Updated another of my web sites http://www.barrysdrawings.com It's a sister site to this one and focuses on art stuff, (surprise, surprise with a url like that).

Next thing is putting up some fresh artwork, hopefully by this coming weekend. Finding the time to communicate is important and a challenge as it's time consuming.

Tags: design

I'm doing a lot more drawing recently and was thinking about my choice of subjects to draw. I'm finding less and less satisfaction in searching out pretty landscapes, classic still life or portraits. I'm going to push the edges of what drawing is and has been for me up to now, more experimental more edgy more true to my way of seeing and experiencing my world.

Yesterday I took a day off, except I found myself thinking about the subject of experimental drawing. I had to do some domestic stuff so I went into Skibbereen. After doing the supermarket thing, I called into the local West Cork Art Centre to browse their current exhibition which is called 'Degree Zero Archive' which to cut to the chase is 'a touring archive of curators' work'. (Why not make that the title lads?). Anyway, the gallery area had loads of artists and curators books, dvd's cd's etc. I browsed the show for around an hour. It helped to refresh my own ideas on drawing. I want at all costs to avoid becoming becalmed into a kind of unknowing complacency in my work. Right now I think I've too much of a sense of urgency for this to happen.

Last night I started to explore some ideas about pushing the edges of drawing. I drew a simple head and shoulders based on a photograph taken of me by a friend, scanned it and started to run it it through a special computer algorithm. I left it running on my laptop all through the night as the rendering takes ages. This morning when I got up, I stopped the rendering and saved the image. Here it is. Small it's more recognisable as a head and shoulders, but when you enlarge it..... (Click on it to see the larger version). I hope you can see at this larger size, (the original is A4), the base rendering algorithm replaces all the tone/pixels with a rendering of hair, which also looks like a form of tight scribbling. I'm going to push the edges of my drawing and techniques in various ways over the weeks and months to come. Exploration time. I'll post some more drawings and notes on the results from time to time. Drawing (art), can be radical and exciting, it's up to me!
B.

Tags: drawing

That's why I spent most of my day working on a series of web sites based around my work. I hope to have them completed over the next 6 to 8 weeks, (although a web site is really never completed). As every artist knows balance is important. Over the last few years I have put my main focus on my paintings, drawings and sculpture - time in the studio. But now I need to communicate and it needs to happen now. So this is a voyage of discovery. I'm going to explore what's possible using mostly, but not exclusively, the Internet. Not exactly a break through idea in itself ; ] but I'm going to find/invent/discover ways that work using this media. Not so easy but I firmly believe it's doable with a generous helping of focus and determination.

I've a tiny budget, which is another way of saying 'no budget'. From my previous vocation I've the experience and expertise to develop, design, and program web sites, so this is the only practical media for me right now and I'm willing to put in the time. I'm very aware, just putting up a web site alone won't do it, it's going to take a lot of innovation. So watch this space for a blow by blow report on how I get on in the weeks and months ahead. It's going to be interesting. Meanwhile I managed to squeeze in a small semi-abstract drawing today to balance out all the work today on my trusty MacBook. I'm determined to establish a balance between time working on my art and time letting the world know I exist. I'll post my web site addresses here as they near completion. If you've any ideas that have worked for you please let me know.

Tags: drawing