FINISHING FIONN WILSON'S PORTRAIT

I think I may have perhaps possibly nearly finished Fionn's portrait. Maybe? I don't want to add more detail but I still haven't had that inner click which says Leave it!

Portrait-in-progress of Fionn Wilson by Natalie d'Arbeloff. Oil on canvas 55cm x 65cm (20" x 24")
27 June 2018

PAINTING FIONN WILSON

Last night Fionn Wilson sat in the chair opposite me while I started on her portrait. Below are the first two stages plus a shot she snapped of me at work on it. I'm using only black and white oil on canvas - there's something strong and free about this limitation which matches both her direct personality and my perception of it. Will post further stages.

As I mentioned a while ago, Fionn invited me to participate in the exhibition 'Dear Christine' (Christine Keeler) which Fionn thought up, is curating, taking part in, and will inaugurate next year at the Vane Centre in Newcastle. I've been working on sketches of my ideas for this and it was wonderful to show them to her last night and receive the blessing of her enthusiasm. Our conversations flow like jazz.

Beginning a portrait of Fionn Wilson, 23 June 2018.. Oil on canvas

SELFIE TIME

Why? It's an unpredictable urge. Maybe it has something to do with time. Or let's be honest, age. It's a kind of check up: am I still okay? Do I pass? Whatever passing means.

So here I am today at approximately 5:15pm, London time.

FRIENDS CELEBRATE GETTING HITCHED

Saturday at the London Wetland Centre on the banks of the Thames, Rachel Rawlings and Dave Bonta orchestrated an inspirational and original event to celebrate with friends and family their recent wedding in Pennsylvania.

It was a greyish and coldish day but warmth and conviviality were generated by the many guests in this magnificent natural setting. Specially composed poems were read, spontaneous, sincere speeches were spoken, specially deejayed music was played, comforting food and drink were consumed, old and new friendships were refreshed. I was happy to be there.

 

Rachel, the bride

Dave, the groom

CONTRARIAN

Watched Germaine Bloody Greer in the BBC2 documentary this evening and enjoyed every minute of it. If you missed it you can still see it on iPlayer but if you don't care for Greer then you won't want to see it.

I love the contrary dame (not a Dame!) and I don't care if she isn't a proper feminist. She was raising the hackles of proper society when she wrote The Female Eunuch and now she's raising hackles of proper feminists (of all genders) by disagreeing with some feminist cast-iron rules and tropes.

Bravo brava Germaine! Long may you continue to challenge the status quo, whenever and wherever it calcifies. As soon as any movement becomes established as an "ism", it seems inevitably to calcify into institutional and intolerant positions it initially battled against. It's as if the vitality of a flowing river freezes into an icy pond - fine to skate on but don't dare to crack holes in it!

Sorry I linked to the Telegraph article below without realising they won't let you read it all without paying!

TELEPATHISTIC

Does this often happen to you or is it just me? Of course it can't be just me but I'm curious. Here's the thing.

You're talking with someone on the phone (therefore you can't see them) telling them about some incident or other and they're quietly listening. Whilst speaking, you suddenly sense that their silence has changed. It's hard to describe what I mean by 'changed' but there is something different about the person's silence: it's expressing an objection of some kind, even though they haven't made a sound. The conversation continues its normal flow and eventually, casually, the person says something which is exactly what you sensed they were saying silently. 

Now, what was going on? Was it telepathy? Was I reading the person's thought before they expressed it verbally?

This sort of thing happens face to face too but then we get signals from body language etc. so it's easier to catch subtle changes of expression. Anyway I'm interested in this sort of thing. Maybe you are too.

OLD AND STILL NEW

Current outrage put back on the shelf next to past and future outrages to be brought out again whenever their SOS beeps become impossible to ignore.

When my mother, Blanche, was very young she worked for an haute couture atelier in Paris which made flapper-style dresses embellished with wondrous designs in beads and sequins. She had worn some of these herself and kept them carefully over the years. Not long before she died aged 97 - in full possession of all her faculties, by the way - she and I unwrapped these relics and found that, while the beadwork and sequins were intact, the fragile fabrics had more or less disintegrated.

With Blanche's agreement (she was always game for creative adventures) I cut the beaded and sequinned sections away from the crumbling cloth and started playing with ideas of applying them to a modern garment. I sewed them onto a denim jacket I had, combined with swatches of bright-coloured fabrics in a kind of abstract collage. I loved the result but dared to wear it only once - I'm too short to carry it off and anyway I was too much in awe of those gleaming patches of fashion history.

A couple of days ago I finally took the jacket to a local Vintage shop and asked the owner if she'd like to sell it. Instant interest. My 1920s-infused denim collage jacket went into the shop window. It may still be there but I doubt it. I wish I could see who's wearing it now. My Blanche Maman would be pleased.

Below is a Youtube link to a slideshow I made in honour of her and the beautiful paintings she began to create at the age of 94.

My late parents, Sacha and Blanche d'Arbeloff, dancing in their nineties.

OUTRAGE

If you are a human being living among other humans there will inevitably be times when you feel outraged. Even if you are alone on a desert island there must be moments when you are outraged by the behaviour of animals not being nice to you or to each other.

Outrage, that mixture of anger, shock, frustration, concern, helplessness, rebellion - a magnified version of IT’S NOT FAIR! - is experienced by all of us to greater or lesser degree when we ourselves. or others close to us, or even far from us, are subjected to injustice, cruelty, humiliation, exploitation, degradation, oppression and other forms of suffering inflicted by humans on other humans. History is mainly an account, slanted according to whoever is telling it, of different kinds of outrage perpetrated by some humans on other humans and of their consequences.

How is the outrage barometer measured? What gives one outrage more attention, more reaction and/or action than another? When there are so many outrages happening in the world at any one time and especially right now, which of them pushes more buttons, grabs more column inches, media reporting, internet space, discussion time, reaction and response time?

 
 The Scream by Edvard Munch, 1893
oil, tempera, pastel, crayon and tempera.
91cm x 73.5 cm (36" x 28.9")
National Gallery and Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway

SERENDIPITOUS CONNECTIONS

I don't see a dividing line between drawings perceived as 'Art' and those perceived as 'cartoons' when the hands which drew them belong to creators who have that spark of genius which can be dissected ad infinitum but never precisely defined - at least not to my satisfaction. Size, location and reputation often influence the way a drawing is labelled or perceived.

Take some of Nick Wadley's small drawings which I snap shot (sorry for reflections) at the opening of the exhibition NICK IN EUROPE on Thursday. Put them on canvas, enlarge them hugely, hang them in the Tate or other temple of Art anywhere, accompany them with a monograph in which the name 'Wadley' has the same resonance as, say, 'Picasso' or 'Warhol' etc....See what I mean?

If you haven't heard of him, see the website nick wadley writes and draws, read the obituary last year by his widow Jasia Reichardt, find his books, and if you're in London see the exhibition at the 12 Star Gallery in Europe House until 25 May.

For a very short time I had the good fortune to know Nick and he most certainly had that elusive, playful spark of genius. My friend Sylvia Libedinsky, multi-talented architect/designer, collaborated with him on many inspired publications, comics and exhibitions.

The serendipitous connection I have with Jasia Reichhardt came about because I had met Franciszca and Stefan Themerson (the legendary Gaberbocchus Press) Jasia's aunt and uncle, when I first arrived in London a long time ago. It was Franciszca who, when she saw a series of...'cartoons'... I had drawn, encouraged me to take up etching and turn them into limited edition artists' books which eventually led to my starting NdA Press.

Below: a few of my favourites from Nick Wadley's exhibition currently at Europe House.

WAVELENGTHS

Is there anything more life-enhancing than meeting someone with whom you are so much on the same wavelength that nearly every sentence elicits a Yeah! whether spoken or silent? Thus it was tonight when Fionn Wilson came over to talk about an exhibition she is curating and has invited me to participate in.

Of course I have happily accepted - more details soon. We polished off a nice bottle of red wine along with significant bits of life stories and now I'm a bit delightfully pissed.

Tomorrow I will write about the exhibition of Nick Wadley's genius cartoons which opened on Thursday at Europe House.