My-lounge-view, biro on paper (2008)

Last week I posted a painting of my back fence so I thought this week I would observe record and post the view from the opposite view, my front lounge! Large Version

Not the most exciting views I concur but it’s a glimpse into the world I see and live in. As I spend most of my time starring out of the front window from the comfort of my own home I thought it was appropriate I include the view I spend most of my time looking at.

After finishing this particular drawing I admitted to myself the regret I had missed the opportunity to sketch the views from all of my front rooms I have lived in, which is allot by the way!. I believe on last count its 7 homes in 5 years and have included a diverse range of properties from a council estate, terraced house, 70’s retro house, new build house, city centre apartment, 17th century cottage in the middle of a woods to my current settlement.

Jezzzzz when you write it down like that it looks quiet bad (amount of homes that is) well my mother did tell me that my father was a gypsy when he was younger and moved around with the fairgrounds allot….might explain a few things hey!

My-lounge-view, Zoom 02, biro (2008)

Something I should point out is all my drawings that I feature on this art blog are scanned but as some of you might have picked up on its not big enough to capture my A3/A2 drawings. I have to put the picture back together with Photoshop on the computer before posting on this blog. I don’t take photographs of sketches because it doesn’t pick up all the marks I make and dilutes the drawing, in my personal opinion anyway.

By pure accident this process sometimes creates compositions that just work and this is one of them occasions. I have included the drawings on display in zooms 1-4 as I scanned them. See what you think I would be interested to hear what you think of the different crops on display here and if you prefer any of them to the original. A large version of the original sketch can be found here which you may or may not be able to view the seems as I joined the picture together by.

My-lounge-view, Zoom 01, biro (2008)

My-lounge-view, Zoom 03, biro (2008)

The other stand out feature for me is patterns we as humans seem to establish when we create or build just about anything, we love them! As you can see on this particular zoom the bricks, tiles and windows all have a pattern or to use another word order.

Other details which you may or may not be able to see is the train which is passing by from right to left in the foreground just below the tower block, which I never knew was there until you start to look closely at your familiar environment.

Let me know your thoughts on this sketch and would be good to hear stories of your front views!

Bobby Mookini

Back Fence, Acrylic on cavas paper (2008)

Before anyone comments or asks me via email this is not a painting from behind bars

Large Version

Ok this is essentially the view from my back garden and was created the same time as my previous painting ‘Manufactured’ for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. I made the mistake of putting some of my back catalog on my flickr profile page and a few people have emailed to ask why I have not featured this on my blog.

So here it is and I will continue to explain the theory behind this one but before I do better point out this does not work as well on screen as it does large in person. Why not? The composition arrangement of this painting (i.e. the white areas) is to create a steady illusion. If you stand about 2-3 meters from the original and view this at eye level whilst taking a couple of minutes to study this piece you will subtly notice the white lines start to disappear and you can see the painting beneath as a whole. It’s an old visual illusion trick but the brain works hard to fill in the missing information so you are effectively painting the missing information, as the spectator, with your own eyes.

I encourage you to view the large version of this on my flickr page and see if it works for you, have to say tried it myself and it still works (sort of) but It not as intense if I’m honest. You will notice two versions of the painting on my flickr page one to give you the opportunity to test the illusion the other is the final artwork framed which now sits opposite on my wall from the original landscape I recorded it from.

Back Fence Zoom, (2008)

Ok back to the creative journey. I’m sad to say I am unable to find the original drawings I recorded for this painting and after spending 2 consecutive nights (hence the delay of my weekly post) tipping my house upside down have not been able to find them :( As repeat visitors to this blog are aware I like to document the whole process from start to finish as I feel it brings the audience closer to each painting or creation shall we say.

The inspiration behind this art work as the name suggest in my back garden fence. The initial spark originated from washing up looking out of the kitchen window up the steep hill my garden sits onto the back fence. It was very early morning, better confess it was last nights tea I was cleaning up,  and as the sun rise it caught my attention the way light had begun to pour through the slats or to use a simpler word gaps in the fence. As the sky started to fill up with colour the view beyond the man made obstruction had started to display it s beautiful landscape into my dark garden.

Now I know not many artist will claim to have been inspired whilst washing up but many of the people who know me off-line have commented furiously at times for my tendency to drift off into a trance and this was one of them moments.

I got up the next morning in the anticipation of a recurrence this same event would present it self to me and allow me to record this colorful observation. Wrong!!! What I got was lots of rain, stormy clouds and a very dark landscape almost unrecognizable to view anything through the dark void….but then something happened  a figure in a bright luminous work jacket continued to walk past my blank canvas and I scribbled this down. The kitchen light must of caused his jacket to reflect as it looked amazing this yellow strobe effect as he continued to progress from left to right. As all things in life you start off doing one thing and end up with a completely different destination, makes it interesting though!

Over a few different days I recorded studies (drawings) and the same figure or man walked his dog everyday around the same time (6:30ish annoyingly!) allowing me to capture his presence. For the final painting I thought I would recreate the original sky as close as technically possible from memory inline with the original spark but to also insert the character I had observed. As it happens I think the two works together quite well, could even argue the figure makes the painting. I often think to myself if the guy was to look through the gaps in the fence he might see the painting and himself…ha…how mad would that be as well as disturbing thinking about that man looking through my fence..hmmm….maybe not!

Back Fence Zoom 2 (2008)

The sky above was painted to guide your eyes from left to right which in effect or should make your eye’s fill in the gaps as it scans across horizontally, bit like how animation works. The large gaps do exist in real life but this feature helps the eye movement stop and start allowing the information to feed in.

Maunfactured, Acrylic on Canvas (2008)

Ok if you reaction is similar to my family, friends, work colleagues and the framers then you are probably thinking what the hell is going on here…Let’s just say my Gran (95) was not impressed with this painting

I better proceed and explain the journey and how I arrived at this painting me thinks!

Towards the start of the year I decided I would enter this years ‘Summer Exhibition’ at the Royal Academy in London. This is an annual international competition which is open to professional, amateur and practically anybody who wishes to submit a piece of work (at a cost of £25 per creation mind! Least I’m contributing to this countries art collection I guess). Each year in January the Academy releases a word or subject matter which artists can choose to submit work based around. There are various rules, frames, labels, transportation and so on but essentially a panel of judges select from over 11,000 entries which work is to be hung in the gallery that summer. This year’s word was ‘Man Made’. 

Large Version

Maunfactured – Zoom, Acrylic on Canvas (2008)

As always I intend to describe my personal journey for each observation and in this case better explain why we have some naked skin suits here! Time to dive deeper (warning!).

You will notice from previous post on this blog I have this annoying habit of flickering in between the physical (actual) world I record and the one I interpret from. To expand on this I believe its part of my remit as a visual observer to document the under currents or the subtle movements we may or may not be aware of, or in fact heading towards.

As we all float down the ‘river of life’ (apologies for the cheese here) we are all very busy and occupied just keeping afloat, avoiding obstacles even just navigating round the unexpected bends to notice what is really happening beneath us. In keeping with this admittedly pretentious analogy theme I like to look beneath the surface and observe what I see and it tends to mean the tempo is a little faster or to translate this gibberish predict the shape of things to come further down the path.

Manufactured sketch, biro on paper (2008)

What’s this got to do with the skin suits I hear you all screaming now, well I have a personal fascination with the human image throughout our art heritage and human history documentation. This influence has leaded, in particular, for me to visualise our intervention (Man Made) in our species evolution and to magnify the consequences of these actions for others to peek into.

I do accept this painting is not to every bodies taste and by the way it did not get selected for the Royal Academies Summer Exhibition, surprisingly. But I have merely painted what I saw and it was not intended to be provocative as some spectators have commented on, although I except it can come across this way.

Manufactured sketch zoom, (2008)

I think it’s safe to say it won’t be hanging on my Grans wall anytime in the near future but keeping true to my own personal philosophy I observe then record what and how I see it. I would of coarse be interested to hear your thoughts on this admittedly bizarre creation and what your take on it is as a spectator.

Large Version

P.S. Did you notice I removed the hair from the final painting, it just didn’t look right

Study in Kilsney (biro on paper- 2008)

Large version:

Inspired from my study of King’s Cross (Scroll down) I thought I would draw something from life which is the complete opposite. It doesn’t get any further away from the chaos of the city than from the middle of the Yorkshire dales (North England) early in the morning.

My journey started at 6:30 in the morning, on with the warm clothes, a sketch pad and my trusted biro pen. Whilst I’m on the subject of Biro a couple of people have asked why I use Biro and not pencil or professional pen and ink, simple I like the casualness of the medium and I tend to find when I use pencils I spend most of my time erasing rather than drawing. Using a Biro every mark has to be confident and relevant to the recording of the end image. It makes me a better and faster observer I find and I like the contrast and amount of grade (tonal depth) I can achieve.