Bodies of Work - the ultimate 'still life'?

"The Eyes have it"
pencil on paper
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The body of Antony Gormley - in cast form - can currently be found standing on 31 rooftops in London. Gormley's body of work focuses on the body and his body in particular. One of his latest outdoor installations "Event Horizon" is a public art commission which presents presents life sized sculptural casts of the artist's body on rooftops and public walkways across central London. At the same time his work can be seen at "Blind Light" an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery (Thursday 17 May 2007 - Sunday 19 August 2007) which is the major showing in London of his work. "Blind Light" a book about his work has been published by Cornerhouse (ISBN 9781853322587). Channel 4 also aired "Making Space", a new documentary about Gormley and his work last week which discusses why and how Gormley makes his work. Gormley is simply everywhere!

If you want any more Gormley, you can also hear him discussing his work in conversation with Will Self on the 24th July at the Purcell Room in the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Note - tickets for the first four days of the exhibition sold out and this will too if it hasn't already.

The exhibition features a series of brand new monumental works specially conceived for The Hayward’s distinctive spaces, including one of the largest ever urban public art commissions, Event Horizon, which features sculptural casts of the artist’s body on rooftops and public walkways across central London, dramatically transforming the city skyline. These new works, including a spectacular series of suspended figures created in light-infused webs of steel, are shown alongside a selection of works from the last three decades. ("Blind Light" - introduction on Southbank Centre website)

"Blind Light" is a chamber filled with a cloud. It's the equivalent of being on top of a mountain in cloud and is disorientating. You can see something of what "Blind Light" is like here. Those who enter become themselves subject matter viewed by others.

For those of you who'd like to find out a bit more about his work, here are some links:

• Antony Gormley website
• Series and Projects
  
• Chronological list of works - with photographs
• what's in the studio
  
• Bio:
• Tate Gallery - Resources for Teachers: Some of the Facts (pdf file)
• Axis web - full CV - check the collections and exhibitions!
  
• Galleries:
  
• Hayward Gallery - Antony Gormley "Blind Light" Ticket prices, opening hours and admission information The Hayward Gallery is part of the Southbank Centre and lies between the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Festival Hall.
  
• White Cube: Antony Gormley
  
• Exhibitions
  
• BBC: Antony Gormley in pictures
• "Antony's Army" Adrian Searle, The Guardian 17th May 2007
• BBC Liverpool: Antony Gormey @ Crosby Beach ("Another Place" comprises similar life sized casts standing on Crosby Beach and covered by the tide each day. Decisions about whether or not the installation would be allowed to stay interjected into the process of creating his latest works now on show - and formed part of the BBC documentary. It's now been agreed the installation should be made permanent after lobbying from locals.) The link includes access to an audio interview with Antony Gormley. Judging by the number of photos linked to Antony Gormley this work is obviously a very popular installation to photograph.
  

Another Place is a massive installation on Crosby Beach that consists of 100 cast-iron figures, moulded from the artists own body in the style that has become synonymous with his work. The ghostly life-size figures are dotted along three kilometres of the Crosby shore, sparse in some areas and getting more congregated as they reach the sea front, so onlookers can catch the detail of those near and the shadow of sculptures in the distance out to sea in one eyeful. (BBC Liverpool)

• Interviews with Gormley
• Channel 4: "Making Space" - I found this documentary fascinating. He's an intelligent artist and an articulate man with some clear concepts about his art and public art generally. Beeban Kidron - the film-maker discusses making the film at the Hayward Gallery tomorrow night.
  
• an audio interview with Edward Lucie Smith in 1989 - extracts on BBC radio
• "Leader of the Pack" The Guardian 25 June 200 - provides an overview of Gormley and his career to that date
  
• Interviews with Antony Gormley - on his website
  

Art is the means by which we communicate what it feels like to be alive - in the past that was mixed up with other illustrative duties but that was still its central function that has been liberated in the art called modern. Art is not necessarily good for you or about communicating "good things". (Anthony Gormley)

Technorati tags: antony gormley, art, plein air, public art, sculpture

Art shops in London

Interior, Pink Tulip
8" x 8", coloured pencils on Saunders Waterford Hot Press`paper
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Yesterday I had a brief but enjoyable visit to L.Cornelissen & Son in Great Russell Street. This is the sort of shop which would make most artists think they'd died and gone to heaven!

I'm finding that more and more art shops that I've used in the past are not stocking things they used to and/or are becoming more focused on cheaper goods and the student market or are clearing shelves for 'craft' goods. Lots of shops I visit on my travels increasingly seem to stock what I would refer to as 'lowest common denominator' stock. I guess the online suppliers of art materials are hitting them hard. However I do wonder why more don't choose to compete in the specialist art materials market as it's always struck me that it's the specialist suppliers who do good business. Why would I go down the road for standard stock when I can buy it cheaper on the Internet?

I do know I'm finding it increasingly difficult to visit my usual art suppliers and get everything I want. There are a few art shops who could also take a lesson from Cornelissen's on how to pack in maximum specialised goods to a relatively small place. Stock was plentiful in terms of range, quality and quantity.

For example, yesterday at Cornelissen's I was able to purchase

• some Polychromos pencils from open stock in all the colours I wanted as there were good stocks of each colour - which means I now know that deficits in stock held in art shops is down to ordering rather than supply.
  
• two large Daler Rowney hardback sketchbooks (which have become increasingly difficult to source);
  
• a block of Arches HP in a size I don't normally get (mainly because I'm lucky if I can get any size block of Arches HP!);
  
• spare erasers for my Jakar battery powered eraser (not often found on their own);
  
• two Kuretake sketching pens with permanent sepia ink (never seen before anywhere) and
• two sheets of abrasive pastel support - one card and one Sansfix/accepts water in gold ochre (This has completely disappeared from every other art shop I know in London)

The only thing which I got which I know I would not have had a difficulty getting elsewhere were two 9B graphite sticks which I need to feed as an offering, on a regular basis, to my electric pencil sharpener!

I also need to pay a visit to Green and Stone in Chelsea which Shirley (Papers and Threads) has been using on her visits to London and which she assures me is excellent. I found out on Friday that it stocks my other pencil favourite - the Lyra Rembrandt Polycolour in open stock - and I could maybe then combine it with a visit to where Whistler used to live and paint the Thames!

Cornelissen's describe themselves as artists' colourmen. This is a rather old term used to describe the people who used to supply artists and their studios with the materials to make paint and latterly with pre-prepared paint, initially in bladders and then subsequently in tubes! Their shop has shelves and shelves of jars of pigments - and small packets of pigments from here were used in the egg tempera class in which we learned how to grind pigments and mix egg tempera from scratch.

In fact all the shelves are filled with wonderful specialist supplies. I always do a grand tour just to see what's new - and wasn't disappointed when I found the 'new' Sansfix in the rear - in all the available colours. I also enjoyed having a really good look at all the materials needed for anybody wanting to do etchings or lithographs or make other forms of prints as they seemed to have a lot of supplies for printing - including a table top press! I've very rarely seen these sort of supplies elsewhere.

It's great that both of these specialist shops now also offer online purchasing so supplies are not just limited to actual visitors.

If you know a really good specialist art shop which is still providing an excellent supply and service, please use the comments function to tell us its name and where it is.

I couldn't do the 14th worldwide sketchcrawl yesterday because of the meeting I had to be at. However I started "Interior, Pink Tulip" last night and completed it this morning.

Now that flowering is well underway I'm hoping that I can do a lot more of my macro flower drawings as originals for sale. I'm trying to find a format and size which makes these relatively straightforward to do, big enough and good enough for prints if I do a particularly good one and at the same time something which I can do for an affordable price for original art work - by me! ;) I'd be interested in any thoughts you have on macro flowers as small works for sale.

Links:

• L Cornelissen & Co. Great Russell Street, London
  
• Green and Stone 259 Kings Road, Chelsea, SW3 5EL (location map)
• Making A Mark: Egg Tempera Class at the V&A - the pigments and the grinding
  

Reflections on three figs and a green bowl

Reflections on three figs and a green bowl - #1 and #2
6" x 6", coloured pencil on (1) Grey Folio 250gsm and (2) Frisk pastel card (Light Oxide Red)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Do you ever try the same subject on different surfaces? Here are two coloured pencil drawings, executed one after the other, of three figs reflected in a green bowl.

• The first one is on a sample of Grey Folio 250gsm paper (distributed by Legion paper). This is a smooth pale grey paper. It proved difficult to work up any level of saturated colour.
• The second one is on a small sheet of Frisk Pastel Board in the Light Red Oxide colour.

Which do you think is more successful - and why?

I'm on a mission to find out if I can still get hold of Frisk Pastel Card. This is what I used for all my pastels in years past before the advent of Art Spectrum Colourfix or Wallis paper. One of the reasons I still like it is because of all the colours it comes in. The colours are pretty much replicated in Sennelier La Carte (which i personally think is just like Frisk!)

Frisk pastel card comes in sheets (see below) and also a pack of warm or cool shades - or at least it did. The only place I know I can get Frisk Pastel Card is Cornelissen & Co. Ltd.

Frisk Pastel Card
This product is known by several names: Frisk Pastel Board, ‘old’ Sansfix, Rembrandt pastel card, and Royal Sovereign pastel card. It has been specially developed for use with soft pastels, soft lead pencils and charcoal but unlike ‘new’ Sansfix it does not accept water based media. (Cornelissen & Co. Paper Catalogue)

A sheet of card measures 50 x 65 cm metric and 19½ x 25½ inch imperial. Cornelissen's paper catelogue quotes it as 5.25 per sheet or 47.25 for 10 sheets in the following colours.

1 Yellow Ochre
2 Raw Sienna
3 Gold Ochre
4 Raw Umber
5 Light Ox. Red
6 Perm. Red Dp
7 Caput Mt. Red
8 Chr Grn Violet
9 Green Grey
10 Blue Violet
11 Bluish Grey
13 Mouse Grey
12 Grey
14 Black

I've got a meeting in town today and will be trying to get to Cornelissen's in Great Russell Street afterwards. I don't allow myself to visit to often - too tempting!

Do view or download catalogues from the Cornelissen site - they are quite remarkable! They also supply worldwide and you can also order on-line - but in a genteel UK way - rather like the shop.

Links: Cornelissen & Co. Ltd

Whistler Month: mid-month round-up

"James Abbott McNeill Whistler: Nocturne: The Thames at Battersea (17.3.159)".

In Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (October 2006)

Born in New England, Whistler studied painting in Paris and then based himself in London. There he introduced the French practice of etching and lithographing as seriously as one painted. In his prints of the river Thames, as in those of the lagoons of Venice, Whistler developed subtle tonal variations that alluded dreamily to a triumph of water and air over substance. (Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. )

For those interested in our Whistler Month project - this is a round-up of the posts of all those participating in Whistler Month.

Making a Mark: Whistler (all posts)

• Whistler and Art for Art's Sake (1st May 2007)
  
• Three Bridges (7th May 2007)
• No day without a line (8th May 2007)
• The Thames Set, etching papers and watermarks (17th May 2007)

Rose's Art Lines: Whistler (all posts)

• Drawing from Life (3rd May 2007)
  
• Fun facts on Whistler (9th May 2007)
  
• Just a quickie (10th May 2007)
  
• Facts on me and Whistler (12th May 2007)
  
• Whistler project WIP (14th May 2007)
  

Maggie Stiefvater at Greywaren Art: Whistler (all posts)

• May Artist: James McNeill Whistler (2nd May 2007)
  
• James McNeill Whistler continued (17th May 2007)

Wendy Prior

• Master of the Month: James McNeill Whistler (3rd May 2007)

(PS There's a very interesting variation on Technorati between painting and print-making. Maybe print makers don't blog?

• everything in the known universe tagged as painting - 23,332 blog posts
  
• everything in the known universe tagged as lithograph - 47 blog posts)
  

Technorati tags: art history, drawing, James McNeil Whistler, lithograph, painting

Royal Society of British Artists: Annual Exhibition 17th - 27th May

The Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition is on show at the Mall Galleries (near Trafalgar Square) in central London from 17th to 27th May. Its aim is to provide a showcase for artwork from the RBA's internationally acclaimed members alongside the best selected work from the open submission.

A little bit of history - as this chimes rather well with Whistler Month! The RBA had its first meeting on 22 May 1823 and received a royal charter in 1887 when Whistler was the President. Eminent past exhibitors include James McNeill Whistler, Walter Sickert and Phillip de Laszlo.

Ever since its inaugural exhibition in 1823, the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of British Artists has apparently been the place to see and buy both innovative and traditional painting, sculpture and printmaking.

"From Whistler, Sickert, L.S Lowry, Henry Moore and Carel Weight to the current outstanding membership, the RBA continues to be a forum for excellence." the current President of the RBS, Romeo Di Girolamo

You can see who the current members of the RBA are here. You are invited to click on the name to find out more information - but nothing happened when I clicked.

You can view images in the exhibition on a dedicated exhibition website. Unfortunately, in my view this website is neither well designed nor easy to navigate. It also appears to represent all the work as relating to 2006!!! However as I've not yet seen the exhibition I had to check the images displayed on the website to those in the brochure I've received. It does appear as if the images are in fact from the current 2007 annual exhibition.(If you have problems working out how to see images comment below - it took me a bit of time to work it out as well!) [Update: I e-mailed the webmaster and some problems with the exhibition site have now been resolved]

The 290th exhibition features the work of John Martin, winner of the 2006 de Laszlo medal. The image at the top of this post is by John Martin. (Note: The image is 'Homage to Bonnard' copyright John Martin RBA)

I must confess to wishing that the Society had sorted their years out and had got rather more slick website arrangements as the current arrangements make the display of art by and information about RBA members somewhat difficult to access plus the links need an overhaul. I'm also slightly bemused as to how this can be characterised as the "290th annual exhibition" for a society which was founded in 1823.......

Links:

• The Royal Society of British Artists
• The RBE exhibition website
  
• Mall Galleries The Mall Galleries, The Mall (near Trafalgar Square) London SW1
  Public Enquiries: 020 7930 6844 info@mallgalleries.com, www.mallgalleries.org.uk
• The Royal Society of British Artists' annual exhibition 17th-27th May 2007 (Entry £2.50, £1.50 concessions. Open 10am-5pm daily including weekends. Closes 1pm on final day.)
• Red Rag Gallery - more work by John Martin
  

Technorati tags: art, exhibition, painting,