Poem: Patience's limit.

Poetry:

In these past few months I've been exploring the boundaries of my poetry and have have come to find that it's a more effective way of recording my emotions. When I look back on a journal it doesn't give me as much insight into how I felt as a couple of lines of verse. This is another late night composition. 

 Patience's limit.

Perspective waits by the waves 

Meteor showers spark possibility 

Stars fall caught by deep horizon

Whispers cut through cobalt dusk

Paradoxically daring, but intimate

Meaning on the verge of realisation  

Afterglow of headlights and rain 

Hope expires with regretted absence

Velvet midnight waits untouched

A heart aches for lack of daring. 

Street Art, Stokes Croft

Street Art, Stokes Croft

I owe you a belated post about the incredible Street Art tour I was given of Stokes Croft, Bristol, which thanks to the elusive graffiti artist Banksy is one of Europe's best places to see great work. Studying History of Art in Bristol is so amazing, because the contemporary art scene is so full of life. We may not have easy access to the National Gallery, Tate Modern and Saatchi that London has to offer, but with a little extra effort and digging around there is a treasure trove waiting to be discovered right on our doorstep. We were so lucky that the tour was led by an extremely knowledgable Berlin-based street art expert who guided us along alley ways and down into warehouses to be inspired by the creativity of some of our generations most talented, but anonymous artists. 

Check out this site for more details http://www.bristol-street-art.co.uk/area/stokes-croft-street-art

Poem: Velvet Despair

My poetry: 

I hope you enjoy this rather gentle, midnight composition of mine.

Velvet Despair.

The silence of solitude 

Morning dew untouched

Wildflowers grow alone 

The bloom melts with rain 

Hibernating in dreams 

Memories of delirium 

High hopes burnt out.

Lady Lilith, Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Lady Lilith

 Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Being named Flora, I have always had a taste for botany, especially the rose, the ultimate symbol of love for any romantic. Naturally, I was thrilled to throw in roses as a key theme of the talk I just gave on one my favourite painting's Lady Lilith by the Victorian poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. I thought I'd share with you the symbolism of the roses and other flowers as well as the suggestiveness behind Lilith's intriguing red hair and a couple of namesake paintings. But, first I must remind you that Rossetti was also a member of my beloved 19th c. Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood of painters whose naturalistic, dreamy, romantic paintings of ethereal beauties and nature I truly adore.  

So, back to the Lady of the moment; the story goes that Lilith was the first wife of Adam in the Garden of Eden according to Hebrew myth. Rossetti sheds more light on his choice of heroin in his letter to Thomas Hake in 1870, which said that he was painting the “ ‘Modern Lilith’ as she combs out her abundant golden hair and gazes on herself in the glass with that self-absorption by whose strange fascination such natures draw others within their own circle.” Ah, so she was a seductive woman who drew in her suitors? Perhaps this is also suggested by the foxglove flower on the bureau, which was said to signify insincerity and therefore promiscuity?

In literature Lady Lilith is frequently illustrated as a powerful temptress, which arouses the stereotype of seduction and sexuality associated with the red hair. On the frame Rossetti wrote lines from Gurta’s Faust on the frame’s label: "Beware of her fair hair/And when she twines them round a young man's neck/ she will not ever set him free again”. Rossetti's obsession with the sexuality associated with red-hair comes from his passion for Italian Renaissance art as in the flowing red hair in Sandro Botticelli's famous mythological painting The Birth of Venus and my namesake Titian’s Flora. 

When we look at the painting's composition, Lilith dominates a depthless, yet crowded space as her romantic dress overflows into the implied space of the chair. Her exposed flesh painted without tone or modeling and pale breasts have so little definition that her head and neck dissolve into a lifeless field of undifferentiated skin and don't contrast with the virginal lace dress. However, the lifeless palour of flesh contrasts the vibrant red of her spectacular, highlighted hair. 

And finally to the main event. If we look at the symbolism of flowers her languid nature is reiterated in the depiction of the poppy in the lower right corner—the flower of opium-induced slumber. Throughout history white roses have represented purity and are traditionally associated with the pureness of new love. They link in a semi-corona around Lilith’s upper body, which is reminiscent of another PRB John William Waterhouse’s Detail of Flora and the Zephyrs, whose subject Flora also derives from Roman mythology, in particular Ovid's Fasti. Given that the seductive Lilith was Adam's first wife, the legend behind white roses is almost a perfect metaphor for their relationship as the roses signify cold sensuous love and supposedly only gained their red colouring when the dazzling Eve was created - at which point the rose blushed at the sight of her beauty. For roses to flush red at the very sight of one's face is a rather enviable trait, wouldn't you say? 

London Art Fair 2014

The London Art Fair, Islington. 

http://www.londonartfair.co.uk

After a long morning of absent-mindedly drifting through my notes on Surrealism, I felt that an expedition was needed to save them from becoming the afternoon's pillow. Surely being surrounded by physical artwork is the best form of truly immersive revision? I decided that it was indeed and so Zen and ventured out in search of cultural enrichment at the London Art Fair 2014 (with a slight ulterior motive of a naughty Fro-yo) alongside 30, 924 other visitors. 

Islington's business design centre was a vast venue with a rather complex floor plan, which made hunting for particular pieces feel like dropping your earring in a nightclub. However, there was a buzzing atmosphere thanks to the seamless fusion of an eclectic bunch of collectors, dealers and browsing students. The photograph below (whose origins have escaped me) was my favourite, because it reminded me of one of my favourite Saatchi exhibitions of last year; Sergei Vasiliev's photography of heavily tattooed Soviet Prisoners in the USSR.

Like many of our young contemporaries, the Photo50 contemporary photography exhibition was our highlight, thanks to the illusive title 'Immaterial Matter', which led to more the 50 brilliantly innovative pieces. Curated by Charlie Fellowes and Jeremy Epstein of the Edel Assanti, there was a particular focus on the themes of 'digital' and 'material'. We loved the layout of the exhibition on the second level, but some of the uber-modern photography wasn't particularly to our taste as with Andrew Norman Wilson's The Inland Printer 164. 

Princes Drawing School Review

The Princes Drawing School:

 Short Course Review

My final piece, 'Blue Nude with Blank Canvas'

With weeks of elusive freedom from University to bathe in over Christmas, I joined the Prince’s Drawing School’s five-day oil painting course led by the artists Thomas Newbolt and Harriet Miller. Though I was initially sceptical of the location of the studio in the notoriously yummy-mummy populated Kensington, on arrival there was a sense of harmony within the group which created a chilled atmosphere.

On the first day I wandered through a maze of dilapidated garages into their charming little studio. The rain was relentless, but despite the lack of electricity, the gloomy natural light worked to my favour, because rather than agonizing over anatomically correct sketches, I relaxed into interpreting the lilac afterglow of twilight with a simplified tonal range.

Five professional models posed for us, ranging from a flame-haired Pre-Raphaelite vision to a muscular young carpenter. We practiced quick sketches of their complex contortions each morning and were pushed to draw with bold decisive lines and tones to evoke the light and space as well as the model’s presence.

Thomas’s golden advice was to observe how the model relates physically to their surroundings and support their weight in order to avoid them looking as if they’re floating. I did, however, struggle with his notion of achieving a sense of harmony by contemplating the greater context of the model rather than the individual body parts. This technique wasn’t as easy to replicate as the expressive brushstrokes and bold colour he showed us in Matisse’s Fauvist works. I admit that at times I felt Thomas’s theories were verging on too abstract for his audience, but as a compromise, I was grateful for his attempts to visually orientate us with exhibition catalogues.

Refreshingly, both artists rejected Google images and instead insisted that we make the most of being in London and venture out to galleries and libraries to source inspiration. As a member of Generation Y, I must say that it was refreshing painting all day in an environment free of screens and social networking, with only a paintbrush to communicate with.

On the final afternoon, I painted the back of a seated, female model in oil. The sombre cobalt blue atmosphere created by the studio’s natural light reminded me of Picasso’s Blue Period work so I selected a primarily blue colour palette. I employed a restricted tonal range to create depth and varying brushstroke lengths and thicknesses to give the canvas texture. I followed the lead of Harriet by avoiding painting in a contrived style and instead allowed my brushstrokes to be driven by raw emotion à la Dali. I would highly recommend this course to any students who seek a little serenity and would like to explore their passion for painting and drawing in the holidays.