The Kick-about #28 takes a film by Howard Sooley, as a jumping off point. The subject of the film is Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage. I loved the film. It is beautifully peaceful. My image, a single one this time, is not very thrilling because it’s simply a rendition of Prospect Cottage, with the garden made even more minimalist, save for a few small creatures dotted about.
I’d love to do more but I haven’t time. However, this little exercise was a useful one for me, in that I was consciously dampening down my rather over-excitable palette, and also practising the careful placement of a few elements in a pared back landscape. Looking at it now, I can see that I haven’t gone far enough with either. But I’ll post it anyway.
And here is Howard Sooley’s lovely short film. Enjoy!
Time Out! For the twenty-sixth Kick-About Phil Gomm, blogger extraordinaire is celebrating a year of kicking about with artists from around the world.
This fortnight, Phil is doing all the work. He’s assembling a collection of everyone’s favourite kick from our year long kick-about. I participated in less than half of them, so that shouldn’t really be hard, but I’ve travelled down several dark, overgrown roads and I am fond of all of them. Those places of the imagination that are dripping, have hooting noises, and a buzz in the background; where a soft-looking plant will feel unnaturally firm to the touch, or a solid-looking branch will crumple in on itself as you brush by, or turn to look at you and hiss. The light is curious; dim and yet saturating the environment with too much colour.
Below are some of the places I’ve visited over the last year, and though they are dark, there is life. Pulsing with energy. Brimming with potential.
The Girl, the Snake and the Cicada. Girl meets snake. The Girl, the Snake and the Cicada. Girl meets snake in a full colour forest. More creepy fairytale imagery: a grotesque fairy, possibly involved in a kidnap. Part of the settlement at TRAPPIST-1e including some of the local flora and faunaMetropolis – the Eternal Gardens – the first version, before the women turned into bird people.Metropolis – the Eternal Gardens with bird people.
Phil, thanks for the kick-about. For some of us, making art is as natural as breathing, and sometimes almost as necessary to life. During a dark time in history, thanks for stimulating art prompts among creative friends, unfettered by constraints, rules or judgement. Freedom to make in any direction. It’s been a joy. And since you want one favourite, I’m selecting the last one. Those Bird Ladies. And I hope they sort themselves out soon and send that bureaucratic penguin back to Antarctica.
Here’s the page of goat sketches done when I briefly considered making puppets of the 3 Billy Goats Gruff for Clive Hicks-Jenkins’s Puppet Challenge. I liked the idea of using crumpled paper to twist into the horn shapes of these fellows. But first I had to remind myself of what makes a goat look like a goat. I didn’t spend very long at it. Just long enough to get to first base. Here’s first base.
A page of goats drawn in the car at soccer training. The middle-bottom one looks more like a Labradoodle I think.
Loose squiggles. Trying to get the ‘essential’ goat.
Thinking about how nicely the horns would twist in damp brown paper…
Thinking about how I would differentiate between Big, Middle and Littlest Billy Goats Gruff. Horns, eye position, nose length, beard. No 3. should have a very long beard, but as you can see in the top picture, he has been thwarted by the edge of the page.
And of course a troll sketch to go with them. Only one.
If you like Billy Goats and graphic novels, you might like to visit Lucinda Gifford’s blog to see her great take on these characters.
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