A horse with no name...

A giant white horse has been chosen as a new £2m art commission for south east England dubbed "Angel of the South".
The design, by former Turner Prize winner Mark Wallinger, was selected from a three-strong shortlist as part of the Ebbsfleet Landmark Project.
His design for the public art commission will see a horse standing on all four hooves at 33 times life-size.
Once built, it will dominate the north Kent landscape, standing as high as Nelson's Column at about 164ft (50m).
The announcement was made at Swan Valley Community School in Swanscombe in Kent, which overlooks the Springhead Park area where the giant statue will be built.
The landmark, which will be close to Eurostar's international station, is intended as an iconic symbol representing the regeneration of north-west Kent, and the eastwards growth of London.
'Tough competition'
Mr Wallinger, who was chosen over artists Daniel Buren and Richard Deacon, described it as a "tremendously exciting project".
"There was some very tough competition and I am honoured that the horse has won through," he said.
His team will be involved in an application for planning permission from Gravesham Borough Council, which is expected to take about 12 months.
The Ebbsfleet Landmark Project has been dubbed the "Angel of the South", in reference to Antony Gormley's Angel of the North sculpture which overlooks the A1 motorway in Gateshead.
A prancing white horse is the logo for the county council and has been the symbol of Kent for hundreds of years.
However, a sculpture of the Invicta, supported by Kent County Council in response to Mr Wallinger's entry, was rejected by judges last year.
Victoria Pomery, chairman of the Ebbsfleet Landmark Project's selection panel, said their decision was based on "artistic merit".
She added: "Mark is a superb artist of world renown and his sculpture will become a real landmark for Ebbsfleet and the whole region."
Last week, organisers of the project said they were still hoping it would be in place for the London 2012 Olympics, despite the recession.
Project manager Mark Davy revealed to the BBC that there could be short-term funding problems for the Ebbsfleet scheme.
It was commissioned by Eurostar, London & Continental Railways and Land Securities, the developers of Ebbsfleet Valley.

Great news, something for us southerners!

which got me thinking - famous white horses..... then famous horses so here goes... more will be added shortly as and when my mind comes up with them!

Tony Hart

Tony Hart

Artist and children's presenter Tony Hart has died, aged 83.
Hart, who lived in Surrey, had suffered from health problems for a number of years, including two strokes. His family said he died peacefully.
Isn't it sad when you hear that one of your favourite childhood influences pasts away. For those old enough to remember Tony Hart will recall beautiful memories of a charming man presenting art programs aimed at children who loved art. He gave us insights to techniques and ways of producing art with his long standing plasticine friend morph. The gallery section was always my favourite, I used to sit there in front of the wooden surround television remarking on different pieces as they appeared claiming that I knew how they did it or I could do better; the fact was, they all entered their artwork, I however never got around to it (nothing new there!)

Before his Take Hart program he appeared on a program that I always thought was aimed at people who were deaf, today I don't know if that is true - I will have to look further into this. The program had a brilliant title image - Vision On - it looked like a bug when vertical, then when viewed horizontally revealed what the title was, as a very young boy this was amazing.

He was a gentle man, I last saw him at the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea where I was exhibiting at the time, he was running a short fun session or children, he looked extremely frail but to go up to him and say thank you was very special.

Whether using paints, clay, textiles, foodstuffs or a cast-off object of almost any description, Hart had the magical ability to produce competent, entertaining pieces of work at impressive speed and in an unpatronising fashion. His avuncular, mildly eccentric manner made him the ideal host for children of all ages; indeed, at the height of one of his popularity in the mid 1980s, Hart’s request that viewers send in their own pictures to exhibit in “The Gallery”, a large wall showcasing their efforts, generated 6,000 submissions a week.
Throughout this time Hart also worked on the original Blue Peter programmes, the first of which was broadcast in October 1958. In the weekly transmissions he told and illustrated stories, invariably about a little white elephant called Packi. His loose involvement with Blue Peter continued into the 1960s with the creation of the galleon which became the programme’s well-known logo . Aware of Blue Peter’s enormous popularity, Hart asked for a penny for every time his design was used. His request was turned down and he was paid a flat fee of £100 instead

The affable presenter inspired children to paint and draw on shows like Vision On, Take Hart and Hartbeat for nearly 50 years before he retired in 2001.
Fellow artist Rolf Harris led tributes, calling Hart "a very gentle and talented guy".
"He enthused and inspired a whole generation of kids into creating their own works of art, simple or complex."
Hart's agent, Roc Renals, said the presenter had died in the early hours of Sunday morning.
He said: "I was for many years his best friend, agent, manager and publicist. He suffered two strokes many years ago and his health declined since then."
"Thousands and thousands of young people who are now grown up will thank him for inspiring them to take up art," he added.
Wilf Lunn, Hart's friend who worked with him on Vision On for nine years, said he was a television pioneer.
"His legacy was the fact he really started all these children's programmes, Art Attack and all that, and he was the guy, right at the beginning.
"And he was the guy who had all these little tricks that teachers used to use because they make things look easy, and we got people into doing it. And he was such a nice man."

street art and handcuffs

A street artist famous for his red, white and blue "Hope" posters of President Barack Obama has been arrested on warrants accusing him of tagging property with graffiti, police said Saturday.Shepard Fairey was arrested Friday night on his way to the Institute of Contemporary Art for a kickoff event for his first solo exhibition, called "Supply and Demand."

The story of his famous Obama portrait, a large-scale, mixed-media stencilled collage, is already taking on the mythic qualities of a quintessential American narrative. Emerging from humble beginnings in the back alleys of Los Angeles, the portrait became an instant sensation, a pop culture "icon" that was willingly embraced by the Obama political machine.
Before the President-elect sweared his oath of office on Abraham Lincoln's personal Bible, the portrait has became part of the Smithsonian's permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery, which is conveniently only a few blocks from the White House. Fittingly for the narrative of change, the Obama portrait was donated to the gallery by the head of Mr Obama's transition team, Tony Podesta, and his wife, Heather.
The striking resemblance to the Che Guevara portrait which has decorated generations of student bed-sits, has not been dwelt on. But a little way from where Fairey's portrait will hang there is a small portrait of the Cuban revolutionary by Charles "Chaco" Chavez, drawn from the famous photograph by Alberto Korda.
The portrait gallery is better known for its stuffy collection of George Washington portraits than street art, but the museum's curator, Carolyn Kinder Carr, said simply: "We all fell in love with it. We always like portraits that reflect a particular moment in history, and we like the fact that it is an image that resides in popular culture."
He is becoming the ‘darling’ of the under-art world – deemed along side as Banksy, many say that his posters are a throwback to past political representations

Looking and scouting around the interweb I came across this piece written by artist Mark Vallen and thanks to him for this very eredite piece.

What initially disturbed me about the art of Shepard Fairey is that it displays none of the line, modeling and other idiosyncrasies that reveal an artist’s unique personal style. His imagery appears as though it’s xeroxed or run through some computer graphics program; that is to say, it is machine art that any second-rate art student could produce. In fact, I’ve never seen any evidence indicating Fairey can draw at all. Even the art of Andy Warhol, reliant as it was upon photography and mass commercial imagery, displayed passages of gestural drawing and flamboyant brushstrokes.

Fairey has developed a successful career through expropriating and recontextualizing the artworks of others, which in and of itself does not make for bad art. Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein based his paintings on the world of American comic strips and advertising imagery, but one was always aware that Lichtenstein was taking his images from comic books; that was after all the point, to examine the blasé and artificial in modern American commercial culture. When Lichtenstein painted Look Mickey, a 1961 oil on canvas portrait of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, everyone was cognizant of the artist’s source material - they were in on the joke. By contrast, Fairey simply filches artworks and hopes that no one notices - the joke is on you.Plagiarism is the deliberate passing off of someone else’s work as your own, and Shepard Fairey may be unfamiliar with the term - but not the act. This article is not about the innocent absorption of visual ideas that later materialize unconsciously in an artist’s work, we do after all live in a maelstrom of images and we can’t help but be affected by them. Nor am I referring to an artist’s direct influences - which artist can claim not to have been inspired by techniques or styles employed by others? What I am concerned with is the brazen, intentional copying of already existing artworks created by others - sometimes duplicating the originals without alteration - and then deceiving people by pawning off the counterfeit works as original creations.

After further searching I came across these images which have a link to Fairey's Hope pice, they appeal to my sense of humour

Damien Hirst and Comic Relief - now you are having a laugh

He's at it again, more publicity for the British artist Damien Hirst. Not satisfied with overloading the art market with his art, continuous comments on the art world he has now ventured into charity - not giving money from his art gotten gains but by designing a label for a bottle of wine or two. Comic relief are to get a % from the takings but in my opinion he's again using it for his own publicity surely he could bypass all this and just donate.

The former wild man of British art, Damien Hirst, has designed an exclusive label for two new wines to help raise money for Comic Relief.The Bristol-born veteran 'Young British Artist', who shot to international fame in 1991 with The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, a shark pickled in formaldehyde, has put his talent to creating a wine label for the charity. The wines, featuring Hirst's signature dot motif, could become something of a collectors' item given the artist's profile – Hirst's diamond encrusted skull, For the Love of God, sold for £50 million in August last year. Red nose Red Pinotage Shiraz 2008 and Red nose White Chenin Blanc 2008 will retail at £4.99 a bottle. £1 from each bottle sold will be donated to Comic Relief. Produced by SAAM Mountain Vineyards in the South African region of Paarl, the wines were chosen for the project by Jancis Robinson MW and Tim Atkin MW, whose tasting notes appear on the back. SAAM, meaning together in Afrikaans, is a new venture that unites forty South African growers who manage wineries from Paarl to the Durbanville Hills. The wines go on sale throughout the UK on 1 February.
Source decanter news

I've just dropped a canvas!

Accidents will happen, (Elvis Costello maybe), anyhow occasionally we drop things, knock items over, touch and mark objects. Why am I mentioning this, well, I cam across this and thought it was worth posting. I haven't just dropped a canvas, it fell off the studio wall as I was setting it to take a photo of it, no damage to report!

When he accidentally put his elbow through his $139m Picasso in 2006, Las Vegas casino king Steve Wynn only had himself to blame. But who stabbed a Rembrandt? And why was a Rodin sculpture blown up? John Hind puts 13 unlucky works of art in the frame

Pablo Picasso goes 'Pop'
One day after informing them he'd just agreed to sell Le Reve for a record $139m to a hedge fund manager, Las Vegas casino kingpin Steve Wynn invited guests to view it in his office. While explaining the painting's provenance, he put his elbow through it, exclaiming: 'Oh no, oh shit!' A conservator charged $90,500 for 'rissverklebung' (thread reintegration) and then Wynn put in a claim to Lloyds for $54m, based on a post-restoration valuation of $85m. 'Picasso used the cheapest thin canvas - and it went "Pop!", like shrink-wrap,' noted Wynn. 'I almost made the biggest mistake of my life selling that painting, but I got lucky and poked a hole in it.'

Diego Velazquez gets slashed
After repeatedly slashing the naked back of the woman in the Rokeby Venus at London's National Gallery in 1914, suffragette Mary Richardson explained: 'I tried to destroy the picture of the most beautiful woman in mythological history as a protest against the government for destroying Mrs Pankhurst. Justice is as much an element of beauty as colour and outline.' Thirty-eight years later she gave a different explanation for her actions: 'I didn't like the way men gaped at it all day long.' In 1918 three suffragists attacked 13 paintings in Manchester City Art Gallery with hammers - three of the works were by Victorian painter George Frederic Watts, the worst damaged being his Prayer

Rodin is dynamited
In 1970 one of Auguste Rodin's original casts of his world-famous sculpture The Thinker, situated outside the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio, was dynamited by members of the radical group The Weathermen, who later accidentally blew themselves up. The lower parts of the legs of The Thinker were annihilated, its base expanded, twisted and contorted. Since the decision was made to re-mount it in its damaged form, a generation has grown up in Cleveland believing that the sculpture was conceived that way by Rodin. At Tate Britain in 2003 Rodin's The Kiss was (with permission) wrapped in a mile of string by artist Cornelia Parker, prompting outraged artist Piers Butler to cut the string.

Mondrian is vomited on
The head conservator at New York's Moma says that decisions to undertake restoration, such as 'pigment work-ups', are often based on whether 'the thrill has gone from a painting'. Similar motivation was claimed by artist Jubal Brown, who ate blue cake icing and blue Jell-O before entering Moma in order to projectile vomit on to Piet Mondrian's Composition With Red and Blue - to 'liven it up... I found its lifelessness threatening'. Brown had months earlier vomited red on to Raoul Dufy's Harbour at le Havre in the Art Gallery of Ontario, where the head conservator said: 'Fingerprints can be much more difficult. Touching - of abstracts especially - is chronic here.'

Rembrandt is slashed, slashed again and then sprayed with acid
The Nightwatch holds the dubious honour of being attacked three times in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. In 1911 an ex-navy chef, disgruntled by discharge and considering it the state's most valuable possession, attacked it with a knife 'to cool my anger'. In 1975 an unemployed teacher, declaring 'Jesus sent me', slashed it repeatedly, later explaining: 'Rembrandt was the master of light, but when he painted The Nightwatch he was under the influence of the dark.' In 1990 an escaped psychiatric patient sprayed sulphuric acid on it. Released nine years later, the same attacker cut a large circular hole in Picasso's painting Nude in Front of the Garden

Andres Serrano is given a good kicking and then gets hammered
In 1997 the director of the National Gallery in Melbourne closed down an exhibition after two attacks in two days upon Serrano's Piss Christ. In the first attack, Christian John Allen Haywood wrenched the photograph - of Christ on the cross submerged in urine - from the wall and kicked it; in the second, a youth hammered the photograph eight times while another youth 'distracted guards' by jump-kicking a juxtaposed Serrano portrait of a Ku Klux Klan member. Last year, hooded neo-Nazis broke into the Kulturen Gallery in Skane, Sweden, to attack photographs in Serrano's The History of Sex, then posted film of it on YouTube.

Marcus Harvey is splashed with ink
In 1997, at the Sensation show at London's Royal Academy, artist Peter Fisher threw red and blue ink at Harvey's Myra, hours after another artist, Jacques Role, had thrown eggs at it. Sensation, which also included Tracey Emin's Everyone I Ever Slept With (later destroyed in a £60m warehouse fire) subsequently moved to Brooklyn's Museum of Art. There, Chris Ofili's Holy Virgin Mary (portraying an African Virgin decorated with dung and pornography) was sprayed with white paint by retired teacher Dennis Heiner, whose blind wife found it blasphemous. When Mayor Guiliani withheld the museum's grant, 200 'art lovers' threw dung at a painting of Guiliani as the Virgin Mary.

Claude Monet is punched
One midnight last year, five drunks somehow accessed the rear of the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, wherein one of them punched a hole in Monet's prized painting of the Seine. Following the attack, the minister of culture promised to seek stronger sanctions against the painting's 'desecrators'. A week later, having visited Avignon's Museum of Contemporary Art and kissed an all-white abstract painting by Cy Twombly, a woman appeared in court and heard the owner's lawyer declare her lipstick stain 'as aggressive as a punch'. She insisted that she loved Twombly's work, had been 'overcome with passion' in its presence and 'thought he would understand'.

Leonardo Da Vinci is blasted with a shotgun
In 1987, for reasons he couldn't explain, ex-soldier Robert Cambridge drew a 12-bore shotgun from under his coat and fired at the Virgin's breast in Da Vinci's Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist at London's National Gallery, resulting in 'cauliflower-like' damage. In 1962 an artist had thrown an ink bottle at the same painting, asking afterwards: 'Would you be prepared to die to protect it?' Also at the National, in 1990 Federico Barocci's Madonna and Child was slashed by Martin Came, an art lover experiencing 'subconscious distress' in relation to the painting due to recent separation from his wife and child.

Pablo Picasso is graffitied
During an anti-war protest at NY's Moma in 1974, 'KILL LIES ALL' was sprayed on Guernica in red by Tony Shafrazi - then an artist, now a top art dealer. He explained: 'I wanted to retrieve Guernica from art history and give it life. I wanted to trespass beyond that invisible barrier that no one is allowed to cross; to dwell within the act of the painting's creation, put my hand within it.' The following year Guernica was moved to Spain, where it was exhibited in a bullet-proof container with armed guards on either side. Picasso, noted Shafrazi, once painted over a Modigliani.

Damien Hirst is rubbished and inked
Art not recognised as art has often fallen prey to cleaners. The most celebrated case is cleaner Emmanuel Asare's bin-bagging at London's Eyestorm Gallery in 2001 of Damien Hirst's installation Painting by Numbers, a representation of his studio and its detritus. 'I didn't think for a second it was art,' explained Asare. Hirst found this 'hysterical'. Less so the pouring of black ink into his sculpture Away From the Flock during an exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in 1994. The perpetrator, artist Mark Bridger, re-labelled the piece Black Sheep. 'I was providing an interesting addendum to his work,' said Bridger in court.

Michelangelo takes a hammering
In St Peter's in Rome in 1972, geologist Laszlo Toth attacked the Virgin cradling Jesus in Michelangelo's Pieta, removing her arm at the elbow and most of her nose, and chipping her eye. He explained: 'Today is my 33rd birthday, the age Christ died. I did it because the mother of God does not exist. I am Christ. I am Michelangelo. Now I can die.' And in 1991, an unsuccessful artist hammered a toe off David, leading conservators to discover the origins of Michelangelo's marble.

Tracey Emins bed springs are tested
In 1999, at Tate Britain, artists Yuan Cai and JJ Xi intervened in Tracey Emin's installation My Bed. 'Although they got on the bed for a few seconds, mostly they just threatened guards with kung-fu kicks,' said witness Harry Pye. 'They realised we were serious artists - doing it purely from a creative point,' said Xi. 'Don't take seriously Emin saying we were "like failed artists threatening to jump off Waterloo Bridge unless given a gallery" - probably she got drunk.' In 2000, Cai and Xi urinated on Marcel Duchamp's La Fontaine to alleged cheers from Tate Modern visitors.

art work by paul talbot

artwork by paul talbot

Came across this site the other week, had a play withit and produced several quick videos for my rugby club, well they are not quite videos just another way of doing a power point I suppose. It costs nothing to makew a thirty second pece, I subscribed and you get a lot more, good fun and a good way to put photos together

some recent work - drawing for money!

Recently, I have undertaken some small drawing work - group and couples approx. A4 the Napoleon is A2, all have been drawn on hand made paper and using a HB propelling pencil - 0.3mm lead. The challenge has been not just getting the likeness right, but more importantly for me not using an eraser, partly because if you rub out the surface of the paper changes and therefore the mark made is not one intended, also in trying to work in this manner makes every mark matters and instilles a requirement to be precise

The first drawing - ordered from Czech on a trip their last year from Petra who is a major fan of the French hero. Over a drink or six I agreed to produce a drawing for him, not something I would normally do and tried putting it off as much as possible anyhow, the night before he was due to arrive from Czech I spent a couple of intense hours in my studio working to complete it! I almost completed by the early hours of the morning, only requiring final touches. The next day at work I took it in with me to finish off before school, which, gladly I did. The result was that a colleague saw the drawing remarked how excellent it was and then commissioned my to do a drawing for her, from an old family photograph! (the original was not in great condition and only 8cm x 4cm!!

This has led onto more drawing commissions, the later being of a colleagues sister and fiance for their wedding present/use for table places at the wedding itself.

I must admit, I don't particularly enjoy working from photos in this way although I set myself little challenges with each one. The family group was to get the detail of the garden in the background, the couple texture and folds of the clothing.

Anyhow, I have a few more in the pipeline and the money I get is a nice bonus

How much heat can a koala bear!

We might be in the midst of snow flurries, but spare a thought for those down under particularly those in Adelaide; where temperature are soring above 40 degrees.

Sent this via email from the Adelaide times: because of the hot weather koalas are suffering through lack of water, locals have been out trying to give them some water to keep them alive, below are a couple of images taken whilst helping them

Do you reckon we would do the same for squirrels over here - doubt it!

source: Adelaide Now

shortening the gap!

Back again!! Well this time more determined to keep up to date with writing this blog, updating my website as well as continuing to keep tracks of the rugby website I administrate for.

At present, like so many other I am suffering with the snow.. well not really suffering as such, just getting the bottom of my jeans wet when walking the dog (since last really posted we have now got a new member to the family - Scruff the dog, a terrier cross puppy)

Have endured two full snow days this week and a half day today - taking just over 2 hours to drive to 5 miles to work this morning!!
I have been doing a little bit of artwork: two drawing commissions, and working out sketches for a painting based on the history of football ladybird book that I received as a present in a box set from my good friend Oz (more on him later - music wise)
I thought I'd break myself in slowly before getting up to full steam!

The recent snow flurries have brought excitement in the household, namely the dog's first experience of the cold white stuff. He has loved it, unlike the venture into the sea during the summer in Cornwall so I thought I'd post a few images to get the ball rolling as it were. The aim is to update with the intensity that I had previously done (hopefully)

view from kitchen door - 8am Monday morning as taken by JJ

The Art of Snow

Snow Aliens created by JJ

a big gap

finally sitting in front of a computer with the determination to keep on top of the blog. Looking at my last enteries, which are some time past, I needed a gap time, working on many other ideas, projects and generally experiencing more in life than just sat at a computer!
Of course, having an internet connection that is reliable is helpful and not being able to connect wirelessly from my studio meant that making regular enteries has been difficult; but then again if an effort was made I could have done it - pure laziness? Well, more to the point, I suppose I lost the bug to blog, having spent lot time of time updating blogsites, websites nd general IT stuff I became a little bored. Having just rebuilt one of the websites I run I feel that I am ready to get back on the saddle .........

busy busy

not been near a computer for a while....

spent five days in Czech republic - with four friends, staying in the country, more to follow

went to a truly fab gig, originally turned down tickets but soooo glad I went - again more detailes to come.. edwin Collins (I'll write my own version but in the meantime here is a taster)

All things considered, he's doing fantastically well. In February 2005, Edwyn Collins was hospitalised with two cerebral haemorrhages. The very worst seemed a very likely possibility but with the help of the finest surgery the NHS could offer, his family and his iron will, he survived.
Two years later, he has a new album - mostly recorded before his hospitalisation - and he's back on stage. So far, so miraculous, but, despite his plainly sincere assertion that "I'm enjoying this gig immensely" and the manner in which he couldn't stop himself laughing like Basil Brush's giggly cousin between songs, I'm not wholly sure whether performing is the ideal way forward for him right now, despite the wishful thinking of a crowd willing him to be further into his recovery than, for the moment, he actually is.
The effects of Collins's condition were plain as he sat before his lectern and sang his 50-minute set, accompanied a band led by former Aztec Camera leader Roddy Frame: he cannot walk unaided and the right side of his body is seemingly partially paralysed.
Although a wretched, ear-splitting sound distorted everything, as Collins smiled his way through his best known Orange Juice songs What Presence?, the deliciously languid Rip It Up and even a punky Blue Boy, his voice was shorn of its pre-illness wry warmth.
There is always hope though and the man who had surprised the medical profession surprised the Arts Theatre shortly before the end when Collins, accompanied only by Frame, unveiled a brand new song (the first written since his return from hospital) provisionally titled Some Sweet Day and, magically, Collins found his voice. When, clear and true, he sang "I've always been lucky in my life ... some sweet day we'll get there", it was as moving as anything I've ever seen. He hasn't beaten his body yet by any means - but he'll get there at his own pace and in his own time.

then the other night.... Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - he was on form.... more to follow

on the home front - rugby season has now finished, sunday mornings are mine again!

here I am looking best and describing the underhand trick of hair pulling!!!!
currently my two laptops are causing me problems and have had to resort to using Jos, nothing of mine is stored on it so at present things are a little thin
hope to be fully upto speed by the weekend

where, why, and then back!!

doesn't time fly..... yet again a month has passed without me surfacing on the old blogsite.
where: czech republic, at home/busy working/work
why: internet connections down, spending time with family and friends
going to gigs, recently saw Madness at the teenage cancer trust - albert hall, took JJ first gig he 's been to - loved it, great night
involved in rugby club/coaching
visit down to devon
basically, haven't spent much time sat at the computer and needed a break from it - well, refreshed and raring to go, my aim in the next two weeks is to complete nail work, finish portrait (drawing for a chap in czech) and get back to the wonderful world of bloggin g