The Rising Tide

The Rising Tide by British Sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor  was commissioned for the Totally Thames Festival  and installed on the foreshore of the River Thames near Vauxhall Bridge during September 2015

 I was there for over two hours and saw quite a change in that time. At the bottom of this post I have put a link to a you tube video that shows a time lapse from low to high tide, both beautiful and thought provoking,

The beautiful white shire horses and their riders were moulded from life except for the horses heads which are based on the heads of an oilhead pump, known as a 'nodding donkey' They are made from white marine concrete reinforced with steel to make them strong enough to withstand the tides.

As the tide rises twice a day the horses disappear under the water till only the heads of the riders can be seen.

They are a modern day version of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

The two suited figures sit on horses that have their heads down grazing for oil. The figures represent politicians or business people and have their eyes shut oblivious to the rising tide.
Two children represent the future.

It was good to see them when the tide was low, to be able to view them from different angles and watch as the water rose. It was also interesting to see other people's engagement and responses. Some people were doing time lapse photography, some stood and pondered, some were posing for photos next to the horses, people were photographing from all sorts of angles. One man had his tripod in the water, another removed bits of rubbish from the water's edge and lay flat on his front to take photos. Others mudlarked, collected things like broken pottery from the shore. The Duck Bus took to the water right next to us and someone lost a boot in a patch of perilous muddy quicksand.

I enjoyed watching the changing shadows and the relationships of the shapes of the figures against the different backdrops.

The two children sit on horses that have stopped grazing.

I liked the details especially all the different shoes

 “The suited figures are ambivalent to their situation – I wanted to create this striking image of a politician in front of the Houses of Parliament, ignoring the world as the water rises around him. And they are sitting on horses that are grazing, taking as much as they can from the ground.” Taylor

For a time lapse youtube video that shows the full extent of the rising tide click here

East Head, West Wittering.

Sept 30th A glorious late September day

Big vistas of sea sand and sky, it was sunny and windy. The wind caught the dry sand and sent it skimming at speed along the beach and settling behind clumps of grasses and onto the dunes making ribbed patterns. The tide was on its way out and eventually almost disappeared from view.

Sussex Prairie Gardens

A wonderful array of flowers cut from the Sussex Prairie Gardens for the flower arranging class I went to recently.

Sculpture Block

The SAA sent me 2 Sculpture blocks with a set of tools to try out. Sculpture block is a smaller version of sculpture canvas. It measures 15x15x2.5 cm It's a bit like oasis for dried flowers except denser and firmer. It is lightweight and can be carved with tools. It's rather like making a lino cut although much easier to cut. It can also be sanded.

I used a drawing of my local lavender field that I have previously done in watercolour and as a silk painting. The rows of lavender and the trees make such sculptural shapes and I thought would lend themselves to this. i cut away and sanded the top part of the sky area to make the trees and top cloud stand out. Lower down in the sky I left some of the horizontal marks left behind after carving as they suggested layers of more distant clouds. I carved and sanded the shapes of the rows of lavender then applied a coat of acrylic gesso to seal the whole surface and make it easier to paint. I made some more texture with the gesso. I painted using acrylic paints.

I like the idea of being able to make a 3d surface and textures. I wasn't so keen on the painting part as it felt like painting one of those plaster cast figures we used to make as kids. Maybe thicker paint and more of it would be better. 

I have placed the block in a frame and will probably fix it there using a strong double sided tape.

The block could be put directly on a wall without a frame. A small hole could be made in the back to accept a nail on the wall. Or D rings could be screwed onto the back of the block secured with some glue then cord attached.

With the other block that I have I think I will explore using it to print from.
 I have both sides to experiment with.

I mostly used the 2 tools on the right.

above  extra texture made using gesso

I gessoed and painted the sides as well.

The blocks and canvases are available from the SAA

Poppies Watercolour Plus part 3

Poppies by Tessa Spanton  (c) mixed media

I have used techniques from the previous 2 posts. I used string for stems and buds, glued in place and painted with acrylic paint.

Poppies Watercolour Plus Tissue Paper Part 2

Red oriental Poppy by Tessa Spanton

This is a continuation from my previous post where more of the techniques were described with details of where the full demo can be found at Leisure Painter magazine

 1. Yellow and blue under washes were applied to watercolour paper. When dry tissue was glued over the whole piece leaving a yellow glow under the poppy. Or this can be done after gluing the tissue on.
 The poppy was outlined with pencil and a first wash of red was applied over the poppy.
More tissue was placed over individual petals followed by more painting.

 I mixed some greens using ultramarine and lemon yellow and covered the background.  I started with a big blob of both colours and vary the mixes as I go, to add interest.

 I loaded a hake with the two colours and painted back into the wet paint. 

 When thoroughly dry I created buds and stems by painting around their shapes with a stronger mix. 

I added some more tissue petals.
When dry I drew the hairs onto the buds and stem using a white oil pastel
I worked over the flower to add more depth. (see photo at top of post)