My latest invention is an almost spherical transducer for use with what I call Tetraphonic Sound. 5.1 sound is rather two dimensional. A better solution is four speakers arranged like points of a tetrahedron with the listener at the central point. A spherical transducer is much better for this arrangement than a cone that pulsates in an out like a crude stimulatory device.
I'm now half way through the overpainting of my migraine picture, the flesh part I was worried about has worked. This is my fourth picture to use an underpainting and glaze, the others were tutorials with varying degrees of success but all of which taught me something. I've got one other 'serious' one though about computer games. That one is half complete because I am unsure about the composition being up to scratch; perhaps I'll finish it one day.
The theft of four pictures in Brazil yesterday prompted me to dream of paintings last night. Wonderfully, I dreamt that Salvador Dali was in a gallery showing one of his latest pictures, a surreal portrait of King Charles II. The picture which was tall and thin and something like a waterfall with a sky blue background. No such picture exists in reality, so I must thank my subconscious for the design of this great picture which I might attempt to realise one day. In the meantime my entry for the Eclectic Art competition is currently drying in its underpainting stage. Next week I'll start to overpaint my (probable) entry for the Migraine Action Association competition which is a depiction of a headache. I'm praying that the colours will turn out correctly in that picture because each object in each layer is coloured differently to create a mix of colours that can only work in combination.
Inspired by the van Gogh letters which I am now reading, I have written a new poem. Here it is.
The Hague 1882
Dark and warm, in the cottage.
Brown, and like the smoked fish.
This wish, this paper torn from
the brow of Millet.
This sketch by Vincent being made.
Coarse, like its master.
Full of mutual love,
the perspective firm.
Sien and the baby laid fast
and permanent in graphite's
soft grip, dark and warm.
Karma in a Godless Universe: An idea about the possibility of an afterlife in an Atheist Universe.
In a way, thoughts are real. Thinking about something or someone creates that thing or person to some extent. The more clearly or strongly something is thought about, the more solid or corporeal the thing becomes. So, thoughts of a person create a duplicate of that person. Therefore, thoughts about a dead person will create an afterlife for them by creating a duplicate of them. Good thoughts about the person will create them in a pleasing condition and bad thoughts about them will create them in an unpleasant condition because they are defined and created solely by the thoughts of them. So, under this system, every ill thought is a condemnation and the quality of a persons afterlife depends on how many people liked the person when he or she died.
A Brief History of European Art 1400-2000
First came the old Dutch masters. These painted photorealistic portraits, mainly in browns. Then came the Italian masters like Raphael, Leonardo etc. These painted religious pictures also in fine detail mainly of religious and mythical subjects in blues and golds. Then came an exploration of extremes of dark and light and flesh, and pictures of people in houses or doing ordinary things. Then in Holland and France came pictures of peasant people in fields or in doorways. By now it is the late 19th century and photography had been invented so things were afoot. Impressionists appeared who painted ordinary subjects in very bright colours and often impasto. The English rebelled against the new stuff by painting pre-Raphael subjects in fine detail, and soon art deco, art nouveau, dada, surrealism and abstract impressionism appeared and when Mondrian painted squares and Pollock splattered painted as an art form had been explored. It happened somewhere in the 1950's.
So painting is dead and only sensationalism exists, an everlasting genre. Of course this is not true. Writing as a creative force did not end when the dictionary was written and now there are few people who are old to remember before that uncelebrated cut-off point in the 50's. Now only the sensational, or otherwise popular count. Painting is far from dead but bouncing along like it has always done. Any genre goes and any combination is valid; what one paints is as valid as it was at any time in history EXCEPT in the 20th century when the style in which one painted was more important.
Gardener names: Ivy Greengrass, Alf Marrow, Ena Rosebush, Cecil Barrow, Edith Flowers, George Meadows, Rose Grower, Percy Farmer, Nellie Spader, Herbert Fisher, Clara Wheeler.
What sort of business goes on in a monastery?
Monkey business.
What is an aardvark's favourite kind of matter?
Anti-matter.
"I should very much like to see Millet reproductions in the schools. I think there are children who would become painters if only they saw good things." - Vincent van Gogh letter 607. An interesting quote that reminded me that Dali indeed had a Millet's Angelus on the wall in his school that had a great effect on the boy and man.
Life is like an incomplete circle. After the inspiration for chair design that was the last 'Imagine' programme on BBC1, I've displayed one of my chair designs. It's fundamental idea is that it slopes b about 45 degrees, allowing the sitter to lounge at an angle. A second chair design idea is to make each leg a spring, add a footrest and screw the legs to the floor, this should be a bouncy but comfortable design.
Today I've been listening to my latest CD, Beethoven's 5th, 6th and 9th symphonies conducted by Herbert Von Karajan, simply wonderful. I had the idea of making a film of Beethoven's life, the sole soundtrack of which would be the 67 minute long 9th symphony here.
My next purchase will be cold pressed linseed oil. An artist on a website called "Real Color Wheel" shows how he washes it and that his five year tests indicate it to be as lightfast as poppy oil, although the alkali refined stuff seems to be the worst for yellowing. This makes some sort of sense. So my current oil lightfastness list in descending order is: beeswax, cold pressed linseed, poppy, walnut, linseed stand oil, liquin, alkali refined linseed. Safflower and sunflower oil are reputedly like poppy.
He also states that amber is yellowing and dismisses it like that. I like amber so this requires some thought. On the plus side, Dali recommends amber in his 1947 book and the Blockx company make it and they have a good reputation. Amber stones don't seem to have darkened in 20 million years, some are white, so perhaps any darkening is an atmospheric reaction alone. On the negative side, Leonardo recommended amber varnish and his paintings are rather brown compared to Raphael's... but perhaps only the varnish is amber and the cracking might let air attack the paint layers. Amber is brittle so should probably never be used on anything that might bend, or get rolled up like the Mona Lisa was when it was stolen. Perhaps beeswax will be an adequate substitute, although amber's fluorescence in ultraviolet light and the refractive index are desirable properties and it's simply nice to paint with.
Okay, today I created a blog. I have to admit that the primary motive was that I couldn't post a comment in the Flatspace 2 blog because the letter verification thing wouldn't work (although oddly it did when I typed it as a member). Computers are great.
