jumble love

for me one of the best things about having my blog is the amazing friendships i have made. these connections with people are precious to me. lovely maditi is one of these people and we have kept in contact although she stopped blogging a while ago. i miss opening up her site to see her stunning photographs.

if you know maditi, you will agree with me when i say she has impeccable taste and a beautiful sense of style. and so modest too. 

maditi and her sister eva opened an online shop selling vintage pieces. there are so many beauties to choose from! the styling is gorgeous and seems to accentuate the stories behind the objects. such a pleasure to wander round.

visit jumble.

Lucian Freud

December 1922 – July 2011

new inspiration

i recently found these two new artists - stanford kay - i love his stacks of books - using bold strokes and colours to create almost abstract paintings.
 



and this painting by anthony cudahy grabbed me straight away. i love how there are large flat areas without details and there are also areas with more detail - like the hands..

lately..

above:: i have really been enjoying my pilot g-tec pen. 10 minutes every day fulfils my drawing fix... well part of it.
below:: a walk around tel aviv enjoying the shop windows.

wishing i could visit exhibitions over the seas like this one.

new discovery

Oracle at Delphi - Tai-Shan Schierenberg

yesterday, i came across an image of an artwork which i was convinced was by lucian freud. after following the link, i discovered that it was by another british painter - Tai-Shan Schierenberg. 
like freud, i just love his figurative style. his portraits are beautiful and i noticed he also enjoys trees ;).

back to the drawing board

i think its about time i stopped making excuses and return to the drawing board. i was tidying up lately and came across this painting. at the time i considered it unfinished and more of a sketch. i want to do more of these. i want to do a lot. a couple more hours in the day would be so useful. i read an article recently about creating art and that no matter what full days we have, we should make the effort every day to go into the studio, spare room, corner, whatever - and do something creative. even if its for half an hour. so this is my new resolution.

the heat is already with us. but of course, it is june today!!

a sad goodbye to the wonderful artist louise bourgeois who passed away yesterday at the age of 98. what an amazing artistic career she had.

zadok ben-david

last weekend we visited the tel aviv museum of art to make the last day of the much talked about exhibition of zadok ben-david - 'human nature'. the queues were unbelieveably long but as we went with little hili, we were allowed to jump the queue :). i was so upset when i realised i'd forgotten my sd card and had to take photos using my cellphone (hence the poor quality).

the exhibition was quite wonderful. it began with the 'blackfield' installation. 20,000 laser-cut steel floral silhouettes standing in a bed of sand. they are black on one side. as you walk down the side they seem to disappear and on their reverse side, rainbow colours appear. magical!!!

   

the larger sculptures were no less amazing. large cut-out figures whose bodies are filled in with tree foliage. after the initial viewing, you realise there is more than first meets the eye. beautiful!

lucian freud

i have posted about lucian freud before but being one of my absolute favourite artists, a couple of posts is just not enough. his work is so inspiring to me! i find his paintings so honest and full of energy. the confident, thick paint strokes and colours are bold and literal. his work makes me want to do portraits. to paint people. this is something i struggle with - a kind of fear of failing to be true to the subject - both in terms of their personality and their biological form. freud does this so well. both his oil paintings and stunning etchings are so intense in their candour.

freud paints people who he is close to in life but was also once asked to paint the queen. its interesting how he chose to paint such a grand figure on such a small canvas (23.5cm x 15.2cm)!

freud is also known as part of the 'london School of artists' along with michael andrews, frank auerbach (portrait by freud above), francis bacon, r. b. kitaj and leon kossoff - a group of artists who each in their own way took great interest in the human figure. wonderful.

i recently bought this book on freud and since reading through it a couple of days ago i am so excited about starting to work on people!