A Moment for Indigo

Super Future Kid

Last week I went to this exhibition called Super Future Kid, one of the painters represented by Rise Art. On entering the gallery I saw the paintings, my first reaction was: LA 60's, on closer look at the images and icons of American television and advertising I noticed all are from the 80's - 90's. Fun, I thought, great for kids rooms, until I spoke with Super Future Kid herself.

I asked did she grow up with a brother? No, she tells me, she has a sister but she was the tomboy. That is something I know and understand, I have 2 daughters, one played with Barbies, the other was a tomboy.

But what fascinated me was when she told me she is from East Germany, she was 8 years old when the Berlin Wall came down. After that event, an event that not only changed political maps, it changed the cultural influences.

Super Future Kid told me she had never seen such vibrant and bright images, never seen the tv shows of colorful puppets, muscle men, sports, cartoons and interrupted with brash advertising. Things I grew up with and saw and liked but ignored, part of the landscape.

We may see all these images as ironic, but for her it ignited her imagination, filled it with stories, images, fun and color,＃superfuturekid, I think her name tells it all.

The Cut Outs

Bright color on color, vibrant, complementary color, straight from the tube unmixed with white, gray or black. Flat shapes, frond shape, acanthus shapes, spirals, negative shapes. These are the materials Matisse worked with when he made the cut outs in the last productive and prolific period of his life.

The exhibition at Tate Modern of the paper cut outs has many of the pieces of work we associate with Matisse; the blue nudes, Jazz, the many frond and leafy flat shapes of bright painted paper. The exhibit explains how Matisse came to this technique changing from the lively paintings he previously painted. It was after an operation for cancer and a long recovery, but limited his mobility that he moved to this method of expression.

With a long pair of fabric scissors and sheets of paper painted with gouache he cut shapes, placed them on canvas to find a suitable arrangement.

It is a fun, immediate and active method of arranging compositions. A method that translates into Photoshop and Illustrator with ease. I feel we will see much influence from this exhibit in graphic and textile design, if we aren't seeing it already.

Emma's Palettes

My daughter Emma is an artist in Mexico. I was with her early this month. While I was there she had 2 commissions for murals, there are the palettes from each painting.

Door Handles

Door furniture, the way we open and close doors. I have been looking at a selection of sleek, brushed nickle door handles. The kind that with a gentle curve that fits into the palm of your hand, slender, elegant, stylish. Got me looking and thinking about the old kind, the old brass door knobs on carved doors, the glass door knobs on paneled doors, the old latches, elaborate key holes and how sometimes they were difficult to open.

Refreshing and Renewal

My gosh where does time go, however, at last Spring is on its way. It was so piercingly cold last month. Today I felt that difference in the air, the kind when you know the worst of the winter is past.

It has been a couple of weeks since I have been to the blog, a dreadful winter cold knocked me down. But Vava was here to fill us in about the gorgeous new skirts... I love to wear skirts, particularly in warm weather riding my bike.

Starting a new project, a much needed extension that will bring a new kitchen, bathroom, laundry room and entrance and will transform the lives of this family. It will be a big change and renewal. Lots of light and space, space to move and light to illuminate.

Happy Valentines

For this evening, make it lovely, take your little ones to bed with you, read them stories, bring a glass of red wine to bed with your lover, put pink sheets on the bed and enjoy Valentines Day.

All images via Pinterest.

Visual Essay

A visual essay on shape, color, light, entrances, concrete, paint, of images I have collected on Pinterest. It is an invaluable tool. I meet many designers who are using this site developing concepts for projects and with clients. It is so useful.

DIY Valentine Cards

I had some fun today.  I made some potato cut prints. I cut out a heart shape and printed it onto cards.

Valentines Day is a charming holiday, a day to tell your loved ones you love them. In school when we were children I remember we would have a special day to make Valentine cards for our mothers, the cards would have cut out hearts in paper that would pop out in cards, or stencils in heart shapes... all kinds of ways to make a mark on a card.

Potato cuts is one of the easiest and fun ways to print. I couldn't resist looking at the bag of potatoes I was going to use to make soup.

Like a recipe, these are the items needed:

A potato
knife
plate
red paint
pens, pencils for embellishment
card, any size.

Start with your potato and cut in half, then draw a heart on the cut piece.

You have 2 potato halves, on one I cut around the heart, on the other I cut out the inside of the heart. Oh my god, that sounds heartless, but it is just a potato. When you have cut out the shapes, just blot them on a piece of paper towel.

 Put some paint on your plate. It can be any color, pink, green, blue, any color, white on a black card would look very chic, then draw a red line around it... thousands of ideas.

Then print:

This is so much fun with children, they can bring them to school for their friends, give one to all you love. So much nicer than a bought card or an e-card but just as nice as chocolates and wine.

Exhibitions

This weekend while my sister was visiting New York, in  London I visited the public exhibitions of many great paintings and sculpture by European artists from the late 19th and early 20th century at Christies and Sotheby's. Both auction houses are having sales of Impressionist and Modern Art this week and on Sunday was the opportunity to see the work of many artists I have never seen before because they were in private collections.

The selection of works did not fail to marvel and impress.

This winter landscape by Claude Monet exhibited at Sotheby's held my attention for a good 20 minutes. This is a painter I walked past many times over the years.  Yes I would say, great color, great technique. But recently the more I look at his paintings, I stop and marvel and have that sensation of "yes, he saw it, he saw what I see,  he understood how light works, he saw the ephemeral beauty of sunlight reflecting off surfaces and caught it all in paint"

Working in a medium of oil paint, a process that takes time, reflection and considerable skill of mixing color and using the right tool. I think he had a strong visual memory to recall how the light passed through the day, because light moves and is moving all the time. I must also add that this painting was expertly and brilliantly lit by Sotheby's lighting designers. I wonder did they use halogen or metal halide, I would like to know.

This colorful painting, though seeming very white, had a gold carved wood frame and hung on a wall covered in black linen so the light and color were intensified. It was beautiful and held that moment of winter sun on snow. It sold for over £7 million pounds.

For other work I used my iPhone to quickly capture some of the paintings that particularly stopped me and caught my attention.

Emile Nolde's saturated watercolors of florals and landscapes, again, the color grabbed me and made me look at this painting of very deep pigmented watercolors that soaked into the paper.

This drawing by Modigliani surprised me, the thick black lines, the form un-elongated, it was very unlike his usual work.... this is what I find fascinating when you can see pages from a sketch book.

Matisse was well represented at both galleries and lovely drawings, simple, tender, they would look good on the living room wall.

But the work of Egon Shiele grabbed my attention and at Christie's it was hung not far from where Matisse was placed. What struck me about his work was with as much economy of line as Matisse, Schiele drew portraits that bore into the psychology of the model, drawings that looked at the human condition with charged electric eroticism.

Whether it was the intention of the curators to place these drawings within the gaze of Matisse, I don't know, but it made me look at the artists in a different way and ask the questions about who was the better draftsman. Impossible to say, they were people who lived in different countries, different cultures but Schiele asks questions about ourselves, about confusion, tension and desire, about pride, false pride, arrogance, compassion. He looked into the soul and saw the dark confusion as well as tenderness and ecstasy.

These drawings were at Sotheby's gallery and apparently did very well.