Tag Archives: acrylics

“For Musicians Who Like Art”

"For Musicians Who Like Music" concertina drawing by David Smith

“For Musicians Who Like Art”
Acrylic on concertina sketchbook A5 format approx 5m long

Last week I also finished this piece I spoke of a few of posts ago, “”For Musicians Who Like Art”. The title is a play on Andrew Hamilton’s “For People Who Like Art” and whilst it is not meant to be representative of the music it is inspired by it. I have a lot of ideas how I might progress this work – and other work related to music. I am aiming to start trying some of them out on canvas and in collage, today, and I am keen to try out some ideas as monoprints soon.

"For Musicians Who Like Music" concertina drawing by David Smith

“For Musicians Who Like Art”
Acrylic on concertina sketchbook A5 format approx 5m long

Detail of abstract minimalist collage & drawing by David Smith

Abstract Drawings For Dummies I: The Tiny Section of My Soul

Abstract minimalist collage & drawing by David Smith

“Abstract Drawings for Dummies I The Tiny Section of My Soul”
Collage, ink, erased graphite, print and acrylic on Snowdon cartridge 59cm x 84cm

This piece, Abstract Drawings For Dummies I: The Tiny Section of My Soul marks the start of two series of work: Abstract Drawings For Dummies and 50 Collages Before Christmas. I had been adding small sections of collage into my erasure and redaction drawings and decided to include text – something I did quite a bit in drawings 45 years ago (including erasing the words and writing what I had done!) and occasionally more recently during my #Collage 365 and #Letter365 projects. I have always had a leaning towards the surreal and absurd with a bit of tongue-in-cheek conceptual thrown in. Influences from cartoons and illustrations, exploded diagrams and information boards, maps and instruction books and much, much more form a lattice of lunacy in my brain. Lay on to this the soft spot I have for Frank Zappa, Bonzo Dog, David Byrne, Laurie Anderson and other slightly odd (and some other decidedly, very odd) music it is not surprising this kind of thing will surface in my work from time to time. The series title Abstract Drawings For Dummies obviously refers to the hugely successful series of “how to” books. The books are, in my experience, well-written and of a high standard and the use of “for dummies” is in no way demeaning or patronising. By using “Dummies” the publishers are signalling to ordinary people they don’t need to feel threatened by experts and that everyone is quite capable of attaining a working knowledge of the subject of the book. Most abstract artists are continually asked to explain what their work is about and during my #Letter365 project where the artwork was sealed unseen into an envelope and sold “blind” I was particularly strongly questioned. At that time I devised a series of works that might help people find a way into art they were not readily comfortable with: works which have instructions, directions and explanations as part of the composition. This new series is planned towards the realisation of that idea. It also features some of the convoluted workings of my brain which had a small opportunity for expression, sometimes quite wittily, on the envelopes of #Letter365.

As I was clearly fired up to do all manner of work I chose the moment of completing this piece to commit to 50 Collages Before Christmas too.

Fine Arty Karate

Fine Arty Karate - collage by David Smith

Fine Arty Karate
Acrylics, graphite, paper 178mm x 252mm

Today’s #arteachday is a little collage from my messier side

Nine Red Lines

Nine Red Lines - collage by David Smith

Nine Red Lines
Paper & acrylic collage 148mm x210mm

I’m trying to get back to posting an image on Twitter every day with the hashtag #arteachday. This is a little compositional study I did this morning.