notes from the drifting spaces
Blair’s art notes…
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Spontaneous Glasgow Haiku
Breezy breezy And four guys Up on the roof びゅーんびゅん 四人の男が 屋根の上 Blue-flashing-grey Rainbow whistles Soaring gulls and swaying trees 青色ー点滅ー灰色 虹の口笛 舞い上がるカモメに木が揺れる
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Inspiring artist – Christo and Jeanne-Claude
I first discovered Christo and Jean-Claude’s work in an unusual and interesting book about relationships in 20thC art, architecture and science by O.B.Hardison ‘Disappearing Through the Skylight’ given to me by my friend Alan Wilson. It was written in the late eighties so although tech has moved on a fair bit it is still quite
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‘Suibokuga’ ink landscape joint pieces
These works are joint-pieces, landscape project wide scroll like artworks by students I have worked with. The first piece was made at my studio in winter and the second was made on the inspiring Abernethy annual art excursion (Hamilton College) to the Cairngorms area, where I am fortunate to enjoy making artwork and doing some
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Cooking some winter Japanese food
After some Tenzo cooking duties at New Year have been using genmai brown rice more for experimenting with filling chahan dishes, plus simple miso shiru soups like tofu and spring onion. You are going to need miso and katsuo dashi fish stock for that and some mirin, sake optional (but great to drink hot with
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2012 – The Year of the Dragon
‘When a dragon howls in its hidden cave, The entire universe becomes quiet; When a tiger roars on a cliff’s edge, A cold valley becomes warm. Katsu!’ Master Dogen Going by the lunar calendar we are entering the new year of the dragon, which in Japan are flying creatures of the sky rather than stuck
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Wandering along the edge of the North West
I’ve been out with my camera walking and looking at new sites not too far from Glasgow and trying to get some good atmospheric shots with my SLR. The phone camera shots here are a good memory trigger for later to get ideas going for sketchbook work and generally remembering the sights and sounds, the
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A thought on Zazen and painting
Zazen Silent movement Passing through the stillness And empty form. This wee haiku is a thought on zazen and experience. After my recent studio shift, zazen and considering the looser paintings I’ve been doing, I think it’s good not to bring too much, or any at all although this can be impossible, of the bias,
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Hill-walking up through frozen moon snow, Ben Vrackie Scotland
moon snow guided by the rolling moon heated by the february sun Glinting and sunbeams – obscured horizons Above animal tracks, boot prints, Mountain hare prints in blue-white snow – Towards the half-moon rolling down Ben Vrackie’sWhite hill edge topped by south pointing iceSnow fingers from monstrous frozen rust structure,Rising from the summit’s ocean floor
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Fragmented scultpure and installation
Over the last few months I’ve been continuing to build up new ideas about 3D work in my practice, using various techniques, props, lighting and digital photography to explore presentation and atmosphere… It’s great fun building installations and working from these in sketchbooks, such as my dynamics studies, below left, (some tighter work and looser