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Wool Gathering

Wool Gathering Another New Studio Studio 05/08/2024 After disassembling the sculptures and creating an empty studio I embarked upon a period of rumination. Is the next step to develop a better VR for the ‘Red Gardens’  or to stop for the moment and find a new direction? I spent a week or so working on the bigger ‘Gardens Project’  adapting it for a later version of Unity and working out how to…

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Moore's Law

Moore’s Law Another New Studio studio 03/07/24 headset no artist Apparently “Moore’s Law” is dead, and has been since 2016. The result is that programming has to improve in terms of performance if advancements are going to come at all. Programmers need to make processes more efficient so that less power is needed and the machines can do more without getting significantly faster. Not that anyone…

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Centre Apple Tree

Centre Apple Tree Another New Studio I just completed the Contemporary Art Academy PG1 course with a session where the participants delivered an ‘elevator pitch’ summing up our practice using the insight gained from the course. This is obviously really difficult because it is hard to articulate in the first place and remains hard in the final analysis. I said something like “My name is Ian Latham…

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Tripod Tree

Tripod Tree Another New Studio The whole month has been a bit of a let down for me as it has been broken up by time away and illness. I read an interview with Nicola Tyson  who talks of a practice defined through drawing and escaping the line. There is definitely something in the fact that Tyson was born in 1960 so she had the same kind of art education as I did. The desire to draw was instilled…

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Dancing Partner

Dancing Partner Another New Studio Started to move forward by framing some pictures, the first image ‘Jamie’s Flowers’ was longlisted for the Jackson’s Art Prize. Jamie’s Flowers in C-View Red Garden 5 in C-View The second, ‘Red garden 5’ is probably not quite finished yet. I have a small VR environment for the Red…

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April Showers

April Showers Another New Studio On the 1st April I happened upon this review in the Guardian  Yhonnie Scarce is an indigenous artist who uses glass to explore the lingering effects of the nuclear weapons testing in Woomera in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I suspect I’ll never get to see it for real but it appears to be very striking, possessing that power that comes from ownership and quiet…

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Dancing Tree

Dancing Tree Another New Studio Dancing Tree 27 02 2024 The sculpture I started last month has occupied all my time since apart from a trip away between the 7th and the 9th. I wanted the surface to be active and to give the piece the feel of the dancing tree that is its working title. On the 1st I worked on the surface with an idea of reflecting the way light shows between branches of trees and…

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Self (It really is all about me!)

Self (It really is all about me!) Another New Studio 08 02 2024 Having reached something of an impasse in the last month what with finishing things and so on I decide to start a self portrait. So on the 8th February I spent two hours working from life and arrived at the above. The proportions are ‘ish’ and it looks nothing like me. 09 02 2024 On the 9th February I spent another two hours… 12 02…

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Whatever It Is

Whatever It Is Another New Studio I’ve had a mixed January after time off over Christmas. Lots of time spent trying to get an app from Unity onto the app store, I must have spent twenty hours and it still won’t go on so I’ve resorted to putting the Doncaster Platonics app on the Artivive  App. It works, which is great, but it costs money to use for anything other than minimal output and there…

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Reason vs Motivation

Reason vs Motivation Another New Studio On the Open weekend I had twenty visitors on the Saturday and two on the Sunday, I can’t complain because I sold a painting. I’ve called this post Reason vs Motivation as a step towards an explanation of my current practice. When I was talking to people at the open studio the film elicited some comments about its elegiac quality, which tied into my thinking…

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Directionless Direction

Directionless Direction Another New Studio   A trip around the studio on Friday 17th November 2023. This shows the “redfilm” [link] video in its new projection, then moves out of the booth navigating the “three red trees” sculpture and briefly views the three red garden drawings that had been framed at this date before showing the different lighting settings for the NHS lemniscate. The video…

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Still in the Red

Still in the Red Another New Studio the studio in a convex mirror Quick, said the bird, find them, find them, Round the corner. Through the first gate, Into our first world, shall we follow The deception of the thrush? TS Eliot ‘Burnt Norton’  Despite my best efforts the concerns I had when developing the geranium project  remain central to my practice and I feel as if I’m in a dialogue with the…

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New Start

New Start Another New Studio After having Covid19 and therefore doing no work between the 2nd October and the 18th October, I found I’d reached the point where I didn’t know what I was going to do. Both the summer projects were finished and while I have a list of several things I’m interesting in doing I wasn’t really committed to any of them. So I wanted a New Start. So on the 18th I went in to…

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Covid19 (eventually)

Covid19 (eventually) Another New Studio After the last post I was a bit deflated and when I returned to the studio all I could do was tidy up and finish off the few bits I have on the go.   Easel 250923 I did some work on the painting on each day I was in. easel 270923 I got as far as this state which needs more detail but is essentially blocked in. I continued with the doncaster platonics app,…

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An end of frustration?

An end of frustration? (Another New Studio) I finished(?) the NHS project after quite a lot of stress and setbacks. It was still completed on time but I had far less time in the studio. The interruption of the sculpture project has left me a little non-plussed about the direction of my work and how to find ways forward against the pressure of completion. Ideas reach fruition and then need to be…

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"Isn't it supposed to be green?"

“Isn’t it supposed to be green?” NHS Barnsley Lemniscate sculpture July 23rd – September 18th 2023. On 23rd July 2023 the Barnsley Facilities Services office followed up on an email from 23rd January 2023 confirming that we were ready to proceed with manufacture as soon as we were paid. Their email stated that they thought the order had been raised earlier, said we would have it tomorrow and…

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Wading Through Mud

Wading Through Mud (Another New Studio) This has been a busy couple of weeks since my last post (link to post) with work on the NHS Barnsley project which is progressing but will be the subject of another post when it’s completed. Distractions aside I continued to work on the large drawing I’d started but didn’t post last time out. Large Rose 11/08/23 Then (11th August) it looked like this, there…