite gallery, the Dart:

The painting is 24"x36", acrylic on birch panel.

Anne Marie at Richard's

Well, I finally decided to bite the bullet re. acrylics; I needed something for studies that would allow me to work as quickly as with pastel, but was more portable. So I bought a bunch, and Saturday morning took them, brushes, and one 20"x30" canvas to Richard's Saturday morning life drawing session to see what would happen. The sessions tend to go along 8 three minute gestural poses followed by a single long pose of 2 1/2 hours. So everything went onto one canvas. Then I took the result home and tarted it up....

  I hope Anne Marie forgives me for this :)

Off the Map

The Halifax Art Map is holding their annual show this month at the Art Sales and Rental Gallery at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. The opening reception is Thursday, May 1st, from 6:30-8:30. Lots of fun, and good work to look at! Bring your cheque books :)
The two pieces I'll have in are:
Anita Reading Breugel:

and 

Anita at Rest:

Both are 50x65 cm., Conte and pastel on Fabriano Pastel Paper, framed and quite reasonably priced!

See you there!

3 Anitas....

A few from the last two weeks (I really should get back to posting). Most of the winter I have been working with Anita in pen and ink, reading too much philosophy (more on that later), and trying to learn German. So it feels great to be getting back into working large with pastel.

 All are Conte and Pastel on Fabriano Pastel paper, 50x65 cm.

Anita Reading Breugel

Anita and Kafka

I was reading about Walter Benjamin recently, and one of the things he says about Kafka is that "...he divests human gesture of its traditional supports, and then has a subject for reflection without end." My world is hardly Kafkaesque, and Anita is certainly not a Kafka protagonist, but I love the sentiment.

Two from this Sunday with Anita:

Conte on pastel paper, 50x65 cm.

Anita's Back!

Anita's back from her late summer perambulations and it is a pleasure to be working with her again. But first a little something (12"x18", pastel on Rives) I had been working on from figure sketches done before she left:

There's still more to do before I take it to anything larger.

(more below the fold)

Ruthless in Colour

Now that I am in between models, it's time to clean up some of the work I did with Ruth this summer. These were quite fun to do; we'd set the timer for ten minutes, Ruth would take some (usually difficult) pose, I would find an interesting angle, and then draw from there until either the timer went off, or (more likely) one of us broke.

Ruthless

This ought to be my theme song:

How're ya gonna keep them down on the farm

After they've seen Paree Montreal....

(In case the video doesn't load)

Alas, I've been left Ruthless as of last Friday. And since I've been tied up with a bunch of boring stuff since then, and since I have a pile of more finished stuff to work on, I thought I would spend a bit of time doing a little capriccio  to remind myself what delightful summer it was working with Ruth.

Ruth, Continued

A lovely day to continue on with previous work, like this one (at the bottom of the page) from Wednesday.

Anita

I guess I don't exactly provide the best working conditions here. Thanks goodness Anita is a trooper!

Ruth, Working Hard

On Tuesday, I was working with Ruth, and we spent most of the time on longer poses. These can be hard - though this might look easy, try doing it for an hour:

Finally caught up....

Last Friday we worked with Anita, who as usual provided some delightfully difficult warmup poses. I really have to get my litho press working....

Catching up with Ruth

Well, I've been very busy these days (somebody has to go outside and keep track of the sun after all). And Billy is back:

That was taken the day he arrived from Alberta - a long plane ride, followed by a swim and a romp in the mud. As you can see, my Venus de Dartmouth is really stressed.

Meanwhile, I have been active in the studio, both with Ruth and Anita.

Studio Life

I've been working with a young artist recently (Ruth), and recently one of my favourite models (Anita) has become available. So on Friday we worked together. I've always enjoyed doing work centered on the observed life around me (such as skateboarders, or my partner and her dogs, or my dog) , one recent aspect being just what goes on here...it's a more than a little sloppy and fast, but if I have one real regret it's in not absolutely destroying the perspective (though I got a good start at that ) and bringing Ruth up closer. Ah well, next time...

Frances II

Frances II, conte and pastel on Kraft paper, 24"x36"

Frances

Frances, Pastel and conte on Kraft paper, 24"x36"

Time flies

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since last August. Well, time to catch up. It's not that I haven't been busy...

Nicole: Pastel on Kraft paper, 24"x36"

Procrastination

As I'm busy procrastinating about things I really should be doing, I thought I should put up another picture from my favourite form of procrastination, which is sitting outside and sketching the people and things that matter.

And no, that's not a pixie whispering in Arlene's ear, she had leaned over briefly to pluck more hair from the endlessly shedding Corgi.

For those looking for other worthwhile forms of procrastination, I suggest this wonderful article by Simon Schama on the late Robert Hughes.

Both Schama and Hughes are excellent writers, which is increasingly uncommon in the art world. Anybody who has had to endure wading through the artspeak of press releases, curatorial and artist's statements, is probably familiar with this.

It turns out that someone has does some hard research on the subject; their results were published recently in Triple Canopy under the title International Art English. It's worth reading; unfortunately Triple Canopy uses the most wretched format I have seen on the web (except, perhaps, Facebook Timeline).  So if you are too lazy to work through that, there's a good summary over on HuffPo.

Happy procrastinating!