Echostains Blog

New Random Artists

Random art – An A-Z

Alphabetical Random Artists. The aim is to feature one for each letter of the alphabet. This is not only to expand my knowledge – but to get me back into blogging more regularly.

My method will be to choose alphabetically 3 at random, look at them all and pick the one that inspires or intrigues me the most.

The artists chosen randomly today are

Werner Andermatt (Swiss)

Marie Angel British Illustrator

Michael Andrews British London

Preference: Michael Andrews

Born 30th October 1928 Norwich, UK

Died 19th July 1995 London Uk

1958 – 1963 Slade School of fine art

From 1958 he taught at the Slade and Chelsea school of Art. His style is Post War Modernist, combining figuration and abstraction. His brushwork, thick and dense. His artist contemporaries include London School Bacon, Freud and Auerbach. His subject matter flits from decadent party scenes to landscapes and water.

1958 ‘A Man Who Suddenly Fell Over‘ was acquired by The Tate Gallery

This painting (oils on hardboard) was painted at a time when the artist himself was facing a period of uncertainty. The piece was painted for his Diploma Examination, shortly before he left The Slade

According to Andrews, the cheerful expression on the face of the man, hides his embarrassment of falling down. The upsetting of the man’s equilibrium and his quick attempt at recovery of dignity is seen as he tries to conceal his hurt/upset.

Who hasn’t slipped on ice and tried to incorporate it into their walking gait through embarrassment … I know that I have

There is a lot more to this fascinating artist:

Image Here

More Here

More information about Micheal Andrews here

Shadow Theatre, Act One

This is a little project I was working on a while ago. I think I will continue to develop this.

The protagonist and his rival fight. But which is which? Mixed media including collage and dried acrylic paint.

The heroine flies in to mediate between the protagonist and his rival. Will she be successful?

It’s Maurice De Vlaminck’s Birthday – Raw Power

Maurice de Vlaminck (b. 1876-1958 Paris, France). was one of the original founders of a group of artists called the Fauvists. The small group of artists, whose members included Henry Matisse and Andre Derain used pure of vibrant colour, this caused them to be named ‘Fauves’ (wild beasts) by art critic Louis Vauxcelles after seeing their paintings in a controversial exhibition ‘Salon d’ Automne’ in 1905.

Expressive brushwork and use of brilliant colour are earmarks of Vlaminck’s work. He was greatly impressed by Vincent Van Gogh’s work and later Paul Cezanne. An interesting artist and individual which I have wrote more posts about.

‘What I could have done in real life only by throwing a bomb which would have led to the scaffold, I tried to achieve in painting by using colour of maximum purity. In this way I satisfied my urge to destroy old conventions, to disobey in order to recreate a tangible, living and liberated world.’

Check out my other more in depth post about Vlanminck Here and more Here

‘Tugboats on the Seine, Chatou 1906 Here

Vlaminck quotes Here

Dinner Time!

The time never seems the time lately. I seem to have had more time to blog before I retired. I really can’t work it out at all. I really must handle time more efficiently and set time aside to blog again. I think I’ve made yet another start on my other blog (Bookstains) with a Haiku which is the first in a series ‘End of Days’ which are political news observations of the day. It would be so easy to rant about this. I am incensed nearly every day about the way our country is going down hill. I consider that by condensing my thoughts down to haiku format, I may have found an outlet that appeases me without boring others. Or maybe not🤔 Time will tell.

Please take a look

Lords a leaping (Bookstains)

Reflection

Just a quick reflection: I have not wrote anything for Echostains since May. I keep meaning to get around to it, but something either crops up or gets in the way and I think er tomorrow….only, like mañana, tomorrow never comes.

I need to give this site a complete overhaul, it’s long overdue. I also need to decide if I want to continue writing long pieces (which take me hours, which I haven’t got, to research) or short bursts like I used to do in the early days. I tend to just post little collections on Instagrams. I’m aware I can do this in the wordpress ‘stories’ but I have had so much trouble with the formatting of the images. There doesn’t seem to be any way of controlling the size of them. Maybe it is just a teething problem. It seems a shame, because I think I could use that to post more regularly.

Anyway, on with the motley, as they say .. its back to the drawing board for me.

Reasons to be Chairful

Reasons to be chairful

Chairs with Satitude

More reasons to be chairful, especially on this rainy miserable day. AKA as any excuse to indulge my curiosity for weird and playful chairs.

‘Some people say that knowledge is sat in your lap’ (Kate Bush). Lap that wisdom up by trying out this bronze and mixed media ‘Man chair’ by Ruth Franken (1924-2006) This generous cool chair is man-size with attitude.

This pretty in pink chair with the slimline legs has a touch of the Sharon Stone about it, I think. Unsure what it’s going to do next. Dainty as it is, it’s surprisingly sturdy. Designed by Vladimir Tzesler and Sergei Voichenko, a pink splash of glamour.

Let’s drum a bit of interest here with this innovative oil drum chair. Traditionally, oil drums also double up a percussion instruments. Not exactly heavy metal, but this Eco friendly chair is probably pretty ‘cool’ on the derrière.

Artist Lisa Jones created these capillary chairs. Not sure how practical they are, or comfortable but they’re quite beautiful to look at. Made of wood, they are part of her ‘Symbiosis’ collection. ‘Vasa Intestina’ uses a fine tracery of wood with steel to depict the inner workings of the intestines.

That’s it for this collection for now. Hope you found it chairful, chairs!

Soup chair

Man chair