This is the Nave of Westminster Abbey, with its fabulous vaulted ceiling. I had to be blasphemous and introduce a car vacuum cleaner from a petrol station. At least I cut away the ribbed hose pipe and nozzle from the rest of the free standing facility. I was experimenting with a picture to put with it. I liked the combination. The colours and curves seemed to blend. I tilted the pipe to fit into the scenario, and you might notice where the pipe disappears into the recessed hole into what was the working component of the self service unit, but becomes an extension of the ceiling.
Mess Technology
This is another picture that I have re-edited. Originally completed in 2016, there was something about it that I didn’t like. Since I have ‘tweeked it’, think it has become much stronger visually. I gave that title because of the two technologies, i.e. the steam train wheel and the copper pipes, with the electric sockets and charger wires; it looked a mess! (not mass). The background is a view looking down into a tub of margarine/butter, with the distinctive knife mark indentations. I thought the image had ‘movement ‘ and was interesting and bold.
Looks Like Snow
This picture was originally created in 2018. The T.V. ariels came from another collage I was doing at the time called Antennae Roosting. That project was a monumental endeavour that took a very long time to assemble and compose, – ( I’ll show you it sometime). The clouds are real. I was out walking and got caught in a sleet storm(?) and photographed the clouds as they passed by. I don’t know why I placed the coloured, silhouetted ariels in the picture, but it struck me as a strong and interesting concept. I have lately revisited the image and edited it to my satisfaction, because the original looked so muddled and there were too many items. Why Graphic Art? Well it was the only category I could think to attribute it to.
Deluded
Very late one night, I put two photos together for no apparent reason; it looked very dramatic. The background is the south wing of Terminal 3 at Heathrow. As you can see, I have ‘swirled’ the image. The athletes in the foreground were participating in a Triathlon event in 2006. They were at Whitlingham Great Broad , looking at the swimming course set out on the water. I liked the way they were shielding their eyes, one guy is ‘cricking’ his neck! I put the picture through a couple of filters (as usual…zzz) to accentuate the vision. Why Deluded? …I don’t know, it was very late at night/early morning…..
Jon 2
This is Jon Page, who I have known for years, although I haven’t seen him for quite a while. Here he is mooring up his little boat at the Griffin Lane Marina at Thorpe St. Andrew. I took this photograph in 2007. As you can see it is a very basic motorboat, and we had great times. We used to go onto the River Yare for trips with friends, usually to the riverside pubs or for a picnic. I was looking for something to marry this photo with (minus the background) and eventually settled for the extraordinary terrace ‘garden’. I saw this on Riverside Road in Gorleston and took the picture without thinking anymore about it. I think it presents an unusual image. I applied a couple of filters (hence the number 2) to distinguish the overall effect.
Offshore Winds
These chalk cliffs are viewed from the (famous) coastguard cottages at Cuckmere Haven in Seaford, looking towards Beachy Head (eventually). I somehow hit upon the idea of putting giant electric fans on the cliff top. So, one can suggest this picture is contrived. Anyway it took a very long time to process and achieve. I photographed the two types of fans in different positions in my Mum’s back garden, replicating the same time and direction of the sun in the landscape photo. The first attempt proved problematic because the background was of mixed interference and was therefore difficult to cut through every tiny aperture of the safety grille. So I hung a yellow blanket on the washing line for the second attempt, which gave me a better view of where to cut. As a result it took a very LONG TIME. Then I struggled to make the fans look convincing placed in the landscape with credible shadows. The sky at the time was clear, so I introduced the dramatic storm clouds from Port Macquarie NSW, where else? I’m still not happy, but I have left it as you see it. One day I might re-edit, if I have any enthusiasm……..
Ride Around 2
Here are two photographs taken within five minutes of each other. In the foreground is what’s known as a Flume. This is an exterior structure attached to the side of the newly built Marina Centre in Yarmouth. It is a swimming pool and fitness facility. The Flume is a tunnel/tube that people can slide through, out of the building and back again. I have cut away the brick wall that was in the photo. Behind that is the Ferris Wheel, known as the Great Yarmouth Observation Wheel. I was walking towards the sun, so both items were lit from the same direction. I simply placed one original photo on top of the other. I applied a filter to give the picture a bold look. I put this in the Abstract category because I couldn’t think where else it would be applicable.
All Washed Up On The Rocks
Cromer is having its sea wall protected by what is known as rock revetment. This is basically lots of very big boulders (pink granite?) placed at the base of the existing wall. The work is being carried out to the west of the pier along the Promenade. I took some photos looking down on the rock piles. I noticed in one of the three half circular promontories which act as viewing areas, a large block of concrete. It is waist high and about two metres wide. I don’t know its purpose but was drawn to the irregular markings on its surface. It presented a strange and compelling pattern, probably due to weathering and frost (?). I have placed that at the top of the picture above the two bands of rock placements. The propeller was (is) an outdoor exhibit at the Windermere Jetty Museum – my homage to William Turner’s red daub which became a buoy in his Royal Academy picture. The fixed tables were outside the Beach Terrace Cafe on the seafront in Yarmouth.
Untitled No.66
Here is a view looking up the spiral stairwell towards the circular skylight. This is at the front entrance of Apsley House (No.1 London), off Piccadilly, which was the home of the Duke of Wellington. I put the wicker baskets into the picture to see what it would look like. They came from an outdoor display of Constance and Thyme florists on Gordon Street in Cromer. Somehow it seemed to work. Through luck and intuition I included the two carved angels. These trumpeters were on either side of the organ pipes in a church (Sheringham?) and seemed appropriate. I of course sized them into the baskets facing different ways and put the lower angel in front of the handle of the lower basket. I like the way the picture has ‘movement’ through a few imagined lines of symmetry between rectangles and curves.
Waiting For The Big Wave
I was standing up on East Cliff in Cromer, looking down on the beach by the pier. There was a surfboard class taking place, with the instructor (from the Glide Surf School) presumably demonstrating basic moves. I liked the formation they presented on the sand, with the leaches (ankle straps attached to the boards) trailing behind them. I of course isolated them from the beach. Looking for something/somewhere to put them against I eventually came up with the ‘wave’. This is the block of flats I photographed in Worthing (see ‘Hanging Curves’) which I thought was extraordinary. The photo has of course been turned 45 degrees anticlockwise, (can you see that?)… I extended the canvas size (a modus operandi I sometimes use) to accommodate the photo of Beachy Head, I took when walking along the footpath near Burling Gap. It is a view looking west. As usual, I can’t leave well alone and have to apply a filter, to the original image, which I think (my prerogative) enhances the picture.