Kandinsky 1866-1944

When I first took up photography in my 30's and began looking at as much art as possible, Kandinsky's work meant a great deal to me. Although I am a photographer, I'm not wedded to photography in particular, believing that great art can be made from any medium, so I've always tried to keep an open mind about what I looking at.

I'm not a follower of the art v. craft division. I'm more 'All of it is craft, some of it is art'.

I particularly liked the way Kandinsky painted in a suit. I rather like the idea of dressing up to make art. It seems respectful, ceremonial.

Below are 4 photos taken over a 3 day period while he was working on Composition VII 1913.

PS Click to enlarge images.

Greek Temples

This is a photo that I am working on at present.

Matthew Collings

Matthew Collings is going to be in NZ in a couple of months. He's coming here to open the Auckland Art Fair.

I'm glad to see him being brought to New Zealand, as I believe that his views on the visual arts are worth listening to.

Kim Hill on National Radio, interviewed him for 40 minutes last Saturday morning. If you feel like it some time you might like to dip into the interview, to get the feel of the grain of his mind. The interview will be available for 3 weeks.

Pukekura Park

These are two trees in Pukekura Park, as they appeared yesterday evening. WOMAD was held under the shelter of these trees.

ABC
Yesterday a large thick envelope arrived from a friend in Kansas. It was crammed with American newspaper cuttings. One that particularly caught my eye was a review from The New York Times of an exhibition of a photographic ABC. Neil Winokur (b1945) has been working on these since the early 90s. In the cutting we have A and H.

About 20 years ago I started making an ABC book. I have A for Alligator. I haven't completely given up on the project but it definitely seems to have stalled. Perhaps I should have another look.

A problem, I found, was not only making photos that represented the letter, but creating 26 photos that matched each other. Some photos that I had for letters jarred with their neighbours. I wasn't thinking of this ABC book as being for children alone.

Below is the image that I made for X.

Moonflower

To the right, in the sidebar, there is photo of my front door. The large white flowers turn into seed pods such as the one above. I photographed it in 2002.

This plant has many names, one of the most common being Jimson Weed. It is the same species that Georgia O'Keeffe painted during her time in New Mexico, where it grows wild. O'Keeffe also painted Morning Glory, the climber that I mention in the posting below.

Gardening

This week I'm gardening. This fertile Taranaki soil means that weeds can take over rapidly and as an example, here is a photo of two of the dominant weeds here, Morning Glory and Wattle. In this case one growing through the other. Such is the size of the problem that most of the gardening in this area involves hacking and dragging. I use a sharp machete.

Much of the ground is covered with the third offender: Nasturtiums. While the flower, see below, is beautiful, the plant can swamp most others out of existence.

I don't mind putting my time into the garden though because there is a strong connection between plants and my photography. As usual, my photographs follow my interests.

Matisse.
This last week I've been able to enjoy uninterrupted time to relax and potter around. The weather was perfect, mostly wild. I've had time to look through a new biography of Matisse and was interested to see this photo of his studio wall. I like the philodendron leaf motif as he uses it.

Apparently he had a number of philodendrons. Here's the motif in some chapel windows, made when he was about 80. It was only in the third version of the windows that he removed red from them. I don't know why this impressed me so much.

Two or three years ago I took the photo below, a closeup of a philodendron elegans that I grow. Elegans are particularly difficult to locate but I found a small plant at a market 5 years ago and it grew in a pot quite happily but became tall and top heavy. Eighteen months ago I took it to a nursery where they cut it into 9 pieces and have been growing the segments on for me. Old enough now, I've brought them home again. Each one is about a foot high.

Webb's

This is part of an advertisement that appears on page 3 of today's Sunday Star Times.

Increasingly, my work has been appearing in auctions. Usually I don't know who the owner is, especially with images like the one above, which was taken about 25 years ago.

Generally speaking auctions have been a bit worrying because although they are putting work in catalogues and it's getting seen, the work also tends to go at what seem to me quite low prices. This has been the case for years.

Towards the end of last year, in two consecutive auctions, photographs of mine set new records at Webb's, for photography. $6000 & $9800. It received some publicity and many people remarked on it to me. I'm keen to see what happens over the next few auctions.

Another trend is that if it is reported that a high price has been achieved for a Peter Peryer, say, as it was in the NZ Herald in early Dec, then other print owners are more likely to think that they might sell theirs. High prices at auction will suck work off walls. This is turn could affect prices, perhaps in a negative way. In my case I wonder how many more of these older works are out there. There were never very many in the first place, and they must be getting rarer. (I don't reprint.)

WOMAD

WOMAD is on in New Plymouth this weekend. The population of this city of 50,000 is boosted by perhaps 15,000 visitors so visitors are everywhere and the atmosphere is a lighthearted one. Womad started at 6 pm on Friday and finishes on Sunday night.

I bought a 3 day ticket several months ago and put it away in a very safe place. Problem is that it's in such a safe place I can't find it! I've been searching for about a month now. Tried every technique known to mankind, apart from praying to St Anthony who is, I believe, the patron saint of lost WOMAD tickets.

But as I write this tonight, I feel for those visitors because there is cold, hard rain and it's dark. Brooklands Bowl is nearby.

The photo of the ducks etc, I took in the Bowl, the day after the last WOMAD finished.

P.S. Sunday morning.
Met a friend at the Farmers Market this morning. He'd danced in the rain at WOMAD last night until 3 a.m. so that's good news. Meanwhile the rain continues. Forecast is for clearing weather later today.

The Tenderness of Wolves.

Last week I urgently needed a novel so I went into Unity Books in Auckland. I chose this one.

At 440 pages, it's quite a substantial read. Yesterday we had a storm here, so I took most of the day off to finish the book and enjoy the wild weather. There was lightning and hail. My house lets in a lot of weather so I was well wrapped up.

This morning I was ponderering on how wonderfully evocative Stef Penney's description of the Canadian landscape, had been.

It was a surprise to find out a few minutes later, that Stef Penney had never been to Canada!

It did take me a little time to get used to the idea, I was even a teeny bit indignant and uptight at first, for a few minutes only I assure you. I'm won over, particularly after reading this article. And the novel of course. I recommend it. Possibly it's all the better for having being written out of a library in London.

The White Lady
One of Auckland's landmarks. Sent to me by Tomislav.

Art NZ Autumn 2007
The latest issue of Art NZ has just been released.

From page 72 to 76 there are ten of my photos plus an essay by Peter Simpson.
Price is $9.75.

Patea

I went to a wedding yesterday at Patea, about one and a half hours south of here where a camping ground on the banks of the Patea River had been taken over by the guests. There was even a teepee and a house bus. It was more like a happening. The bride was barefoot and later in the evening there was a dogfight. Both those facts seemed to impress me immensely for some reason. Cortina were playing at the time of the dogfight. Much of the food was vegetarian, and all of it high quality. There were whole fish, freshly caught and freshly cooked.

Above is snap of children swimming at the river mouth. It has some feeling of what it is like there.

Below is a view across the river from where the wedding took place.The train crossing the hillside caught my attention. As usual I found myself struggling to take any wedding photographs. I find it difficult to take photos at weddings and I admire people who can.

A problem with a camphone is that on a sunny day like this, is that it's hard to see the screen and they have no viewfinder for the eye. Perhaps for this day I should have taken a thin, pocket sized, good quality digital camera, easily carried. Perhaps I'm just not equipped with the most appropriate instrument for an occasion like this when, as usual, I simply want to photos for my own project. I had taken my large Sony but on arrival found that the card from it was still in a slot in my computer in New Plymouth.

The site of the wedding was the exact spot where Charles Heaphy painted this in 1839. Notice the waka pulled up on the far river bank.


Here is an historic image of Patea. By clicking on the photo it should be possible to read the tiny text below it.

PS Monday morning.
I'd like to add the other two photos I took at the wedding, to last night's posting.
The bride and groom are somewhere up the Wanganui River on their honeymoon and not-to-be-disturbed but I'm sure it's OK. On a mundane level, I notice how sharp the images are.

Following on from the posting below, today I've been photographing this fossil crab.

It's found locally and in other parts of New Zealand too, such as North Canterbury.

I started on this project in the late 90's when I was artist-in-residence at Canterbury University. Their museum has a good collection of these in storage to which I was given ready access. I went on a couple of personal fossil hunts in the field too, no results unfortunately.

I've been keeping my eyes open during all the 6 years I've been in Taranaki. Again no results. These crabs appear inside oval rocks that look exactly like thousands of other oval rocks!

Recently a kind New Plymouth resident gave me one as a present. I've had a couple of tries at finding a photograph in it. I'll just keep playing with it, I may be being led to other pastures. Sometimes I have to photograph something in order to see what it looks like photographed.

I also wanted to see what the difference was between a colour version and a black and white one.

Meanwhile, below is a photo from about 4 years ago.

Morton Bay Bugs.

Back in New Plymouth from Auckland this Friday afternoon. Unpacked, and made a beginning on photographing frozen Morton Bay Bugs.

This is not how I originally envisaged photographing these Mudbugs. When I first saw them a couple of months ago, they'd been frozen together in a large irregular, monochromatic lump. Like meat in a deep freeze.

They immediately reminded me of fossils and it was a particular fossil look I'd been after for some time. I went on a stone carving course about 18 months ago at the nearby Rangimarie Marae.

My idea was that, copying from photographs, I would carve fossils into rock and then I would photograph the stone versions. Fake fossils. It's an ongoing project that's been on a back element for a while, I thought anyway, until I came across those frozen Bugs on Waiheke that day in early January and it came rushing back to me and it's been gnawing away at me which is why I was so prompt upon my return from Auckland, to simply got on with it.

Problem has been that I haven't been able to access those exact ones. However a week or so ago, some individually wrapped Bugs turned up at a new fish shop down at the port, so I bought a box of 3. ($30)

These Bugs were individually packed, and not in one lump, so I have to rethink how I'm going to approach this. The photo above is the first attempt. (click on image to make it larger). I took one Bug out and started working with it. In the photo it's fairly thawed out. Photo is quite interesting I feel... but whether or not it will be a stayer I don't know yet. In the original I imagined the Alien flavour as well.

A lamp shell, Devonian 390-345 million years ago. This photo is from a scientific book. (New Zealand Adrift by Graeme Stevens).
I have been using this as a source image for the rock work.

Turbulence

The Auckland Art Gallery is presenting the 3rd Auckland Triennal so I'm off to Auckland this afternoon to attend a couple of openings.

There are 35 artists from more than 20 countries, who it states in the publicity, will address the condition of turbulence - the complex and unpredictable times in which we live.

Ill let you know what I think, when I return in a few days.

P.S. Thank you to Julian for sending me an e-mail example of the encroachment of the word 'groundbreaking' into art writing. This time from an Australian gallery.

Contact
Here is a contact sheet of mine that I came across . I think that I took these in the early 80's.

Marcel Duchamp

Is 'groundbreaking' the new 'cutting edge'?

No more than 2 months ago I heard on local radio an ad for the Govett-Brewster that used the adjective 'groundbreaking'. Then I saw it in an Adam Gallery e-mail. And a day or two ago I saw it in print somewhere else, put it aside but can't find it at the moment.

Cutting edge has been the artspeak favourite for some time, but I can imagine groundbreaking taking over. It has more gravitas although just how many groundbreaking shows there can be at one time I'm sceptical about. Still that won't deter the copywriters.

Other shifts have been the change from 'emerging artists' to 'new artists' to 'new generation.' New Generation is a phrase that will stick for a while I think. The Arts Foundation are using it, and we just had a show here at the Govett-Brewster for New Generation artists, although Peter Madden was in it and he was born in 1966 which I would have thought was pushing it a bit.

These phrases all raise interesting questions eg could an 'emerging artist' be a 60 yr old whose career was coming on stream. Similarly could a 'new artist' be someone who was older.

I'm waiting for some shows for 'receeding artists'.

Monday, late afternoon.

There have been many visitors in town because of the Tom Kreisler opening on Saturday night. (see posting below) Went to the after-after match party which for me is staying up late. Bed somewhere around 3.30 Sunday morning, hence no blog yesterday!

Noise control came to the party, not because of me I hope. Certainly, on the front page of the Taranaki Daily News this morning, there were no photos of Peter Peryer being forcibly restrained by members of the Riot Squad.

One highlight conversation I had was with Wystan Curnow, and it was about Buick Dynaflows. He told me that Ray Charles uses the word Dynaflow in one of his songs. I need conversations like this, where there is cross-connection, it's brainfood.

I missed out on the opportunity to ask Wystan if it's true that he is named after W.H.Auden, (Wystan Hugh Auden). I heard this many years ago and I've never asked him. I hope it's true.

I'm sorry that over this weekend, someone wasn't employed to make a documentary of this event, or at the very minimum, even if it had been done in the most rudimentary manner, take some photos. I would like to be able to link you to a page that showed you snaps (preferably flattering) of who was there. Oscars New Plymouth style.

Saturday afternoon I cleared out surplus spectacle cases and laid them on a table so that guests here as result of the Kreisler opening, could help themselves. I fetched a camera but I don't think that this image below passes, but all the same, I was surprised that I was still burrowing into this territory because I thought that Matisse 2005 had solved it. I'd written up the theorem so to speak.

It was a time when I felt a connection with Surrealism in general and Dali in particular and when I came to have a new respect for him. There were others too of course, I mean no disrepect to their achievements. Miro I come to appreciate increasingly, for example. Arp as ever, Calder's kinetics. And seeing two El Greco works in Spain in the late 90's changed my thinking somehow. They had power and it was raw.

Here are some photos from the last 18 months.
The one at the top is the spectacle cases, Saturday evening. I bit mannered I feel. Matisse is better. After Dali 2005/06 I still think is too interesting to consign to the dustbin.

Matisse 2005

After Dali 2005/06

Going to this opening later. 20 mins walk from here to the Govett-Brewster.

Angel's Trumpet Flower 1932
Georgia O'Keeffe 1887-1986

I have these flowers in my garden and frequently just have to pick up my camera.
This is from the most recent occasion.

More Potatoes.

Several months ago I prepared a small patch of this rich Taranaki earth in readiness for planting potatoes. I've never grown potatoes but my father did and successfully. Milton always dug some from his garden to be part of christmas dinner eaten on the day of the harvest, although dinner in this case was the middle of the day, turkeys and trifles and christmas pudding with coins inside, and of course hats and crackers.

I researched what potatoes were most suitable for my needs and bought a small bag at a nursery. Instructions stated that they had to be laid out in a warm place and not planted in the ground until they had sprouted.

The problem for me was as soon as they sprouted I enjoyed their look so much I couldn't bear to bury them. Yesterday and today I have been looking again, now several months on. The sprouts have a purplish hue.

Still not reached the final version but my educational opinion is that it's a good idea to keep making sketches. Living with the versions that don't work helps me to understand what needs to be done. Not that I do it in words, much of it probably happens when I'm asleep. If I don't understand why a work falls under the bar I may be doomed to repeat it, which is what I fear most.

Meanwhile, the earth where I was going to plant the potatoes has gone back to weeds. I'll prepare it again but this time for a crop of Iceland Poppies. Last year I had about 40 plants, and with not an abundant amount of care, was able to pick bunches for months. I enjoyed being able to give bouquets away to my friends and neighbours. This year my goal is to plant 100 so if you see an older gent with glasses and a large bunch of Iceland Poppies in his arms, walking up Willis St it could be me. Please say hello.

Astronomy and the Camera.

The camera has since its invention been put to many important uses.
Currently, cameras are busy recording photos of the universe, landscapes of new beauty. Here is a site that publishes many of these images.

I visited this radio telescope in 2000. Called the Very Large Array, VLA for short,
it's in an isolated part of New Mexico, USA.

I took these two photos while there, but only ever made a couple of prints of each.