Free hand drawing

DRAWING ON THE SOUL

Picking up a pencil today and drawing something freehand - the first time I've really dedicated time to this kind of illustration in a very long time - ie. away from a computer, has shown me how relaxing drawing can be. By connecting the body with the mind in order to focus on drawing a smooth curve, straight line and filling in areas of colour without going over the lines, we help quieten the mind to distractions and noise.

We can draw pretty much anything, but, interestingly, if we choose serene or inspirational scenes, we can benefit in more ways through expression of the art. There are many different ways to use art as a therapeutic and healing technique.

In China, where the characters forming the Chinese language are painted with brush calligraphy, the skill is treated as an artform which has the power to heal the body and develop character. Every member of the Chinese elite has to learn how to express themselves through beautiful calligraphy and consequently, there are masters of this technique who are highly revered, with their work displayed in galleries and museums throughout china.

St Ives

AN ARTIST'S HAVEN

The picturesque seaside town of St Ives in Cornwall was once renowned for it's pilchard fishing and after the pier was constructed, also known for being the largest port on the north coast of Cornwall. Since the late 1800's, this pretty coastal town has became a famous destination for artists.

J M W Turner, was among one of the earliest artists attracted to St Ives by the quality of light, where he famously painted seascapes. The arrival of the railway line in 1877 made St Ives all the more accessible to aspiring artists and became a key destination for the middle classes to set up their holiday homes.

The town saw it's greatest boom for being a trendy destination for hippies, artists and rock 'n' roll jet setters in the 60's but saw a decline in the late 70's through to the 90's, as holiday makers took off for cheaper and the sunnier climates of the Mediterranean resorts. Cornwall has had somewhat of a resurgence over the last decade and returning this Easter weekend, I could see how crazy this town now gets in the summer months.

Happy Memories
My parents have been going to St Ives regularly since 1967. It's where they first went on holiday together and worked for a time over the summer. It's obviously a happy memory and they have a real connection to the town and it's townsfolk, regarding it fondly as a second home.

I've been visiting with my folks on Easter weekends since I can remember and have lots of happy memories of the beautiful beaches, (now very retro) arcades, narrow cobbled lanes and quaint tea & ice cream parlours. Being a graphic designer myself, I can attest to the pleasure St Ives offers those who visit. For a small town with such a rich history in art over the years, it's evident where such energy exists for creatives, and one can easily see first hand, where Turner himself took great inspiration from painting the breathtaking sea views. This has to be one of the most picturesque seaside towns in the UK and it's not surprising that so many holiday makers want to stay there too.

A Destination Of The Heart
Although I love St Ives and I have such fond memories of going there as a kid, I've always reasoned to myself that living here full time would be tough. The winters can be harsh and for a Londoner like myself, I'd likely find the quieter off season months a little too quiet.

However, with Cornwall's general popularity increasing amongst UK holiday makers, potentially due in part to the stronger Euro and family travel costs in general, it feels increasingly as if the holiday makers and new jet set, have taken over the place this Easter. According to the locals I speak to, the spike in visitors are not just isolated to the seasonal summer months these days either. More people are moving to Cornwall permanently and who can blame the! It stands to reason that places which are most popular, will evolve to accommodate the tastes of those investing time/money and it's evident from the many different accents I'm hearing, that foreign holiday makers are also in great appreciation of the seductive Cornish charm.

But still, I can feel the characters and their influences from the 70's and 80's, as well as the general quirky Cornish ways of doing things, are being ebbed away to cater for it's present day tourists and second home investors. Cornwall appears to be changing into a quintessentially British 'theme park' – twee, polished and dressed up in a reflection of the ideal rather opposed to the real. And although this boom for local businesses is a positive sign for growth, observing the overly-large flashy cars crawling in procession through narrow streets and witnessing where snazzy boutique hotels have replaced the wonky B&B's – plus with major high street chains like Pizza Express taking up prominence on the seafront, – could it be paradoxically said that St Ives' new-found success is potentially becoming it's failure too? I personally miss the authenticity from the way it was before, warts and all – change is always difficult to accept.

But who am I to judge, I visit for maybe a week or so per year and I'm just another visitor at the end of the day. Luckily, some things haven't changed at all. Sitting here right now in front of The Sloop Inn, watching the advancing tide and defending my ground against the brazen gulls who swoop in low to retrieve carelessly dropped chips at my feet, I still get a gratifying feeling of being in a special place that eternally remains part of me and me part of it.

Land's End, Cornwall c.1834 – J.M.W. Turner

Update March 2018: 
If you are fortunate enough to visit Cornwall and St Ives, you will appreciate it's inspirational lure for artists and tourists alike. The Tate gallery, St Ives, is the perfect place to view some of the greats and witness their inspiration from the coast first hand. For those wishing to own a piece of art capturing the beautiful Cornish coastal views, great painters and their work can be found here at Artsy. For visitors and residents of Amsterdam, Holland – the Rijksmuseum has an exhibition featuring J.M. W. Turner amongst other great masters: 'High Society' – Four centuries of glamour by the great masters of the history of art, including Cranach, Veronese, Velázquez, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Sargent, Munch and Manet.

Art as Therapy

ART APPRECIATION

Visiting the Hayward Art Gallery the other day has reminded me again just how great London is. Southbank is teeming with creativity and we have so many other great galleries and theatres all around London, that we really must get out more to appreciate the great work artists are doing.

Appreciating art gives us a moment to stop and think about what it is to be human. There is so much emotion embodied within works of art. I visited The Tate Britain some time ago and as I had a bit more time, I paid for the headphones so I could learn a bit more about the installations. It was a really informative afternoon and rather than just walk from piece to piece, I was able to really listen and understand what each of the artists had been trying to say, expressing their emotions on canvas or with their artworks.

I've just seen the entry for the BP Portrait Awards have now have closed - meaning the artworks have all been submitted and are currently being judged. I like trying to guess the winners myself and it's an exhibition we try and see with family which makes I nice day out too. So I will definitely be taking in the exhibition later on in the year (Exhibition from 18 June to 20 September). The picture at the top of the page 'Man with a Plaid Blanket' in last year's winner and was painted by Thomas Ganter.

Tate Modern

One of my favourite buildings in London - and a great space for viewing art - is Tate Modern. This is a place that I go to when I need a bit of an art inspiration fix. Just sitting in the turbine hall or up in the cafe looking out over Millennium Bridge at St. Paul's Cathedral are enough to give me a boost and there's always something interesting going on. They're currently building an extension which will have even more great things to see. 

Conflict

I'd been meaning to go to The Tate and see the Conflict, Time, Photography exhibition for a while - the photographs of  destruction caused during war are very powerful images and something that particularly interests me. So, after my boxing training yesterday, I took a walk in the sun through St Katherine Docks and over Tower Bridge down along the river. On route, I had a short stop at the riverside with a coffee to just sit quietly in the sun by a fountain away from all the tourists. After, I walked by The Tower and watched a military parade and gun salute opposite The Tower of London - a display for The Mexican Prime Minister who is visiting London right now. There was a great exhibition happening on the other side of the river too next to the Major's building, also centred around Mexico. I got to try a VR demo on the Oculus Rift headset in there, which simulated flying around Mexico City on a microlight! They also had a VW Beatle covered in over 1.5m beads designed to symbolise the psychedelic effects experienced from ingesting a particular Mexican hallucinogen. These beads were stuck there individually by a Mexican family and took 9000 hours to complete. I took lunch after at Wagamamas which is a great place to be mid afternoon when the crowds have gone. All in all, it was a great afternoon wandering around looking at great inspirational artwork and some of my favourite London architecture, St Paul's and The Tate.

Richard Tuttle's 'I Don't Know. The Weave of Textile Language.' in the turbine hall at Tate Modern.

The view of St Paul's Catherdral from the Cafe in The Tate Modern.

My first stop of the morning taking in a quiet moment by the river...

Art as Therapy
I read another of Alain's books recently which talks about the healing properties of viewing and understanding art/artists and the therapeutic properties of experiencing art in our lives. It really helps to open your mind beyond the day-to-day. I will try and take in even more art exhibitions, most certainly on a more regular basis to really make the most of this great city.

The power of buildings

THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT

If your job revolves around working on computers like mine does, the advantages of having mobile technology now mean you can work from pretty much anywhere. You have a choice. If you are fortunate enough to live near the sea or your home office window opens out onto a sublime view of the mountains or rolling countryside, you'll have nature there to inspire you every day. Being a city dweller, it's not as easy to take inspiration from nature unless your house has a garden, backs on to a park/woods or overlooks a river, so we have to create our environments to inspire us.

Architecture

Beautiful buildings are 3-dimensional structures of working art. They are designed to have function but also form, with focus on shape, texture, colour & light - in clever ways to make us feel secure, enlightened & powerful. To be around beautiful architecture, you have to be in a place to view it and up til recently, I had a fantastic view of St Paul's and The River Thames from my workplace. Seeing the sun reflecting from the dome of this monumental British cathedral - the light creating an ethereal glow - I'd get a nostalgic sense of belonging to something great. The images of St Paul's standing defiantly amid the devastation from the blitz - propaganda, I know but still powerful enough to evoke emotions of pride, dignity and courage through adversity. 

Creating environments

Now I'm working from a home office, the environment is confined to just the internal space of a small room and therefore, the environment has to be improved with the use of furnishings, lighting and enhanced with objet d'art, plants & music. This can also be a great place for creativity but to really take advantage of the technology readily available to me and easy accessibility via public transport to the many beautiful places in a city like London, I need to make use of other great spaces to work from. This might be a gallery, library, restaurant, cafe or bar.

One place that immediately springs to mind is the cafe in The Victoria & Albert Museum. Not only is this a beautiful building from the outside, but it has so much inside in the forms of exhibitions and the cafe is buzzing with creative energy.

The power of art as architecture

Louis Khan was someone who really understood how to create emotional connection to buildings and the environment. The opening image on this blog is one of my favourites. I don't know enough about the great minds behind some of the world's most amazing architecture, but It's definitely an important topic I'll be looking into more, as buildings & man-made structures will be my source of inspiration while living in a city.

For further reading I'll look into these:
The Power of Architecture
The Power of Buildings

Another great source of inspiration on architecture that I listen to is called 99% invisible - one of the recent podcasts that really moved me, is the one on the World Trade Centre.

I also found this article on using the power of your environment to promote positive change this morning that's worth a read too.

Southbank Surprises

CONCRETE JUNGLE

We had such beautiful weather in London this weekend, so we walked around Southbank, sampling food from the many 'tastes of the world' food market. I love this part of London - the concrete architecture, galleries, BFI, bars and great things to do all year round. After having some beautiful snacks at the market, we took in an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery called History is Now: 7 Artists take on Britain. It was a massive display of British history and there was so much to take in, that we had to take a little cheeky snooze in one of the cinema rooms where a film was talking about the changes in community at a north London housing Estate. The exhibition covered some great topical events from the last 60+ years. Some of my favourites were of the un-PC advertising from the 70's and 80's mainly.

There was also a massive educational display focussing on the BSE and the Foot & Mouth epidemic that affected Britain (and eventually surfaced in Europe). I knew it was from mixing other animal remains, like sheep brains in cow's feed, but I hadn't realised this practice was know about for hundreds of years before - how could we have been so stupid? Anyway, I'd forgotten just how long this had run on for - no wonder the farmers were suicidal! I'm now lining up to watch Kuru: The Science and the Sorcery - which talks about similar symptoms tribesmen from Papua New Guinea had after eating human flesh.

The coolest bit for me was the Bloodhound surface-to-air missile positioned up on the roof, which is facing Russia - symbolic of the cold war. While we were at the Southbank, we also visited one of our favourite little hidden bars called Concrete - really great little venue - especially for this time of year and great for a bit of inspiration as it has a chilled vibe with rarely anyone in there to distract you from your thinking...We also spotted the Living Architecture hotel placed on top of the Purcell Room - A Room For London, a small hotel room inspired by Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness - which was also the inspiration for one of my most favourite films, Apocolypse Now. This installation was meant just for 2012 - but the ballot is open for a couple to stay 1 night up until the end of 2015.