Category Archives: cities
Swimming the distance of memory
Geographies of paintings done and redone. Having walked the long-mediated underground from the Metro station into the glammy Zorlu centre, arriving in Mamon, announced as it is, 250 m then 150m, then 100 only; a grey airless tunnel and I … Continue reading
Late night maneuvering for Open Studio 2013
Photograph: Ya2eed Kamaldien http://yazkam.wordpress.com/ What is it about the prospect of an open studio that pulls me back into the paint, has me reworking a painting that has been la2ily checking me out from a corner of the studio. Or how … Continue reading
Posted in artists studios, cities, city, istanbul, Uncategorized
Tagged art collecting, city, exhibition istanbul, istanbul, Istanbul interiors, open studio, painting, studio, studios
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Picturing the homes of two heroes (kahraman (Tr): hero)
I often have occasion to pass by the pink yali on the Bosphorus where Argonauts one of my recent Istanbul paintings now lives. Paying the painting and the home of its discerning collectors, the Kahraman family a visit I was … Continue reading
Posted in art collecting, boats, bosphoros, cities, istanbul, painting, ships, Turkish interiors, visual arts
Tagged Argonauts, Arnavutkoy, Bosphorus, istanbul, Istanbul interiors, Ottoman interiors, painting, Turkey
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Drawing the line
Heading back into the studio, pots of glaze lined up on the table, all geared up to paint Jane’s pots; what a treat. Another good way to get back into things if you got out of them is to go … Continue reading
Posted in artists studios, cities, drawing, istanbul, journey, Uncategorized, urban
Tagged Antonio Lopez Garcia, city, commuting, drawing, istanbul, journey, metro, neo rauch, sketchbook, studio, walking
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What do you do when you are not working?
Curator and writer Douglas Dreishpoon from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo in the US has got me thinking. Trace this back to my friend Isin, whose Masters/ PHD in Curatorship I have been proof reading, and the reason I have … Continue reading
Posted in artists studios, cities, drawing, Uncategorized, visual arts
Dreaming with the giantesses of the Acropolis
Still dreaming with the giantesses on the Acropolis. In the vast, contemporary space of the New Acropolis Museum, the Charyatids, now freed and 12 feet tall, powerfully transmit their magic for all time. What is it about their marble contours … Continue reading
Posted in bosphoros, cities, istanbul, journey, passage, poetry, sketchbooks
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In Praise of beauty: Susan Sontag on Howard Hodgkin’s paintings
Revisiting my art books scattered in various homes across the land, I come across this gem from Susan Sontag on the Venice paintings of Howard Hodgkin, and it immediately takes me back to Istanbul: Venice once again. Imagining the imagined. … Continue reading
Posted in cities, istanbul, journey, painting, Uncategorized, visual arts
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Tinted windows
I had the completely novel experience of viewing my new studio from the waters of the Bosphoros. I remember reading somewhere in Orhan Pamuk that being able to view where one lives from the water, must change the perception of … Continue reading
The blank page
I have moved from blogger to wordpress. It is part of that need for a fresh canvas, a white sheet of paper, the blank page. It coincides incidentally with a studio clear out. Unlike Francis Bacon or Frank Auerbach whose … Continue reading
Posted in artists studios, cities, city, painting, Uncategorized
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