Getting in touch with my cyber-side

Halloween's coming (yup, it really is) - pumpkins, trick-or-treaters and of course masks. Being a wearer-of-glasses, masks can be a bit of a pain, but they do offer interesting opportunies for some not-flat artistic expression. Given that I like a bit of detailed pen-and-ink work, including some sci-fi cyber-style gold-on-black, you might not be too surprised at the route I went down to produce these. Better still, the add-ons are all recused bits and pieces (the red eye is from an old cycle lamp), and the blank masks can be acquired very cheaply from fancy-dress shops like this splendid independent one (my personal fave, hence the plug). Anyhow, here's what I came up with...

Cybermask I - an electronic pharaoh inspired by Stargate/Fifth Element.

Cybermask II - a head full of words and numbers...

Some artists don't 'alf pen-and-ink

Some months back, I saw exhibitions of Tom Joyce's ink drawings at The Art House and City Gallery in Southampton. I loved the cartoon style and mosaic/space-filling approach of many of them - to the extent that I was compelled to buy a couple of prints ('The Beetles' and 'Viking Village' which are still available here). More recently, I got round to sketching/doodling in ink following on from a taking-a-line-for-a-walk exrecise in one of Jani Franck's online workshop sessions. A bit of TomJoyceishness must have been floating around in my pen-hand (and maybe just the merest whiff of H.R.Giger) as the following started to take shape... more on the way!

Biomechanical I

Biomechanical spaceport

This is not a homage to Magritte

My painting's been fairly eclectic so far, but does seem to be coalescing into a couple of core styles (for now) - 'cyber' and 'thick oils'. The Quantum Triptych is of the first type, so here's one of the others, entitled 'This is not a portrait (storm)'.
 

'This is not a portrait (storm)' - oil and acrylic on canvas, 80 x 100cm

As the title rather strongly suggests it ain't a portrait in that it is not of anyone in particular. It is also, for me, unusual in that it is more-or-less representational rather than abstracted. It is however textural (I like to get through a lot of that costly goop-in-tubes) so here's a bit of detail:

'This is not a portrait (storm)' - detail

'This is not a portrait (storm)' - detail - trying to access just a tiny bit of my inner Frank Auerbach maybe!

So, why the title? Well it sounds like it's a play on Rene Magritte's famous 'pipe' painting The Treachery of Images, but it isn't - at least not consciously so. Instead, please feel free to make of it, and the storm subtext, what you will - and more importantly, enjoy!

Introducing the Quantum Triptych

OK, here goes - the first proper 'look what I did' post on HubArtHub. To start, there's a few themes and about-me things that you need to know. The main one that's relevant here is that I am an unashamed nerd - in my non-artistic life (though that's being rapidly absorbed by the artistic one), I am a professional academic/ecologist with a penchant for physicsy/mathsy/sci-fi stuff. This informs at least some of my art. I also like to use recycled/repurposed materials (as in my jewellery), and this sometimes drives what I make my art from. So, what's the Quantum Triptych?

Well, I wanted to explore the aesthetic of very-big-and-very-small physics - you know, the interesting stuff that Brian Cox talks about on TV - fundamental particles, quantum-weirdness, cosmology and so on. I also wanted to look at this like a story with a beginning, middle and end. Actually, not the end - I chose 'now' as the end point, but the idea stays the same. Anyhow, I could babble on, but won't - here's the triptych, all 'mixed media on board' - I hope you like it.

Triptych part 1: '1.616 x 10^-35m'- this is the Planck length, measurement used in quantum physics, and the smallest unit of distance that has any real-world meaning - it is the realm of 'quantum foam', particles popping in and out of existence and so on.

Triptych part 2: 'The first three minutes' - after the Big Bang, the period when the Universe rapidly expanded and created matter as we know it. A lot happened in this short period of time, which also approximates to the length of many a song. This is a time of major transition, hence the loss of structure seen in parts 1 & 3.

Triptych part 3: 'Virgo Supercluster' - our corner of the Universe as it is now - a cluster of clusters of galaxies, and a structure that's actually large enough to be significant in what is a very grand scheme of things.

As yet unframed, but here's the triptych as it is intended to be displayed.

HubArtHub is open!

A quick image-free message to welcome you to this new enterprise - I'll be adding images of my works, and the works of others shortly, so please do watch this space.