This is a painting with drawn elements that I made today from a sketch that I’ve just shared in the previous post based on the painting by Kiefer entitled The Morgenthau Plan 2013 I made the original sketch sat on the bench in the busy gallery. I have my oil pastels in a little box with slots for the colours so they don’t get messy. I didn’t have much grey though which was unfortunate as Kiefer uses it a lot, I had found a tiny bit though. People kept walking in front of me but I was able to get something down. I used this and my memory to make the painting today. I like the references to Van Gogh and his late Cornfield painting. The workmen’s boots also were fascinating and appropriate. Resonances of Starry Night, and even fallen stars in the blue splodges amongst the corn. Don’t forget to click on the image to enlarge.

I finally managed to get to see the Kiefer exhibition on Saturday at the Royal Academy in London. I’ve been looking forward to it for a very long while. I have seen his work together before at the Guggenheim in Bilbao in Spain and was blown away by that many years ago. He’s been a firm favourite of mine ever since, and I often use him in my art teaching to inspire the students. I’ll never forget what I read once, that he felt he did his best drawings before he went to school! How could he remember, but given the nature of the man and his art, I do believe he could remember. The pieces were huge both paintings and sculpture and mixtures of both. The themes were overarching tackling the nature of humanity and our place in the cosmos. The texture, colour or absence of it, were so satisfying and immersive. Anyway, here’s a couple of my sketches. I’d run out of grey in my box of pastels unfortunately, so the colours aren’t as true to his paintings as I’d have liked. The first sketch is of a huge piece over two canvases entitled Osiris and Isis 1985 in oil and acrylic emulsion with additional 3D materials. I was fascinated by the copper wires that ran across the two canvases in one instance, but were broken in others. I kept asking myself why was this? Mostly I just respond though. but I’m guessing the pieces of ceramic were pieces of Osiris. Don’t forget to click on images to enlarge.

Today’s drawing is the final one in a set of 4 in response to Kate’s poem ‘tomorrow, tomorrow’. The first one wasn’t numbered or signed. It takes ages incubating inside me but making the actual pieces doesn’t take long atall. I worked flat on a drawing board on my last piece of Somerset Velvet paper about A1 size. I used indian ink, large brushes and paint to work with, as well as my special crow feather which I draw with like a pen. Here’s the link to Kate’s poem on her site if you’d like to read it. Don’t forget to click on the image to enlarge it to see the marks better, ttp://www.kategarrettwrites.co.uk/blog/crow-collaboration-update

Here’s today’s drawing from my collaboration with Kate interpreting her poem ‘Tomorrow,tomorrow’. I went for a walk today and studied a rookery laid bare now that all the leaves have gone from the trees. This stayed with me when I got home to do the drawing. I read the poem again and prepared my feathers and brushes to draw with, and got my paints ready too this time. Here’s the result and link to Kate’s website so you can read the poem as well http://www.kategarrettwrites.co.uk/3/post/2014/12/crow-collaboration-update.html …