A sunny Sunday morning and Elbow....

Lovely lovely lovely!!

Don't forget...

...that the clocks went forward an hour last night!

Theo Travis on Sunday...

The Eagle Tavern is playing host to the Theo Travis (Sax and Flute) Quartet, on Sunday. Doors from 12, band start at about one and finish about 3.30 (with a break at about 2). Free entry, but please support the raffle, which pays for the band! Real ale and a great atmosphere!
I shall be there from about half past one...

Thank you!

Thank you everyone, for your impeccable behaviour yesterday!
And thank you Ben (I'm sure it was you!!) for the karaoke rendition of the No Nose Blues....! :)

Today's films...

Just to let everyone know that I will be starting the films at 2 o'clock sharp today - I have checked them out and they are each over an hour long, so if we don't start promptly, there won't be any time for a breather before life drawing!
We will be watching The Tune by Bill Plymton and Fantastic Planet by Rene Laloux... I thought you might want to check them out beforehand, since you won't have the benefit of Phil's insights today !! :)
Pass it on!

Seven Ages of Britain - Age of Ambition (Modernity...)

Don't know if anyone saw this last night, but it might be useful if anyone needs info on Modernity and Art...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00rqsfm/Seven_Ages_of_Britain_Age_of_Ambition/

It's an hour long, and unfortunately spends far to much of that time on the repugnant Tracey Emin for my liking, but there you go...! Personal taste and all that...
There are some interesting snippets that might lead to further research.
Enjoy! :-}

Fish and Chips in Whitstable!

Well... we had a great day out today in (almost) sunny Whitstable -
lovely fish n chips followed up by Phil's exhibition! As a very amateur photographer myself, I have to say that I found Tutor Phil and Jan's photographs the most interesting...Phil's in particular. Although saying that, Photoshop Phill's plaster heads were also well made - were they cast or carved?

I hope that the accompanying students had a good time, and saw that there is life outside Rochester! :0)
Phil - one comment - the 'common' name would have been good alongside the Latin... I think the pink one was an onion of some sort (that was my fav) and the white multi-headed one a cowslip or something like fennel maybe?


Alex and Jolanta studying Photoshop Phill's busts!



Tracey by Phil's photos

Phil giving Alex some directions...


Jack and jolanta by Jan's work...


Not a storyboard in sight...!

And the Oscar for quickest morph goes to...

ME!! Haha! - it actually sort of works... if there was anything I would do differently, it would be to add a few more frames in the first half- I think the transitions between the Jazz sax and art stuff are a bit too rapid. My favourite bit is the knitting to ice cream to earth sequence. And of course, in the tradition of the Oscars there are some people I need to thank - Jack, for showing me the workings of the scanner, and Ethan, for actually bringing it to life.... chips for you tomorrow Ethan! :)

Phil's private showing... Oo-er Missus ! ;-)

Just in case any of you are still not following the group UCA blog, or somehow missed this post - Phil is showing some of his photography alongside Photoshop Phill's work, in Whitstable on Saturday
Here is the link to the post -

http://ucarochester-cgartsandanimation.blogspot.com/2010/03/private-view-20th-march-2pm-horsebridge.html

Sounds like it will be an interesting experience! (And I have been led to believe that there will be wine and nibbles too...)

Whitstable's easy to get to on the train from Chatham, just about 40 minutes with trains running every half hour straight through, and costing about £10 return. It is well known for it's art galleries and has lots of little arty shops to nose around - read more here!

http://www.seewhitstable.com/

Your chance to get your own back - don't miss this opportunity to give Phil the crit he deserves!! :)

Hope to see some of you there.

Tonight's lifedrawing...

Once again, a very interesting lot of positions - I found the first quick sketches quite challenging, but I am pleased with the seated back view! I had a bit of time spare, so I had a go at the tattoos as well today...

PS...

...Shabir looks like he's about to read the news, Ethan looks like he is about to make for the door, and Alex is definitely asleep at the back! We won't even talk about Bob and Godwin....!

Please vote for your favourite!!:)

Hmmm, difficult choice - please vote for the image to go on Emily's card!

Also, if you didn't get a chance to sign it, I will bring it along to life drawing tomorrow...


Picture 1



Picture 2



Sorry you guys at the back are a bit blurry... :(

My favourite time...

I love Spring Sunday mornings...

I was up just after six this morning, sitting in my garden, all wrapped up like an old tramp, with dressing gown, coat, woolly socks and gloves, hugging a mug of steaming tea, and watching the clouds push by, all tinged with red and promise. The rest of the world is still asleep, and it's just me and the birds. Anything could happen today...

The Art of Lotte Reiniger

This is interesting...it shows Lotte at work actually animating her cut-out figures.


The Art of Lotte Reiniger (1953-1971)
Uploaded by baraqueafritz. - Watch feature films and entire TV shows.

Rob Ryan...

I enjoyed the Lotte Reiniger animation yesterday very much, as they reminded me of fairystory books my grandmother used to have in Germany, when I was growing up...Aschenputtel (Cinderella) was always one of my favourites.

As I have mentioned before, European versions of the fairystories seem to be a bit more on the gruesome side - as we saw yesterday, the one stepsister cuts off her toes to get her foot in the slipper, and the second one chops a bit off her heel...I dread to think what that slipper looked like after those two had tried it on! Also at the end, the sisters get their eyes pecked out- just for good measure! Here is an English translation, if anyone wants to read it...

http://www.fln.vcu.edu//grimm/cinder.html

Anyway, this animation reminded me of a contemporary artist called Rob Ryan, who uses cut-out paper to make silhouette designs - his are not animated, but still very beautiful, and have that European fairytale quality about them...

http://www.misterrob.co.uk/?page_id=39





I don't know if you can read the poem in the second piece, but I rather like it...

What a great day!!

This has been a really great afternoon - hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did! :)
Firstly, all those excellent animations....and the music! Was that Oscar Peterson on the piano? BRILLIANT!
And then to top it off, life drawing! I have never done this before, so was a bit nervous really, and just did it in my sketchbook so could hide it if necessery - but actually I am pretty pleased with the results!
Here we are...(in the wrong order, but never mind)

Yesterday's music

So...

...once again, it looks like it's just me and the old man for the jazz today then!
I don't know, you youngsters...no stamina! :)

Spring... by Tolstoy

I am really enjoying Anna Karenin, and found this lovely descriptive passage about the arrival of spring - I am hoping that tomorrow there might be some signs that it is nearly here...

'In the morning the sun rose brilliant and quickly melted the thin ice on the water, and the warm air all around vibrated with the vapour given off by the awakening earth...the young grass thrust up its tiny blades; the buds swelled on the guelder-rose and the currant bushes, and on the sticky, resinous birch trees, and the honey-bee hummed among the golden catkins of the willow. Invisible larks broke into song above the velvety green fields and the ice-covered stubble-land...Spring had really come.'

Beautiful...

Jazz at the Eagle

Morning!
Hope you all slept well...!

Tomorrow's jazz band at the Eagle Tavern in Rochester, is the Gary Wilcox Quartet...does anyone want to go and have a listen? I haven't heard them before, so can't say if they are any good - but all the times I've been, the band has always been ok...
Band starts at about one.

Let me know by tomorrow morning if you fancy it!

http://theeagletavern.org.uk/

That's another one down...

...well done chaps!

I really enjoyed seeing the results of your labours today! Some very imaginative and moving stuff out there...
Hope you can all chill out this weekend, and get some much-needed sleep!

Tolstoy part 2

It's ok guys - you can stop hunting through your piles of classic novels now! ;)

My friend Carole from the AA has come to the rescue with a much more readable translation of Anna Karenin ...(that's AA as in 'Applied Arts' - not Alcoholics Anonymous! Things aren't quite that bad yet!)

So far so good, although I think it will all end in tears...

Tolstoy...

Can anyone tell me if I have missed the film 'The Last Station', with Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer ? I really wanted to see it...
Anyway, I have a request - in preparation for the film, I have been trying to read Anna Karenina, to give me an insight into Tolstoy's writing; however, I think I must have a rubbish translation, as it seems to be pretty badly written- I keep getting glimpses of how it should possibly be, but it is obscured by garbled grammar!
Mine is translated by Constance Garnett, and published by Pan. Does anyone have another translation I could borrow?
Here's the trailer anyway - hope I haven't missed it!

Has spring sprung??

What a glorious day ! Fingers crossed that that is the end of the nasty winter weather...
Hope all you students are progressing well - looking forward to seeing the results on Friday!
Keep up the good work! :)